I've always been impressed with those people who could build a list of 5,000 subscribers then give up their day job. All because their list was so responsive to any offer they made them. Then I figured out their secret and boiled it down into 3 easy to follow breakthrough steps.

Step 1: Make sure you're using a professionally hosted autoresponder service like GetResponse.com. This is where you have to spend some money because your entire business will depend on the reliability of your email system. What you want to avoid are the free autoresponder services, because as you become more successful at list building the more there is at risk.

Your professionally hosted autoresponder will do 3 things, it'll be easier for your subscribers to manage their subscription with you. More of your emails will get through to them. And you'll be able to track your results more effectively.

Step 2: As soon as a subscriber joins your list ask them a question in their first email. The question would be something like... "what's your single biggest problem about (enter your subject here)". Then you use the feedback you get from your subscribers to decide what content and offers you should be sending to them.

Step 3: Write a full months worth of follow-up email messages to add to your  autoresponder that's a 50/50 mix of content and offers.

In step 2 we asked your new subscriber a question, now we take their questions
and answer them to replace and build on your first months worth of follow-up messages.

Your answers to their questions gives you your content. And you'll also know exactly what  products to recommend and offers to make that help them solve their problems.

As you create more content just add it to your autoresponder.

Eventually you'll have an autoresponder with at least a years worth of content, recommendations and offers. When you follow these steps you'll soon find that people will be more likely to listen to you and take your advice.

Will you be able to give up your day job too? That's down to how well you can put these steps into action and how good you are at building your list.

Now that you know how to make your list more responsive all that's left is to get more subscribers to join your list by focusing on your list building.