Approaching List Owners

IMO, you ought to focus on what you can bring to the table, not on what the list owner can do for you.

I assume you're fairly new to the market and don't have name recognition or authority in the niche just yet. So why is someone going to risk sending your offer to his list when he doesn't know you and you have little experience in selling online?

Think of all the things you can say and show to ease the mind of the list owner that he should do a mailing for you. Once he agrees, you can then ask about his list size, how targeted it is, how often he mails, where his prospects came from (how did they subscribe?), etc.

Good luck to you,

Steve

If you are targeting blogs with opt-in forms (as opposed to finding JVs) you will run into people with different levels of knowledge in terms of marketing and list building.

Some will know how to market to their list and what a 'solo ad' or 'ad swap' is.

Others will know how to market to their list but carefully guard it.

Others will have no idea what to do with the list and may never have touched it other then to have an opt-in form and a short follow-up sequence. Or they will be active with their subscribers but not monetizing.

Your first contact should be to quickly and politely find out which of the three you are dealing with.

The first will be relatively easy because they have probably done paid broadcasts or ad swaps in the past. For these types it is just a negotiation of fit and compensation. They may already have a "rate" in mind that is often negotiable.

The second will probably tell you to f-off and no real point in arguing.

The last may need some educating and convincing but offer potential for good terms. Much of Steve's advice would apply here. What you pay would depend on their comfort level and negotiations. Some may think sharing the profits (i.e. they sign-up and use their affiliate link in the broadcast) is attractive while others may want the security of cash up-front.

In any case, as Steve also said, details like list size, email frequency, etc would come later in the discussion once it was clear a deal is possible.

Your biggest issue if you work with inexperienced list owners is tracking clicks and traffic to make sure they are sending you the number of clicks negotiated- or whatever metric you use.

You don't want to pay $200 to some guy with a list of 20,000 and only get 12 clicks. Or get no stats to see why you only got a single opt-in.

Mahlon