Why Newbie's Shouldn't build a freebie list?

Why not learn about article marketing, video marketing etc WHILE building a list... I mean that traffic has to go somewhere and everyone has to start somewhere...

For me - If I hadn't started building a list I'd still be out there today "trying to gain skills"...

Well, I have those skills today - but those skills aren't what pay the bills - it's the list

Just some food for thought - if newbies never start building a list they will be stuck in a circle of always trying to "learn new skills"...

Learn one skill - list building and learn everything you can about it. That's what worked for me.

Cheers,
Coby

That was my point bro... I didn't say go learn a hundred skills.. I feel like learning one skill using that skill to build a buyer's list first then expand to the freebie list ... and it shouldn't take but three months to really grasp the skills in today's market.... the knowledge there... it just takes more when building a freebie list...

This post was very painful to read. It's all over the place, makes little sense, is somewhat belittling, (young men who have sex and know nothing about marketing versus.... ?? (you)? I believe newbies are now even more confused than ever if they read this. Do yourself a favor and work on your teaching skills in case you ever decide to become a coach. Sorry, but had to say it.

Sometime failure and mistakes are the great mentor.

Learn what you need to get started then go out and do what you learned. You don't have to be perfect, you'll have time to work on that as you go. One of the big problems with those who are just starting, or who have been "starting" for a while now, is that they don't DO. Taking action is the best teacher and yes you'll likely fail here and there but don't sweat it, just learn from it and go back out and take action again.

I don't understand this fred. Are you saying I shouldn't be focusing on building a list and should instead learn skills? At which point do I move on from learning to doing?

Hmm isn't more effective for me to build a list first in conjunction with learning/mastering one traffic method? Or maybe I have things the wrong way around. Someone please correct me.

I have to disagree in that far too many people put off building a
list for far too long. In fact, many people who have been online
3-5 years, even long, still don't have a list when they are in a
niche where the list is the most important asset they could own.

The skill comes from study and practice... if you just keep at
it, the skill will come.

I think that you need to be building that list as early as
practical once you've identified a niche, because despite how many
of us market, you really should start building that relationship
with your list members as early as practical.

Willie

I see nothing wrong with building a freebie list. People love to receive freebies; it does not matter whether you are a newbie or experienced guru, giving freebies always works.

I just think learn as you go is always the right approach. That said, it's important to seek the right resources for you to efficiently learn and acquire the skill. You don't expect an NBA player to master shooting a jumpshot over a defender before they play an NBA game right? They learn it via playing NBA games and acquire this particular skill with many tweaks (as this certainly applies to Michael Jordan - who tweaks, practices and more tweaks to a better shooting position that would give hIM the most balance and a high percentage shot at the same ttime.

Whatever moves you forward towards being profitable is ok. There is no exact way to do things that fits all marketers.

As i'm reading everyone threads I realize everyone miss what I actually said. I take responsibility for the misunderstanding ...

All I was saying was build a buyer list of clients with your skills first. Before you get into building freebie list builders that you have to convert. We all know that no matter the traffic or how targeted that traffic, if you don't understand conversions and how to improve that with tracking, it will be very hard to just up and start at it.

Now on the other hand. I was saying build a skill first. Find a forum, pay for a thread. Get some experience under your belt.. And when you have the money to invest in list building, you invest.

That's all I was saying... I never said list building wasn't important... I feel the order you go in to build a list is very important... don't start out building freebies list, when you build a buyers list of clients with your skills...

WE ALL KNOW BUYERS LIST ARE 2 to 3 times better than a freebie list... and doing it this way will keep your income as well as long as you have the skills ... You can always sell skills and make money that day ...

With a freebie list sometimes you have to tweak and test. Which takes a load of time. Even for so called guru's. .... that's all I'm saying ... there's more than one way to skin a cat my friends!

I agree. I started list building get with no success. Seem more logical to send direct traffic to an offer page and tweak it until you get conversions. Then place that offer behind a squeeze page a maximize your profit

In defense of Mindz, I will say that I built my first squeeze page years ago and I really gained nothing from it. I did a pretty good job of building it too. I had the opportunity years ago of working with a millionaire marketer managing his small sites and the one thing he said over and over was, IT'S ALL ABOUT A LIST!!!! God Bless - ELMO

Most newbies I talk to who are building lists "willy nilly" are clearly not getting the results they think they are supposed to be getting - and that's because they don't know the difference between email marketing and list building.

I agree with the OP here. Simply having an optin form, free report and an autoresponder series is not going to get the desired results. Why?

