Guru Asked Me If I Wanted To Buy His Email List..

[Vtoy]

So.. An interesting thing happened to me today. A friend of mine on Skype (someone I've had as a contact for a long time) asked me if I wanted to buy his entire email list..

We got to talking and he told me it was all of his customers emails he's accumulated through all his product launches and career while he was making money online.

The number came up to 30,000. (make money online niche)

I checked out the products in his portfolio and a lot of them were ClickBank top sellers. I asked him why and his simple response was "ive been doing this for way to long and im tired of the game" and that he had other business plans in the offline world. So he asked me if I wanted to buy his email list and promised to not sell it or give it away to anyone else..

What do you think a fair price would be for something like this?

[joseph7384]

I personally would not buy his list for two reasons.

1. If he had a list of proven buyers then why would he be selling it.
2. His subscribers don't know you and would soon start opting out.

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Vtoy

What do you think a fair price would be for something like this?

How much did he ask for?

How responsive is the list?

How old are the customer leads?

Are his past top sellers evergreen products? Would he include them in the sale?

Etc.

Too many missing details to determine what a fair price would be.

[onSubie]

Wow, nice.

A transaction like this is usually based on the income of the business. How much can he document the list is worth?

I have read in various marketing discussions that a list member is worth about $1. So you could monetize a list of 1,000 emails to a reliable $1,000 per month. I don't know if that benchmark changes as the numbers grow- or even if it is a benchmark.

Does he have a responsive list that trusts him and returns $34,000 a month? Or does he have a huge diluted not-so-responsive list that only returns $9,000 a month?

He should have stats to back up income from his records.

Then it would be a matter of determining how many months x revenue you were willing to pay.

Edit: I am assuming you get the list as a business not just the emails so it would still be xyz marketing list, just with a different owner. If you are only getting the list of addresses then it is a much different thing as Joseph stated.

Mahlon

[fin]

I'd ask him if you can send out a free email blast and see how much profit you make.

[sanjon]

If he has a highly responsive buyer list, I believe he will not sell it.
if he wants to move offline, he can still promote the products sold here!!


Even if he is not doing anything and his GF says- Honey, we need to pay the bills!!

Then he can just blast out an email and earn commissions and every month'S bills if his list is that Good!!

Lol

[KeithSneed]

As others have said, I don't see this being a list worth buying. People that have money making lists don't really give them up... I know I wouldn't.

If it turns out he really does want to sell a money making list, ask him for a test email to see how it converts.

[asiancasanova]

If its all legit, sounds like it would be ridiculously expensive, unless you have the capital already.

[Aashish Poonia]

Originally Posted by Vtoy

So.. An interesting thing happened to me today. A friend of mine on Skype (someone I've had as a contact for a long time) asked me if I wanted to buy his entire email list..

We got to talking and he told me it was all of his customers emails he's accumulated through all his product launches and career while he was making money online.

The number came up to 30,000. (make money online niche)

I checked out the products in his portfolio and a lot of them were ClickBank top sellers. I asked him why and his simple response was "ive been doing this for way to long and im tired of the game" and that he had other business plans in the offline world. So he asked me if I wanted to buy his email list and promised to not sell it or give it away to anyone else..

What do you think a fair price would be for something like this?

It Take month and years to form that much Huge list,I have never sold this type of list If I had it.
Let me Put myself to the OP's place.
I have a list of 30,000 subs. Why would I sell it?
1.If I'm going to die and want urgent money(LoL)
2.iF THE LIST ISN'T RESPONSIVE .
You can check it yourself just ask the OP to Blast an email about any of your product in his list and see the profits.
Hope It Helps
David

[Vtoy]

He's told me that in his last email blast, which was around a month ago, he got approx. 3000 opens, 2200 clicks. That's out of 30,000.. The list apparently is 2-4 years old but at the same time recent. There's definitely dead emails in there but he also told me that this wasn't his personal list, just the list of emails of the people that bought his products over the years.

