This message is brought to you by . . .

One of the strategies for making a living via the web and passive income is to build an email list and then develop a relationship with that list around some niche or interest.

I have a colleague who has built a 10,000+ list over the course of several years. She did it initially by offering a free report on the niche area. It was a good report and lots of people wanted it and told their friends about it. They traded getting on her list for the free report.

Next she did a series of free teleseminars. That got her even more people. Gradually she began to offer some things free (more free reports and live teleseminars), but if you wanted premium stuff, like the ability to download and listen to the teleseminars whenever you want and to get professional continuing education credits for them, you had to purchase them. She has several people who work for her. She pays their salaries and for health care policies for her full-time people. She has a dedicated server. She works her buns off night and day to deliver high-quality, great offerings. And she makes a good living at it. During a time when many similar businesses are in danger of failing, her business is thriving. I’ve learned a lot from her that has helped my business.

She sent out several emails about each offering. And then some people complained. “You are sending too many emails.” “It’s all business and marketing.” Stuff like that. [Of course, the people who complain are a minority; more people write and say they appreciate her offerings and generosity.]

I was fascinated by this. I have gotten a few (very few, really) of the same kinds of emails when I began to email my list more than once a month.  The comments were similar. My response: I give people on my list a bunch of free stuff every month. And this is largely how I make my living now-over the web and with passive income. How hard is it to unsubscribe if you don’t want the emails? Or if you don’t want as many from me, how hard is it to use your little finger to delete the emails you don’t want? (That is why God – or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs – invented the Delete key, right?)

I was thinking back to when I grew up. Watching television was free. Only it wasn’t free. You “paid” for that free service by watching some ads. Enough people bought stuff from those ads that the TV stations could stay in business and create more new stuff and broadcast it. The ads paid for the equipment and personnel to deliver that free stuff. In the UK and some other countries, I understand, one has to pay a license fee for TV. It’s not “free.”

Same thing with radio. Radio seems free but you contend with ads. AND . . . drum roll, please . . . the same thing with those of us who offer cool free stuff to our groups, email subscribers, communities, “target market.” Those pitches we send out pay for the servers and services, our time, the research we do, the emails we answer, the training we get, the books we read, the time we take to create the free and paid offerings, etc. etc.

I have answered thousands of questions about my work, about getting published, about becoming a speaker, about web-based marketing by email. I have put out lots of free valuable training and information to people on my list. I get a crushing amount of email each day, week and month. I pay lots of money each month to have the support systems in place to do all that. I spend hours of time on it. All unpaid.

I love giving stuff away for free. It makes the dopamine squirt into my brain. It’s more and more possible in this age of digital products and the Internet. My impulse is that when I learn or stumble across something new, cool and valuable, I want to tell everyone about it and get them to know about it or learn to benefit from it too. I want to continue to do that and make a good living doing it.

I know many of us are too busy and get too many emails and we don’t want any more. I know it’s a slight inconvenience for some.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not whining or trying to be snarky. Just upfront about this issue. I am incredibly grateful to people who have chosen to sign up for my email lists (about 7,000 so far). I feel blessed that my work is so widely known and read. That I got on Oprah. That my 30 books have been published and gotten out into the world. That I have been invited to speak in so many countries (27, I think, since someone counted them one time from a list of my workshops).

But, about the commercial aspect of things, I say: Get over it. Get used to it. This message was brought to you by . . . all the stuff I sell online that gives me the time to write these posts, write and give away free ebooks, handouts, slide programs, inspiring quotations, cool video links, book recommendations, music recommendations, useful research summaries, etc.

I’d be interested in your response to this. Please leave a comment below in the Leave a Reply box. [Hint: If you don’t see the place to comment, click the Comments link just below this post.]