List building or email marketing (as it is also known), involves collecting a list of names and email addresses of people that need help on a given subject for them to be able to fulfil a specific need or solve a problem they may have.

For example, you may collect email addresses for people who really need to lose weight. You would then follow up with these people with information and products that would help them lose weight.

How do you get people to give you their email address? You send your traffic to what is called an opt-in page. What is an opt-in page? It is a simple page that collects the first name and email address of each person that visits it.

How do you get people to give you their your email address? The best way is to give away a free report or eBook that helps them in some way. So, using the weight loss example again, you could give away a free eBook on say, "The 10 Foods to Avoid to Help You Lose 2lbs a Week".

This way, you are building trust by giving your subscribers something that they are interested in for free. And you are not just pitching to them.

How do you make money online from your list? As well as providing free information, you can also promote products that help the subscriber achieve a certain goal i.e. losing weight. Where do you get these products from? A good place to start is at an affiliate network called Clickbank.com.

This is where you can find other people products to promote for a commission. The technical term for this type of promotion is affiliate marketing.

Or, you can promote your own products to your list. One of the easiest products to create is an eBook which you can research and create from information you can find online for free.

But, if you are just starting out, it is best to stick to affiliate marketing. This way you don't have to worry about creating the product but just how to promote it.

How do you get traffic to your opt-in page? If you are willing to pay money for traffic, then Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is good. To generate traffic for free, article marketing and video marketing are good.

P.S. These are just some of the ways that have worked well for me. There are, of course, many other ways to generate traffic to build your list too.