All of them are in the make money online niche btw. He never gave me a price but there's definitely some value in here..

Let me ask you this.. If someone gave you a list of 30,000 buyer emails in the MMO niche.. What would you do?

Btw, these aren't subscribers, these are just emails of buyers.

[Dan Curtis]

This may be a legitimate business offer and a great opportunity. People sell businesses all the time, even profitable businesses.

For example, I know of two businesses that could have been run from a distance with little effort -- and that would have suppported the owners for the rest of their lives -- that were sold because the owners were just tired and wanted out.

But it also may be a disaster waiting to happen.

You might acquire the list and then not be able to generate any sales, for a number of possible reasons.

And despite whatever assurances he gives you and despite whatever records he might supply, you still will not know what is going to happen until you own the list and start your own mailings.

If you test the list before buying and find it is responsive then it is more likely to have value to you, but this will not remove all the risk.

You should move carefully with this one or you could end up holding an empty bag.

[TheSalesBooster]

only way to know for sure is to talk to him into letting you test out the list or at least giving you a discount to try it before you buy. A 30k list that is somewhat responsive and still makes money won't be cheap. Either way I think you lose on either situation unless he under values his list by a lot.

[contentwriting360]

Everyone in this thread holds some value of "truth." I can sense that your answers are coming from your own experiences or perhaps, somebody else's experience.

If you've been dealing with your friend/business partner on Skype for a very long time already and you've developed the measurable amount of trust, you can give it a shot.

However, if you're still somewhat hesitant to give it a "go," you may tell your friend to run a test first, as others already suggested. Not so long ago, I had a chat with a bulk email provider. He said that he can measure how many emails are being opened/read and how many simply stays on the recipients' inbox. I forgot the exact term he uses. That said, hire someone to email at least 1000 out of 30,000 contacts just to see how responsive his contacts are. I suggest that the email content is about him introducing you to his contacts so there's a think chance of you being thought of as a spammer. If the response rate is overwhelming, whoooa, start talking about the price for all those 30,000 emails then.

I am not in the position to give you an idea as to how much you should be paying. Nonetheless, you may base your decision on what onSubie mentioned (around $1.00 per email I guess). You can make your own market research on that part.

-John

[lovboa]

The list is the most important thing to any marketer. He would give up everything else before he sells it. The reason he gave is also ridiculous. It's not that hard to send out an email every once in awhile that takes less than an hour to put together and make a couple G's.

I would stay away.

[xxxJamesxxx]

To me, this just sounds to good to be true.

And besides, why would he sell a list of proven buyers? Just doesn't add up to me.

James Scholes

[xxxJamesxxx]

Also, isn't it breaking the law selling leads like this?

James Scholes

[contentwriting360]

Originally Posted by xxxJamesxxx

Also, isn't it breaking the law selling leads like this?
James Scholes

Well, it could be breaking the law if we're talking about the privacy laws.

[John Romaine]

Email the subscribers and ask how they feel about it.

[Shaun OReilly]

Did the subscribers give their permission to the list owner
to sell their details on?

If not, your 'friend' is worse than a pimp, whoring e-mail
addresses and betraying his subscribers.

I wouldn't touch the list at any price.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

[The Star]

Sound good. Can you share with me about that person, I became interested. very interesting if it has a lot of email lists.

[Muhsin Aziz]

This sounds fishy. Even if it was true that he wants to sell the list,
as a subscriber I don't think they would appreciate that their
email address are being sold to another person.
No one would sell a 30k list if it was that profitable.
Stay away from buying this list & start learning to generate your own
email subscribers.

[tpw]

Originally Posted by Muhsin Aziz

This sounds fishy.

There are lots of valid reasons why a list owner would want to sell the list.

The only issue I see in this case is that the list owner seems to be asking the OP to make an offer, and the OP is asking us how much to offer...

That is a problem, because the seller doesn't know how to value the list...

If the seller doesn't know what to charge for his list, then that would be because he has never profited from the list himself.

