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List Building Advice, Please!

by BackLinkiT
13 replies
Let's say I have (what I think is) a highly relevant, uptodate and unique stategy/product in the IM field that I am prepared to give away.

I use optimisepress and produce a slick optin page, perhaps even with a video (am thinking about investing in Camtasia)...the product will be a pdf and perhaps also video too if I do buy Camtasia.

How large a list could I build using solo ads with a budget of $1000 per month for say, 6 months...?

Alternatively, I am thinking I should wait until I have my OTO in place too? Perhaps a sales funnel giving away a free short report in return for an optin then have the report referred to above as an OTO for $9 with one further more comprehensive upsell at say $47.

Would there be mileage in offering 100% commissions to affiliates too?

I would like to settle on my stategy and would welcome any thoughts, please.

Regards to all,

Peter
#advice #building #list
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    Why in the world is everyone so wrapped up in "How long will it take to____________?"
    What you should be more concerned with is getting this all setup and begin testing it. There is nothing any expert can tell you "off the cuff" that would be remotely accurate and if they are worth anything they will tell you exactly that.

    Experts are not psychic... The difference is experts "do it"! They do the work, get the thing going, pay attention to their metrics and adjust their marketing according to the results.

    What you need to do is get the thing going and test it. Keeping track of your results as you go and always strive to improve them little by little. That's marketing! It also wouldn't hurt to have some goals to work towards... For example what is the goal of your landing page? What message do you want to convey? What problems or objections are you addressing?
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    • Profile picture of the author BackLinkiT
      Thanks for that, Mike, and whilst I didn't actually ask the how long question, you are, of course right. Get going and test it!

      I was hoping for some thoughts on the sales funnel I had in mind or whether the free option might be better. Also for thoughts on offering 100% commissions?

      I guess what I was also asking is whether $1000 would be regarded as a large or small budget for solo ads?

      I am not in any rush BTW!

      Kind regards,

      Peter
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
        Originally Posted by BackLinkiT View Post

        Thanks for that, Mike, and whilst I didn't actually ask the how long question, you are, of course right. Get going and test it!

        I was hoping for some thoughts on the sales funnel I had in mind or whether the free option might be better. Also for thoughts on offering 100% commissions?

        I guess what I was also asking is whether $1000 would be regarded as a large or small budget for solo ads?

        I am not in any rush BTW!

        Kind regards,

        Peter


        With regards to the sales funnel if you want to offer 100% on the front end then your main focus is building a list of buyers. Your secondary focus may be selling them on the upsell or backend or both.

        Ensure you test your autoresponder emails as well.

        With $1,000 for solo ads, if you test, track and adjust then it can be self sustaining. The money you make from that can be used to scale up slowly... Eventually leading you to bigger traffic purchases such as direct Media Buys.

        Personally I would create a list of all the places I can buy advertising from which includes solo ads, banner ads, etc. and one at a time test them all. Start small with the sampling pool until your pages are converting to put you in the plus.
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        • Profile picture of the author BackLinkiT
          Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post

          With regards to the sales funnel if you want to offer 100% on the front end then your main focus is building a list of buyers. Your secondary focus may be selling them on the upsell or backend or both.

          Ensure you test your autoresponder emails as well.

          With $1,000 for solo ads, if you test, track and adjust then it can be self sustaining. The money you make from that can be used to scale up slowly... Eventually leading you to bigger traffic purchases such as direct Media Buys.

          Personally I would create a list of all the places I can buy advertising from which includes solo ads, banner ads, etc. and one at a time test them all. Start small with the sampling pool until your pages are converting to put you in the plus.
          More good advice, thanks, Mike!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    PS. A simple sale funnel might look like this:

    A. Free Offer -----> B. 100% Commissioned Offer -----> C. Upsell -----> D. "Sell" The Opt-In ----->
    E.     Answer Objections -----> F. Backend Offer

    In the above you will have to keep in mind how you will salvage the Exit traffic to put most of them on your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dann Vicker
    And just to add a little more, your listbuilding efforts should be complemented with product creation, networking and relationship building with other marketers. It's more difficult when you want to go solo with just building a list. So have a properly optimized funnel for your leads. This way, you'd achieve results much faster.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
      Originally Posted by Dann Vicker View Post

      And just to add a little more, your listbuilding efforts should be complemented with product creation, networking and relationship building with other marketers. It's more difficult when you want to go solo with just building a list. So have a properly optimized funnel for your leads. This way, you'd achieve results much faster.
      Very true... It took me years to figure that out! Good advice Dann, us Canadians are pretty dam smart
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      • Profile picture of the author BackLinkiT
        The more I delve into this, the more I come to understand it's not just a matter of 'build a list and throw emails at it'. There really is an art to it, isn't there! In fact it seems to be both an art and a science at the same time...

        Product creation will be within my comfort zone though, mercifully.

        Thanks for your guidance, chaps!

        Peter
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  • Profile picture of the author Tech19
    Ok well since you at least gave us a little direction you can do some very rough estimates. Your average quality solo ad is going to cost you around $100 for 250 clicks. Lets say your squeeze page is converting at around 35%. Hopefully you can get much better, but we will go with that. With that budget you can expect around 875 leads per month. Before you go into it, you should have a good idea of how well you need your back end or up-sells to convert to remain profitable.

    After your first couple ads you should be able to estimate your EPC and how well your back end or up-sells are converting. Identify the areas that are causing you problems, test and optimize and keep moving. Again, based on your budget and what your goals are these numbers can be adjusted. It's good to have a plan though and decide exactly what you want your customers to do as they enter your sales funnel.
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    • Profile picture of the author Davy44
      Originally Posted by Tech19 View Post

      Ok well since you at least gave us a little direction you can do some very rough estimates. Your average quality solo ad is going to cost you around $100 for 250 clicks. Lets say your squeeze page is converting at around 35%. Hopefully you can get much better, but we will go with that. With that budget you can expect around 875 leads per month. Before you go into it, you should have a good idea of how well you need your back end or up-sells to convert to remain profitable.

      After your first couple ads you should be able to estimate your EPC and how well your back end or up-sells are converting. Identify the areas that are causing you problems, test and optimize and keep moving. Again, based on your budget and what your goals are these numbers can be adjusted. It's good to have a plan though and decide exactly what you want your customers to do as they enter your sales funnel.
      Can you explain what back end, up sells, front end, ... mean?

      Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Patrick
    Also, while I realize your question focused on solo ads, don't limit yourself there if you have (or have the ability to create) your own products. Solo ads are fine, of course, but you've got to try all kinds of different traffic sources, try them again, and once you have established which ones are profitable for you, keep using them. There's a reason why people whose products don't lend themselves to solo ads/swaps are often able to make large amounts of money anyway - it's because there are so many other good ways to bring attention to your offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    Assuming that CPC is $0.35, with $1000 you can expect around 3000 visitors. If your conversion rate is 40% then you can expect 1000+ opt-ins. A subscriber is said to be worth $1 per month, so 1000 subscribers can potentially give you a $1000/month income. Not bad for a start. You can always re-invest the profits to buy more solo ads and build your list bigger and bigger.
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    Marcus Lim
    Silver Bullet Publishing

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  • Profile picture of the author Tech19
    When someone enters their email to join your list you send them to a thank you page that includes a one time offer for $7-27 or so. That would be your front end offer. If they choose to purchase that offer you can then pitch something at $47, this would be your upsell. Back end sales would be anything that your subscribers purchase through your follow-up sequence in your autoresponder.
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