I will tell you right up front that article marketing and list building are an awesome combination. Think about it. List building is, at its deepest level, the art of building relationships. Sure, you might think of it as just a literal list of names and email addresses. But think about this. Think about your personal telephone book or the list of names and phone numbers in your cell phone. Is that just a list or is it the physical manifestation of the way you connect with your relationships? Certainly that list has more meaning than just the 1s and 0s that comprise the storage of it.

And your email list is the same way. Your email list is not just a bunch of names and email addresses, it is a collection of relationships. So where does article marketing fit in? I think that when you write articles, you are creating the framework for the relationship. You give people the opportunity to get to know you, who you are, how you think. And when you do that, you are initiating relationship.

The reader of the article has the opportunity to get to know you personally, before they subscribe to your list. You see, if you someone subscribes to your list from another ezine or from Google Adwords, they still have to get to know you. They don’t know who you are, what you stand for. So many of them are on your list by default. They are just getting to know you. And then when they don’t like you, they opt out, or just don’t read your emails.

But when they come to you from your articles, they only opt in if they liked you in the article. They are much more likely to continue to read your emails, to truly appreciate you and what you have to offer. A relationship.