If you've been list building a while, and you find out that your list isn't buying what you have to sell, you may be barking up the wrong list. Where did you get them? Was it from a free service, or did you build them organically? And what do they need and want? At what price point do you begin? These are all things you need to ask yourself.

Let's take these questions one-by-one.

First, where did you acquire the list? If you spent a lot of time and little money on advertising and built your list in free exchanges, you probably won't have too many buyers. They're freebie-seeking people, not businesspeople, who think you can come online, not pay a dime, and make a fortune. They want everything for free, and when you send them your first or second email that includes a product promotion, they'll probably unsubscribe from your list. They never learned the caveat: It takes money to make money, and you're better off building a list from a place where people understand the value of putting a dollar in and getting two dollars back.

Though organic traffic is also free traffic, you'll have a broader range of clientele. Some of them will understand the first rule of business and if you optimize your site for the search engines and get onto the first page for a good keyword, you will get traffic---a lot of it. And if people actually visit your site, rather than having it pass by their eyes, as with automatic traffic exchanges, they're more likely to sign up for your list because they're interested in what you're doing and want your products.

But let's say that you have this type of list already. Don't try to sell them a woodwind instrument when your list is about basketball. That would be ludicrous! Sell only products that relate to your niche, and only sell products that you have tried yourself. Any other way is just not ethical.

How do you know which ones they're interested in buying? Ask them. Send out a broadcast message and just ask. You may get some replies and that will help you to determine what it is they want to buy. Then, just find and try some products, and sell them the ones that you enjoy yourself. Never try to sell people things that you haven't used and that you know are great. It's just not ethical to do it any other way.

And let's talk about price. How much money do you need to make? If you need $5,000 a month, you'll have to make 1,000 sales every month with a $5 product, and this continues. A $10 product will require 500 sales. A $500 dollar product will require 10 sales, and so on. How many sales can you make and how hard do you want to work? Also take into consideration the type of customer you have. Have you built a list of $5 customers? Or are they $5,000 customers. Decide who they are by offering products in their approximate price range. Let's say you start with a $47 product and make 10 sales. OK, good. Then, try a $97 product. Did your sales increase or decrease? If they stayed the same or if they went up, try a $197 product and so on. If they went down, then stick to $47 items.If you already have a list, you'll have to test and track to see how much they're willing to spend. Start with a product in the price range of what you want to be selling. I mean, if you want to make $500 per sale, then try a $500 item. If that doesn't go over, try a $250 item, and if that works, then try a $400 item, and so on. Keep testing the water until you know what your list is willing and can afford to spend.

All of these ideas are important in list maintenance, but if you haven't started building your list yet, decide first who you want them to be, and then, find people in the price range you can afford to sell. Try advertising in ezines that has advertising for products in your intended price range. Put an ad in that publication and send people to your squeeze page. Those people will be good customers because they've made a choice to not only come to your page, but to opt-in. But if your list is already built and your people just aren't very responsive, sell them what they can afford and then, build a better list.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything.com and a master of Internet Marketing and List Building. Learn how to build a powerful and responsive list quickly through his premiere list building course when you visit MyFirstList.com at http://myfirstlist.com