Maillist cash Extraction Goldmine part 2

 

 Summary

● Welcome to the list maintenance section of the course. There are

various methods of list building that have proven successful over the

years, each fulfilling different roles within a business, each with their

advantages and disadvantages.

● Throughout this section, we'll be looking at each of the methods with a

view to showing you what they entail before you get started, because once

you do, it's not always easy to change. You'll also be able to immediately

begin to maintain your list using the method that suits your business from

the moment those first subscribers begin to arrive on the launch of your

products.

● The first aspect that I'd like to talk to you about is one of the

fundamentals of list building, and that's always no matter what make sure

that the customer understands what they're subscribing to.

● How many times have you subscribed to a newsletter or e-zine or given

your e-mail address to a business, only to find out that they're not e-zines

or newsletters at all, just straight up ad lists?

● Remember the choice you make now will shape the future of your

business, and it will also shape your response rates at the same time.

● As we mentioned earlier, our number one aim is to provide a list for you

to promote your own products to with the highest response rates, also giving you a great bargaining tool for when business owners begin to

approach you with joint venture proposals.

● Also, keep in mind the other aspects that you'll be using your list for,

attracting joint ventures, affiliates, research as well as making sales and

converting new customers through your own products and through affiliate

promotion if you chose to go down this path.

● Research is a very important point to make here. If you remember back

to the ad tracking points we’ve already discussed. I was telling you about

how tracking and testing is important for every aspect of your business,

well list maintenance is no exception.

● I find it easy with a list to come up with new product ideas and tailor it to

the people who are going to receive the information about the product first.

I know what they want because quite simply I ask them, whether it's the

products that interest them the most, or the best headline, or the type of

language to use when contacting them, and even what to put in the subject

line and from field to get them to read.

● Your list is as much for tracking, testing, and free research as it is for

making sales. Don't feel strange about sending stuff to your list that is just

plainly research. Not only will they feel closer to you and your business

making them less likely to unsubscribe in the short term, but they'll thank

you for sending them information about the subjects they're interested in.

This also boosts the rate at which you’ll be making your sales. In return you get new product ideas, along with a whole bundle of

information that you can use to increase your sales. This is promoting to

learn instead of promoting for profit and just like with any proven results

and research, when you go up against people who don't have the

information you have, you're going to outsell them at every turn, and

recognize and cater to new trends and crazes before they do. Your list is a

very powerful tool indeed and should not be taken as just a bunch of

people to send ads to.

● Ok so lets get started looking at list types. I'm going to do this from the

point of a reviewer and use a points system. This allows us to discuss their

pros and cons and pick the one that's right for your business in a more

interesting manner.

● The categories that we'll be looking at for each list type are:

unsubscription rate, subscription rate, ad income, JV circle, response-rate

over time, general usefulness, and maintenance time.

● Each of these aspects will be rated for each list type from one star to five

stars, the higher the star rating, the better.

● Let’s begin with the standard e-zine or newsletter. Defined as a list of

people you have gathered and are sending useful information related to

your target market regularly, along with a selection of ads for both your

products and other peoples products and affiliate programs. Unsubscription Rate **** Four Stars: Many e-zines have become a

success because of their subscribers responding to the useful content this

list type provides. Lapse in regular sending though and this could go pear

shaped, and you need to be careful when looking at your ratio of ads sent

to useful content sent.

● Subscription Rate **** Four Stars: A higher than average subscription

rate is due to the promise of useful content for free. It's easy to get people

talking about the good content you're sending out resulting in even more

subscribers coming your way through the all powerful word of mouth. Use

example issues and article snippets to persuade potential subscribers that

you're the real thing and not just an ad list.

● Ad Income ***** Five Stars: Selling ads is a great way to provide an

additional income stream, and your customers are right there on your list

already, making it easy to make sales. Be careful not to over do this as to

not alienate the subscribers there for the content with too many ads, or you

may see your subscriber base and response rate fall dramatically.

