What is the coolest list building method you've ever seen?

by Michael Worthington

Posted: 15 years ago 19 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

A few days ago I was thinking about days gone by and
for some reason remembered that Paul Myers used to
have a site that featured a web based app where you
fill in the blanks and it spit out product recommendations
based on your input.

Naturally, you had to fill in your name and email address
because your results were emailed to you.

The beauty of the whole thing is that you weren't being
bribed to join a list; rather Paul was providing a valuable
service and entering your name and email address was
perfectly natural.

Back then I didn't think much about it, but now that I'm
older and a little more experienced in marketing and list
building, I thought; "Damn, that was the coolest list building
tool I've ever seen!"

I was just wondering what other really cool list building
methods or tools you guys have seen.

Michael

#building #coolest #list #method

CurtisN 15 years ago

On Dragon's Den Canada, someone brought in an idea which involved them selling a picture booth to hospitals so that they could install them in the maternity ward. Upon taking the newborn's pictures, the parents would then enter their details into the machine to have the pictures emailed to them.
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- David_Thompson 15 years ago
  
  I think I remember that site you're talking about Michael
  it's an old one and didn't Paul change things around awhile
  back....
  
  I see some salespages doing that asking if you're man or woman
  and giving different page base on gender...pretty cool
  
  --David
  
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Michael Worthington

15 years ago

Good one , Curtis!

Thanks,

Michael

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Jonathan Heusman

15 years ago

One of the coolest list building ideas I have ever heard is that one guy would go and get the bottom of his shoes printed with his webpage / squeeze page on his soles and walk around anywhere that he would leave tracks. This would work especially well when it was snowing or up in the mountains. Anyone who could read it would undoubtedly remember what they saw in the snow and decide to check it out.

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Lance K

15 years ago

I'd wager that you would never make enough to pay for the custom shoe printing.

It's definitely quirky and outside the box, but this method is flawed on a number of levels.

You're assuming that everyone is your target market
You're assuming that the shoes will leave an even and legible imprint
You're assuming that people will notice
You're assuming that some of those that do notice will become curious enough to try to remember the url
You're assuming that thosw who do remember the url won't forget to check it out when they get home
etc, etc, etc.

Originally Posted by Jonathan Heusman

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"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
~ Zig Ziglar

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David_Thompson 15 years ago

Michael with so many disposable email accounts
available today listbuilding is much harder for
some people...I still think content is king but you
have to know what they want and then offer it
to them...

People are motivated by different reasons and
that's I why I still use adswaps as a form of
building my list and creating good relationship
with list owners...Anyone wants to adswap just PM...

Just had to get that in there guys...

--David
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JAIDEEP2959

15 years ago

Participating in JV Giveaway events.

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Paul Myers

15 years ago

Michael,

I may have to resurrect that, now that you ask about it. But with a script that isn't easily exploited.

That took me three days, maybe, to write and set up. Worked for YEARS. I still get people writing me complaining because they found a link to it somewhere and wanted the info.

One of the best I've seen is Scott Stratten's "Time" movie, at:

::WWW.SCOTTSTRATTEN.COM::

Once he got the opt-in system down, he built a list of over 250,000 confirmed subscribers with that critter.

Paul

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Michael Worthington

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Michael,

One of the best I've seen is Scott Stratten's "Time" movie, at:

::WWW.SCOTTSTRATTEN.COM::

Once he got the opt-in system down, he built a list of over 250,000 confirmed subscribers with that critter.

Paul

Thanks Paul. That one ranks right up there with
Morgan Westerman's www.TheInterviewwithGod.com

Morgan told me at a seminar way back in 2006
that he'd had over 50 MILLION visitors to that site
then. No telling how many more has been through
there since.

Michael

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David_Thompson 15 years ago

Paul, that's a great video I've seen a couple time
I remember Scott mentioning about the huge list
he built doing it...

Amazing...

--David
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- Paul Myers 15 years ago
  
  David,
  
  He was almost ready to dump it. He was sooo close... A great example of how tweaking can change everything.
  
  http://www.talkbiz.com/ViralReport.pdf
  
  Paul
  
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  Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.
  
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  David_Thompson 15 years ago
  
  Paul that video sparked a whole new trend
  in the IM field, it seems everyone and his
  guru was jumping on the bandwagon trying
  Scotts video optin strategy...
  
  Minor changes big results...thanks for the pdf
  
  --David
  
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  Paul Myers 15 years ago
  
  David,
  
  that video sparked a whole new trend in the IM field,
  
  It really did. Scott's got a complete business based on that one. He leveraged it brilliantly. And he found a model that's evergreen, and expanded on it.
  
  Smart man. And a really nice human being on top of it.
  
  Paul
  
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  .
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  Lance K 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Paul Myers
  
  Smart man.
  
  Agreed. That "I deserve more" submit button is brilliant!
  
  Very cool video. Thanks for sharing.
  
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  "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
  ~ Zig Ziglar
  
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  Lance K 15 years ago
  
  Robert Plank has it set up on his blog so that when people leave a comment there are 2 check boxes...
  
  1) Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
  
  2) Subscribe to blog updates, news and more?
  
  #2 is checked by default. Another brilliant idea. It would be interesting to see what the verification rate is. But a great idea none the less.
  
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  "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
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vbkid 15 years ago

Hey,

One cool method that I used was on a street corner of New York City last year....

Basically I gave away Hot Chocolate and Coffee in return for mailing information.

My plan was to sell a specialized Chocolate that a friend in Culinary school made.

We never got to the selling part, but over a weekend we collected 500 names.
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- 4morereferrals 15 years ago
  
  A photographer took "sittings" shots, where the parents come in and they take a zillion shots of their kids. Well then she posts up the parents favorite picture of their kid. The parents then get to virally invite their friends to come VOTE for the cutest kid of the lot of 12 or so.
  
  The parents / kid that gets the most votes - wins a free shoot valued at like $750!!!
  
  I had my whole email address book out telling people to vote for my sisters kids! She's got a big addy list too - I imagine that went bezerk for this photog. She could do it once a month too!!!
  
  -----------------------------------
  
  I want to create a Blog Comment contest plug in ...
  
  Something where the commenter can post a comment on my blog [a referral idea], then send a vial inviter type message to their friends - likely in the same niche - to come back and VOTE for their comment on my blog.
  
  The one with the most votes - wins the contest ...
  
  Ive seen popularity contest plug in - not what Im after and dont think it would have the same effect.
  
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vbkid 15 years ago

Hey Steve,

That Blog Comment idea really isn't that hard to make... with a simple Viral Friend Script you can install it in the php code of comments, so that normally a user will see...

"your comment is awaiting moderation"

Now they will see the friend module.
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- 4morereferrals 15 years ago
  
  Sorry - not meaning to thread-jack ...
  
  vbkid - the viral invite piece is not the issue ... its the bringing them back to the right URL, and a VOTE for this POST piece of code. Where are the votes tracked? Displayed after they vote etc ....
  
  The current Popularity contest plug in measures views, clicks or some other such thing - I want them to have to click a VOTE option, and oh by the way - must be registered with the blog - or submit name and email to VOTE for your friend.
  
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What is the coolest list building method you've ever seen?

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