$1 per list subscriber! Is that the norm?

by ckbank
32 replies
I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?
#list #norm #subscriber
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

      I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?

      I find it crazy that you think this number is so high...

      I generally earn over one dollar per during a lazy month...

      But in most months, $2 to $3 per is normal.


      Originally Posted by Andy Money View Post

      Depends a lot on the quality of the list.

      Actually, it depends on the quality of the marketing message and the skills of the marketer...

      Some marketers have an incredible relationship with their readers, and others have none.
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  • Profile picture of the author Corey Geer
    $1 per subscriber... I think people saying that are doing it wrong.

    Highly targeted subscribers are priceless because they can be sold again and again. Why in the world would each subscriber only be worth $1 unless you're selling $1 products?

    Then again, you can't go off of what the majority of people are saying a lot of the time because I still see the majority of people recommending that Freelancers go to Fiverr for quality clients.

    *sigh* I fear that people may never learn you get what you pay for.
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    • Profile picture of the author ckbank
      Originally Posted by Corey Geer View Post

      $1 per subscriber... I think people saying that are doing it wrong.

      Highly targeted subscribers are priceless because they can be sold again and again. Why in the world would each subscriber only be worth $1 unless you're selling $1 products?

      Then again, you can't go off of what the majority of people are saying a lot of the time because I still see the majority of people recommending that Freelancers go to Fiverr for quality clients.

      *sigh* I fear that people may never learn you get what you pay for.
      :confused: You're joking right? I'll humor you. How much should a subscriber be worth?
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      • Profile picture of the author Corey Geer
        Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

        :confused: You're joking right? I'll humor you. How much should a subscriber be worth?
        You're looking at it the wrong way.

        Each subscriber shouldn't have a $ amount pasted over their head. As I said, any truly targeted subscriber will be priceless.

        TRULY Targeted subscribers will continue to buy from you again and again, it's just how product marketing works.

        As far as paid garbage lists and forced e-mail opt ins go, the conversion rate will obviously be lower but there's no set amount for each subscribers. It depends on a lot of different factors, there's no universal number as to how much a subscriber is worth.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          This figure of $1 per month per subscriber is very widely quoted as an "average" for affiliate marketing. I strongly suspect that people just see it and repeat it, and that it doesn't really signify much at all. It's just an "urban myth", in other words.

          For myself, I'd be very disappointed indeed if my lists produced only $1 per subscriber per month as "averaged out income".
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          • Profile picture of the author ckbank
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            This figure of $1 per month per subscriber is very widely quoted as an "average" for affiliate marketing. I strongly suspect that people just see it and repeat it, and that it doesn't really signify much at all. It's just an "urban myth", in other words.

            For myself, I'd be very disappointed indeed if my lists produced only $1 per subscriber per month as "averaged out income".
            Wow. That's IS pretty wild. I guess I've been misinformed. Alexa, you always seem to be helpful. Let me ask you a related question. Can you have a good conversion rate without constantly engaging your subscribers? For example, if you keep collecting emails and never send articles or newsletters to your subscribers, can you still have good conversion, if any at all? I ask, because some people build lists by solely offering a free eBook or product and never engage their audience. After they collect a certain number of emails, they just run a campaign. To me this doesn't sound like it would work.
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            • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
              Banned
              Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

              Can you have a good conversion rate without constantly engaging your subscribers?
              A few people say they can, but I can't.

              Lists will quickly become unresponsive if not regularly engaged with. You need to set their expectations clearly and specifically at the start, and then fulfil or exceed them: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6123982

              Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

              For example, if you keep collecting emails and never send articles or newsletters to your subscribers, can you still have good conversion, if any at all?
              I doubt it. (What would you want their email addresses for, anyway, if you're not regularly going to provide them with valuable content and product promotions?).

              Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

              After they collect a certain number of emails, they just run a campaign. To me this doesn't sound like it would work.
              Nooooooooo ... I agree: virtually no chance at all, it seems to me. Most of them wouldn't even remember who you are.

              I always assume that my subscribers are on several other marketers' lists, as well as mine. I earn my living by becoming the person who builds a relationship with them such that my recommendations are the ones they choose to follow.

              It's easy to look at this only from the marketer's perspective and imagine a person who just suddenly, one day, for the first time, does a search for information on some specific subject, finds your site and nobody else's, opts in to your list, and never has any contact with other marketers, never does any other research, never does related searches, and never looks again. This is dream-world stuff. In reality, you have to do at least as well as your competitors are doing, to make sales.
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        • Profile picture of the author ckbank
          Originally Posted by Corey Geer View Post

          You're looking at it the wrong way.

