1 Subscriber = $1 / Month ?

by zannix
9 replies
Hi guys,

I've always wondered... what's the analogy behind this claim? Are there any numbers to back this up? It seems incredibly unrealistic to me.

If I have a list of 1,000 subs and I send offers 3x/week, which equals to 12x/month and each "offer-email" gets 30% open rate and 30% click rate (let's say this is average, could vary of course), that's rougly 1,200 people / month who get to the sales pitch, am I right?

(Edit: 1,200 people can't see your offer if you only have 1,000 people on the list, but let's say those are "opens")

With 1,200 opens, let's say you're just starting out and you haven't built an enormous trust yet, so you have a conversion rate of ~ 3%, that's = 36 sales.

Let's say an average offer is worth $20 in affiliate comissions, which comes out as 36x20 = $720/month.

And this is a very OPTIMISTIC situation if you look at it...

That's almost 1/3 less than one would expect. What would justify for the remaining 1/3? I'm sure the list age and relationship credibility certainly plays a big role, maybe something else as well?

Feel free to chip in
Zannix
#month #subscriber
  • Profile picture of the author mlord10
    Well...there are so many factors that go into list building & converting your subscribers into sales, that I don't think one can even think about an "average number".

    This is how people make $1 per/month per subscriber (and in many cases much more).

    They have a product funnel.

    So, if all you are promoting are $20 affiliate products, then yes the $1/month per subscriber # is probably a little high.

    However, when you offer products at the $100 level, $500 level, $1,000 level, etc. then all of a sudden it would only take a very small amount of sales to make $1/month per subscriber (or much more in many cases).
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by mlord10 View Post

      So, if all you are promoting are $20 affiliate products, then yes the $1/month per subscriber # is probably a little high.
      Indeed.

      But please excuse the additional observation that the fact that 70% of your own subscribers are apparently not even willing to open an email from you (?!) strongly suggests that you've gone wrong at a much earlier stage than that, too.
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      • Profile picture of the author zannix
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Indeed.

        But please excuse the additional observation that the fact that 70% of your own subscribers are apparently not even willing to open an email from you (?!) strongly suggests that you've gone wrong at a much earlier stage than that, too.
        Well in my defense I haven't even started yet but 30% open rate was just an assumption based on the quick search I did for average e-mail open rates on google and WF.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by zannix View Post

          Well in my defense I haven't even started yet but 30% open rate was just an assumption based on the quick search I did for average e-mail open rates on google and WF.
          Ah - fair enough! I'm happy to hear it.

          Suggestion: find out what they're all doing that gives them a 30% open rate and try to do something very, very different.

          If you haven't quite started yet, see if this helps: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6123982
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    • Profile picture of the author FredJones
      Originally Posted by mlord10 View Post

      They have a product funnel.
      This is the truth behind that calculation. It's not as if people will keep buying from you over and over again - people have limits in their budgets - on what much money they can spend for each kind of purchase - so the truth is elsewhere. It is in how optimized the sales funnel is.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmister
    You could improve it though by:

    -having more "opens" 30% seems quite low
    -higher conversion rate
    -higher affiliate commissions

    Improving anyone of these factors would get you closer to that $1 a month figure.
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    dmister

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  • Profile picture of the author zannix
    So product creation is an inevitable thing if you want to scale your list building efforts?
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    • Profile picture of the author Prashant_W
      Originally Posted by zannix View Post

      So product creation is an inevitable thing if you want to scale your list building efforts?
      Uh, no. To each their own. You can always upsell your buyers with complementing products that you're an affiliate of.

      And anyway, the 30% open rate average would be based on:

      1) The small group who get high open rates because... well, they build targeted, high response list

      2) The overwhelming majority who think it's nothing but a numbers game

      Naturally, group 2 would yank the average down for all it's worth.
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  • Profile picture of the author jchoros
    marketing studies show that a person who is interested in a certain topic, they are likely to buy multiple products at a time on it, so if you're only selling one thing I agree, meeting the $1/sub mark is almost impossible
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