If you’re an affiliate marketer just starting out, you’ve probably heard this advice a hundred times: “The money’s in the list.”
Sounds great, right?
But then reality hits…
Autoresponders are expensive.
Email marketing feels complicated.
And where do you even begin?
I’ve been there—staring at confusing dashboards, trying to write follow-up emails that don’t sound robotic, and wondering if I’d have to shell out $30+ a month just to send emails.
That’s when I found LeadsLeap Autoresponder—and everything changed.
In this post, I’ll show you how you can start building your list and sending automated emails for free, even if you’ve never touched an autoresponder before. No tech headaches, no monthly fees, just a simple way to grow your affiliate business the smart way.
Let’s dive in.
I still remember the first time I tried to “do email marketing.”
I’d just signed up for an affiliate program I was excited about. I had my link. I had the fire. But what I didn’t have was… well, anything else.
So I started looking at email autoresponders—because everyone said I needed one to follow up with my leads.
Aweber? $20/month.
GetResponse? Not much cheaper.
ConvertKit? Too advanced.
As a beginner with zero sales and a tight budget, those prices felt like a punch in the gut.
Still, I gave one a shot with the free trial. Within minutes, I was staring at a maze of buttons I didn’t understand. List settings. Tags. Automations. Segmenting. What the heck was a “workflow”?
I felt overwhelmed.
I hadn’t even collected a single email yet… and I already wanted to quit.
That’s when I stumbled across reviews of LeadsLeap in a Facebook group.
Someone said, “Why are you paying for all that when LeadsLeap gives you an autoresponder for free?”
At first, I was skeptical. Free tools usually come with strings attached—right?
But I signed up anyway. No credit card needed. Just pure curiosity.
Within a few hours, I had a working lead capture page, a simple follow-up email, and the confidence that I could actually do this.
And for the first time…
Email marketing didn’t feel overwhelming.
It felt possible.
From Overwhelmed to In Control: How I Started Building My List with LeadsLeap
Once I realized email marketing was essential for affiliate success, I knew I needed two things:
- A solid autoresponder, and
- A capture page to collect leads.
SendSteed (LeadsLeap’s autoresponder) handled the first part beautifully—it was simple, free, and beginner-friendly.
But when it came to building my first capture page…
I’ll be honest—I froze.
The LeadsLeap page builder looked powerful… but also a little intimidating.
There were so many buttons, layout options, boxes, and design elements that I wasn’t sure where to start.
And as someone who didn’t have a background in design or coding, I started doubting whether I could even do it.
But then—this is where things turned around—I noticed something in the LeadsLeap community:
People were sharing free or dirt-cheap landing pages they had already built inside LeadsLeap.
They were literally saying:
“Here’s a share code. Just copy and paste it into your account.”
So I tried it.
I pasted a share code into my account, clicked “Import,” and boom—just like that, I had a professional-looking capture page live in my dashboard. I could edit the headline, change the image, tweak the button text… but the hard part (the layout and design) was already done for me.
This felt like a cheat code.
I connected the page to my SendSteed list, and just like that, I had a working email funnel.
Testing the Waters and Picking Up Leads
Once everything was set up, I started testing.
I ran traffic from inside LeadsLeap using their Pro Ads (another cool built-in feature).
I also tested the same capture page on a few other traffic exchanges I was using. The results varied depending on the audience, but something important happened:
I started picking up leads.
Real people, real subscribers—joining my list and getting my welcome email automatically.
And I didn’t pay a dime for autoresponder software or fancy page builders. I just used
SendSteed and the power of LeadsLeap’s community.
That early success gave me the confidence to start tweaking things—trying out new share codes, editing pages to better match my offer, and writing better follow-up emails.
What once felt like a tech nightmare now felt doable.
And honestly? Even kinda fun.
Writing My First Follow-Up Emails (Without Sounding Like a Robot)
Once I had my capture page set up and connected to SendSteed, I hit the next wall: what the heck do I even write in these emails?
I mean, I wasn’t some big-time affiliate with a crazy story or anything. I just wanted to sound like… me. Helpful. Real. Not spammy.
Thankfully, SendSteed made the whole process easy. I didn’t have to worry about setting up complex automations or tags or any of that stuff. Inside the list manager, there was this simple tab for follow-up emails. I just added one, typed it out, picked when it should send, and that was it.
My first email was super simple. Just a quick “Hey, thanks for subscribing,” and a few lines about who I was and what kind of stuff I’d be sending them. No sales pitch. Just a friendly intro.
A day later, I added a second one where I told them a bit more of my story—how I was trying different traffic exchanges, what I’d learned so far, and what tools I was using. I threw in a tip that helped me and linked to a resource I liked (yeah, it was my affiliate link, but it was something I actually used).
At first, I felt like I was just talking to the void. But then something unexpected happened—people started opening the emails. Some even replied. Just simple stuff like “Thanks!” or “This helped.” But man, that gave me a real boost.
That’s when it clicked. This wasn’t about sounding like a copywriting genius or having the perfect funnel. It was about being helpful and honest. Just showing up in someone’s inbox like a real person—not a robot trying to sell stuff.
Building Trust (Without Having All the Answers)
When I started, I thought email marketing was going to be this big, complex thing. That I needed perfect emails and pro-level skills to get anyone to trust me. But SendSteed made it so simple that I stopped overthinking it.
I started sending little updates now and then using the Broadcast tool—like “Hey, I found this traffic source, here’s what happened.” Or “Here’s a quick win I got this week.” Stuff that felt natural to share. And it turns out, that’s exactly the kind of thing people actually want to hear.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t an expert. The people joining my list were beginners too. They related to the struggles and small wins. And I started realizing… this whole email marketing thing doesn’t have to be perfect to work. It just has to be real.
And with SendSteed, I didn’t have to mess with plugins or pay for extra tools to make that happen. Everything I needed was built in. I could set it and forget it—or jump in and tweak things when I wanted to try something new.
Was every email a hit? Nope. Did every capture page convert like crazy? Not even close. But I was finally doing it. I was building a list, testing offers, learning what worked—and all of it started with that simple autoresponder inside LeadsLeap.
Stop Overthinking and Just Dive In with LeadsLeap
Looking back, I can’t believe how much time I wasted stressing over all the details when I first started. I thought I needed everything to be perfect before I could begin. Perfect emails. Perfect capture pages. Perfect everything.
But here’s the truth: you don’t need all that perfection to get started. In fact, the more I tried to perfect everything, the longer I stayed stuck.
What really helped me was just taking the plunge. I signed up for LeadsLeap, tried out the autoresponder (SendSteed), and started building my list. No fancy tools, no complicated tech, just getting started. And let me tell you, once I did, everything started to fall into place.
So if you’re reading this, chances are you’re overthinking it too. Maybe you’re worried your first email won’t be perfect or your capture page won’t convert. But guess what? That’s totally okay. The important thing is to just dive in.
Don’t let perfectionism hold you back. The LeadsLeap Autoresponder makes it easy to start, and you can always improve as you go. So why wait? Start building your list today, send that first email, and watch things unfold.
The perfect time to start is now. Just take that first step.