Well it's true, but only if you concentrate on building a relationship with your list to make it a responsive mailing list. This is done by providing them with lots of value, not just selling to them. The list is the backbone of many a successful business model online.

You may well have also heard of people who make money giving ebooks away, and the reason they make money is that every time they give an ebook away, the person has to sign up to their list in order to get the free ebook.

One of the most successful business models to make money giving ebooks away is to have a one time offer after the person signs up to, who then may decide to purchase this special offer (Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Marketing script is perfect for this process). You can also have links on the download page to other offers or affiliate products and make more money too.

But the real value comes when you build a mailing list that has1000s of subscribers, as one email can literally create money on demand - an automated money machine that can really make you a six figure internet business in less than a year, or a million dollar business in a couple.

So how do you build a list fast?

Simple answer - you need traffic.

Here are some traffic generation tips for you:

(1) You can make sure that your web pages are search engine optimized for popular phrases relating to your free ebook, so you get traffic from the search engines.

(2) You can add your free ebook to the myriad of free ebook sites, so people can find it that way (often your free ebook can presell to your own product and this is a good way of how to sell your own product)

(3) You can add your free ebook to Giveaway sites, and get traffic from these sites to sign up in order to get your ebook.

(4) You send out a press release about your free ebook to free and paid press release distribution services and get traffic to build a mailing list this way too.

(5) I've saved the best for last. You can gather a lot of momentum by other people promoting your free ebook to their lists as well.

Let's go a little further into method no. 5.

You will notice how traffic generation tips 1 to 4 will require a fair amount of effort on your behalf, but no. 5 well it's a homerun! You can get so many more subscribers to your list this way with the minimum of effort. Finding joint venture partners to promote your free ebook means that list can explode literally over night. You've heard the old adage - it's who you know that matters, so get networking and get people to fall in love with everything you offer and your subscriber list will grow fast!

Lastly remember to give away things to your list, provide value, with a smattering of sales pitches; this is the key to building a relationship with your list and using that list to create money on demand.