Review: How To Build A List

On Monday I mentioned the How to Build a List – Video Crash Course and promised you a full review. That’s what you’ll find here…

Note: This is an in-depth review. If you would prefer the “super short version” scroll to the bottom for the Summary.

The course includes 13 zip files as instant downloads, so it will only take you a few minutes to have the entire course on your hard drive. Once you unzip the 13 files you will have 75 video files, and one PDF file – an ebook also titled How To Build A List by Dirk Wagner.

The first few minutes of Video 1 caught my interest, with an overview of what to expect in the rest of the video series:

Quickstart to List-Building
Effective Landing Pages
Generating Traffic Through Articles
Generating Traffic Through Forums
Using Short Reports
Craigslist
Email Signature Files
Co-Registration
Using 100% Commission Packages
Link Trading

The ebook lost my interest rather quickly, to be honest. I found it difficult to read, due to both wording and content. By page 10 or so, I was simply scanning. To give you an example, this is a snippet from page 13:

You may send out a special offer for an expensive product to a list of this size. Most top online marketers usually to offer a product that will earn them around $5 commission per sale.

“Top Online Marketers” will generally work with higher commission rates… not to mention, $5 commission is not reasonable on “an expensive product”.

I found the video series to be much easier to follow. Each video is a short clip, so it’s easy to find a good stopping point and come back to the course without any trouble. Dirk’s voice is enjoyable, and just quirky enough to make me crack a smile here and there – and the content is much better than what I found in the ebook.

I was curious about what type of mailing list manager or ‘list software’ that he would use during the course, especially considering the “one time offer” for ProfitSponder that was displayed when I purchased the video course. I skipped on that offer because I use Aweber (and wouldnt use ANYthing else), and honestly hoped that nobody else would consider that purchase.

Fortunately, Dirk used Aweber in the video series ( ), mentioning of course that the process can be used on virtually any system you might use. He walked through the process of creating a new list, setting up the confirmation follow-up for double opt-in subscribers, setting up your first few messages in an autoresponder series, putting a subscribe form on your web pages, etc.

Considering that Dirk uses – and highly recommends – Aweber as a mailing list manager, I’m not sure why he promotes ProfitSponder as a product on the backend sale of this course. I assume because its an easy way to increase revenue potential… but you can see how this is not very well thought-out. Personally I would have recommended Aweber, which offers recurring commission. It pays to put this kind of consideration into your marketing strategy.

One thing that I did notice is that he didnt customize the verification (or confirmation) email. This is something that I would highly recommend. From your very first contact with a subscriber, you want each email and subject line to get – and keep – their attention. This is your opportunity to build a relationship with your readers, and you want to start from the first point of contact.

Dirk’s choice of subject lines and wording werent in line with how I would do things myself, so I’ll follow up with a blog post and give you some additional tips for the actual emails that you send to your list.

Chapter 3 of this course is all about Landing Pages and Squeeze Pages, and Dirk starts out by giving a great example of a successful page for collecting subscribers to your mailing list: SqueezeVideos.com. There is actually a great offer on that page, related to increasing your opt-in rate, so you may want to check that out as well. Not only does it serve as a good example if you walk through the process, but you’ll get even more List Building info at the same time.

The rest of Chapter 3 included videos on using compelling headlines, features vs benefits in your copy, using a call-to-action, collecting the email address, opt-in requirements and privacy statements. All related to the Squeeze Page, or the web page where you encourage visitors to sign up for your mailing list.

While this course is not about copywriting, there were some very good basic tips and guidelines for creating headlines and text that will help your web page to convert visitors to subscribers better.

My favorite line in the entire course (well, unless you count where he said “P’d off” which really cracked me up LOL) was when Dirk said:

If there is no Call To Action… there will be no action.

Very simple. Yet, it’s a huge statement.

Chapter 4 covers Generating Traffic Through Articles. The first video is titled Why Articles, though I didnt feel like it answered that question very well. The basic gist of this particular video segment was “content is king” – though he doesnt touch on why. The “Couple of Hints” section was good though, giving some creative ideas for writing articles that could be very useful.