1) Free report on most squeeze pages are low quality (clearly the free report is not going to be quality if the person cannot create their own information products to sell)

which brings me to the next point...

2) They hear "the money is in the list" and "the money is in the relationship with the list" but let's be honest, the money is in the buyers list - and that's the biggest mistake newbies are making when it comes to list building and email marketing. At the very least, you damn well know a thing or two about your market and gve solid, actionable advice that can take them from point A to point B - and then some.

3) They continually send THEIR subscribers to affiliate promotions, which essentially means they're placing the product creator as the expert. In the MMO market we are all on many lists - and it's the product creators that are the ones who are looked upon to solve the problems. Times are changing and every day it gets more and more difficult to rise above the noise. If you're not seen as the expert in your market, then you're dead in the water.

Not everything is black and white and some people will make money promoting affiliate offers, but it's getting to the point where people are signing up to more and more lists every day. If you don't place yourself as the expert, you will find it very difficult to stand out from the crowd. Continually sending subscribers to the experts just highlights the fact that you really don't know what you're doing. Will you make money? yes. Will you make a lot of money. Doubtful at best.

Start to learn the skills needed to stand on your own, rise above the noise, build that damn buyers list and solve your subscribers problems YOURSELF. Then, and only then will you be seen as the person who can help them get to the next level, and the next, and so on.

That doesn't mean that you put off building a list. It just means you MUST know what the hell you're doing and what is expected of you before you start.

One person here said that a buyers list is 2 - 3 times more powerful than a freebie list. It's more inline with 10 times more important.

If you're building an email list...

Make sure your freebie report is of the highest quality. It need not be a long drawn out 50 page history lesson report either. A simple "to the point" short 10 - 15 page actionable report that solves one specific problem will be far more valuable.

Have a OTO sales page so you can start building a buyers list. Again, this is not difficult. Write 3 - 5 high quality "to the point" short 10 - 15 page reports that solve "one" specific problemand sell them for $17 or $7 (test a tweak)

Spend the next 2 weeks (or whatever) and write at least a couple of months of autoresponder messages that progressively take your subscribers from point A to point B and so on. Integrate your affiliate promotions and your own information products into the messages and make sure they are relevant to the actual content you're writing about - and make damn sure your messages are higly valuable.

It would be best to create all the messages on your hard drive before you place them into your autoresponder series. At least this way you can structure them so email 2 continues on from email 1 - and email 3 continues on from email 2 - and so on.

That's a good start for now.

Ya I have to disagree... how else are you going to learn but fail? No doubt you have to track conversions and split test squeeze pages but just by knowing this you are already ahead of the masses. Most newbies would just throw up a squeeze and then leave it thinking whatever they are getting is good enough or just be happy that people are actually joining their list at all.

As a young man. I can offer a devil's advocate perspective on the quickness.

I agree with you Steve. I wrote in haste, with no filter. I had a discussion with a friend. I got excited and wanted to share. I should have corrected myself but I do Have a point!

I've just launched my first WSO. Traffic was hard to come by, mainly because I don't have a list (plus I didn't get the affiliate recruitment quite right).

I'm a newbie and I'm now going to start building a list. Although I disagree with some of the initial comments in the first post it has ignited a good discussion that has helped me. So thanks for the post. Learnt a lot.

Glad I could help... and I would contact other product owners who have a similar product. Give them %90 to %100 com... And bam !

I agree.

And I would like to add that the most important thing here is taking ACTION.

Most freebie lists are dead. If you want a real responsive list use an info list.

Perfection is a mental state more than in reality ... can we really achieve perfection ... or what we think that is perfect ... I never said tell newbies not to build a list ... I only said focus on a buyers list not a freebie list .... Buyers list are 10x more profitable than a freebie list ... case closed

This is long debatable question because some people does not like giving away free stuff and some do like giving away free stuff. I prefer to give free stuff to list because it builds the list faster than any thing else.

like many others have mentioned, you really need to get some experience to learn the skills you mentioned above. you can't learn everything from just reading things. you have to take a dive.

I look at most posts where most experienced marketers are asked what they would do differently if they were to start again from the beginning. Most usually regret not building lists from the beginning. I would recommend building a list from the beginning and learn your lists' behavior early enough. Get their needs and ask them what they would like to be assisted on and build products around their needs. Of course your products will have to be helpful to them, so put more effort here to create quality products and your subscribers will love you

Buyers List OWNS freebie List By 10x !