Traditional marketing is not only expensive but also requires a lot of work for marketers. However, traditional marketers or those who belong to the old school still prefer to use this method because it is in fact the only marketing method they know.

Well, there is good news for those who still resort to the primeval ways of marketing products and services. First, person doing marketing has to have access to a computer with an Internet connection.

The Internet has made possible a more effective and more efficient way of marketing products and services and this is through email marketing. Simply said, email marketing is the use of emails in sending information and links related to the website being promoted.

But before a marketer can take advantage of email marketing, he has to procure a massive opt-in list from which he would get his email contacts. Building a list is not an easy task and a marketer should be creative in finding ways to build a massive opt-in list.

For those new to internet marketing particularly email marketing, an opt-in list is a list of email addresses of people who have given their permission or consent to become recipients of the information that will be sent through email. In simple terms, it is a permission-based email list.

So why should the marketer care whether or not the owners of the addresses have given their consent to receiving his emails? Well, a marketer can send emails to every people on earth but this would not be as effective when sending permission-based emails.

To start with, sending emails to people who have not signified their interest or approval in receiving such emails belong to the realm of spamming and any marketer would not want to be called a spammer or to be identified with the ways of a spammer.

Building an opt-in list will mean the marketer will have targeted clients who consented to the emails because they have an interest in the products or services being offered by the marketer. This means a higher sales conversion for the marketer since the people receiving his publications or offers are already within his target market.

There are several ways of building an opt-in list but every marketer should choose the best and cheapest ways of getting such list. One of the best ways to get an opt-in list is through the power of the word of the mouth.

Clients who are satisfied with the information they have been receiving from the marketer will share such information to other people. Some would even encourage friends, relatives and colleagues to sign up and become a member of the opt-in list.

The marketer should try his utmost to develop a good relationship with his opt-in list so they will be the ones to promote his site to other people. Importantly, the marketer should never allow other people to have access to his opt-in list to avoid spamming.

Some unscrupulous marketers sell their opt-in list making people suspicious of sites asking them to sign up. However, a marketer who can prove that he can be trusted by those included in the opt-in list will benefit in the form of a long-term relationship with the client.

The word of mouth method used in building a massive opt-in list is not only free but it has more weight. People who would hear good reviews about a certain site would definitely be eager to try it out themselves, having heard such good review from people whom they already know and trust.

Some marketers become so aggressive that they try to ask for the moon the first time the target clients attempt to sign up to their sites. Asking too many questions and requiring too much will only put off people who have more important things to do so it is best to keep the sign up simple and quick.

The most important things to ask is the opt-in or their permission, their names and their email addresses. Other pertinent information can be procured later on when the client has had opportunity to try to site and to trust the marketer.