What is using 3rd party email data?

I have been monetizing 3rd party data for over 16 years.

It is data that the users have given permission to receive messages from third parties. You get the opt-in record for each user and it's 100% can-spam compliant.

The data is rarely, if ever, as responsive as a quality opt-in list that you develop yourself. However, it doesn't matter, because it costs dramatically less and is highly scalable compared to list building.

The key to making it work is to always be collecting your opens / clickers, segmenting, removing unresponsive users. That way over time you are building smaller, but more responsive lists that you should eventually be able to send less and make more with each mailing. Essentially you are converting the data from quantity to quality.

To me, it is really more a business model than a traffic / subscriber strategy. Everything starts with the data and you match the data to a relevant offer. Rather than starting with an offer and try to find data for it, which may not exist or not be targeted enough. Not that it can't be done, just it is far easier to straight up monetize data.

Also, all the data I get is mainly geared toward lead generation verticals. This is because there is no credit card / purchase required. All a user has to do is fill out a form, so conversion rates tend to be much higher compared to offers that require a sale to be made.

So for the most part, I monetize data using lead gen offers because they offer the path of least resistance to generating conversions and converting the data into cash producing assets.

However, there is far more to it than it appears on the surface. Done right, it can be extremely profitable. Everyone that I know that is in the business and knows what they are doing, for the most part, does 6-7 figures. While that is a huge range, much comes down to one's ability to scale and effectively build / manage the infrastructure needed to scale.

Anyway, hope that helps.