I am new at IM and have heard over and over again that people have thousand of people on there list. But how to get this list even started is my question because by my understanding without that list you are swimming up steam. could use some tips
Printable View
I am new at IM and have heard over and over again that people have thousand of people on there list. But how to get this list even started is my question because by my understanding without that list you are swimming up steam. could use some tips
Did you ever find an answer to your question or any tips that helped you really succeed?
We are starting from scratch and working at it from the perspective of a "publisher" with a service we want to distribute through an affiliate network.
The thinking I've had as we've begun to ramp up this process is that we need to find a few "evangelists" who will in turn help to recruit more - that list building is going to have to happen organically over time.
I've seen services that offer ad distribution - but I'm reminded of Email marketing scams of old. You had to give your Email address to get access to "hundreds of thousands" of potential Email recipients but those folks in turn had done the same thing - everyone wanted to sell - no one wanted to buy - so it ended up being a waste of time, energy, and resources.
Experiences like that have convinced me organic is the only way to go. I would love to be proven wrong...
Organic or through selling your product. You'll build a quality list, including buyers. Most marketers who want to build a list use adswaps and solo ads, but in my opinion that's dangerous especially in the internet marketing niche. You'll only build a list of freebie hunters who are looking for PLR or MRR products they can give away on their next swap. Unlikely these subscribers will ever buy from you...or maybe just occasionally if you're lucky.
Building a list of thousands as fast as you can doesn't mean you're going to make money sending out recommendations (affiliate promotions). Better to have a small list of buyers than a huge list of opportunity junkies.
Andre
I agree with Andre.
Sell your own product. And once you have a decent list, start doing AdSwaps.. You'll find your list size increases way fast! :)
There are two things that have helped me build my lists.
One is offering your own product to somebody to include in their launch as a bonus.
When people buy the product, they're going to go to a page to download their stuff. To get yours requires that they opt-in and the product is delivered via autoresponder. Alternatively, you can provide a coupon and the product creator just includes a link to your order page where they enter their information and get the product for free via the coupon code. As long as they have to opt-in to get it, you're good. It's a win-win as the product creator gets to add a bonus and you get to build a list of people that you know actually bought something.
The other thing that's helped me quite a bit is launching WSO's. Sure, you have to sell your product cheap, but you'll build a list of buyers that way.
Before you go about building an email list, you need to understand what goes into making one profitable. My list took a LONG time to make any money and it was entirely my fault. It paid off in the end and now I receive regular checks like in this post, but with a little training and smarter choices early on, I could have made money a lot sooner.
Solo Ads are good but you just have to make sure that you test your sales copy. Once you have an email that is getting you a lot of opt ins to your list you can send it out to way more lists and grow really fast...but you have to pay for it. So that is why you want to make sure that it is converting before investing too much into it. You could also launch a WSO (Warrior Special Offer) and that will help you build a list of buyers. You could create a cheap product, sell it for 7 bucks, and you will start building a list. You can even tweek the settings in the WarriorPlus Area (which is where the payments for WSO's are handled) to automatically ad people who buy to your autoresponder without optining in. it uses their info from paypal to ad them to your list. Hope this helps, lots of great advice from everybody else too.
If I were to start completely over and had to build my list from scratch I would do a few things.
1. I would create a few squeeze pages and offer a free report and do some forum marketing. If you are consistent in your efforts (which should only take 10-20 minutes per day if you are hitting up a few forums each day) you can probably get 25-50 sign ups per week. It doesn't sound like a lot but after a few months you have 1,000+ subscribers. This is also good for building your "brand"
2. WSOs is a fantastic way to build a list quickly. I am doing a report right now for you guys here at JVNotifyPro that will detail all kinds of good stuff about WSOs so be on the lookout for that. Either doing 100% commission up front, doing free WSOs, or war room reports, you can get a few thousand people on your list relatively quickly...and the quality is normally pretty good. Again, this is also great for brand building.
3. Also as mentioned above, launch download page gifts (through opt in) is a good way to build your brand, build a relationship with the product owner, and build your list.
One thing to keep in mind is that building a list is only half the battle. Marketing to your list is just as important. A good marketer can make more money from a 2,000 subscriber list than a bad marketer to a 100,000 list. Provide value, establish rapport, and legitimately want to help your list succeed. Sounds simple but makes all the difference in the world. I want each and every person on my subscriber list to hit six figures online, I truly do. This translates into me providing a lot of value and in return, I do quite well. It's a win-win-win.
List building requires : traffic, an incentive and a lead capture form.
The lead capture form part is simple. Hopefully you have this all dealt with. I recommended 3rd party services instead of self-hosted solution for about 101 reasons. Aweber, GetResponse, MadMimi, iContact etc. Create an account, setup your web form (or hire a techie from oDesk or some IM forum to do it for you) and you're set.
The incentive or benefit for why they would leave you their info can be anything from a case studies document, to an industry specific market research white paper, to a general report or ebook, to an exclusive interview with a prominent name in your industry, to a recorded webinar, to a series of checklists or documents specific to your products, to a coupon code or discount, etc. The more relevant and irresistable your offer, the higher your lead capture conversions will be.
Most will use just an ebook. But feel free to get more creative and more generous. Really stack what they get by just filling out a form.
(Then make sure you keep "selling" them to check their inbox, click the double-opt verification and to get comfortable/trained to read your future emails).
The final part is traffic...
The more targetted your traffic, the higher your conversions. Goes without saying.
So at this point, you're at the marketing and promotions step. Which is a massive topic. There are great suggestions already here but dig up everything you can on traffic generation and find/test a handful of tactics. Do not try to do them all though.
"A good marketer can make more money from a 2,000 subscriber list than a bad marketer to a 100,000 list." ... I've seen a merchant with 9000 (approx) on her list make $17,000 for the exact same offer that a "big name" marketer with 60,000 on his list made $800 for and (this one's fun), another "big name" marketer who claimed 125,000 on their list and made $2200 with.
9000 = $17,000
60,000 = $800
125,000 = $2200
These are real numbers (well, the revenues are... the list size is just from conversations of what those affiliates stated that they mailed to).
So I agree and I often harp on the fact that the database size isn't relevant. It's the quality of the relationship with those leads.
As Ken just suggested, please think bigger. Many will stop at "how do I get a lot of people onto my list" and, in reality, the money is in "how do I get people on my list to know me, love me and trust me".
And while this is somewhat self-serving, I have some conversion info in my I QUIT report (that recently went live)... it's direct download / no opt-in so no worries... but I recommend read pages 47 to 57. :-D
http://iquitim.com/
That's the page for the report. Again, those pages are very relevant to this discussion.