Stop deceiving and telling me there is money in the list.

39 replies
I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months. I have taken over 2 month sending them quality content information on a daily basis and now i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.

Am thinking of laying of the list and concentrating on other forms of paid ads.

I hear people say.. Money is in the list, i wonder how they do that. But as for me..
There is no money in the list.
#deceiving #list #money #stop #telling
  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    There is no money in the list.

    Did you ever stop to consider that the problem may be YOU and not your list?

    You have 300 freebie subscribers. What are your expectations? How much money should you be making from a list of subscribers that joined to get a freebie? Have you ever considered that the problem could be your offer, that your list isn't targeted, that they wanted your freebie but aren't willing to buy right now, that there are other better or more useful offers in your same niche, that your list doesn't trust you, or that you haven't prepared your subscribers for a paid offer?

    Throw in the towel if you want. If you're successful with FB ads instead of mailing to your list . . . by all means keep doing what is bringing you success.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author inas911
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post


      Throw in the towel if you want. If you're successful with FB ads instead of mailing to your list . . . by all means keep doing what is bringing you success.

      Steve
      Yep that's what am about doing. Instead of invest my $20 on an auto responder, i'lld rather invest it on a Facebook ad. But i still stand to be convinced that there is MONEY IN THE LIST
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  • Profile picture of the author TiffLee
    "Freebie subscribers."

    ... enough said.
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  • Profile picture of the author Smeltzer
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months.
    I can see many things wrong with just this one statement.
    1. 300 people on your list especially freebie seekers is not anywhere near enough to make any type of conclusion. Come back and say that at 5k.
    2. Freebie seekers enough said. Once again when you are dealing with freebie seekers it will take a much higher amount of subs.
    3. 4 months. Your list is most likely stale.You should be adding people to your list each and every day. Shoot for at the bare minimum of 10 percent growth each and every day starting out. Once you get to a sweet spot when you are making money you can go into list maintenance mode where you are only buying enough traffic to replace your unsubscribes.

    My Advice use JVzoo to sell your product through. Tie in your AR so that everyone who purchases your product will be added to your list this way you are building a list of proven buyers.

    Delete your current list. It is costing you money and you are not getting anything out of it.

    Continue using FB ads for traffic. Shoot for 10 sales a day and increase that number as your list (and income) grows.

    Good luck man. It is there I promise you that.(I do not promise things lightly but in this matter yeah)
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    • Profile picture of the author inas911
      Originally Posted by Smeltzer View Post

      Delete your current list. It is costing you money and you are not getting anything out of it.
      Thank man... i appreciate your advise
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    here is some constrictive criticism.

    its your job to figure out how to profit from "freebie seekers" there are several ways...some pretty well documented on wf even...some not so much.

    but i can assure you, the best way to profit from the average freebie seekers list in the MMO niche is not by emailing them an offer to buy something.
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    • Profile picture of the author inas911
      Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

      but i can assure you, the best way to profit from the average freebie seekers list in the MMO niche is not by emailing them an offer to buy something.
      If its not by emailing them my offers.. Then how?
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      • Profile picture of the author David Keith
        Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

        If its not by emailing them my offers.. Then how?
        from my earlier post:
        "its your job to figure out how to profit from "freebie seekers" there are several ways...some pretty well documented on wf even..."

        put your thinking cap on and spend a few hours doing some homework.

        i am not trying to be a jerk, but it will help you a lot more in the long run if you learn to problem solve yourself when you hit roadblocks in your business.

        there may not always be a guy standing there waiting to answer your next question
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron C Farrow
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months. I have taken over 2 month sending them quality content information on a daily basis and now i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.

    Am thinking of laying of the list and concentrating on other forms of paid ads.

    I hear people say.. Money is in the list, i wonder how they do that. But as for me..
    There is no money in the list.
    Initially it sounds like you were conditioning them NOT to buy from you if you waited 2 months before offering them a product. They probably were affronted that their purveyor of quality information suddenly asked them to actually buy something.

    All is not lost. If you can offer them a free to use product that they can upgrade to paying, with an affiliate commission for you of course, then you will be preserving your position in their eyes and passing on the rather vulgar sales side to the product vendor.

    In future hit them with a sales email early on to confirm your relationship with them.

    Also disagree that freebie seekers never buy. The natural logic would be that buyers were sold on their very first email or squeeze page.

    All the above assumes that your emails are actually being opened and that your list is not stale.
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  • Profile picture of the author slammer81
    Might not be deception in saying that the money is in the list, but misunderstanding in how to get that $.

    As a challenge someone i'm sure, would be able to take that list and make a few bucks with it.

