Zero to 1300 Subscribers in 9 weeks!
ByHey people,
At this second in time, my mailing list stands at 1302 people, and I thought I would write a quick post on how I have achieved this so quickly…
from NOTHING!
My first subscriber on Aweber was on the 22 August 2009. Previous to that I had an account with GetResponse, of which I only managed to move around 20 people over from. Many were VERY old and some were imported from lists etc in a previous lifetime! I moved to Aweber for the enhanced functionality that they offer over and above other auto responder systems.
So how have I achieved over 1300 subscribers in 9 weeks?
Firstly, I have a ViralHosts account. This is a free hosting program on the surface of it, but you get the ability to email 3000 members every 3 days if you upgrade to the Gold package (which I have done off the back of a VERY high recommendation). This is a OTO of $197.
My first Viral Hosts mailing promoting my 7 Step Success Formula ebook brought me in 72 subscribers (YES you read that correctly) within a couple of days. This has dropped somewhat, but I rarely average less that 30 DOUBLE opt-ins every 3 days from this (It’s mostly 30-40 subscribers!)
Pretty cool HUH?!
ListJoe is another program I am a member of. This also has an upgrade option which works similar to ViralHosts, but I am a free member and will continue to be as I have not found the response to be anywhere near that of ViralHosts.
Even so, you can earn credits by visiting other sites, and mail people once a week from this. This basically equates to around 2000 mailings per week if you visit ALL sites within the emails you receive, bringing me in another 10 subscribers or so.
You may argue that the quality of these leads are not up to scratch, but I have had 2 upgrades on the Listbuilding With Alex PPP at $47 a pop (and I have only promoted it ONCE to my Viral Hosts list). I normally promote my “7 Step Success Formula” ebook.
I have also been joining pretty much every Giveaway Event I can find, although I do go through stages with this. I am trying to keep my page updated with any new events also. In all honesty, I haven’t found these to bring in bucket loads of subscribers (although I haven’t upgraded many of them), but a slow trickle of a few a day…they all add up 
Lastly, I have been doing adswaps at least twice a week ever since I had 400 ish subscribers. I haven’t done any for a couple of days now, BUT will be planning these every 2 days (possibly more) and seeing how this goes!
My plan was 1000 subscribers by the end of October (it’s NOW 1302!!!!), and 3000 by the end of the year. This equates to around 30 subscribers a day from now until the end of the year, which I think can be done easily with all the above in place, and I will be pushing this number FURTHER if I can
Anyway that’s just a quick insight into my list building strategies so far 
Just remember to do everything you can to help get your list built FAST. Every little helps, and across many strategies this can soon add up to a ton of subscribers.
I think my best day so far has been 88 opt-ins in a single day…that was a COOOOOL day
We have ALL been told or heard at some stage “The Money is in the List”…
Always remember this, it should be one of your MOST IMPORTANT tasks online!!!
Let me know what you think, or if you have any of your own experiences to add…I would appreciate your thoughts 
Until next time,
Paul
Paul Lear
marcus passey
Sean Beardmore
Mark McCulloch
David Walker
James Howard
Andrew Vaughan
Rob Canyon
Rod Macbeth
Vance Sova
Jeff Sargent
Joe Fier
Peter Davies
Tom Harvey
Rob Bradley
Karen Kalata
mark terrell
Norene
Simon Stepsys
Hey Paul,
Congratulations on an amazing acheivemnet, that list will be 3 times what it is now within no time.
Thanks for the break down on how you got there, I too am not finding List Joe that good, as well as List Dot Com, where you can mail out 5,000 every 2 days. IMHO, JV’s, JV Giveaway’s and Adswaps Does seem the only way to go! Have you looked at JVHero? My list is not big enough yet, but your maybe?!
Talk soon
Sean
Hey Sean,
Blimey you were on a late one!!