          Each subscriber shouldn't have a $ amount pasted over their head. As I said, any truly targeted subscriber will be priceless.

          TRULY Targeted subscribers will continue to buy from you again and again, it's just how product marketing works.

          As far as paid garbage lists and forced e-mail opt ins go, the conversion rate will obviously be lower but there's no set amount for each subscribers. It depends on a lot of different factors, there's no universal number as to how much a subscriber is worth.
          Makes sense, but it would be pretty wild to make anything over a dollar, at least for me. Another poster wrote $6 per subscriber and out of a 1000 subscribers that's $6000 dollars. It's probably doable, but just sounds prety wild.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gavin Stephenson
    Ive been able to make $6.00 per subscriber and they are free subscribers not buyers and to be honest the traffic isn't that great. There are plenty of better traffic sources and targeting available to make a lot more than that.

    It's very important to get the right type of traffic and knowing how to convert it.
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  • Profile picture of the author TomYevsikov
    Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

    I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?
    The $1 per subscriber is NOT a myth or something, It's something you put as your goal, It's something you should AIM for, you dig me?

    Logically, after you get to the $1 per subscriber per month, you aim even higher..

    Always aim higher, set goals and stick to them.

    $1 is crazy for those who make less, and insanely low for those who make more.

    Just my two cents per comment per month lol
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  • Profile picture of the author Gavin Stephenson
    Put it this way if you're copying what everyone else does you will make a $1 or less.

    - Some prefer to get the subscribers and burn them right away
    - Some prefer to balance promotion with content etc.

    To be honest both ways work and there's nothing wrong with either of them because more than likely the ones who are burning them right away are getting bucket loads of leads daily anyway, so they don't need to be all pretty when it comes to making money.

    I wouldn't follow the burning route if you're not getting 200+ subs per day
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  • There is no average, no acceptable value-per-subscriber, etc. All that is non sense, because there are so many variables in that equation that any pseudo-average becomes worthless: what is the niche? Is the list made from customers or freebies? What is your reputation towards that list, etc.

    Nop, no average posible. It is like asking what is the average you can make by playing guitar: some people make millions, some others nothing, thus no meaninful average can be calculated.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate View Post

      There is no average, no acceptable value-per-subscriber, etc. All that is non sense, because there are so many variables in that equation that any pseudo-average becomes worthless: what is the niche? Is the list made from customers or freebies? What is your reputation towards that list, etc.

      Nop, no average posible. It is like asking what is the average you can make by playing guitar: some people make millions, some others nothing, thus no meaninful average can be calculated.
      I've run out of "thanks" for the day, apparently (must have been some good posts about, today?), but I agree unreservedly with AA, here.
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  • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
    I must be missing something here. I've never been able to get to an average of $1.00 per lead. We're not in the IM market but I'm thinking my $0.10/mth average should be much better.

    We have double opt-in. We mail every 10-15 days. No more than 20% of our content is a promotion. Are traffic is VERY targeted coming from FB, SEO and video marketing.

    I'm thinking what I'm missing is the conversion part. We convert 5% of our list into customers...Is that low/high/average? I have no idea.

    Cheers!

    Brandon
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  • Profile picture of the author sunray
    You should compare it with the average PPC rate of your niche. If you put Adsense on your site, would you mostly get $3-5 clicks or are they just $0.05 clicks? If you are in a $0.05 niche, there is NO WAY you can sell for $1 a month - even if you are a genius salesman! They simply either have no money, or the products are too inexpensive (usually both).
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianFL
    If you want to make more money from your list you have to raise conversions and have a good variety of product tiers.

    Low, Med, High tier products can really determine how much you'll make. Say you have 100 people on your list and 5 buy your $7 ebook (Low), 3 buy your $17 Video course (Med), and 1 buys your $97 big bundle (High). Your list just made you $187, meaning you earned $1.87 per subscriber. It's all an average, the goal is to increase conversions by tweaking your funnel, landing pages, etc.

    Also applies to affiliate marketing when promoting products.

    Remembering to subtract your costs to generate leads also plays a factor.
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    • Profile picture of the author ckbank
      I want to clarify something. I think some people are getting confused with the idea of making a dollar per subscriber. Some people think I'm talking about selling a $1 product to all 1000 subscribers. No, that's not how the math works. It's like this. Say you have 1000 subscribers and say 100 of them buy a $10 product each. That's 100 subscribers x $10 product = $1000. Even though only 10 % buy the product, each subscriber is worth about a dollar.
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  • Profile picture of the author thetrafficguy2
    It all depends how good your relationship with your list it, for example some people might love 1$ per subscriber, and other would think that is very low.
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  • Profile picture of the author igl0w
    Quality and niche is very important here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Confined To Life
    Hello ckbank,

    Well, I think it depends on two major things such as the price of your main product and the conversion rates of your sales funnel. If your product is $7, you can't expect your subscribers to be worth too much. If your product is $47, then we're talking much more than $1 per subscriber.

