What if I don't want to build a list?

I won't suggest you to spend $500 on paid advertising if you don't have a plan. Paid advertising may or may not work in your favour. It depends on a lot of factors.

Let's assume you tried facebook ads and you managed to get a lot of clicks and people landed on your sales page. But, from here it all depends on the information listed on your landing page, the design of the page, call to action button, video etc.

My suggestion:
Promote services/products that people will buy instead of promoting products/services that people are not aware of. Example, you can promote a hosting provider and tell people that you use their service.There is a higher chance that people will believe you and you may get a sale. You will have to write an article (a detailed article). Include your hosting affiliate link in it and then promote that article using PPC. Don't spend $500 at once. Test the ad. Run a $10 campaign on facebook, let it run for 2 days, Check the stats, Then do a split test.

You will get good results after many trial and errors.

Hi Jerry,

You don't always have to build a list to be successful in IM. But you do have to be willing to put in some real work. Sorry but the day's of just being able to spend $500 to make $1000 are long gone.

You have to know what converts where and how to convert it.

Now with that being said, some niches don't require a list at all and it doesn't really make sense to build a list in those niches.

I would suggest picking 1 thing and sticking with it. Learn everything about it and master it. Then you will know the best way to spend you $500 and make a good ROI with it.

Forget about how you go about making money.

Making money without building a list vs making money building a list can and most likely will take a similar amount of effort.

The idea of a list is to create repeat customers not just to sell a single front end product.

Good advise given above. So sorry to hear of your illness. Having to give up work hits you hard in the pocket and affects confidence and identity in a way. I feel for you.

If you have money do not waste in the way you mentioned. If I was you I would seriously think about building a blog all about internet marketing and on your blog you can review and promote products that are of great use to other marketers.

There are products that are evergreen like camtasia for example that internet marketers will always need and hosting like the gentleman above mentioned.

You can use your money to have your content written for you on fiverr.com as I know that is a problem for you with your illness.

A blog can be a very good way to make money as long as you solve peoples problems with good content.

Don't underestimate the power of a good blog my friend.

Hope you find this helpful

Take care

Ian

First off - sorry to hear about your illness. Can't imagine how tough it must be for you? How about creating a course on udemy? I've heard it's easier then EVER now to make a big splash over there.

If I were you, I'd start a blog in a niche you know a lot about and promote affiliate programs on that blog. For the heck of it, I'd add a newsletter sign up box and then maybe buy a PLR pack in your niche for autoresponder messages and then set up maybe fifty message, to go live once a week so that you can "set it and forget it". I'd also schedule content way in advance on your blog. It will be a lot of initial effort but it will give you a buffer and help you make money while you're also managing your illness. I am so sorry to hear about your difficulties! I've never used paid advertising before, but perhaps it would be valuable using it to give your new site an initial boost in the search engines?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I still don't understand the rationale behind not wanting to build a list?

Anyways - there are several ways to make money online without building a list, however if you are interested in paid traffic, in my opinion you will likely need more money to properly get started and do prosper testing (keep in mind, when starting out it will take a while to learn what you're doing and you need to take that into account with your budgeting)

Do you have experience with internet marketing at all?

Do you have an interest in any particular niche of the market?

Have you ever had any success with IM? No matter how small?

Does the fact that you do not want to do email mean you do not want to write at all?

There are a lot of things that can be profitable give n the right education and/or experience. I always suggest you start and focus on what you have an interest in and/or you have had success with. If you are going to spend money, spend on necessities and a base of education first.

As far as building a list....if you are going to sell something a lot of times you can build a list automatically. Take for instance the WF. If you sell something here the list is built almost automatically. Now you own the traffic next time you have a promotion. You do not have to get all mushy with them, just talk to them like their your friends.

There are ways to go about making money from a list without doing all the full relationship building stuff.

The money is not in the list.

The money is not even in the relationship really. I have lots of business relationships that don't make me money. Many folks on wf I respect, and many that respect me, but for the most part we don't make each other money.

The money from a list is about having their attention. Building a relationship is just one way to get and hold a subscribers attention.

Fyi. If you want to work less and make things easier, the best way to do that is to make some of today's efforts have lasting effects on your ability to make money. Gues what a list is great at?

With a list, you add a subscriber today and then you get multiple opportunities to convince that person to do something that benefits you.

If you don't build a list, you won't be building a database. You won't be building relationships. When people check out what you have to offer and say no (most will that's just how the law of averages work), you lose that person forever.

Building a list is critical. It can create sales, build relationships, create traffic, and many many more. There's just too many to mention.

Let me paint a scenario for you here. If for example you lose your business overnight like let's say they get shutdown or they stop doing business, just by having a list you can get back to where you were within a few days thanks to the connections you've created.

If you want to create sales (long term) and attract more and more people to you, then build a list. Without a list, everyone is just a one time experience and poof! They're gone forever.