    Don't give up on it. Hell, you only slapped em with one offer!
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  • Profile picture of the author NeedBucksNow
    I would say "money is in the list" but it is going to come from the amount of people that are in your list and it going to take thousands of people to start seeing results from it. By the time that you have this many people on your list, you would more than likely have a pretty successful website or blog and that is probably what is going to make you more sales than anything. I have noticed that success brings success and most people are just looking for something that works and will buy from you if you are doing well at it too. You could always use the money towards Facebook ads instead and once you start making some sales, it will be easier to keep the monthly subscription and get more people. I think the main thing about having a list is that email is a great way to contact a ton of people at once and they will be getting emails from you for a long period of time hopefully. They say it takes 7-10 times in order to get a sale and once they see your offers enough, you should have a better chance of getting them to join
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      I get what Keith is saying but I don't think 300 freebie seekers is much of a list. Depending on how you built that list over half or more of those email addresses might be addresses where the user doesn't even monitor the incoming emails.

      Do you have your open stats?

      I don't care how hard you think. If enough people on your "list" are not even reading anything after the initial offer they signed up to see you have no real list.
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  • Profile picture of the author joelraitt
    Our buyers list earns us a $5000 CPM (per 1000 emails delivered) we mail offers every 2 weeks our prospects list earns about $500 CPM we mail them the same offers.

    I've had the same struggles as you with list marketing - chances are the people dont give a shit about what you're selling...some niches email is amazing, some its OK - just like anything else.

    If FB got you sales, stay there and get more...but at least keep the buyers list
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  • Profile picture of the author Hernandez6ko
    Dude...There is money in the list. You are the one who is deceiving your list. you got it backwards. What Exactly do you tell these people? I'm a bit curious do they atleast even click on the product? but if that's not the case maybe you should keep building the list, cause honestly 300 is still on the short side. you wanna be at 5000. you will have a lot of engagement.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    ^^^ there is that word again...lol

    monetizing freebie seekers is a system thing more than an email list strategy. you dont start monetizing or trying to gain benefits from freebie seekers weeks after you have sent them through some more free content setup.

    if he truly has freebie seekers on his list then you monetize and gain benefit from them in an entirely different manner than if you have people on your list who haven't bought from YOU yet.

    we dont have enough info to know whether the OP appropriately labeled the people on his list freebie seekers or if he just gave them that label because they didn't buy what he wanted them to buy.

    after a little more thought, i am more inclined to believe that is the case rather than the fact that he has built a list of true freebie seekers, but who knows.

    and i also agree. i doubt if you have enough data to be statistically relevant anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author TakenAction
    I didn't want to post but couldn't help myself. What you are saying is moronic.

    Here are a couple reasons why you have failed:

    1) Nothing is wrong with freebie seekers. As long as you have a system in place for converting them into buyers and then hyperactive buyers. Give them an offer $10 or less that is perceived as a minimal risk for them and if they purchase that, they will be x8-x12 more likely to purchase from you again at higher prices.

    2) You conditioned your list to only receive free information and not do anything in return (AKA buy from you). I'm all for giving immense value (free and paid) to my list but I'm also all for making money... You spent 2 months giving free info only w/o pitching any offers and you conditioned your list to only receive and not give.

    3) Just based on what I have read from you it seems like you have no idea to really build a relationship and value. I bet the value you have given them has been crap, honestly. If you give them re-hashed plain content for free why would they want to pay you for content? They wouldn't.

    Those are three major reasons why you have failed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.
    Where did the people on your list come from? Not all "freebie seekers" are the same. Different traffic sources produce different levels of quality.
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  • Profile picture of the author inas911
    I use trafficwave.net autoresponder. It does not even analyse to me if any one is even opening my emails. I just kept posting and posting. Is trafficwave.net really good for me? I just dont know what to do with this list.
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    • Profile picture of the author Smeltzer
      Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

      I use trafficwave.net autoresponder. It does not even analyse to me if any one is even opening my emails. I just kept posting and posting. Is trafficwave.net really good for me? I just dont know what to do with this list.
      Use GR or Aweber they work well with Jvzoo and add your buyers to your list on autopilot. JVzoo has a special with GR I believe you might want to check that out and I believe they still have free accounts up to so many subscribers which is great for testing purposes.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    There most certainly is money in the list, just not yours apparently and for many reasons as others have outlined above.

    Maybe you should keep doing what you're doing for another 4 months and tell us how that works out lol

    All seriousness though...

    Depending on the niche, you can make lots of money with "freebie seekers."

    Plus you need to pump up the volume on your list getting activities and focus on monetizing from day 1.

