An opt-in email list is an effective income-generating tool. Its usefulness ranges from the test marketing of new product ideas to a traffic booster during off-peak traffic seasons for your niche. Even with the problems caused by unscrupulous marketers, like those that distribute spam phishing scams, there are still tried and true methods that can be used to create a successful, targeted opt-in list. Creating a targeted email list can be your road to financial freedom because the consumers who have chosen to receive your emails come to trust in you and your products.

• The rule of thumb for a successful newsletter is 10 percent sales pitch, 90 percent good content.

• Contact potential joint venture partners with big lists to help market your product. Offer them half of the profits. Although this sounds steep, they will easily reach more people who are likely to buy through them if he/she endorses your product. This arrangement is a double bonus. Not only are you making sales without spending marketing dollars, you are adding buyers from the joint venture to your list

This depends on the product or service you are selling. For example, a natural health forum would be a great place to find potential customers for a vitamin drink, while a free traffic exchange would be the right place to advertise a better way to get additional traffic to websites.

The best way to do this is to offer something from your website that they would find useful in exchange for their email address. An ebook or special report with useful information are typically used for this purpose. These free ebooks or reports are typically about 12 pages in length and need to offer original, valuable information related to your target market. Writing takes a bit of practice, but if you really feel that you can't write, you can hire a writer to write your free giveaway for you. People are more likely to purchase a product or service from a website where they receive a complementary service or download a free e-book that they find useful.

Use a free autoresponder service to collect email addresses from the contact form. One of the best available is GetResponse.com.

Set up your autoresponder to send an immediate reply from your autoresponder as soon as you receive the contact information that includes a link to the promised information. Do not try to sell anything to the potential client in the first mailing. This is not a good way to build a business relationship.

Continue to send out at least one message per month to keep communication lines open. You don't want to constantly bombard your prospects with sales requests in each email, so include new resources that have become available at your site. These can include free articles that you can source from copyright-free places or websites that you partner with.

Frequent discussion boards and forums that your target market visits and post regularly. Become the resident expert on your topic. Do not try to spam them with your website products or services, but include a link to your subscription page within your tagline if it is within the forum's rules.

Write articles of interest to your target market and distribute them weekly to online article directories. Do not promote your site directly within the articles, but include a link to your opt-in page within your resource box.

Make it easy for prospects to sign up for your newsletter. Have a sign-up form on each page of your website. List any benefits that signing up will qualify them for like free merchandise or secrets to success.

Purchase a list from a list broker as a final option, though a quality list can be expensive. There are many cheap lists, but the old adage "you get what you pay for" definitely applies here. Make sure that you buy an opt-in list from a reputable broker, not a spammer who has already sent hundreds of spam emails.