Want to learn from one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made in my online business career? I wasn’t continuously building my list. I took for granted that the side bar on my website would do all the work. I thought that having one slightly average opt-in on my site was good enough. I had no clue. I had no clue because I wasn’t aware of the reasons WHY I should be building my list.

I always thought it was some number game amongst business owners and I’m not a big game player...so I just went along and did my thing.

You won’t be shocked to know that I saw little to no growth when I worked with that attitude.

Things changed when I finally realized WHY I should be doing this. I didn’t learn these from Pinterest or another online coach somewhere. I learned these on my own. Those are the best lessons aren’t they?

• Your list is your list.

• Make money while you’re busy (or sleeping)

• The lost art of communication

• They deserve and want your news first

• You don’t have to be a cheesy car salesman

• Data and analytics that matter

YOUR LIST IS YOUR LIST: don’t you love it when you wake up in the morning to 30 new followers on Instagram? And then 24 hours later, for no reason, they’re all gone again. Whaaat!?

Sure, this can happen easily with an email list too. You can get a ton of new subscribers one day and then a bunch of unsubscribes the next, BUT you will have more of an idea as to why they unsubscribed.

Did you send out an email that may not have resonated with them? Were you launching something and they just got sick of all the emails?

The difference between your list and Instagram (or any social media platform) is that your list is your list. These people are on there for a reason. Your social media platform that’s getting a ton of unfollows? Yeah, they’re probably just in it for the follows. No one signs up for an email list offering expecting you to go and sign up on theirs right? See what I mean?

MAKE MONEY WHILE YOU'RE BUSY (OR SLEEPING: unless you have someone working for you 24 hours a day, networking on your behalf, and selling on your behalf you might want to pay attention to this.

Imagine someone signing up for your email list because you had a crazy awesome freebie. Imagine a week later your automated sales funnel kicked in to that subscriber and you sold a product or two to them. And all this was happening while you were getting the kids ready for bed. Imagine seeing that surprise notification on your phone! #bestfeelingever

THE LOST ART OF COMMUNICATION: did you know that you can communicate with your list? Did you know that you can ask them questions and stuff? Yeah, totally! I remember thinking how scary this would be because I was so afraid of getting unsubscribes.

The first time I used this tactic was on Christmas Eve one year. I was baking one last batch of cookies and I thought to myself, “hmmm, I should email my list and tell them Merry Christmas.” So, I finished what I was doing and sat down at the computer and typed out a quick little message. I can’t remember what I all said, but it was very short. I just wanted them to know I was thinking of them.

I was so scared of getting unsubscribes, but I hit send anyway! And guess what? I got some responses aaaannd I got some unsubscribes. I was totally bummed. But that was before I knew how useful unsubscribes actually could be…

THEY DESERVE AND WANT YOUR NEWS FIRST: I love when I get exclusive news or sneak peaks behind the scenes from my favorite people. The majority of your list feels the same. They want you to keep in touch just like any other friend would.

They also want you to bring something to the table every time you shoot over that email too. So, don’t send out an email that probably could just be put in an Instagram post. Always give purpose to every email you send. Make them feel more connected to you in one way or another.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A CHEESY CAR SALESMAN: you know those people who spam your social media feed with their selfies of them and their “can’t live without” thing of the week? Or even worse...the people who direct message you/SPAM you with information about the thing they’re selling. How lame is that?

These are the people who don’t believe in providing value, taking time to actually speak to people, and who want to spend all of their money on bots. I don’t support that. At all. When you have an email list, you don’t have to freak out and frantically do these slimeball tactics. Ever.

DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT MATTER: when you post something on social media (besides an ad) you don’t really get any data or analytics about that post. When you email your list your email service provider will start gathering data about who is opening, clicking, unsubscribing, etc. These are all important things to take note of because you want to make sure that not only are your emails being OPENED, but if you put any links or anything like that in your email you probably want to see who is clicking out of them and what they’re actually clicking. You certainly don’t have to be super analytical if that’s not you, but it’s all there for you when you need it!