It is good that you understand the fact that an opt-in list is your lifeline when you are in any type of business. For the next step, you need to find ways to build a healthy and large opt-in list; the larger this is the better are your chances to make it big in your business. This is because, generally speaking, the conversion rate would be anything between 35-50% of your opt-in list; therefore the more the number, the more the profits.

There are two ways to build your opt-in list: (A) free method, and (B) the paid method. Both are easy if you know how to do it. You could choose one of the methods or both, depending upon your time, budget and effort you are willing to put. Whatever you do, keep in mind that building your opt-in list is comparable to laying the foundation to a building, i.e. you should spare no expense or effort to get the best available, because the whole building would often depend upon the quality of this foundation.

When you ask a person to leave behind his or her details (usually, name, email id and maybe address or phone number) the person would immediately imagine a truck-load of unwanted emails in their inbox. How do you allay their fears and manage to convince them to part with this information voluntarily? The question seems profound, but it has a very simple answer, i.e. temptation to get something of value free. The free method includes among others the following:

(1) Freebies: everybody loves something free. Ensure that what you are giving away is highly valuable. There is tremendous power in high-quality giveaways to pull in people. This could be information manual, how-to-do guides, free subscriptions, fun stuff, etc.

(2) Lottery, sweepstakes or competitions: there are many who believe in luck and would love to leave their name and email id in the hope of winning something. Ensure that the winning is "tom-tommed" loudly (read visibly) so others would be tempted to sign in reading it.

(3) Ezine or newsletter subscriptions: this is one of the most popular ways to build an opt-in list. Once again, our success in drawing a good and targeted crowd would depend upon the quality of the content of this material.

(4) Humor and fun: Nothing sells like humor and fun. You want to attract a massive list of followers offer something that makes people laugh. Focus it to your area so you get people who are interested in your type of product or service drawn to it. Allow and encourage people to forward your humor snippet to their friends and relatives.

Besides these free methods, you could always use paid techniques to enhance your opt-in list. There are plenty of genuine companies who would sell you such details. Before you buy the information doubly ensure that the source company collects its information legally or you will end up spamming people, which will kill your business before it starts.