Building a list of subscribers who are interested in your products and services is crucial to building a profitable online business.
With the changes that have taken place during the past year on the internet, building a list like this can be done more quickly than ever before.
As recently as two years ago, the only way you could build your list quickly was to pay for advertisements from the large search engines.
This was extremely cost prohibitive, and the people who did sign up at your blog or website were not highly qualified.
They had no connection to you, and sometimes would just sign up to receive the free giveaway you had to offer.
Things have changed drastically with the onset of social media and social networking sites.
You can sign up for free accounts at sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and begin connecting with others in a matter of minutes.
These sites enable you to search by keyword for those people who are interested in your niche topic and would become good prospects for your business.
Twitter is a micro blogging social networking site.
This means that you get your message into 140 characters or less.
I find that over time this is much easier to do.
You can also use one of the url shortening services to save some space and to cloak any affiliate links you tweet.
People follow you and you follow people to exchange information and promote yourself and your business.
This site is a great way to have access to people who are usually unreachable any other way.
Facebook has replaced MySpace as the place to be.
You can have up to five thousand friends total, so pick and choose to make sure you are friends with people who may be interested in what you do.
You can also join groups on Facebook.
There are many thousands of groups in almost any area you can imagine.
Look for groups where your prospects may belong, and join the group to become known.
You can also start your own group so that people who are interested in your exact topic may join you.
It is like having your own membership site.
You can also have a secret group that is even more like a membership site.
These groups have discussion boards, so you can start threads on topics you want to discuss within your group.
You can send invitations to your friends, asking them to visit your blog or website or offering them a free report or teleseminar.
I have built my list using this method as well.
Writing articles is another way to build your list, but it is much slower than using the social media sites.
I recommend using a variety of methods to build a highly responsive and loyal list.