    Let's look at a hypothetical situation here. You spend $500 on a PPC campaign right? Just go with me on this. $500 for 60 cents a click gets you 833 views onto your highest converting page (may be the blog or squeeze). Let's say this page has a 35% opt-in rate. Of those 833 views, you're getting 292 subscribers.

    The goal of your email campaign is to warm these subscribers up so they're frothing for your products. You may then be able to direct them to a sales page with an 8% conversion rate. This means you're making 23 sales. Here's the difference.

    If your product is $47, you're making $1,081 from these 292 subscribers, leaving your subscriber value at almost $4! But if your product is only $19.95, even if you're looking at a 10% conversion, you're only looking at $582, which is just over $1 per subscriber. Plus, off a $500 campaign, you're only making $82 here.

    Can you now see the importance of your email campaign and that number of buyers you get from your list? If you convert 8% of your subscribers into buyers through an excellent email campaign, you will make a killing of a higher priced product (e.g. $47) as opposed to a cheaper product (e.g. $19.95).

    Then there are other things to consider such as an OTO upsell. Say 8% of these buyers buy your OTO, bringing you even more value per subscriber. I know of people converting 10% of their list into buyers with a $97 product. Each of their subscribers are worth a lot of money, around the $9-$11 mark.

    All the best.

    Thanks,
    CTL
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  • Profile picture of the author gregdavidson727
    Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

    I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?
    So you're saying that if you build a list with 50 subscribers you'll make $50 every time you sent out an email? I don't think everybody can do that. Unless, of course, you can get serious buyers on your list who will actually go out of their way to read your emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyler S
    This is good at first, but it should become cheaper as your list begins to grow.
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  • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
    I think the key thing here is to look a acquisition pay back here....

    The more competitive the market the higher the CPC. Therefore the higher the A/Q of each lead. Conversely, a less competitive niche might have a lower rev per lead number but it's all in relation to the A/Q costs.

    Stick with me here.

    If you pay $1.00 for each lead you get and you are at $0.25/mth/lead in revenue then your A/Q payback is 4 months.

    If you're in a more competitive market and the A/Q is $4.00 per lead with a revenue of $1.00 then it's the same A/Q payback.

    What's the point?

    Revenue per lead only matters as it's compared to the A/Q cost. To say $0.25/lead/mth is bad is not true if the A/Q is only $0.50. Similarly, $1.00/mth/lead in revenue is not very good if your A/Q cost is $15.00.

    It's all relative.
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    • Profile picture of the author brentb
      Originally Posted by moneyblogger1 View Post

      I think the key thing here is to look a acquisition pay back here....

      The more competitive the market the higher the CPC. Therefore the higher the A/Q of each lead. Conversely, a less competitive niche might have a lower rev per lead number but it's all in relation to the A/Q costs.

      Stick with me here.

      If you pay $1.00 for each lead you get and you are at $0.25/mth/lead in revenue then your A/Q payback is 4 months.

      If you're in a more competitive market and the A/Q is $4.00 per lead with a revenue of $1.00 then it's the same A/Q payback.

      What's the point?

      Revenue per lead only matters as it's compared to the A/Q cost. To say $0.25/lead/mth is bad is not true if the A/Q is only $0.50. Similarly, $1.00/mth/lead in revenue is not very good if your A/Q cost is $15.00.

      It's all relative.
      Yes this! ^^^

      One list I have I make like ~$0.04 per subscriber per month. BUT the emails cost me ~$0.015 and its bulk. So its pretty profitable right off the bat. Just because its far under $1 doesn't mean its bad at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author 07
    Reallly depends on targeting of subscribers, their geo location, the quality of list overall. The 1$ per month is just an average number. I heard people getting 6$ per subscriber per month.
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  • Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

    I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?
    It depends on the market. I made $20 a subscriber from a small list of mine a few weeks ago. The reason for the super high value is that this was a list of people that have known me for a very long time + a super targeted list + an extremely over the top deal.

    In my main niche I typically make $2 per subscriber per month.

    $1 per month per subscriber isn't out of the question. I have other niches that only produce $0.25 per subscriber per month.

    One of the biggest variables is what you offer. For the sites where I only offer one product, I don't make as much per subscriber. For the sites where I have a few products and can do cross promotion, I make a lot more.