If he has never mailed the list and he does not know what his average earnings per subscriber is, then the list is totally, 100% unproven and not worth a dime to him or anyone else.

Caveat Emptor.

[Stripe]

I agree with what seems to be the general consensus here.

Before I would come up with anything that looked like money for his list, I would ask to test it out. Send your own email and do your due diligence on your results. It really does not matter what he gets from the list if they won't convert over to you. If he is your friend, I am sure he would not mind you checking it out, kicking the tires so to speak, before getting serious about it.

In my experience, lists are a little bit fickle. You really need to build a good relationship with your list before they become a responsive list of real buyers. Email addresses alone mean nothing to me unless I have a relationship with them. I build that relationship by providing value to them before I ever try and sell them. Eventually, through the value I provide they will trust me and buy from me occasionally.

My guess is your buddy mistreated his list and it isn't bringing him the returns like he wants. What other possible reason would he have for throwing in the towel?

My two bits...

[Sandor Verebi]

Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly

Did the subscribers give their permission to the list owner
to sell their details on?

If not, your 'friend' is worse than a pimp, whoring e-mail
addresses and betraying his subscribers.

I wouldn't touch the list at any price.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

So far, the question concerning the subscriber's permission seems unanswered. I have my doubts about it.

I also wouldn't buy that list before clarifying every aspects.

OP needs to do his due diligence.

Best,

Sandor

[xxxJamesxxx]

Or what if...

...He's gonna sell you his list yet STILL keep the list and carry on mailing them if like he never sold the list in the first place?

Personally I wouldn't touch this if you paid me.

James Scholes

[Lance K]

If he would sell it to you on contract with some sort of retention clause, it may be worth a serious look. I'd want to buy the rights to some of the products as well so you're buying a turn key business and not just a customer list.

[fin]

I've had time to sleep on it.

Considering you could get $1 per sub/per month with a 30,000 strong list, the most I'd be prepared to pay is 10x monthly earnings.

So I'd offer $300K, or three hundred thousand dollars.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly

I wouldn't touch the list at any price.

Originally Posted by xxxJamesxxx

Personally I wouldn't touch this if you paid me.

Originally Posted by fin

I'd offer $300K, or three hundred thousand dollars.

Always nice to see the customary Warrior range of opinion.

[Chri5123]

Originally Posted by tpw

There are lots of valid reasons why a list owner would want to sell the list.

The only issue I see in this case is that the list owner seems to be asking the OP to make an offer, and the OP is asking us how much to offer...

That is a problem, because the seller doesn't know how to value the list...

If the seller doesn't know what to charge for his list, then that would be because he has never profited from the list himself.

If he has never mailed the list and he does not know what his average earnings per subscriber is, then the list is totally, 100% unproven and not worth a dime to him or anyone else.

Caveat Emptor.

This is spot on ^

At least in my opinion.

Personally I wouldn't touch it - of course it all comes down to stats and figures - you need more info.

It could be worth thousands or nothing to you - it all depends on what you plan to do with it and how responsive the list are to YOU.

[celente]

ha ha alexa. nice.

Great in buying a list.

You could get a list of spammed people, that really do hate getting any messages at all...but then again you could be getting a list of buyers that snap stuff up anytime of the day.

Possible answer : stay well away, you do not know what you are getting.

Email list buying is all the rage at the moment. I have a friend in canada, that told me he is going to buy a list for $600 and clean up. I did not hear from him, so I skype him and ask him how he went. He tells me he got one sale and 10 subscribers..... all for what....$600 ....errr....ok.....

what a waist. Lots of sharks at the moment selling list. Buyer, beware.

How about doing it the old fashioned way, building a list with good old elbow grease and hard work, and then selling them stuff....oh yes...you are right...it requires hard work..and dedication. LOL. Pardon me...for being so rude. LOL.

[celente]

Originally Posted by Vtoy

I asked him why and his simple response was "ive been doing this for way to long and im tired of the game"

Tired? Tired of what game you should ask. Of spamming his list a bunch of offers without offering real value, teaching them stuff, or offering real content that will actually help their business.

ahhhh...now we are getting somewhere. Stay well away from this bloke.