● JV Circle ** Two Stars: If you're already selling ads on a regular basis,

why would someone want to split the profits with you when they can reach

your whole list for the cost of an ad? The one reason why they may do this

is to get a good word from you to your subscribers, something that will only

be beneficial from an extremely well oiled e-zine with a well known, trusted

publisher of a sustained high quality publication. Response Rate Over Time *** Three Stars: This very much depends if

your subscribers are interested in your stuff or not. You may see your

response rate dwindle if your primary method of pulling in the subscribers

is through freebie giveaways. They may come to expect the world for

nothing, and get offended when you don't give it to them. Sending many

ads over a sustained period of time also doesn't help your response rates.

● General Usefulness *** Three Stars: Very handy to get that all important

information from your subscribers. Many have asked why their subscribers

never write to them. I tell them that they need to ask them to write to them

about something that affects them and they will. Again, third party ads can

be a distraction, but all in all, if your content is good and people are

reading, this is prime research material, albeit not quite as personal as

some of the other list types.

● Maintenance Time * One Star: E-zines are high maintenance. Juggling

ads purchased, putting together content to keep people reading, messing

with joint venture offers, not to mention un-requested feedback from

subscribers. A fully fledged, solid e-zine is hard work, time that I'd prefer to

be using to develop new products, but if you enjoy writing and publishing,

and this is your calling, go for it. If you a enjoy it, spending a lot of time on

maintenance isn't such a bad thing, so that one star is debatable.

● To sum up, an e-zine or newsletter is a great place to start if you have no

list at all. The ease of pulling in subscribers when you're giving them good

content beats almost any other list type, and if you don't mind or enjoy the

high maintenance, then this may be the list type for you. Be careful how to balance your content and ads though, too much content and free stuff

could have your subscribers leaving rapidly if you can't sustain that level.

On the other hand, too many ads alienates and ultimately leads to the

unsubscription of subscribers who are there for the content. An e-zine is

also the easiest of the list types to evolve into the other list types over a

short period of time, making it a safe bet and a good starting point for any

business.

● Next up, we have the personal mixed content lists. Mailings are

comprised of research, new product information for your customers, a few

articles that you write, the odd tips here and there, testimonial requests,

and of course the ads for your own products. It’s very similar to an e-zine

except for the mixed content and the less sales of ads to third parties. This

also requires less content on your part. One of the most highly used list

types by specialist marketers, and in my personal opinion definitely one of

the most interesting and robust of the lot.

● Unsubscription Rates ***** Five Stars: Once you've built trust with your

subscribers, the low unsubscription rates and loss of subscribers often

beats even the e-zine. Because everything is so personal and the

subscribers are much closer to you and your business, it's rare they'll leave

you unless you annoy them in some way. Beware though, bad news

travels faster than good, and a slip up here could cost you a lot because

you and your subscribers have no one else to blame but you.

● Subscription Rate *** Three Stars: Getting subscribers here can be a lot large sized e-zine, the numbers can seem a little off putting, but it's far

better to have a list of 10000 dedicated loyal customers that buy from you

over and over, than a list of 100k who don't even read your mailings.

Remember quality over quantity. Many subscribers may have also bought

from you before or have been directed to you through your own products,

which builds and sustains that all important trust and familiarity.

● Ad Income * One Star: Virtually Zero. It's possible to sell small ads to

people if you find yourself short of cash, but keep it rare, very rare

otherwise you undermine the whole reason for keeping this a personal list

and devalue it through the eyes of other marketers and may just cut your

exclusivity and perceived value of this hard to get at list.

● JV Circle ***** Five Stars: When you have a list like this, packed full of

pre-qualified subscribers that know you, and you're not letting anyone else

buy ads, you're piling on the value, and you'll find your services in high

demand once you start launching your products. People know how

valuable it is, and they know to get their hands on it, they'll have to offer

you something very valuable in return. That’s your ticket to many

successful joint ventures and much more promotion power.

● Response Rate Over Time **** Four Stars: Great response rates over

time are expected due to the trust you build with these people in such a

personal manner. Unless you mess something up big time, lose their trust,

annoy them or suddenly stop offering them the insight and knowledge

they're looking for, they'll keep reading what you have to say, buying your

products, and checking out your recommendations. This is especially 

harder, but the rewards greater. As these lists are generally smaller than a useful for inflating the value of your list to your JV circle considerably.