    Or scrap it all together and try direct linking with paid ads like you mentioned. Just don't let 4 months to go by before you get enough results to make any determination on your efforts' effectiveness.
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    • Profile picture of the author inas911
      Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

      Depending on the niche, you can make lots of money with "freebie seekers."
      Am on the MMO Niche
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      • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
        Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

        Am on the MMO Niche
        It can be done, you just need to ramp up your efforts by at least 10x and monetize right away.

        Just think about what's going on.

        300 leads over the spam of 4 months.

        Your open rates at their peak were probably 20%ish.

        20% of 300 leads is 60 openers.

        Depending on your copywriting skills, your CTR (click thru rate) is anywhere from 10-50% of clicks to openers.

        So now we're looking at 6-30 people actually clicking on the link in your email.

        Judging by your lack of results, you probably lack any sufficient copywriting skills and should start studying it now. (scroll past all the bs on this site and read the "Boron Letters" - and everything else on this page that isn't for sale - Halbert Newsletter Archives )

        You're lucky if you're getting 5-10 clicks per email you send.

        In the make money space, your subscribers attention span is shorter than most other niches because they are being pulled in so many directions and may the best marketer win.

        Also the service you're using doesnt offer open rate and click-thru rate tracking - and you obviously aren't tracking links on your own with a 3rd party service. You should make sure to start that right now too.

        Get more leads faster, learn some copywriting basics, monetize from day one, and you will have a better shot at making money from your list - even if they are freebie seekers.
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidAllenNeron
    I really hope you're building a list of "buyers" from the traffic you're spending money on.

    It's always great to have a freebie list, because you never know when one of them might bite on one of your offers, and it's great to get the word out.

    But focus your energy on building a list of "buyers" and segregate them and market to them differently.

    A list is useless unless you have something the people on your list want.
    a list is useless unless you know how to engage them.
    a list is useless unless you treat the people on your list as people and not just a number or potential dollar signs.

    engage your "freebie" list and find out what they want (even if it is for free) it's about starting a dialogue with them and engaging them.
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    • Profile picture of the author inas911
      Originally Posted by DavidAllenNeron View Post

      engage your "freebie" list and find out what they want (even if it is for free) it's about starting a dialogue with them and engaging them.
      I have done that for the past 2 months..Yet no sales. My investment on Autoresponder keeps waisting
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    • Profile picture of the author zafar
      How about trying CPA offers with the list ? they convert well with free be seekers because they don't have to buy anything
      Zafar
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  • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
    OP, your join date says 2009. If after 6 YEARS all you've managed to do is put together a list of 300 freebie seekers, then you're right: there's not ever gonna be money in the list FOR YOU.

    Sorry, but email marketing is clearly not your strength
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  • Profile picture of the author Erick Griffin
    Keep this in mind your goal is not just to build a list but build a list of buyers. Read and reread what JoelRaitt said then read it again.

    Sell to your list keep the buyers in one list and everybody else in another. Your buyers are GOLD. No adswaps no clickbanking take care of them but, sell to them as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
      Originally Posted by Erick Griffin View Post

      Keep this in mind your goal is not just to build a list but build a list of buyers. Read and reread what JoelRaitt said then read it again.

      Sell to your list keep the buyers in one list and everybody else in another. Your buyers are GOLD. No adswaps no clickbanking take care of them but, sell to them as well.
      Just don't wait until this happens. Plenty of money can be made from freebie seekers once you improve your skills.

      In fact, if you never added a single buyer to your list, you can still make money. Just will take more leads.

      Regardless of the lead type, figure out how to monetize, then scale up.
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  • Profile picture of the author extrememan
    It may not be the value your giving to your subscribers but taking a close look at your sales funnel. At the end of the day it's all about tweaking and testing and reviewing your results. Don't give in. Keep going and working at it. It will pay off in the end.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months. I have taken over 2 month sending them quality content information on a daily basis and now i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.

    Am thinking of laying of the list and concentrating on other forms of paid ads.

    I hear people say.. Money is in the list, i wonder how they do that. But as for me..
    There is no money in the list.
    I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that chances are the problem is with the subscribers you have aquired. Freebie subscribers aren't the typical people who you should target to make sales from , unless your product is geared towards them.

    Also trying something once and declaring that there is no way to have success with it is a little ludacris, not all campaigns or lists will be winners. Nor can you expect each email blast to make you money. Chalk this one up to a lesson learned and move on and try again.
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  • Profile picture of the author hilear
    Do your self a favor, if you are spending on an autoresponder invest in one with some analytics. There are a lot of them that can start to give you some insight to your list. Just seeing how many people open your email is of great value. Start testing subject lines to see how they react. If you have a good open rate but no one is buying maybe it is your copy. Maybe it is the product.

