starting out "NO LIST" Catch 22

4 replies
So here's the deal...I'm starting out my new business.

I'm making a flash deals site in a niche...similar to appsumo except a different market.

I have no list but I need promote products to start building my list but in order to get great products I need to have a list.

At the start, how do I approach product vendors to promote their products when I have very little leverage in the "list" department?
#catch #catch22 #no list #starting
  • Profile picture of the author Adam Yunker
    How about trying to make a squeeze page for the niche you are doing and do solo ads and forum marketing to build that email list.

    Give them valuable information and create a Facebook and Twitter page around your business and use the emails to drive fans.

    Once you have a substantial amount of members that are active in all areas of your community you can see how many people would be interested and then you can approach the vendors with some data.

    Another thing you can do is see the companies you're alike and see how they started! Do some research. Try making some connections with people in your niche.

    And is it a flash deals site so you're only doing quick deals that are going on in your niche? So you are constantly switching out products?

    Sorry, I'm not really familiar with flash deal sites, but can you not just use affiliate links of the products you want to promote? Or is there to much constant switching of products?
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    • Profile picture of the author mssngmrblz
      I'm starting out giving them valuable content including tutorials.

      How do I see how they started? Would a competitor be willing to share their success story?

      I'm quite well connected with the users in my niche but not so much with other vendors.

      Each deal will last a week or two. There may be several deals happening at the same time but they all expire. Products will be switching constantly.

      I may be starting out with affiliate links but I want to get my users real good deals not available elsewhere. so i may just use them for list building.

      thank you for your time and answers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Yunker
    What do you mean by "how do I see they started?" Like how do you see they joined your list?

    If that's the question, then you can get notifications sent to your email and everyone time someone joined your list or you can just login in and it'll tell you how many subscribers you got today & yesterday & you total subscribers and underneath your able to see all of the names and what time they subscribe and which emails they opened and which ones they clicked.

    Was that what you were wondering?

    Adam
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Yunker
    I'd just create the squeeze page with the free offer and create the followup series with Aweber & just focus on free forum marketing if you don't have the money to pay for solo ads.

    Build your list that way and don't worry about promoting any products just give them valuable information on your niche.

    Just email them every day or every other day & get them really engaged and after that you can promote your Facebook group page and Twitter page once you get a list going.

    Start building a community and keep active with the emails and with the pages. Maybe have them share great deals and post about them.

    After you have a solid base I'd worry about the website and you can always do a crowdfunding campaign and just let the community you built about your crowdfunding campaign (you can use Kickstarter) to raise money and see if they have interest in the website and get their opinions on how it should look/work.

    That's what I think would be best for you

    Adam
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