Yeah, I am just growing it as fast as I can at the moment, so hopefully will easily meet my target by the end of the year
Yeah I am a member of jvhero, I just posted in the forum a couple of days ago but need to head back there and see what’s going on!
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Hey man
Coming on real strong !! Good going mate, hey Paul drop me an email my man so we can talk soon
Dean
Dean Holland´s last blog ..Back from Lee McIntyres event ( you ready for this ? )
Hey Dean,
Thanks dude, I’ll drop you an email over in just a few mins
Talk soon,
Paul
Paul,
You are on fire. This is excellent news and it couldn’t have happened to a better guy…
A set your goals and go after it kind I mean.
Keep the pedal to the medal.
Rob
Rob Canyon´s last blog ..The Secret Society of ‘Blog Traffic Hurricane’… Here Is Where We Meet.
Thanks Rob,
I’m trying my best
Thanks for stopping by man, I haven’t been over to your neck of the woods for a while…
Just off there now!
Talk soon,
Paul
Hi Paul,
That’s great to hear mate, it’s good to read about your progress.
And thanks for the insight into how you got there, I’ll definitely be trying viral hosts out. And I might as well try List Joe too as I meant to when I heard about it on Matt Wolfe’s blog. Thanks for the reminder.
My list is getting there slowly but surely, so hopefully what you’ve shared here will give me a much needed boost?
Cheers!
Paul.
Paul Lear´s last blog ..My Thoughts on Lee McIntyre’s Profit Max Workshop
Hey Paul,
Yeah it’s just a case of getting as much traffic as you can from wherever you can. Every little helps, just build it one at a time
Once you get started it’s really quite easy, it just takes time to get there!!
Take care mate,
Paul
Hey Paul,
Congratulations on the results.
I have been a member of List Joe for a long time but can’t remember the last time I opened an email from them.
Might give it another push on that but I didn’t get great results the first time but I was new online then.
Not heard of viralhosts before I will check them out.
James Howard´s last blog ..Revealed: The Secret Listbuilding Tactic Of The Gurus
Hey James, many thanks
I don’t get great results from ListJoe either, but if you spare a few mins a day to click the links and earn some credits, this can lead to a handful of subscribers each week…they all add up!
ViralHosts is the top one out there as far as I can tell, but you will need to take the OTO to see results. There is not the option to build up credits for free like ListJoe, but in my opinion, this is WELL worth the money. I have had several hundred subscribers from this alone
Talk soon,
Paul
Thanks for the insight, Paul. I also moved over from GetResponse, just last month, and lost more than 80 percent of my lists. I had collected almost 3,000 subs in the last 4 years and it made me feel depressed to lose most of them, but reading your experience will help me build it all over again, but now with fresh subs. They weren’t buying much anyway… Time for a new crowd!
I signed up with OptinZip, a subsidiary of Aweber, so the reliability is there, but the prices are easier to handle. Same to start, but you can grow a very large list before the price goes up.
Thanks for your informative post.
See you in the forum!
Roberta
MWA student
Hey Roberta,
Yeah it is a painful experience, but I felt that GetResponse were experiencing many issues, and I wanted the functionality of Aweber.
I’m glad you liked the post, and I hope it helps you on your journey to building your NEW list
Take care,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for sharing how you achieved such an amazing feat. From 0 to 1300 in 9 weeks is what the real pro marketers get.
I must say I wish I would have that kind of growth.
Now at least I know how it can be done. I lost my focus on list building temporarily and reading of your great success is a great motivation for me.
Creating a product is a bit of a stumbling blog for me as it takes a lot of time which I have to piece together with tiny installments.
I’m glad I visited and read your post.
Cheers,
Vance
Vance Sova´s last blog ..First Extraordinary Minds Panel, Jay Abraham, Rich Schefren
Hey Vance,
Go for it!!!