Best off to save your money for something worth while.

Buying list is all the rage at the moment. People with big lists, that do not respond to offers know they have collateral and money in the bank. As long as they can market it to the right person, they can bank coin...and you can not come back to them and blame them if all goes pair shaped.

Think about that for just a second.

Buying lists is insane.

[celente]

if someone had a list of people that they know are doing well from...why would they sell it.

Not really rocket science people. Just common sense. Stay clear from this sort of thing. Its a trend that if you immerse yourself can leave you high and dry and broke with nothing to show. Just sayin'

[Vtoy]

Any ideas on how to monetize the list? I'm sure there are better ways other then blasting them with affiliate offers.

[rob9482]

My advice to you would be not to buy the list and to build your own because the main reason you build a list is to build relationships with people so that they get to know you and trust you.

Especially in the Internet marketing game if people don't know you and trust you they will not buy anything from your e-mails because let's face it there are too many scams out there and most people have been ripped off too many times to trust somebody that they don't know.

list building is not about numbers or just adding names to a list its about building a relationship so that people get to know you and give them some great advice so that they begin to trust you because once you've got their trust they will buy pretty much everything that you recommend.

I have a list that is not even half the size of the one you are thinking about buying and because the people trust me and know me well I make a lot of money from it and I wouldn't sell it to anyone It's just too valuable!

So if he's list was any good he would be using it to make money himself because it only takes about an hour a week to maintain the relationship with your e-mail list and a couple of hours to putting together an e-mail promotion each week and with a responsive list that size he wouldn't be looking to build an off-line business because with a responsive list that size you'd have all the money you needed!

[liindsay]

This sounds too good to be true.

[retsced]

C'mon dude, This is the internet. Do you HONESTLY believe this guy would sell you his list if it was responsive in any way?

[retsced]

Originally Posted by tpw

There are lots of valid reasons why a list owner would want to sell the list.

The only issue I see in this case is that the list owner seems to be asking the OP to make an offer, and the OP is asking us how much to offer...

That is a problem, because the seller doesn't know how to value the list...

If the seller doesn't know what to charge for his list, then that would be because he has never profited from the list himself.

If he has never mailed the list and he does not know what his average earnings per subscriber is, then the list is totally, 100% unproven and not worth a dime to him or anyone else.

Caveat Emptor.

Well I can understand your point Bill, but, this list was created in the MMO niche and is 30,000 deep. I would have to believe if this guy created a list of 30,000 in this niche, he must have some idea how to market to them.

Something doesn't fit here.

[David Keith]

if i am reading this right, you are not buying a list of subscribers, just email address of his past customers.

That means you are going to have to upload them to some AR who will let you do this with a list of emails you bought. Not many will first of all.

Next, most of those will make you have the subscribers re-optin so they can cover their ass by having time and date stamps and ip addresses along with each email subscription.

You will lose huge numbers during this process. Even moving a list you own and have a relationship costs many people 40%+ of their own personal list. You will lose more than that in all likely hood.

Beyond that. Is he willing to sign a non-compete contract? if not run very fast.

Can he guarantee the list has not and will not be sold again by signing a contract

Is he willing to prove the value of the list with one or two mailings? That isn't much work or effort on his part, but it will let you know how profitable the list is likely to be. If he is wiling to prove the value of the list, then i would talk. If he stutters at all when you ask him to do this, then forget it and move on.

email address are worthless unless there is still somebody (a real live person) on the other end paying attention. My advice is that this sounds like a good way to get taken for a ride for a nice chunk of change.

[llmustgo5]

Originally Posted by fin

I'd ask him if you can send out a free email blast and see how much profit you make.

No One will do a Free E-mail blast..
If so, will You blast your list for me for free and let me tell you the result?

Either swap or buy / sell...

Its all depends on how responsive is the list.