    For freebies I would make the entry level to buyer a low one, another free offer with a low back end product or send them a $1 offer. Make that first step a small one.
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  • Profile picture of the author jfalxr
    Most freebies subscribers are not action takers and you're keeping them for 4 months, there's a big chance some of them even not aware they are on your list.. It all depends on the quality of the traffic you are using.

    This is just the same happened to me around a year ago. I would say being a good marketer with this type of list do need some time (In most cases took even years), but keep going. You just need to find out what they want and need.

    You can also try what Hilear said. Just fix your sales funnel for a while and offer them a $1 offers. Most people think it is crazy and I was thinking just about the same but not after I tried it and been successful to get my first buyer list

    You can also try to monetize them using some PPL/CPA program first.

    Here's my little suggestion:
    Offer just 1 product with $1 offer and follow-up promoting it with your autoresponder emails for 5-7 days. I was once doing it for 14 days (Yes, 2 weeks only promoting one product with $1 offer to my list)

    Good luck

    Best,
    Jeffry
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      An email which markets a paid-for product wont shine prominently as a feature if you've been bombarding Your subs with emails every day.

      Tone down.

      Quality over quantity.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    Imagine what would happen if you advertised that same facebook traffic to a squeeze page where you grabbed the email first, then sold a product.

    Let's also say that you had a gang of really good followups in place, all with affiliate links, that sold for you.

    Think you'd make more money? Yes.
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  • Profile picture of the author gmmuser
    Hey There ins911,

    I feel your pain buddy. It's a tough racket and typically learned through the school of hard knocks. Look, there's money in the list but the list has to be a responsive list.

    So take a step back here and think about why these freebie seekers joined your list in the first place? They were obviously interested in what you had to offer or they wouldn't have signed up, right?
    Now, how can these freebie seekers best utilize the freebie they received? What is special about it?
    If I picked this up and wanted to get the most out of it, what would I need to do?

    This is the information that you need to be conveying to your audience/freebie seekers. Do the best possible job you can in providing them with information on how they will benefit now that they have this marvelous whatever. Tell them how it benefited you and your favorite part of it. Put a few emails together that get them up to speed on this freebie and put that in your autoresponder.

    Now, is there a companion product that enhances this freebie that you can make available at a low price? If so, start talking about after the 2nd email. You can still include info with regard to the freebie but if they want to get the most out of it they need the companion product.

    Once they buy from you then you have a customer for life. Until then, they are a freebie seeker. They will warm up to you when you provide them with information they can put to good use. Get excited about it! You need to make them feel good about the fact they got involved with you! You're in this for the long haul, 300 on your list is nothing, stop focusing on that crap and figure out how you're going to create the best possible experience for your customers and prospects.

    Help others get what it is that they want and you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams! (Dr. Robert Anthony)

    Best of luck,
    Gary Miller
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  • Profile picture of the author GlenH
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months. I have taken over 2 month sending them quality content information on a daily basis and now i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.

    Am thinking of laying of the list and concentrating on other forms of paid ads.

    I hear people say.. Money is in the list, i wonder how they do that. But as for me..
    There is no money in the list.

    Your list is all full of freebie seekers, so don't expect them to pay for any offer you might send them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    Your list is really not that big, it's only 300 so you shouldn't expect much from this. Try growing it, try going for 1,000 subscribers, then aim for the next thousand and so on!
    The fact that they subscribed for a freebie is part of the reason you're not making any sales. It's a good strategy to get people to sign up, but maybe you should reconsider your offer if you want to convince them to buy something from you, instead of receiving stuff for free.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Originally Posted by inas911 View Post

    I have a subscriber list of over 300 freebie subscribers i have been maintaining for the past 4 months. I have taken over 2 month sending them quality content information on a daily basis and now i decided to pitch them 1 week ago with my product.. Amazingly not even 1 sale was made. I spend $$ monthly re-subscribing my autoresponder, yet no sale. Just 1 week ago, i went for Facebook ads.. I have sold 4 copies of same ebook i spend my time trying to sell to my subscribers list.

    Am thinking of laying of the list and concentrating on other forms of paid ads.

    I hear people say.. Money is in the list, i wonder how they do that. But as for me..
    There is no money in the list.
    I personally think you waited too long before you pitched them. I start from Day 1 and have a great mixture of value free content with a PS aff link at bottom if they want to take their learning in more depth.


    I still wouldn't just give up because 300 is such a small amount.

    Give it more time.


    - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author webproishere
    1) The list not big enough
    2) Open rate is the problem for EVERYONE. Not getting read or winding up in the spam folder
    3) Delivery problems. Are you sure all the emails are sent out ?

    Right now, there's lots of hypes about creating a list.
    Of course it is still working, but there's lots of people mailing so...
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