Once you get into the swing of things its really not difficult
For now, I would knock up a squeeze page with some decent PLR stuff just to get yourself going, or put a new page on the front of Alex’s products just so you stand out from the crowd. You can get your own stuff written while it’s building then
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Excellent going mate, keep up the adswaps and giveaways and your list will soon add thousands more. That’s the good thing about adswaps, when your list gets bigger you can swap with JV partners with bigger lists and it creates a snowball effect.
Makes that 10K mark look a lot more achievable now
Cheers,
Paul
Paul Hooper´s last blog ..Help Me to Help You
Hey Paul,
Thanks man, things really seem to be stepping up a notch now
The bigger the list gets, the faster it grows…this is getting exciting now!!
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Truly amazing…I am a new MWA student and poking around for ideas and motivation. Waiting around for the next module and it always seems like weeks instead of days.
Also, just to let you know, I actually arrived here from your YouTube channel.
Hey Evan,
Thanks for stopping by
Use the time in between modules to listed to them again, and make sure you have got EVERY bit of information out of them that you can.
I certainly found that second time was as good as the first, SO many nuggets of information hidden in there!!
Then remember…PLAN and get your roadmap in place for your journey, and push things forward
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Great result. And I’m sure at the time of my writing this it will have grown to far more.
It’s great to see folks following a proven system and proving once again that consistent effort will produce consistent results. I’m a bit behind you on the subscribers front but have only really been list building for a few weeks so here’s hoping.
Best regards
Andy
Andy Michaels´s last blog ..Dean’s Opening Up His Coaching Program!!
Hey Andy,
Thanks man, yeah things seem to be growing pretty consistently now which is cool
Just keep doing what you;’re doing and your list will grow. As it gets bigger it grows quicker, so you’re not that much behind me now!
Looking forward to our adswap in a couple of weeks
Talk soon,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Wow, great results, your Blog is looking awesome too.
Keep up the great work
Simon
Net Millionaire ´s last blog ..“Your Net Biz Marketing Secrets Revealed Using SEO Tactics & Strategies”
Hey Simon,
Thanks for stopping by
For some reason your link is not working to your “last blog post”. Think it must be something to do with feedburner it looks like…
Talk soon
Paul
Hey Paul,
I’ve been watching you from the sidelines ever since we both started the Alex Jeffreys mentorship program and I must say, I’m very impressed.
Your ebook is sure to be a smash hit and this post is EXACTLY waht I beleive people are looking for in terms of content.
Keep it up and I’ll see you at the top,
Gil
Gil´s last blog ..So What’s The Big Plan? How Do You Get Results?
Hey Gil, how are you??!!
Thanks for stopping by
I have tried to give people all the information they need in order to build a list at the same rate I have! I am glad you found it useful!!
Talk soon,
Paul
P.S. I just hit 2k subscribers today
Hey Paul,
Just downloaded and read your listbuilding guide. Thanks for the info, sure do appreciate it, I’ve already picked out some great tips.
In it you mention that Alex has allowed us free access to Desktopbucks but I couldn’t find a link or anywhere that I could actually get that free access. Can you help me out?
Thanks!
Hey Frank,
Thanks for downloading my ebook, I am glad you have managed to get some great tips from this
I have sent you an email regarding the link as you already know
Talk soon,
Paul
Hi Paul… that’s a wicked post and very encouraging – thanks very much… would love to ask a few questions (apologies if you’re too busy and they’re too cheeky).
1. May I ask what you earn per subscriber? (told you it was cheeky) and…
2. Do you drive everything to your blog or squeeze pages dotted around..
Really sorry if they’re a bit naughty but if you dont ask…
Thanks & good luck getting to 10K plus!
Allen´s last blog ..How to get Free Traffic Fast by Lance Tamashiro
Hey Paul…
Just read your free book (I had to opt-in) and it’s a very pleasant, easy and motivational read. Plus it feels honest! Like it a lot – Thanks!
Allen´s last blog ..How to get Free Traffic Fast by Lance Tamashiro
Hey Allen,
Thanks for your feedback on my book, I really appreciate it
As far as your questions go…
I am not doing many promotions at the moment as I am still in the building stage. I am making sales as I have a few other things set up and OTO’s on my squeeze pages, but at the moment I am just building my list and building relationships.
