“How Big Does My Email List Need to Be Before I Can Make Money?” Part 2 of the NO Leads, NO List, and NO Sales blog posts.

This question can cause beginners to become discouraged before

they’ve even given themselves a chance.

You hear stories about marketers with lists

containing 10,000, 50,000, or even 100,000 subscribers.

Then you look at your list.

Maybe you’ve got 17 people.

Or 53.

Or 112.

And you start thinking:

“How am I ever going to compete with that?”

Here’s something important to remember:

List size isn’t the only number that matters.

Imagine two affiliate marketers.

One has 20,000 subscribers who barely remember joining

the list and rarely open an email.

Another has 500 subscribers who recognize the sender,

regularly read the emails, and are interested in the subject being discussed.

Which list would you rather have?

I’d take the second one.

That’s because an email list shouldn’t simply be viewed as a collection of addresses.

It’s an audience of people.

And people respond when they believe the person communicating with

them understands their problems and provides useful information.

There isn’t a specific number of subscribers that suddenly

turns an email list into a profitable business.

Instead, pay attention to what happens after someone subscribes.

Are people opening your emails?

Are they clicking your links?

Are they staying subscribed?

Are they responding to what you’re sharing?

And eventually, are some of those subscribers purchasing

products you recommend?

Those numbers tell you far more than list size alone.

Your first 100 subscribers can also teach you valuable lessons

about your audience that can help you improve your emails before your list becomes much larger.

So don’t look at a small list and think:

“I only have 50 subscribers.”

Think:

“Fifty people have given me permission to communicate with them.”

That’s something worth building on.

Coming in Part 3: You’ve finally got subscribers. Now what should you actually send them?