Watch what you mail very carefully, though, one slip up or bad move and it

could all be gone. Trust is hard to build but easy to destroy in a few short

seconds.

● General Usefulness **** Four Stars: Who's more responsive, your

friends and acquaintances or random people you put questions to on the

street? Again, this is where the personal touch is handy. As far as they're

concerned, they're getting something very important from you. Make sure

to ask something in return in the way of surveys which should be aimed in

the general direction of assisting the subscribers in some way, even if

you're publishing the results for their use, a great research tool at your

fingertips.

● Maintenance Time *** Three Stars: Sometimes it can take you ten

minutes to write a mailing, sometimes less, sometimes a lot more,

depending on what you've got to say, which makes maintenance time hard

to judge unless seeing each circumstance in turn. Not as bad as a fully

fledged e-zine, though not as quick as some of the lists we have yet to

discuss. This is a good bet if you're short on time, or want to dedicate your

days to something more productive, or just don't like writing e-zines and

using outside articles.

● Important note here: These are base figures, and your exact results may

be higher or lower than the above. It's more to give you some insight into

aiming your business in the right direction than to give you exact figures and numbers and guaranteed base earning, response rate, income,

number of JV prospects etc.

● Ok we're out of space, see you in part two where we'll be looking at the

final list types, and talking about their pros and cons. I've left one of the

most powerful list types until last too, and I'll show you exactly how I

maintain my personal list with so little time and such high response rates.

See you there! 

Overview of List Management – Part 2

● To introduce additional information and ratings on specific list

maintenance types, and to show you who uses them for what type of

business, when, where, how and why.

● To discuss and rate the personal lists containing solely affiliate and

advert content.

● To look at the final potential list types (the ad lists) and to demonstrate

which direction they will take your business in.

● To wrap up the section, and get practical. To have you select a list type

and stick to it, whether you've started your list building already or not. Let’s

pick the one that's going to make the most of your success right now.

Personal List - Affiliate and Ad Content

A personal affiliate list is much the same as the previously discussed

personal mixed list, however this time, you're not sending tips, hints or

content, but ads for programs that you promote yourself and of course your

own products. This differs from an ad list because we're clear here that all

products that are promoted are yours and what you promote through

affiliate programs. There are no outside sources sending ads to your list.

Although no content is provided, this can be especially useful if you're well

known, and have a solid following Here we have it, list type number three. This is a great little earner for

particular types of marketers who carry out a specific type of marketing,

with a specific type of product. Now I know what you might be thinking on

seeing the description of this, and you'd be right to wonder how the heck

you're going to keep subscribers interested, and keep subscribers reading

when all you're doing is sending ads. The key here we mentioned earlier,

and that's that the ads you're sending are directly related to you, aside

from the odd joint venture here and there.

You still get to promote your own products, but with minimal a amount of

work. At the same time, you're aiming to not just get signups, but grab

affiliates who join under you in multi level based affiliate programs and

promote for you. This is probably the best example list wise here that

shows that to make a lot of money, you don't always have to concentrate

on instant sales, and making sales yourself. In fact, in this case, it's far

more profitable to be promoting for affiliates, as equally as you promote for

sales.

Imagine this, your list consists of twenty other people exactly like you that

have lists of people they promote to, either for sales or for more affiliates,

and people to join under them in a particular earnings program. Now when

your ad goes out, you're likely to get a certain amount of sales, (depending

on your list quality) and also a particular amount of affiliates, who will join

under you, and promote to their lists. Keep going down this path, and

before long, if you jumped in at the top of a multi level program, and your list is effective, you'll have a kind of domino effect, and will get access to all

sorts of people branching off in different ways from your original promotion.

See how this type of approach is angled towards a particular type of

marketing? If you've been in online marketing for any amount of time, you'll

know that multi level systems aren't all bad news. There are some great,

simple two, three, four, or even more level programs out there that have

both a good product, and allow earnings in this way. Of course, that’s

another topic and for you to separate the good from the bad. I just want to

demonstrate right now, how this type of list works.

So you might be wondering, how the heck you keep your list interested if

all you're sending them is ads and ads for other programs. Well as you can

see from the above example, whereas the normal person might not enjoy

these ads, like minded people with the same type of lists, and established

marketers with promotion power may indeed feel that what you're sending

them is profitable.

