When many people get started list building, visions of dollar signs run through their heads! While you certainly can make a ton of money with your list, it's best to be realistic about what you'll make when you start. If you're not realistic, the chance of disappointment are very big.
That's not to discourage you from building a list! Marketers who have their own list are generally the most successful. They make their own fortunes, and don't have to rely so much on search engines like Google, or paid advertisements like Adwords. Still, it takes a lot of time to get to that point.
You have to keep in mind that your list will probably start off very small. Of course, it will be at zero when you first get it started! Then, as you start to drive traffic to it, it will slowly build up from there. You can think of it as a snowball rolling down a hill. At first it is very small slow. As it keeps rolling down the hill, it gathers more snow, and the larger it gets the faster it rolls. It's called the “snowball effect.”
Your list is the same way. The larger it gets, the more commonly it will be referred to other people in the niche. Word-of-mouth will spread and your opt in rates will soar. Getting to this point is not the easiest task, so you need to stick with it. One of the biggest problems Internet marketers have is getting frustrated due to lack of results in the very beginning. You have to be someone who pushes through the lack of results so you can win in a big way when your list is successful.
With that being said, it's time to talk about realistic earnings. Many marketers speculate (and have found to be true) that every list member is worth about one dollar per month. It may be more than that, or less than that , in your case. Using those figures will allow you to estimate what you can expect to earn the larger your list grows. This can be very motivating as you strive to reach the next milestone in the size of your list.
Your list truly is in your own hands. The more traffic you drive to your squeeze page, the more opt-ins you will receive. The more opt-ins you receive, the more money you will likely make. It is a great snowball effect!