If you have been online for long, you know that one of the keys to success is in your email list. You can have a beautiful web site, a great product or affiliate connections, and lots of traffic, and still not make much money online. And that is what you are here to do, right?

Experts tell us that is takes as many as 7-10 connections with a new potential client before the average one will purchase. What that means is that if you are just sending traffic to your web site without adding that traffic to your email list, you are probably losing most of the business you could be generating.

Think about it this way. If your web site converts at 1% and the average buyer purchases after the 7th contact, you are probably losing 3-4 sales for every one you get. That 1% conversion rate should probably be 3, 4, or even 5%.

How to do it? Use a squeeze page as an entry page into your site. What that means is that in order for your traffic to get into your site, they must give you their email and name. In exchange, you will send them a free ebook or free newsletter or free report, etc.

Sure, you will lose a few who will not offer their information, but you should capture info from most of the traffic you get. This way you can email them repeatedly until they purchase, rather than the one-shot opportunity you get with your current web page.

So how do you turn this list into a super highly responsive list?

You must send them very useful and free information the first few mailings, and then send useful information regularly forever after that. Do not send them a blatant sales message every contact you have with them. Give them many good reasons to continue to open your mail. If they do not open your mail, they will not purchase through your email campaign. I know that sounds rudimentary and common sense, but I think we have all probably made a few silly mistakes in our internet marketing. In our haste to get someone to buy something, we are constantly bombarding our email list with sales offers. Sure, you have to do it to get sales, but if you want to keep your list responsive, you must send them useful information; stuff they can apply immediately.

Get them used to clicking through links in your emails. Offer free tools, but they have to click through to get them. Why? It gets them comfortable with your emails and with clicking. Then when you have a free trial you want to expose them to, they will click through on that, and you will make money.

This is a no-brainer---but it doesn't always happen---use the same sent-from address on all your email. Why? Because people open mail from YOU because they like and trust YOU. If they do not recognize your address they will not open your email.

Test everything you do.

Test three things specifically.

1) What is the open rate of your email given a specific type of headline?

2) What is the click-through rate of your email given a style of letter?

3) What is the open rate of the following email?

That last one is pretty important. If your reader reads a lousy email from you, they may be less likely to open the next one from you. You must study your list and your list dynamics to create responsive list.