OK  Stop me if you have heard this one already.

The money is in the …. oh so you have heard it.

Yeah I know its old news, it’s not sexy, it’s not shiny and it certainly isn’t new.

But let me ask you a question.

How are products launched?

I mean every day there is a new super traffic generating push button system, or a new undiscovered secret, that some homeless dude stumbled upon and is now a millionaire.

So you must hear about them all because they magically generate a force that sucked you in and made your browser go there right?

You probably heard all about how powerfull facebook and twitter are for building your business while you were on facebook or twitter then.

What blog were you at that told you how much money you can make by blogging?

Chances are you first heard about all these different methods, were told about all these secrets, and probably even bought one or two of them in your inbox.

I’m not saying none of these methods work as most (not all as advertised ) do.

But when someone launches a new SEO product they don’t rely on SEO to get the word out.

They mail their list, they have their JV partners mail their lists.

Now they may use that SEO, or social media or traffic software to build their lists in the first place, but when it comes time to get the word out on their new product or service they mail their lists.

I have done many different things online, some successfull some not, I have been doing a lot of SEO lately and gotten good results, but no one has knocked on my door saying I’m about to launch a program will you SEO your affiliate link for me?

No ones ever said “hey you surf can you put my launch in your rotator?”

But I have a full Skype list and inbox full of invites saying “hey, I’m going to launch this soon can you mail for it?”

Now again don’t get me wrong I love surfing and its great traffic, same with SEO it is effective. But for fast proven success that everyone with a list recognizes, the power really is in “the list”

What ever you do to get traffic to your sites you can leverage that so much by adding an opt-in form on your page.

And if you don’t believe it works the next time you are reading a sales page or watching a video about the latest greatest product out there take a second to think how you ended up there.

I was in the affiliate funnel seminar earlier today where we were discussing list building.

The first question was “ How do I go about building a list?”

It was a great question and got everyone telling how they go about building their own lists.

Some great tips and tricks were exposed and everyone seemed happy.

I then asked what most thought was a silly question. “ Why should I be building a list?”

If you have read 13deadly where I explain my whys, you would see where that would seem like a silly question coming from me.

But I wasn’t asking for me, I was asking for the benefit of those in the room that may not have known.

Like I said there was some great information put out about how to build a list, but for someone that doesn’t know why, it is kind of pointless.

I could talk to you all day about how to fix helicopters, but unless you had a reason to know how to fix them, there would be no reason for you to sit and listen to me.

The IM niche is full of how to guides, how to build a list, how to promote an affiliate product, how to do pretty much anything you can imagine.

The next time you are presented with an offer ask your self, “why do I need to know that?”

If you can find a reason that fits into your current business plan then grab the opportunity to learn as much as you can, but don’t go out learning how to do everything with out first asking why.

My earlier post may have caught you a bit off guard. I mean here I am a program owner, but I am telling you not to promote programs directly.

At first glance that may seem strange. Of course as a program owner I love it when people promote my sites. I enjoy sending out commission payments, and I get great joy when I get an email that is talking about me or one of my products or services.

So why would I say not to promote your referral link to my business?

It’s simple, the more successful you are the more business you can send me. Instead of promoting my business you should be promoting yourself. Build your own list and start building a relationship with that list.

Then if you like my products or services tell your list about it. You will get better results and I will end up sending you a bigger commission check.

With the same amount of traffic exchange credits that it would take you to get one sign up in a site that has been around for three years you could get two, three or maybe even more opt-ins to your list.

You could then sell things to that list several more times.

For arguments sake lets say it takes 1,000 credits. The average price for 1,000 hits is $10, so we will say it takes $10 to get one person into what ever program it is your promoting. Now if that that program is paying you $10 per sign up you just broke even.

But if you were to use those 1,000 credits and get just three opt-ins to your list. You could promote your program a little more, give more detail about it and maybe convert two of those members into paying customers. So now you have already doubled what you could have earned, and have gotten 100% increase in profits.

Now you also have these members on your list and you can recommend other products and services to them. How much more can you make?

Think about this for a second before you copy and paste your next affiliate link into your favorite TE, Safelist or any other promotion method you may use.