Not to mention the fact that if you're a big name already, or at least well

know within your circle, people are pleased to know what you're doing. It's

the smart ones that sit on your list, and watch you. Watch how you handle

situations, what software you use, what you promote, how you promote.

The catch? The catch is if you're not well known to your list already, then

this can seem like a simple cash cow list to the untrained eye, resulting in

a loss of interest and subscribers.

My advice here is simple. Even though the work load is low, you don't

really need to perform any other maintenance aside from your standard product creation, and of course searching for new products to create, you'll

probably want to leave this one until you're established, or have a good

base of people on your list that know your name, how much you earn and

how darn good at your marketing you are. Of course there is a much faster

alternative, and it involves getting yourself well known through joint

ventures and through other people’s lists. Once you've done that, if people

start migrating to your list, you won't have to worry about them running off

and leaving because they're wondering who the heck this random person

is sending them adverts that are no use to them.

If you're going to be using this type of list, make one hundred percent sure

that it's right for your business, and the type of promotion you want to carry

out. You'll also find that if your subscribers don't know you already, or have

at least heard of you, they'll be gone faster than the previous two list types

for the simple reason is they don't understand what you're offering them

with your mailings.

This is definitely a great list type, and does indeed work well. There are

many marketers out there, who's list I'm on right now, that utilize this

effectively. Every single one of them however, was either established

already when this list type came to life in their marketing efforts, or got

established really quickly through recognition and other peoples lists to

allow them to do this right off the bat. As you can see it's a tough balance

to make, but once you've got it, this can be a great little earner.

Unsubscription Rate: ** Two stars: Unfortunately many people may see

this as a plain ad list and unsubscribe, especially if they don't understand how powerful this list type can be. Once you've got a good base of people

with similar interests however, you're going to reap the rewards big time

from many, many branches of promotion through your subscribers lists,

your subscribers subscribers lists and so on. Be very wary when selecting

this list type, because if you don't have the right contacts, or the right name

and expertise, it won't work.

Subscription Rate: ** Two stars again: It's far easier to get people to

subscribe to your list when they know they're getting something valuable in

return. Of course standard follow-up and offering valuable freebies works

here as with all other lists. The problem lies with trying to pull up a good

quality list that will not only be interested in your products, but have lists of

their own related to your target market that will benefit you on those big

reoccurring income products with standard multiple level affiliate programs.

Your previous customers and affiliates are your best bet here, as they

already know you and know your name. Not only are they more likely to

stay subscribed longer, but they'll be more likely to take an interest in what

you have to say, and have promotion power of their own.

Ad income: *** Three stars here, although, this is a hard one to judge and

depends entirely on how well your list is performing. Generally ads to this

type of list are in demand for two reasons. One it's your personal list that

no one else has access to (always a real value adder that one) and

number two, to sustain a list that works in this way for any length of time

needs what we spoke about earlier. Good affiliates and sales stats. Many marketers in the know are clued up about exactly how valuable such

a list is. Generally it's unlikely that you'll be selling ads very often, but like

the previous personalized list, if you're stuck for cash one day, it's a quick

fix. Try not to do this too often, though, as we already talked about, your

subscribers are there to make money. They're there because they know

the programs you create and join make money, and know you know how to

make money. Starting to send out ads to offer ads to a very borderline list

type like this, and you risk alienating your subscribers, and losing some

really valuable people with that all important promotion power.

JV Circle: **** Four stars: This is a list type that despite what it seems on

the surface holds a lot of value joint venture wise. The subscribers are

quality subscribers, with list of their own, ready and eager to promote

affiliate programs, and buy products all at the same time. It’s the best of

both worlds, a short term money maker and a resource builder.

It's also a list personal to you, most likely consisting of the people that have

purchased from you before, or even affiliates who have promoted for you

before. All of these factors bring in a high value and make your list a great

bargaining tool when talking about or looking for new joint ventures.

