Blog Challenge Week 7 – How to build you email list.

It took me a while to catch onto the building an email list thing until last year when I started my Song of the Week project. I figured I needed to send the links to someone somewhere.

So I started with the people I knew, both where I live and around the world (I used to live in the UK). I sent out an email asking people if it was ok to have them on a list to send out my new song each week and that if they didn’t want to be on it to let me know. One person asked not to be on the list, which was cool, as I had sent it to around 100 people. Good start.

I spent my year mailing out my new songs and news, all the time adding new names and always including a funny ‘get-out’ clause. I wanted the emails to be personal and wanted the recipients to know that I was grateful to be allowed into their inboxes. I also happened to pick the year where I started to get placements and won some competitions, so it was nice to have a group to share it all with.

Then I read Music Success In Nine Weeks. There are so many other ways to get new people on your list. Not sure about the list swaps though. I am always so cautious about looking like I am taking advantage of someone when it is not my intention. Maybe I am over cautious but I like to go on my instincts.

But I loved the free give away thing. So I added a paragraph to my home page telling people that if they let me add them to my list I will email a free download. This really worked when I had a song on MTV recently. I got new email address and I mailed out the mp3 of the song. Everybody’s happy!

I like the tip on asking mySpace fans to be added. I have done that with Jango fans with success. There is always more to do and I am grateful to all the people that continue to stay on my email list. I will try never to bore you! 🙂