I have my blog and squeeze pages. I drive traffic to both, and everyone that downloads my products will be driven back here so they can get to know me and follow my story etc also
Hope this helps,
Talk real soon,
Paul
Hi Paul
Wonder if you could comment on this situation:
The niche I wish to build a list in is more ‘local’ (is UK) and the back end is a service (not deliverable digitally!).
So it’s important to qualify early on in any promotions so that my downloadable gifts (at opt-in and other offers) are not just taken by irrelevant tyre kickers.
What comments on how best to build such a list?
Thanks
John
Hey John,
I think it is difficult to extract buyers only at the opt-in stage. You have to offer something in order to get the opt-in to begin with, and there is really nothing you can do to stop the “tyre kickers”.
Once you have them on your list, you could pre-qualify them further in some way. I don’t know what your offer is, but does it make any difference if you have non buyers on your list?
Some people will NEVER buy, and only a percentage of people will, so you just need to design a system around this as best you can
I hope this helps,
Take care,
Paul
Thanks Paul
I think you are right that further pre-qualification stages must be used. Obviously any worthwhile gift with value does attract non-buyers, but the problem here is that it’s a Geographic one.
The vast majority of online marketing focuses on digital services … and it appears that more is needed in the area of ‘conversion’ for the live, personal services market.
Maybe that’s an area for me to look at once I’ve cracked it myself. The market is potentially huge, with interest from (for example) photographers, models, dentists, hairdressers, cooks, party organisers, DJs, entertainers, removals, handymen and therapists of all kinds.
Thanks for your thoughts …. I’ll report any progress. Off now to create a Survey ….
John
Hey John,
If you are using PPC, you can restrict the area where the ads are shown by country, and by smaller areas than that in some cases.
This doesn’t help your overall problem, but just a thought which could help you
Cheers,
Paul
Good point …. not yet using PPC but think I now should.
Thanks Paul…..
Hey Paul,
Congratulations on your fantastic results!! It’s interesting what you say about giveaways not bringing in many subscribers compared to your other methods (but I agree every little helps).
On this project I’m taking a slightly different approach to building my list (which is growing slowly but steadily) that has so far resulted in a very high open rate of my messages on the first mail out. I’ll hopefully be putting all this info together for the MWA tribe soon-ish
Rob
p.s. I’ll see ya in Vegas
Rob Bradley´s last blog ..Snowmobiles, Sledding & Spam…
Hey Rob!
How are ya my friend?
How are your results from giveaways? I would be interested to see what kind of results you get from them
I will look forward to seeing how you are building your list also!!
Take care mate,
Paul
P.S. Yeah definitely…see ya in vegas baby!!!!
I’m all good thanks mate!! Just got engaged so really happy right now
I haven’t done a giveaway yet…I know I probably should, it’s just the mixed reports of how successful they can be have meant I’ve be focusing on other areas.
I’m collecting the data for what I’m doing right now and I’ll report on the results if/when there’s something to report.
Speak soon buddy.
Rob
p.s. don’t call me baby lol :laugh: :rotfl:
Rob Bradley´s last blog ..Snowmobiles, Sledding & Spam…
Hey Rob,
Congratulations on your engagement mate!!!
Yeah some people seem to do better than others with the giveaways. I will be going all out on them in the next few days when I have created some more offers etc to see what results I can get out of them, so I’ll let you know if I find the “Secret Formula”!!
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Hey Paul,
Over 1300 subscribers in 9 weeks is great. I haven’t bothered with any of those viral list building methods for fear that the leads wouldn’t be very good. I hope you’re having good luck with them.