There is one downside though, as with the previous personal list, the more

money you try to make short term by selling ads to subscribers, aside from

the risks of alienating your subscriber base, the more you devalue your

joint venture prospects. Now one or two won't hurt, but start up on a

regular basis, and you may find yourself subjected to a demotion to an ad

list, which doesn't hold much water joint venture wise. Keep it clean, keep it strict, and withhold access. Keep the quality subscribers and affiliates

(the resource builders) up, and you'll find that in JV negotiations, this list

type holds much more water than the e-zine or ad list, in some cases as

much as the personal list.

Response Rate Over Time: **** Four stars: In general, this list types

response rate over time doesn't seem to vary too much from the very

personal list we talked about previously. There's only two real times that

this list type will falter, and that's firstly if you alienate, like we talked about

above, and if your subscribers don't understand the purpose of it.

For this reason you may see a smaller than average list, but this is fine,

because lets be honest, what good are people that don't understand your

list type, or just question your intent non stop? They're not going to make

you any money, and they're not going to be making themselves any money

either, so if you have to sacrifice quantity for quality, that’s a good trade off.

Once you have these big resource gatherers, affiliates, buyers and list

owners, and they know your name, and your game, you'll rarely lose them

unless you change your list type, in which case, they might all just scarper

due to the fact the reasons for them staying in the first place have been

removed.

General usefulness: **** Four stars: Because this list is also very

personal, it's not hard to get important tracking information from the

subscribers. They're happy to give it to you simply because they know it's

going to make them more money in the end, and of course many of them

are on your list solely for the opportunity to join your programs and things you promote, and make wads of cash. They're all too happy to reveal to

you what turns them on, hence the four stars.

Remember, no matter what list you have (maybe with the exception of the

one coming up), research is good. Ask them, find out what their own lists

are tailored to promote, and you'll see some big returns if you listen to the

numbers at the end of the day. The only ones that won’t be forthcoming

are those that don't quite see the concept of this type of list, and it's likely

they won't be hanging around for long anyway.

Maintenance Time: ***** Five stars: If you're short of time, don't like

writing, or want to put more of your efforts into creating products, family

time, vacations or whatever it might be, this list type will save you a few

hours a day compared to e-zine lists. The only type of research that you'll

find yourself having to do is questions to your list to find out what makes

them tick, and of course searching for products to promote. How do you

find products to promote? Get yourself on some well know marketers

affiliate lists such as this. See how it's a big chain? The bigger your name

gets, the more cash you earn, the more subscribers you pull, the more

people are going to do the very same thing and jump on your list to find out

what to promote and how, earning all of you a whole lot of money.

Important note here: These are base figures and your exact results may

be higher or lower than the above. It's more to give you some insight into

aiming your business in the right direction than to give you exact figures

and numbers and guaranteed base earning, response rate, income,

number of JV prospects etc.

Ad List

An ad list is generally a list that you build and send outside ads to without

any useful content at all. This is the easily the fastest method of list

maintenance of all of the above, and despite a major a downer in

unsubscription rates, and the challenge of getting people to subscribe in

the first place, is still widely used solely for income from ad sales.

The ad list. Oh this one makes me shudder. It's the bane of my existence,

and the totally blatant amateur marketers club, the ad list. Take every

example that we've used, and everything that I've shown you so far, from

relationship building, to useful content, personal lists, and your reputation,

throw it out the window, go fetch it, then throw it out the window all over

again.

So, you may be wondering why this is even reviewed if it's so terrible. Well,

the reason for me doing so is to show you what your list can turn into if

you're not very careful about managing it. If things get out of balance and

get out of hand, and your list turns into an ad list long term, you've had it,

aside from the cash you're going to bring in through selling ads, which let

me assure you, doesn't even compare to what you can earn to selling your

own products, JVs, or promoting other peoples programs.

So what do you get from an ad list? Well, ads really, that about sums it up.

All you're doing here is getting a bunch of people together on a big list,

saying 'forget the relationships, forget JVs, forget my own products, forget useful content or anything of the sorts, my aim is to get the biggest list so I

can sell ads for the highest price'.

Despite my apparent lack of enthusiasm for this type of list, some people

do still seem to insist it's the best way to go about things. Maybe if you

didn't know how to create your own products, or how much money is in

affiliate promotion (when done correctly) or just didn't have the time or

wanted some quick short term income, this is choice of most with these

kinds of attitudes. Let’s take a look at why I'm so harsh about this list type.

