What do I think of viral list builders? If you have known me long, you probably already know. But I want you to read some about it first. Viral list builders are software programs that leverage your own list building efforts by allowing you to gain access to not only the people whom your personally add to your list, but everyone they add also, and so on to some number of levels. They are great for the creator of them, because they create the opportunity for newbie list builders to recruit opt ins even though they may not have a clue how to program html. And the builder or creator of the viral list builders are able to harvest all of the opt ins from the list builder.

I will tell you this, I am not a fan of viral list builders like these, because if you use them to create your list, you lose control of your list---it is not really your list, it is the list of the web site that you choose to use to build your list. So, I do not recommend using these to build your list. I think they are great for the administrator – but really a rip-off to the end user.

Build your list using any and all the other techniques in my articles, then join some of these list builders for the purpose of gaining access to your own subscribers’ mailing lists by promoting these sites to your own subscribers. But in all fairness, you should let them know the same thing I just mentioned—that these should be tools for accessing their own subscribers’ mailing lists, not to create their list itself. So you can use them to leverage your work – and the work of your subscribers – but always be upfront and fair about the advantages and disadvantages. Be careful with viral list builders.