Building your opt-in list starts with having a website that will persuade visitors to spend some time there. By doing that they will be more apt to sign up to your newsletter or offer.

Here are 7 steps that will help accomplish this.

1. Use original material. If they see that you are displaying the same content as similar sites. They aren't going to stay around for very long.

2. Start out with a headline and introduction that captures their attention. Let them know what is going to be found on your website. It doesn't take long for today's surfers to decide if this page is going to be worth further attention.

3. Make sure your visitors know just what they will find on your website. They are looking for information on a certain subject and they need to know that you have their possible answers. Therefore be sure to use the keywords that best fit your web page because when your visitor clicks on a keyword with his browser he wants to find the corresponding content.

4. Be sure you have numerous cross links to various pages on your site so the visitor can browse through it. If he finds it helpful and pertinent he will be more inclined to bookmark your site and come back again. Be sure your links are well designed to catch the reader's eye.

5. Design your site so your pages can load quickly. Don't load it up with too many pictures and long blocks of text. Leave enough "white space" so one's eyes can be drawn down the page. Articles should be broken up into short paragraphs and adjust your text so it is easy to read--not too small nor too light. Difficult in reading the content will discourage a visitor from continuing.

6. Proofread your pages so you don't make grammatical and spelling mistakes. You need to appear a professional. If you are not sure of the effect the page is presenting let someone else take a look. Forums are a good area to ask members to view your site or particular page. (You will probably receive all kinds of opinions!) But you should definitely get some valuable help.

7. Offer your visitors freebies--ebooks, software, articles etc. that they can download from your site. Ask them if they would fill out a survey which could help you find out for what type of information they are looking, or ask if they would like to sign up for your newsletter. If a visitor does nothing else than to become one of your subscribers and be put on your opt-in email list you have won the first battle.

Now that you have a means to add to your opt-in list by way of your website, you also need to build your list in other ways, especially if you don't yet have too many hits on your site. That takes time but by building your list you will increase them.

Here are 5 more possibilities outside your website.

1. Advertise a free ebook. You can have it downloaded from your site as mentioned before or you could have the visitor send you an email and you could attach the ebook to an answering one. This ebook doesn't have to be more than 7-10 pages.

Advertise your newsletter and send responders to your list via your autoresponder, which will take care of the opting in, and startup of your emails. Be sure any email, whether yours or your autoresponders has an opt-out feature.

Use email signatures, which you can add to the bottom of your emails. In 3-6 lines you put your name, short description and appropriate link to your site or offer.

4. Send an email to an individual email address and ask the recipient if they would like to sign-up for your mailing list or offer the option to decline from any future mailings. Be careful here because anyone receiving your email could consider it to be spam. To me this is the least desirable method.

5. If you have a newsletter in which you have just about exhausted your material and want to start another newsletter on a different area you could send a broadcast and invite anyone nearing the end of your letters to change to the new newsletter. You may be able to keep some of those who are ready to make a change. You won't gain any new subscribers really but you may be able to keep some of those you might otherwise lose. Let them know that you are proficient in different areas.

As you can see building your opt-in list need not be difficult. Use your imagination and I am sure that you can find many other means to get results.