Oh, and don't be offended if you've been running an ad list, or have run

one in the past, just let it be known it is not by far the best way to make

money from your list.

Unsubscription Rate: * Ouch. One star: On an ad list where your main

aim has been to sell ads over and over again to people for the highest

price possible, with no other means of communication or content, it's

obvious many subscribers will get bored quickly. I would, and I do too. You

might argue some want to see the ads, but would you rather see a load of

random ads from random people, or see ads from someone that you know

for sure knows what they're talking about, what they're promoting, and

what they're JV’ing? Start an ad list, and be prepared to have to top up

often from the unsubscriptions, that is if your mail even gets read before it's

deleted or filtered.

Subscription Rate: * One star again: Now I one starred this because in all

honesty, telling people all they're going to receive is a bunch of random

ads isn't really the easiest way of attracting subscribers. Many of the lists of this type that I've come across don't come from previous customers or

valuable affiliates, but purchased leads (which also make me shudder

almost as much).

If in all honesty you're telling the subscriber what they get before they

subscribe, they probably just aren't going to bother, aside from the odd few

who want the freebie. Buying leads still gets the one star from me,

because one hundred thousand random subscribers has nothing on one

thousand people who know your name, your reputation and speak highly

of you. If you go down this route, prepare to either have a really small list

that just doesn't care about anything really or a really huge list that costs a

lot that really doesn't care either. What is there for them to care about,

random ads? I think not.

Ad income: ** Two stars: Not that this makes up for the other huge short

comings mind you, but generally the ad income can be ok depending on

the size of your list. An ad to a list of a hundred thousand for a hundred

dollars can look like a good deal to the entry level online marketer, or

someone who hasn't been around and seen the sights yet. Of course we

know better though. The response rates tell the story, and when your

customers don't see any response to their ads, if they're smart, they won't

be coming back to give your their cash ever again, bad news for your long

term prospects.

JV Circle: * One star, once again: Unfortunately a list that isn't personal,

doesn't have good subscribers, people that have bought from you, willing

to spend cash, affiliates, or even populated with people in your target

market won't be a hot topic for joint ventures. Try to barter with one of these, and don't expect to get very far unless your JV prospect is

inexperienced. And in any case, if they're inexperienced, it's unlikely the

joint venture will be profitable to you in any case.

Response Rate Over Time: * One star: If you receive a different ad every

day for a year from a list, would your make the effort to open and read?

Doubtful, unless you knew the marketer well or were interested in their

work. (Some would argue it’s the job of the headline or the skill of the

marketer that decides whether or not the mail gets opened. This is the

case to an extent, however when you’re building a list for your own

personal use, you want the most sales, and the biggest response rate

possible, which you can play a big role in not just through your ads, but the

way in which your list is built. Looking at things this way, the best ad in the

world probably wouldn’t pull as good a response from an ad list compared

to one just two thirds of the quality sent to a personal list.) It's a big never￾ending roll downhill. The more ads your send, the more people

unsubscribe, the less people care, the more you're filtered, blacklisted, and

not taken seriously as a marketer. Your response rates will plummet. Fast.

General usefulness: * One star: Unfortunately even general usefulness

here is a downer. Again, no one cares what you have to say or about your

questions, because they don't know you. They might have known you if

they didn't receive a load of ads from different people every day, or every

week or whatever, but that isn't the case here. It's unlikely many will be

reading, never mind be motivated to answer any questions you might have

or research inquiries. And after all, why should they if they're not getting

anything out of it too? A daily bunch of random third party ads of varying quality from hundreds of different people don’t count.

Maintenance Time: ***** Yay! Finally, five stars: You receive the ad from

your customer, cash lands in your account, paste in the ad, hit send and

you're done, the ultimate quick, not-much-to-do list maintenance method. I

assure you, though, this will never ever make up for it's shortcomings in

other areas. Don't bother if you're looking for a serious online business. It's

just not the way to go about things, morally or logically.

Important note here: These are base figures and your exact results may be

higher or lower than the above. It's more to give you some insight into

aiming your business in the right direction than to give you exact figures

and numbers and guaranteed base earnings, response rate, income,

number of JV prospects etc.