No matter how great your site or product, only a small percentage of visitors are going to be ready to part with their hard-earned cash after just one visit. In fact, most direct marketing analysts say that the average person must be exposed to you and your business at least seven times before they'll be ready to do business with you.

And that's why you need what we call "Plan B."

A certain percentage of your visitors will be excellent prospects, but they just won't be ready to purchase what you're selling at that moment in time. The goal of Plan B is to not give them a chance to forget about you -- so that when they do need what you have to offer, they'll know where to turn.

From the very start you should begin collecting as much information about your web site visitors as you possibly can. Even if you aren't ready to do anything with it, you'll be glad you started early when the time comes.

Forget what you may have heard, we're not talking about trying to silently extract a visitor's personal information from their web browser without their knowledge, or using any of the other sneaky tricks. Remember, the whole idea is that you're trying to develop a long-term relationship that is conductive to doing business.

We're talking about the various, and sometimes creative, ways to get your visitors to willingly give you their address -- with the understanding that you'll be communicating with them in the future. The more they look forward to your messages the better.

Generally speaking, when a person gives you their email address for one reason or another you then have implied permission to communicate with them via email. After all, they can't really complain that you "spammed" them if they willingly gave you their email address in the first place. Of course, the circumstances under which they did so makes a big difference too.

There are many ways to build your opt-in subscriber list, and we'll be talking about lots of them, but for now let's start at the beginning and look at the various ways that you can turn your web site visitors into subscribers.

It's actually pretty simple. In order for most people to give you their email address you need to give them something in return. It's just human nature to ask "What's in it for me?" We'll start with basic techniques that you can use immediately, and work on up to more effective methods that require a little more work to implement and maintain.

One other thing before we get to the examples. No matter which angle or methods you use, make it clear that you respect your visitors' privacy. Aside from the great content they'll receive by subscribing to your list, or any other benefits, always promise that you won't give or sell their personal information to anyone.

The "Keep In Touch" Technique

One way to get a visitor's email address is to simply ask for it. Say that you just want to keep in touch, and send occasional updates regarding your site, products, industry news, etc. Offer a 10% discount on future purchases if they subscribe. Nothing overwhelming, just a way to begin developing a relationship.

If visitors are impressed with your web site and they are properly targeted, you'll get a small percentage of them to give you their email address in this way. Not a majority, but it's a start -- and anything is better than nothing. It won't cost you anything at all, and you can begin doing it immediately without much work or maintenance involved.

For something simple like this you would just need to setup a form somewhere on your site, preferably on every page if you can, where visitors can subscribe to your opt-in list. You have to start somewhere, and if you're not ready to publish a full-blown newsletter or do anything fancy that's alright. It's never too early to begin building an opt-in list.

The "Simple Trade" Technique

Offering web site visitors something specific is an even better way to get their email address. Chances are that they are visiting your web site because they're looking for something in particular -- and if you offer them something they want for free, or at least part of it, they'll probably be willing to give you their email address in the process.

"Give and ye shall receive" is an important concept to understand. The bottom line is that the more they want what you're offering -- the more benefits that it provides -- the more willing they'll be to provide you with their email address. If the value, or even the perceived value, of your freebie is high -- many will give you their address this way.

The absolute easiest way to do this is to offer some type of "free report" on a subject that your visitors are interested in. No matter what type of business you're in, you can easily whip up a short report and make it available via an autoresponder that they can request by simply entering their name and email address. It doesn't have to be a report, it could just as easily be an electronic book, downloadable software, etc.

The "Enter To Win" Technique

Contests are another great way to collect information from your web site visitors -- we call it the "Enter to Win" technique and the possibilities are limitless. Whether you call it a contest, drawing, giveaway, sweepstakes, or anything else, the basic idea is that a visitor must "register" by providing their name and email address at the very least.

Just don't try to trick anyone with a contest that doesn't exist -- if you say you're giving away a new car than you sure as heck better be prepared to do it. There are laws that govern certain types of promotions, so be sure to abide by them if applicable.

People love just about anything that's free. Perhaps you can hold a weekly drawing, giving your product or service away for free to a randomly selected winner from your mailing list. If you look at our web site you'll see that we have a contest just like this -- we give away free IMC memberships. It doesn't cost us anything at all to award prizes, and any visitor low on funds but interested in our product is a perfect candidate to enter our contest.

You can even get other people to provide the prizes for your contests -- free of charge -- in return for free exposure in your e-zine such as "This prize provided by...", etc.

The "Subscribe To Our Newsletter" Technique

In terms of building an online community, developing long-term relationships, and profit potential, one of the best things you can do for your online business is to publish a periodic email newsletter related to your industry. Sure there's work involved, but it's well worth it if you do it right.

Our newsletter has over 60,000 subscribers, and the majority of them look forward to receiving it each week. Just imagine how valuable something like that would be to your business. While 60,000 subscribers may seem like a lot, there are numerous e-zines with 100,000 subscribers or more. Anyone can do it -- all it takes is hard work, smart marketing, and quality content.

A quality email publication with a targeted and growing subscriber base is worth quite a bit, so don't worry if you're not a writer. Once you build up your list and it becomes profitable -- either by way of ad revenue, joint-venture income, or just the exposure it provides your business and products -- you can profitably hire writers and an editor.

Once someone has subscribed to your mailing list or newsletter, the rest is up to you. If you send garbage, they'll unsubscribe. If you send quality information, you'll be able to contact them on a regular basis for as long as you want -- and that's powerful.

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