One technique for growing a responsive and profitable list is to offer a physical gift in exchange not only for the person’s information but a “shipping & handling” fee, as well.

This technique is becoming more and more popular because the psychology behind this tactic is that the person is now in the habit of buying things from you, and therefore will be more responsive to your offers down the line.

Typical physical gifts are light-weight and, therefore, don’t cost much beyond $5 to ship. These light-weight gifts include:

• An audio program on one or two CDs.
• A video program on DVD.
• A special report in a spiral bound or perfect bound book.

The point is to get the person on your list, not to make a profit. So, the charge for this opt-in bonus usually just covers production and shipping costs, ranging from $5 to $10.

Now that print-on-demand vendors are available, it can be fairly easy to set this type of list-building effort up. An overview of the process might look like this:

Step 1: Registration form
This form collects the subscriber’s name, email and mailing address, adds it to your autoresponder system and then shoots the required information over to the print on demand vendor.

Step 2: The gift is produced and shipped
The vendor receives the order, produces the product and ships it out.

Step 3: The subscriber receives the gift
A few days after completing the form, the subscriber finds the gift waiting there in the mail box!

From there on out, it is up to you to keep in touch and offer this person valuable content and worthwhile product and service offerings.

Not having an compelling opt-in incentive is is one of the 5 Deadly Mistakes of home page design. To learn the other four, visit www.homesweethomepagebook.com and pick up a copy of Carma’s book Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them!