Building a List vs. Marketing With Sales Pages Alone

Is building a list really that important for new marketers to spend their time on? I know there are a million-and-one things a marketer must learn in the beginning, but where does (or should) list building fit in? Too many would-be marketers drop that ball early in their career by not taking the time to build a list. They simply do not understand the power and importance of a list. I see many of them trying to sell an eBook or other info product from a simple sales page. They tell me they get no traffic. I ask them for the URL to their main site and they all too often do not have one. Using a core site (and or squeeze pages if possible) to generate and build a large list of leads is crucial to the success of an online business. The sooner a new marketer can change his mindset from “making sales” to “generating a list of leads”, the sooner success will come.