    On the niches that I've focused most of my effort on I've usually made at least a dollar per subscriber for the serious promotions that I've done.
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    • Profile picture of the author Benjamin Ehinger
      Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

      I see this number being thrown around almost everywhere. Most marketers are saying that a person with a list should be able to make a dollar from each subscriber. From my own experience and the experience of others, that sounds pretty high to me. On top of that, these people are also saying that one should be able to make that much from a single subscriber almost every month. So, they are basically saying if you have about 2000 subscribers, you should be making about $2000 a month. I just find this crazy. What do you think?
      I think you can do quite a bit better than $1 per subscriber.

      Originally Posted by Andy Money View Post

      Depends a lot on the quality of the list.
      Yes very true.

      Originally Posted by Corey Geer View Post

      $1 per subscriber... I think people saying that are doing it wrong.

      Highly targeted subscribers are priceless because they can be sold again and again. Why in the world would each subscriber only be worth $1 unless you're selling $1 products?

      Then again, you can't go off of what the majority of people are saying a lot of the time because I still see the majority of people recommending that Freelancers go to Fiverr for quality clients.

      *sigh* I fear that people may never learn you get what you pay for.
      So true and Fiverr is one of the worst places to go for many things, such as writing.

      Originally Posted by Corey Geer View Post

      You're looking at it the wrong way.

      Each subscriber shouldn't have a $ amount pasted over their head. As I said, any truly targeted subscriber will be priceless.

      TRULY Targeted subscribers will continue to buy from you again and again, it's just how product marketing works.

      As far as paid garbage lists and forced e-mail opt ins go, the conversion rate will obviously be lower but there's no set amount for each subscribers. It depends on a lot of different factors, there's no universal number as to how much a subscriber is worth.
      Yep. It varies from one niche to another and it also depends on the quality of the products you promote.

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      This figure of $1 per month per subscriber is very widely quoted as an "average" for affiliate marketing. I strongly suspect that people just see it and repeat it, and that it doesn't really signify much at all. It's just an "urban myth", in other words.

      For myself, I'd be very disappointed indeed if my lists produced only $1 per subscriber per month as "averaged out income".
      Yes, I agree completely. Probably read it online from some source that decided that was the average and got repeated over and over again. Happens more than most realize.

      Originally Posted by ckbank View Post

      Makes sense, but it would be pretty wild to make anything over a dollar, at least for me. Another poster wrote $6 per subscriber and out of a 1000 subscribers that's $6000 dollars. It's probably doable, but just sounds prety wild.
      Not that wild.

      Originally Posted by BrianCampbelldotcom View Post

      It depends on the market. I made $20 a subscriber from a small list of mine a few weeks ago. The reason for the super high value is that this was a list of people that have known me for a very long time + a super targeted list + an extremely over the top deal.

      In my main niche I typically make $2 per subscriber per month.

      $1 per month per subscriber isn't out of the question. I have other niches that only produce $0.25 per subscriber per month.

      One of the biggest variables is what you offer. For the sites where I only offer one product, I don't make as much per subscriber. For the sites where I have a few products and can do cross promotion, I make a lot more.

      On the niches that I've focused most of my effort on I've usually made at least a dollar per subscriber for the serious promotions that I've done.
      This makes a lot of sense. I have to say the niche makes a huge difference and so does the product. For example, if your list is based on promoting amazon books for a very small commission, you won't make as much as if you sold them your own book for $20 a pop.

      Some niches make it easy to promote affiliate products that pay over $100 per sale, while others don't. It really depends on the niche and the offer.

      Benjamin Ehinger
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  • Profile picture of the author ezekielseo
    The figures you make all count on the quality of the list, not quantity.
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  • Profile picture of the author drr
    The $ per subscriber metric probably varies wildly according to things like the niche you're in, how targeted the subscriber is and the potency of your offers.

    You also would need to build rapport with your list, so consistent newsletters and some pedigree information rather than belting out sales pitches 24/7.
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  • Profile picture of the author littleacorns
    $1 per subscriber per month is a lazy concept,that corrupts people's thinking.It's supposed to be an average,but across what niches and more importantly,this must an average for average marketers,because if you're in the right niche,with the right value proposition AND you look after your subscribers by overdelivering value consistently,then $1 per month per subscriber will seem like a joke.I truly believe this is one reason why so many people put off building a list,because they think they need 20,000 subscribers to make a good living.YOU DON'T.You can make great living out of a small list of 3-4000 subscribers.But i'm sure it's possible to bring your average down to a paltry $1 per sub per month by sending then useless,$17 affiliate offers every other day that are bereft of value.Obviously you need to be in a niche that will support high end products or services,where you know that the buyers behaviour is that of spending a LOT of money over a LONG span of time.
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