Tips for Successful Email Series?

You could extract your openers, clickers, and converters and cross sell them similar products.
This would seem like the most logical next step to increase the ROI of your campaigns.

You need a longer series than that, I think. You want to send them emails every 2-5 days for at least two months.

You can outsource the writing of these email newsletters.

Include an affiliate promotion at the end of each newsletter.

Every few emails should be a quick hard sell promotion.

Works pretty well.

I agree. You need more content or a longer series. Most people need 7 exposures to you before they are willing to buy from you. It would be good to give them some content that is not about sales but just trying to help them. Sometimes a "backdoor" method you can use is to suggest a free product or give them something free that has a trial period or upgrade option. The law of averages should get you some sales with this approach and you don't look like a used car salesman. This only works if the free stuff is of good value. Otherwise they will associate you with the lack of value thing.

My advice is not to to promote your affiliate product in the first email because your list will not be ready to buy from you.

Try a sequence like this:

Email #1 - Free Ebook

Email #2 - Content

Email #3 - Content

Email #4 - Content

Email #5 - Affiliate Offer

Then repeat. There should always be at least 3 content emails between every offer.

Need Content Ideas? Go to the sales page of your affiliate product and build content around the bullet points. Create one email per bullet point. Check out the product features and create content around those as well. Make sure your content addresses a pain point and provides some form of relief.

My approach to email marketing is different then some of the above posters.
Every single email that I am sending to my customers is providing value to them but also trying to monetize them.
While I can agree there is something to be said about building rapport with your list, I never want to miss out on an opportunity to monetize them. And if the people dont like being sold in some form or another on each email that goes out, there are plenty of other people to easily replace them who will buy....

Capitalism!

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. On the emails where I really focus on providing content, should I be linking to the full content (blog post) or embedding it all in the email?

Both, every email you send should have a link to the web version.
Emails sometimes do not show images well or content gets blocked by anti spam filters, so linking to a web version or the original source should always be done on every email you send.

I would also try to monetize them from the beginning on. While building rapport and giving value of course. I would suggest a sequence like this:
1. Thank you email, giving them the free offer
2. Are you making these mistakes? Email about a couple mistakes they should avoid
3. Strategy email. Hardsell them an affiliate offer. A strategy to do XY
4. Quick 'n' easy tips to implement something
5. Biggest secret. Build trust by giving away a major secret you might have.
6. Life-changing story. Connect with your subscribers by telling how you struggled like they did.
7. Case Study. Hardsell them another affiliate offer.
8. Bad Habits and attachments. What might hold them back, sell them another offer and build trust.
9. Helpful video. Give them a link to a helpful video you have found.
10. Common Lie. Build trust by positioning yourself as the expert in a certain field.
11. The truth about... Give them a truth they might have not seen yet.

I honestly would sell in every single email you sell, in some more subtle and in others a more hardsell. You've got to make them get used to seeing opportunities to change something in their life!

If you have more questions or need some examples, let me know!

I hope I was able to help!

-Robert

I would skip the promotion on the first email or two.

And then I the third I would do a promotion--show them that you are not going to be blasting them with offers all the time.

After that I would do one per week, I know this does not seem like a lot, but, I would rather have them trust me--then unsubscribe from the list.

Hope this Helps

Actually, including a promotion in the welcome email that offers them a great free ebook is something I like doing.

I don't expect them to buy already, but it repositions their mindset that along with free value info you offer them, there will be ads as well; they will know what to expect.

Honestly, people understand that free stuff usually comes with ads, whether it's a website, a youtube video a free app or an email.