First, what is the difference between a promoted list and an organic list?

• Promoted List

  That’s a list built with give-aways or other incentives. “You can have this e-book for free, if you subscribe to my list at least long enough to download your e-book.”

• Organic List

  An organic list is a “hidden treasure”, that people find through links and comments and endorsements, and sometimes also through search engines.

I probably don’t have to point out that promoted or incentivised lists don’t have much long term value. So, CAN you convert them to organic lists?

Rarely.

Keep in mind, when you appear on the scene as a reluctantly tolerated penalty for downloading something that MIGHT be interesting, but most likely will be shelved for a rainy day, you don’t have a lot of credibility.

You can slowly brand your name and URL by doing a lot of incentive stuff and hope for eventual name recognition. Beware that branding may take a long time.

So, how DO you get an organic list?
Unique content, referrals, and accessibility.
Does that sound too much like work for you?

Believe it or not, but unique content is actually the easiest.
Just pick a topic that YOU don’t know enough about, research it thoroughly, and write about it.

Referrals and links are more difficult. Sure, you can get your buddies in the same sand box to politely mention your list, but chances are that they have even less clout than you. Even though all the SEO goorons tell you that the number of links count, don’t fall for that! Large numbers of low power links smell like “Link Farm” and attempts to cheat on relevancy, and trigger Anti-SEO formulas, as soon as you reach a certain amount of traffic.

One or two links from high traffic sites will do a lot more for you. They will move you up. Tons of links from link farms, that link to anybody, will get you penalized. The relevancy ranking actually works very much like you would rank a directory. If you see a directory with five Million entries, then you know it is a waste of your time. But if you see one that has two hundred entries ranked by subscriber votes, then you know you have hit a gold mine. The same goes for the search engines.

A good example of one of those gold mines is the EzineFinder. Not my site, and not affiliated with it, and they are not a client either. They are a totally neutral site, and only subscriber VOTES count.
Even if you are at the bottom, the links from there DO count for a lot more than links from insignificant sites or from list-all sites. In addition to that, you get nice exposure to fresh eyeballs.

So, once you have a steady newsletter at least once a week, get listed at the Ezinefinder.

OK, enough for today.
In the next post I will write about accessabiity.

Have FUN!
DearWebby