Truth About Having a Big List!!!

I both have an manage very large lists somewhere in 100k+ range collectively in IM.

The big thing to note. It's not profitable at all unless you monetize it with followup emails, great bonus offers, or even offers right after signup.

Big lists help, but it's also about what you're saying and who's paying attention. Don't worry about scaring off subscribers because it will happen. People unsub for all kinds of reasons and you just have to keep pushing forward with what you believe in, and where you want your business to go.

I don't have a huge list, but I wanted to comment that I don't think it matters how big your list is. It's more about quality than quantity. I started off on the wrong foot and was doing a bunch of ad swaps and just trying to build a big list when I realized that I'm not really caring about my subscribers and their best interest.

Once I changed my outlook and realized (duh) these are people looking for something then things changed around for me. So now I don't care about a big list...I only care that I'm helping someone reach their goal!!

I could not agree more with you Ross, I am an advocator that to build a big list you must offer them quality not quantity.

Whatever you do, never just purely sell products to your list, as that will annoy them and they will certainly unsubscribe quicker. However, you will get unsubs anyway, as some people just wish too.

Just build your list steadily, and offer great value, and the money will come eventually.

Lists are more about quality than quantity.

If you've got a list of a few thousand buyers in one of the evergreen niches, you can live like a king for years.

You just need to add a few hundred buyers occasionally to keep the conversion rate intact when you promote anything.

One of the quickest ways to get a responsive list which produces loads of orders, is to get other people's buyers onto your subscriber list.

There are many small business owners (especially of physical products) who've got no idea how valuable their customer list is.

All you've got to do, is offer these people a little money and ask them to e-mail their customer list promoting your squeeze page, so their buyers end up on your subscriber list.

Bingo ... you've got a few hundred or a few thousand people on your subscriber list, which contains proven buyers.

A product I created and helped launched was mailed to a small list. Over the weekend it fetched over $2,000.00

I really appreciate the comments and feedback...

In addition to what everyone else has said, it is also a great idea to differentiate between the buyers and non-buyers on the list.

You are going to have people join your list who are never going to buy a thing. No matter how much you market to them, build your credibility to them, and no matter how good of a deal you offer to them...they just will not buy from you. These people may not even shop online at all. This can be especially true if you get subscribers by giving away something free (however, that's no reason not to say giving away something free is a bad method.)

When you market to your list, make sure to organize the contacts who buy and keep them separate from the ones who will not buy. Eventually, you can get to the point that you will create different offers for the subscribers who have bought and who have not.

Doing this will also help you to better analyze how well the methods work that you use to build your list. You may find some methods get you more buying subscribers than do other methods.

It's not the size of the list but how well you engage them. You need
an ongoing conversation with you subscribers, talking about things
that they care about, and showing that you really are in their
corner.

Focus on building a list of buyers... people who want what you are
selling, can afford it, and are willing to pay for it.

Willie

a great list is like a wonderful wife; show it love, take care of its needs, offer valuable information, treat it with respect, and they'll grow in numbers and loyalty.....

but that's not to say if you treat your wife this way you can have more wives...at least in some cultures.

I would suggest giving something away for free such as valuable information, pdf, and tools. Once you have gained trust (probably would take several emails), then you can start promoting offers to them. But it also depends on how targeted is your list. You need to provide the right offer to the right list.

Done properly, building a list and emailing them is very profitable. Remember the money is in the list.

One of the reasons Groupon became a billion dollar company so fast was becouse of their email list.

The RULE is engagement, engagement, and engagement. You cant go any wrong than that.

I have a fairly large list myself. I harness the full use of auto responders to gain the trust of my users.

When a user signs up they are signing up from a free product. I then send them another free product along the same niche the week after, then the week after that.
I also encourage them to email me back with any questions they have. (Make sure you know the product and system you are giving away for free).

I have fluctuated from small list to huge list then trimmed it out from there (have subscribers opt to new lists that sell different niches). I have been very successful with this technique.

The key is paying attention to your subscribers and knowing what they want.

JV and network with those who already have big lists. Or hit up the biz opp section on SRDs and mail the freshest hottest buyers, don't forget to seed that son of gun too.

Absolutely!

What most people dont know is that the dude who are KILLING IT online, usually have really big lists. These are the guys you see on leaderboards.

As for myself, I dont have a "gigantic" list yet, but every time I broadcast, I am able to generate a few hundred dollars. And that is only growing each and every month as I add hundreds of new subscribers.

So yes, its the real deal AND, if you treat your list with lots of value, like I do mine, then you will be able to reap some serious rewards.

Like everyone has mentioned, its all about the relationship that you have with your list. I know a few folks who a list of 500. Now to some people thats nothing and they can pull those subscribers with one solo ad. But these guys don't realize you need to build a relationship with your subscribers.

My list just broke 5,000, and it makes me anywhere from $4-$5k per month. A lot of that comes from a really high converting one time offer that subscribers see right after sign up. I also send out an email every day and those result in some good sales. Now, some would say that's too many emails, but it works for me. As far as size, the $1 per month per lead is holding true for me.