[yukon]

Simple, do a quick JV & test how responsive the email list is.

If the list is legit, the seller should be ok with a JV offer before selling the list.

The JV will give you real data to work with.

You wouldn't buy a car without doing a test drive, so why buy a list without testing?

Originally Posted by Vtoy

So.. An interesting thing happened to me today. A friend of mine on Skype (someone I've had as a contact for a long time) asked me if I wanted to buy his entire email list..

We got to talking and he told me it was all of his customers emails he's accumulated through all his product launches and career while he was making money online.

The number came up to 30,000. (make money online niche)

I checked out the products in his portfolio and a lot of them were ClickBank top sellers. I asked him why and his simple response was "ive been doing this for way to long and im tired of the game" and that he had other business plans in the offline world. So he asked me if I wanted to buy his email list and promised to not sell it or give it away to anyone else..

What do you think a fair price would be for something like this?

[David Keith]

Originally Posted by llmustgo5

No One will do a Free E-mail blast..
If so, will You blast your list for me for free and let me tell you the result?

Either swap or buy / sell...

Its all depends on how responsive is the list.

it would not be for free. it would be to "close" the sale of his email list for a very nice profit. If his list can deliver, he will instantly increase the value of what he is really trying to sell...his list.

[briankoz]

it would not be for free. it would be to "close" the sale of his email list for a very nice profit. If his list can deliver, he will instantly increase the value of what he is really trying to sell...his list.

No, it would be for free.

If you want to see how this will get abused, put your site with your list up for sale on Flippa and wait and see how many "very interested, serious parties" will want you to blast your list for free so they can "test" the results. 99.9% of them won't have the money to buy it even if their test is awesome, and most of that 99.9% also won't even have a good offer that converts well.

Before you do anything, you'll want to verify his open rates, click through rates, the exact terms of the deal (if he'll keep a copy of the list, for instance), etc..

Then if it looks good, PAY HIM to do a mailing for you. If he can get 2,000 clicks, pay him maybe $500 in good faith (even though it could be worth a lot more than that, it will show that you are serious) for one mailing. If it sucks, you saved thousands. If it worked, you'll know more on the value of the list.

There's a ton of opinions here on this thread because not everyone has experience in this area or they're repeating what they heard elsewhere, which can be a dangerous way to get advice.

Lists can be worth good money, even if you don't have a relationship with them, provided that you go about it right, have all your ducks in a row, etc..

- Brian

[Alminc]

The only list worth having is the list that you personally built for yourself.

Anybody selling that kind off asset always has hidden reasons for doing it.

Chances are that something is wrong with that list and you would discover it when it's too late.

Even if nothing's wrong with the list, the big question is will those people accept you as someone they want to follow? Email list is a highly personal asset and very sensitive to who is mailing them.

I wouldn't buy email list even from my own brother (if I had one).

Since you probably wouldn't get it cheap, why not invest that money in building your own list?

I know, buying that list looks like an amazig shotcut...BUT, shortcuts are dangerous.

I would say NO to that offer.

.

[Martin Luxton]

From Clickbank's TOS

You shall not directly or indirectly:

1. Send, initiate or procure the sending of an Email to any person or entity ("Person") who has either not explicitly requested to receive such messages specifically from You, including without limitation for the purposes of sending unsolicited bulk email, executing any "mass mailings" or "email blasts," or for the purpose of spamming any public forum, including without limitation, any blog, message board, classified listings, auction sites, altnet, newsnet, newsgroups, or similar service.

So that takes care of the Clickbank customers.




Martin

[Richard Van]

Originally Posted by fin

So I'd offer $300K, or three hundred thousand dollars.

I'm pretty certain they would accept that.

[DianaHeuser]

Originally Posted by fin

So I'd offer $300K, or three hundred thousand dollars.

What's the difference?

[aadi144]

Surely it a good idea if you will get some good amount but don't be greedy.Think professionally that do you have capability to make money at the same rate as he is making.If not then don't buy them.You willl be in loss.