I have stuck mainly to Giveaways and article marketing. I have only done one Adswap to this point but I need to get into it and do it on a weekly basis. So if you’re interested let me know.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Jeff Sargent´s last blog ..Awarding One Way Backlinks For Blog Comments
Hey Jeff,
To be honest, I don’t know the true value of these subscribers either, BUT it enabled me to get a good seed list VERY quickly, and allowed me to participate in adswaps after a few weeks. I seem to have had good results from these so I can only presume that they are as good as subscribers from other sources
As I have said in my post, giveaways haven’t produced great results for me personally, although I know others that are getting great results!
I would start getting involved in adswaps as soon as you can! Send me an email with numbers and your offer etc, and we’ll see if we can get something scheduled
Talk soon,
Paul
Mate I’ve got some catching up to do – dont worry I have a plan – whether it will deliver or not we’ll see.
Good post BTW
Peter Davies´s last blog ..Does anyone have any knowledge regarding worldprofit.com?
Hey Peter,
A man with a plan … sounds intriguing …
Have to let me know what you’ve got tucked up your sleeve!!
Talk soon mate,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Just joined your list and read your e-book now am reading your blog. I am ew to the IM niche and found your story to be quite refreshing as well as motivational, will return often to keep up on your blog. Thanks for such great information and inspiration mate!
The BUmbling Idiot Marketer
Hey there,
I am glad my book was an inspiration to you
I wanted to write it, and include my story with no BS as you find in many others.
I will keep my blog updated with my progress, so be sure to head back often
Take care,
Paul
Hey Paul,
Great News, I still have some of Alex Jeffreys students emailing me saying they have still only a few hundred on there list!
As you said you have to be pro active and collect as many opt ins as you can.
I have found writing a article each week also helps but my biggest gains have been through ad swaps, i gained 140 sign ups in 1 day.
As you know at the beginning it is very hard to build you list but as it grows you get more people to ad swap with you—- Well what i do to help newbies is ad swap with them !
If i have a list of 2000 and they have a list of 500, i just ask them to mail one of my offers once a week for 4 weeks.
Everyone i have asked to do this is more than happy because it builds there list and they are amazed that i will ad swap with them, even if they only have 50 or 100.. Why Not ? we all started at the beginning with 1 right.
Anyway talk soon i have a JV project for you.
Mark Terrell
Mark Terrell´s last blog ..Driving Free Instant Traffic To Your Affiliate Offers
Hey Mark,
It’s all about taking action, and in the beginning each and every subscriber counts
It’s not difficult but can be a bit slow to begin with!
Nice idea for swapping with people, and getting them to mail over a few weeks … definitely worth thinking about
Give me a shout, I am intrigued about the JV!
Talk soon,
Paul
@Mark Terrell-
Dear Mark that is a very generous thing you are doing. I am not even at the point to ask for something like this. Hope you continue to do it in the future.
Evan Beck´s last blog ..How to Get 400+ Free Backlinks to Your Website
Hey Evan
Thanks for stopping by!
How is your list building going? Are you starting to get things moving in the right direction?
Give me a shout if I can help at all
Talk soon,
Paul
Hi Paul,
I should stop by more often, shame on myself… I have to find a way to follow in your footsteps. You’ve laid it all out, loud and clear, there’s no way to miss the point, right?
Thanks for your post,
Jose
Hi Paul,
We have never met as I am in Alex’s MWA 3.0 program. My list currently stands at 0 members. The good point to that is that it cannot drop any lower and can only go up.
I’m still finding my feet since deciding to finally succeed online and have just recently got my blog off the ground. Yours looks fantastic by the way. Kudos coming at you:)
Anyway, back to blog building, hopefully we will be able to chat at some point.
All the best,
Dave
David Taylor´s last blog ..D’oh!
Hey Dave,
Thanks for your comments!!
I hope the course is going well, this will definitely be the turning point for you
Once you start listbuilding it’s pretty simple. You just need to make sure you build it constantly on a daily basis, and it will grow steadily.
Before you know it you will have a few hundred on your list!!
Talk to you soon,
Paul