One of the best ways for an internet marketer to build a sizeable audience and email list is to create a valuable free resource to offer subscribers as an incentive. After years of being asked to give up their email addresses and receiving nothing of value in exchange, internet users have become very protective of their contact information…  that’s why it’s a good idea to create a resource with a high perceived value to the reader so that they’ll see an immediate benefit from the exchange. You’ll hear me talk about this idea more in an upcoming episode of my podcast.

When I decided on the idea of creating the “Internet Marketers Tool Guide” to offer as an immediate benefit to my email subscribers, one of the absolute worst ways I could think to present it was as an ebook… although this method is extremely popular among marketers who presume to teach people how they can make money on the internet. What was it that made me choose to create an entirely separate website as my free incentive instead of packing all the information about my tools and resources into a digital, downloadable product?

Very simply, the Internet Marketers Tool Guide just isn’t suited well as an ebook at all. The landscape of business on the web is constantly shifting and evolving. Companies may change policies or management practices… businesses may fall victim to uncertain economic conditions…. and ebooks, by their nature, are very static and not at all dynamic enough to present a suite of resources that may change or be removed entirely from my stable of regular use. A website is dynamic and fluid, and it gives me complete control for making adjustments as I need to without worrying about my audience working off outdated material.

If I discover a new tool that I think would be a benefit to my subscribers, using a web site instead of an ebook will allow me to make that addition without having to re-issue the “Internet Marketers Tool Guide Ebook 2.0″. The same thing goes if I decide to STOP using a particular product or service… if one of my favorite tools is no longer making the cut, then it could damage my reputation as a marketer to be promoting that service, especially if I’m no longer personally using it myself! In the long run, this ultimately will make my free resource more and more valuable to my readers, because it can grow and change according to the actual climate and conditions of business on the web.

As we move forward, you’ll learn more and more about the idea of incentivized list-building and how it can benefit your own internet business. Now isn’t a bad time to start thinking of what kind of business you’ll want to build… the next episode of my podcast will help you to identify some ideas for a business for yourself, and I’ll teach you how to qualify those ideas for competition and profitability. After you narrow the field and decide on a niche for yourself, you’re going to want to almost immediately start producing a fantastic free resource of your own so that you can attract your own targeted audience!