Everybody talks about having a list and using it to mail your list of customers and prospects but if you are new to affiliate marketing and don’t have a list then getting started with this powerful marketing tool can seem quite daunting.

As with all things there is a process to be followed whilst building your list in order to reap the most benefits and longevity of that list so in this article we’re going to cover the most important aspects of email marketing and how to get started.

When you’re starting out it’s unlikely that you will have a list in place so the best way to start is by offering a potential customer something that they would be interested in receiving and something that would also arouse their curiosity and make them want to find out more.

The idea here is to get people to subscribe to your list and the best way to do this is by making your offer free.

The ideal scenario is to offer a freebie in the fo rm of a short report, ebook or whatever else is appropriate in exchange for an email address. All you need to do is set up a simple web page usually referred to as a squeeze page where your prospects simply enter their email details in order to receive your free product.

Once they have entered their details they should automatically be redirected to a page often referred to as a ‘thank you’ page where they can download their free product. If you are using an autoresponder service like Aweber for example their name will also be added to the list that has been set up in Aweber to coincide with this offer. If you are not already using an autoresponder service such as Aweber or Get Response then you definitely need to sign up for such one in order to build your list.

By entering their email details and being added to your list it means that you can go back to this same prospect further down the line when you want to promote a product that they have to actually buy.

It’s a good idea to already have a product ready to promote if you don’t have your own product. That way you can set up a serious of emails promoting your affiliate offer or product that will be sent at timely intervals over the next 7 or 10 days. Of course these emails are delivered automatically by your autoresponder service and all you need to do is set the interval between each email. It’s important to make contact with your prospect or customer soon after they have submitted their email address so that they don’t forget who you are or that they subscribed to your list.

Ideally, when a prospect makes a purchase you should set up your autoresponder so that they are automatically removed from the first list they went on and put onto your second list which is a ‘buyers’ list which becomes even more valuable because you know that the people on the ‘buyers’ list are actually happy to spend money on a product within that niche.

You can continue to mail your prospects and customers with information they would be interested in as well as promotional offers. The idea is to build long-term relationships with your prospects and customers.

Don’t bombard your prospects and customers with daily offers as they will soon unsubscribe themselves from your list if they feel they are constantly being sold to. You need to strike a balance between sending them relevant information that they will find useful and be happy to receive mixed in with affiliate offers or products that they would also be interested in.

The beauty about email marketing is that you don’t need any fancy tools to get started. The most important tool you’ll need is a reliable autoresponder to automate all of your mailings and to keep track of your subscribers and buyers.

The two autoresponders I would recommend are Aweber (http://www.aweber.com) where you can get started with their $1 trial offer and Get Response (http://www.getresponse.com). Both are excellent autoresponder providers with an excellent track record.

So hopefully, you can see how quickly and easily you can get started with email marketing and building your list if you don’t already have one.

The saying that the ‘money is in your list’ is commonly mentioned amongst successful marketers but what do you do when you’re starting out and haven’t built your list yet? Well believe it or not it is still possible to make incredible profits in a very short space of time by taking advantage of the ‘window of opportunity’ that comes along when a new product is launched.

There are many of these opportunities that come along almost daily especially within the ‘make money’ niche. For example, if you take a look at the top performing make-money products in ClickBank you’ll see that as fast as new products enter the marketplace older ones seem to disappear just as quickly.

The fact that the ‘make-money’ niche is an extremely fast moving market gives you a perfect opportunity to cash-in big time with just a little forward planning so that you get in ahead of the launch.

So how do you do this?

Well firstly you need to subscribe to the mailing lists of the major players in the market. This will ensure that you are kept informed about upcoming product launches. Secondly perform a Google search on those marketers and sign up to their JV lists to make sure you are notified well in advance of any planned launches so that you will have time prepare.

It’s also worth writing to the product creator and politely asking for a review copy explaining that  you plan to promote it. Most vendors are happy to provide a review copy so don’t feel awkward about asking.

Thirdly, if you can create a short report to offer as a bonus this will increase your conversions. If you don’t want to create this yourself you can outsource it to somewhere like Elance (http://www.elance.com) where you can get it created for you fairly cheaply. Remember to keep your brief for the bonus tight and focussed and relevant  to the product you’re going to promote. This doesn’t have to be a work of art it can be something as simple as a ‘fast-start’ check list or a tutorial explaining how to use the product for optimum effect.

Use the product name as your main keyword in your promotion. You may want to set up a domain specifically for this product such as www.productnameReview.com. And this is where getting in early before the product is launched is vital. By using the product name or variation of it as your keyword you can quickly grab the top spot in the search engines before anyone else gets in there. Ideally, you should start promoting 1 or 2 weeks before a product is launched.

Bear in mind that when a new product is launched a lot of people do searches on the product name before they make a decision to buy. They do this to find out more information,  find reviews of the product and also to fish out the best bonuses on offer. If you’ve grabbed the top spot before the product has launched then you’re going to get a lot of traffic seeking out this information and they in turn will convert into buyers.

Bear in mind that these ‘windows of opportunity’ are narrow windows but nevertheless they can be extremely profitable. Once the product has launched you probably have a week to continue to cash-in on the launch before everybody else jumps in on the ‘band-wagon’.  It’s at this point you stop your campaign and start preparing for the next upcoming product launch.

It’s worth mentioning that this method is not confined to the ‘make-money’ niche – it can be used in any niche but if you want to earn big profits consistently using this method then it’s best to stick to the faster moving niches such as the make money and also the fat loss niche which both have new products being launched all the time.