Offering a free product is an accepted way to build a list. Your prospects get a free ebook, report, membership or video in exchange for their contact details. Since this is the main way I’m currently trying to build my list I thought I’d show you the process I’ve set up.

You can see the process starts with driving traffic to a squeeze page. Currently I’m using Giveaway events to drive most of the traffic.

The squeeze page is based around an opt-in form where people can enter their name and email address. They will receive access to the free book once they have confirmed their opt-in.

Once they have entered these details they are sent to a stop page. Essentially this just tells the prospect to look for a confirmation email in their inbox.

The confirmation email reminds them of my offer and informs them that I also intend to send them helpful, informative emails after they have downloaded the free ebook. There is a link in the confirmation email that enables them to confirm they really do want receive the ebook and join my list.

It is possible they will decide not to confirm and join my list, but that also means they will not receive the link to the free ebook. Since this is what attracted their attention in the first place hopefully only a few prospects will not confirm.

Having joined my list they then receive an email with a link to the ebook download page. Now they are on my list they will also receive further emails from me via an autoresponder.

That’s the basic process. Of course there is room for improvement. For example, I could offer more than one ebook or include another offer on the download page. However that’s for later. For now I’m just sticking to basics and building my list.