Is a mailing list essential?

Would you rather sell to a person once or over and over again? If it's once, then no, you don't need a list. If yes, then yes you need a list.

I think you answered part of your question when you said: "The reason for my short time on lists is because they do not provide me with any value, most are little more than "buy this, buy that". This isn't how a list should be run (although I'm sure there are people who run their lists that way and make money).

If you're continually providing genuine value to your subscribers, they have little reason to unsubscribe.

I don't have stats on conversions, but some niches where lists have been successful are "making money online", weight loss, dating/seduction/relationship advice, health and fitness, forex trading, just to name a few. Basically the only niches that don't lend themselves to having a subscriber list are ones that don't lend themselves to follow up promotions. For example, if your main product cures headaches (assuming it works), then the person is cured after they buy it and so they have no more need for your product. There might even be ways around that if you get creative.

A good way to determine if a niche lends itself to list building is by asking whether or not the prospects in that list would benefit from followup support or instruction.

A list allows you to market over and over again to your target market. If you don't have a list then you are just basically making one shot sales and you are always having to find new customers. If you don't have a list IMO, you are leaving big money on the table.

Its easier to sell to someone that has already bought from you than to have to constantly find new customers.

The key to a good list is to offer VALUABLE CONTENT and not plug all the time. People will unsubscribe to your list very quickly if they are being sold to constantly. If you offer them valuable content time and time again, then they will say, "if he is giving away this, I wonder how valuable his products are."

I have an Internet Marketing list of over 1,200 subscribers. My emails are almost exclusively tips on making the business profitable. Once in a while I remind them of a service I have. They are happy and they return the favor by buying from me. This is MUCH more profitable than trying to acquire a customer over and over in a drive-by fashion.

TomG.

Yes as the age old saying goes "money is in the list!"
If you don't have a list, no one will want to JV with you.

One of my lists of more than 7,000 people has subscribers who have been with me since 2002. They must like the content (or they aren't really paying attention).

But I do love my lists.

It's not at all uncommon for me to broadcast an offer to the list and have people ordering within minutes.

Of course, it depends on the offer and how well I wrote my copy.

It's not essential, but it sure makes things a heck of a lot easier.

Learn from Godaddy. It's milling list, I think, works best for its business. Godaddy may be annoying sometimes with its constant barrage of offers, but more often than not, customers need to be reminded of the existence of your business.

Think of it this way.

I have a list of about 40,000 subscribers. I write an email promoting a product every 2 or 3 days. Each one makes me at least $1,000.

I don't even write most of the emails.

All I do is sit back, and wait for the fat clickbank deposits to hit my account.

The best part?

All I did to create it, was make a squeeze page here and there, and add a little box to my websites that were already getting traffic.

If you ask me, NO, a mailing list is NOT essential.

Unless you want some of the DOWNRIGHT EASIEST MONEY OF YOUR LIFE.

Given how easy it is to build, maintain, and profit from, there are many more reasons for list building, than against it.

A close friend from my local area was making about $100,000 (give or take 15,000) yearly for the last two or three years, selling designer sunglasses on ebay.

He never collected email addresses from buyers or interested customers.

I showed him a quick and painless way to do so. I didn't expect too much really, maybe an extra sale here and there.

He used that list to simply tell his past customers when he had overstocked sunglasses, and when he was running any kind of specials.

He's looking at $180,000+ this year, and he started that list back in march.

kazakhan,

Whenever this guy purchased or not and EVEN IF you KNOW from scratch that he won't buy more than once,
you should try to collect his data.
The reason: He may purchase sometime from you. Only once, only in the future.
But he is still a prospect.

And prospects might never come again if don't use a list.

Good luck,
Ethan

P.S
Unless the product is a coffin for self usage only, they may purchase more from you when their time comes...

A mailing list or a subscriber's list is one where you know that the people on that list are definitely interested in your product/service...
So, a mailing list may be reaching out to people who you know would be interested in your product/service...
I have seen not many people unsubscribe if you are not just posting stuff that would advocate your service/product.
Also, a mailing list is a ready reference for your market research and evaluation of your product acceptance.
So, this is a valuable thing to have!

It all depends on what the business is and what the customer expects from being on that list.

I think there are some who abuse their list. How many times have you bought some IM product and put your name on the "update" list only to be bombarded by other products which have nothing to do with an update of the product you bought?

A list is not essential but it is nice to have - depending on your niche.

If people are on a your newsletter list, then they are expecting something different than someone who is on a "update" list.

It is easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you before. When revenue is down in a particular store, I'll send out a "preferred customer" coupon to entice previous buyers to come back and spend their money. It always works but I can't abuse it.

I think providing material in a membership site is better than a list. Email is becoming less and less effective. Its too easy to delete and unsubscribe.
With a membership site, they will still get an email when you do an update but they can log in and read it when they have time. Besides you can format your information in a more easy to read layout in a membership site. Personally I hate reading long emails

People get so much email that they rarely go back to read something later. I know I don't. If I don't read it then it gets shuffled to the bottom of the stack or deleted.

Put content in a membership site. Send announcements by email

Would would you rather have $20,000 in the bank. Or a system for making $25.000??

What I found was even if you do build a list for the sake of promoting to them in the future, the fact that you can load up a series of emails (a mini 7 day course or whatever) gives them multiple chancesto see the original offer you were promoting. For example, I have one site where I know that once they have bought my product, there's no real need to come back to buy more stuff, but just by adding the autoresponder sequence nearlly trippled my sales for that product.

Phil