Otherwise the entire Articles chapter was decent, but lacking in details in my opinion. He talks about the use of ultra targeted keyword phrases, for example, but doesnt really hit on the important SEO points. There are many statements in this section that could use more solid information – personally I like to qualify tips. But then again, this is not an Article Marketing or SEO course. I should mention though that there were some good resources in the Submitting Articles video (4.6).

Chapter 5 covers the use of Discussion Forums in building a list. This is a great idea, of course, because people who “subscribe” to forums are not new to the idea of signing up for things online and are obviously interested in the topic at hand.

Tips from Dirk included finding a relevant discussion forum, how to build your credibility in a niche forum, setting up a compelling signature file, and more. He even shares a free bbCode editor for creating and editing signatures and forum posts.

In the video about finding niche forums (5.3), I felt that he went through a bit more trouble than I would personally. I would simply go to google and type in keyword+forum – simple as that. If you have a keyword phrase you can put that phrase in quotes. For example: Google search for Dog Training forums.

Chapter 6 focuses on using Short Reports as a means of List Building. He gives tips on how to choose topics for your reports, creating an outline and writing the reports, and creating a sales page or landing page – even if you are giving away the report for free. The absolute best advice on this topic that he could give, and did, was this:

>> Dont create something, or give something away, that people wouldnt buy.

Chapter 7 is all about Craigslist, and how you can use the community to gain new subscribers through free ads. Dirk walks through the process of signing up and creating effective ads. Chapter 8 deals with setting up compelling Email Signature files. Good basic info in both of these chapters.

Chapter 9: Co-Registration. Dirk begins this section by explaining what co-registration means, showing examples of this marketing method, and sources for finding co-reg opportunities. He also shares the things you should consider to ensure that you get quality subscribers or leads through this strategy.

Dirk starts this chapter with the focus on purchasing leads, but also mentions co-registration exchanges (Video 9.3), where webmasters or publishers are willing to exchange co-registration leads instead of charging for them. He starts to give resources for finding targeted publications, but missing in this section is tips for contacting those editors and publishers… and how to set up your own co-registration lead exchange.

He does offer some solid tips for warming up your new lead list, building a relationship with your readers, and what to expect in regards to investment of time and return on that investment.

Chapter 10 is a brief chapter on using 100% Commission products, as outlined in the $7 Secrets report that recently hit the ‘net. (That report actually comes with the scripts that you need in order to create your own 100% commission-based products, so its more than just a report – and more of a package deal.)

Dirk outlines the various ways you can easily create your own Info Product, how long it should be, what you should include, and the price range for selling it. The obvious point here, too, is that your report should target the same market as your Mailing List… so that you are attracting ultra-targeted readers.

Chapter 11 covers Link Trading, or exchanging links and buying links. The point here is that you want to drive traffic to your website, and get your visitors to sign up for your list. Dirk explains briefly that inbound links (or links pointing to your web pages) will help your search engine ranking, and how to find websites that will link to yours.

His advice was to search out web pages that have a PageRank of 6 or better (on the Google Toolbar). Personally I would seek out any web page with a PR3 or better that was highly relevant to the page I want to link to… meaning a content page, or high quality page on the same or related topic. He also suggests that you write an email to those webmasters directly, but quite honestly this method is just not very effective anymore. People are flooded with link exchange requests and tend to ignore them. There are much better ways of gaining quality inbound links…

Summary

There were some great tips and some very useful resources throughout this series. While I wouldnt consider it a full-blown course on List Building and Conversions, it was certainly worth the $10 and change that I spent on it. The creative ideas and resources alone were worth far more than that, and there were some very good basic tips to help you build a substantial mailing list.

In regards to price vs value, Dirk definitely over-delivers in this course with 75 video clips and an ebook. While some of the suggestions were not on target with how I would do things myself, and some sections lacked in how-to detail, it does serve as a great starting point and outline for those who are looking to learn more about List Building techniques.

Dirk does offer 100% commission on referrals for this product. If you would like a copy of the course for yourself, or if you would like to recommend this as an inexpensive “starter course”, you can get the details and ordering information at:

How to Build a List – Video Crash Course.

Best,