Managing an effective email list is very difficult. You need to build relationships with potential clients and maintain those relationships to make them stay. Experts are saying that it takes at least seven emails for a potential client to even recognize your brand or name, and even then, it takes several more for them to consider buying your product or service.

With today being an age of technology, Email contact lists are very necessary. Be following these three tips it may be a little easier to get one started:

Make a Form - Create a registration form for potential users to fill out. Make the form visible to your users and you will see how many people fill out your form daily. Studies show that an opt-in box is great, but a squeeze page – a landing page that people first see when they go to your website encouraging them to opt-in – brings even better results.

Give to Get - Give potential subscribers to your list a reason to sign up. Like it or not, people online virtually expect to receive something for free before they buy. In fact it is only usually after they have received your free offer and have satisfied themselves about the quality of the information before they go on to buy.

Guarantee Privacy - Scam artists play a large role on the Internet. This is why users are skeptical on whether or not to provide personal information. Provide a privacy policy and make your personal information readily available on your website.

Yesterday, I discussed what tactics small businesses are choosing to invest their marketing dollars in. Today, I want to show you how much more you can do, cost effectively.

Here are my tips on making sure your Internet marketing is working for you - not against you.

Search engines aren’t the be all and end all.

Although search engines are important and you should use them, you need to drive your own traffic to the site to reach prospects and let the search engines know you’re alive and well.

That means providing content.

Use as many media as you can for an integrated approach. For example, I use press releases that are search engine optimized to drive traffic to my sites. I also use Twitter, Facebook, my ezine and articles. (Notice all these are pretty inexpensive to implement?)

Don’t forget blogs (and posting on other blogs, as I mentioned here). Want people to think of you as an expert in your field. Sharing your opinion has never been easier (or cheaper) than using blogs.

And don’t forget links! Place links to help your readers and customers read what you want them to. Every time someone clicks, it validates to search engines like Google, that you are real and active. And it will boost your rankings immensely. (If you haven’t noticed, I placed relevant links in this blog post. It’s that easy!)

B2B Reports recently released results of their survey on what small business owners’ invest in marketing-wise.

More than half used their marketing dollars on web design (53 percent). Many (43 percent) also added search engine optimization to the mix as well. And 41 percent also chose email marketing.

B2B Reports surveyed 800 small businesses.

Investing in Internet marketing is a great idea.

But, I must admit, I see a lot of small business owners make the wrong investment.

Having a website is great, but a pretty website that doesn’t keep customers coming back is a waste. And I see it all the time.

Sure, basic SEO helps, but to do a good job, you need an SEO expert who continually updates and maintains your site to increase and improve organic rankings. (Thanks Rebecca Murtagh for being a great mentor to me about SEO!)

The bottom line is that to keep rankings up - and to create a place for prospects to keep coming back - you need new content continually.

Check back in tomorrow, when I share some tips on how to make your Internet marketing work for you - not against you.

Success Secrets is back! Every Friday, I’ll be talking with entrepreneurs and other professionals about building a business.

This week, I’m interviewing Ryan Allis, CEO of iContact, and author of the new book, Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company to 1 Million in Sales… And How You Can, Too.

I was thrilled to be able to interview Ryan. And I think you’ll be thrilled with his tips.