Also, building a list makes everything 1Million times easier. This is how creating auto-pilot sales happen.

If you have $500 to spend, don't even bother spending it on ads because you won't be making a profit that way. It would just be an unnecessary expense. However, if you have $500 to invest in building your list, you're creating a solid long term success foundation. Through that process, you're able to multiply your ad budget by ten fold.

It doesn't take much work to do and it rewards you like you other. If you're in this industry to create a living, then this is the way to go. I suggest using GetResponse for an autoresponder btw.

Lots of people make money without a list. But a lot of those people eventually end up going into list building themselves simply because it's a great way to make money. Perhaps the most attractive part of list building is that you aren't at any risk that a Google update or action by a third party will destroy your income. Once you have an email on your list the only thing stopping you from selling to them is if they unsubscribe.

Nothing could be more hassle free than list building.

You could write all your email messages ONCE and be done.

Then, you just schedule and ad budget and collect cash.

What could be easier than that?

If you don't want to build a list, then don't There are plenty of other methods to make money online.
I could recommend freelancing, depending on what skills you have. I have seen plenty of people you are offering writing services, if you're good at it, give it a go!
You could also start a blog, build traffic and earn from ads or affiliate links.

I strongly strongly suggest you frame your perception about List Building differently. It's really just a human way of doing business.

Read the classic Permission Marketing by Seth Godin (free PDF on the internet if you google it) to understand the psychology behind building a list instead of the IM mindset of "My list is my ATM, SCAM SCAM SCAM" etc etc.

Remember at the end of the day making money online is about selling something to other humans, not robots.

Hey Jerry,
Iam sorry about your situation and I sincerely hope things will improve.

As far as taking money and putting it in IM then a huge return will magically appear ?

It won't happen. Sorry ! You have a better chance doing that in the stock market to be honest.

It will take work no matter if you build a List or not.

Even with Adsense advertising you will have to work to build the Sites.

Not much way around this

Best of luck


- Robert Andrew

Jerry, sorry to hear about your illness and I hope your life will improve. For many years I had no list and did ok. If I may make a suggestion. Start a blog about your illness. You can spend 15, 20 minutes daily detailing daily what your life is like dealing with your illness. People love a true story. if you can keep it upbeat, medical professionals may pickup on it.

You can monetize the blog by researching products related to your illness and sale these products as an affiliate. Turn your illness into an asset!

I was diagnosed with leukemia 3 years ago and I will tell you from my experience, that these past 3 years and been wonderful!!!!

Good luck

Open up your mind to creative ways of giving your audience things of value in the niche. Why does it have to be writing emails?

There are a lot of alternative ways to provide prospects in the niche with things that will help them. And whenever writing is involved, you can out source it to competent people.

You really do need a list but it can be built using means other than you writing emails.

Business requires that you pay attention to the hands that feed you. And it's not just building a list. Customer care, promotion (marketing) of your business, and networking with other partners are also important.

Steve

It does not matter what business model you choose to follow, Weather it be email marketing, blogging, cpa marketing, social media marketing, etc. etc. If your illness will prevent you from doing one it will prevent you from doing all. They all require the same amount of time and effort.

good luck to you

al

I. too, am sorry to hear about your illness. I like davidbowie's suggestion about sharing your story on your blog. It's not always easy coming up with ideas for blog posts, but one way is to use other people's stories and get paid for doing so! Have a look at The Commission Machine by Michael Cheney. This is not a marketing ploy by me, and I'm not an affiliate of Michael's. It's about $20 to buy and in one of the up-sells, at $27 Michael gives you a new Commission Machine product to sell every month, and at $97 he gives you a package of 7. With each you get Emails, Facebook and Twitter comments and Blog Posts for your Blog, all of which you just copy and paste.. These are story-based, and everyone loves stories!!! Keep smiling!

The whole point of building a list is to create multiple sales from the same customers and so that you can have the traffic you need on demand at any minute without advertising costs. Is list building the say all, be all, to making sales online? No. Is building a list an asset if built correctly and taken the necessary steps? Yes. All successful business build lists no matter how small or how big, whether it's offline or online, no list = no business.

Sorry to hear about your situation.. The fact is though that having a list will make things easier for you.

You really only need to create 5-7 emails if you want and then have them on an autoresponder. so on the days that you aren't well enough to work the AR is still working for you.

You don't need to send broadcasts every day or even every week..

To summerise if your illness is going to hold you back a List is the best theing to build.

Good Luck

If you do not build a list, you are doomed to constantly chase new leads. It is much cheaper to use the leads you already have if you have been building a list than the time, effort and cost it will take to constantly rely on chasing new leads.

1 or 2 of every 100 people that come to your site will purchase on average. That means 98% or higher of your time, effort and money have gone to waste because you did not build a list.

I don't understand not wanting to build a list because once it is set up, I keeps working 24/7 will no other attention for you other that to supply useful content to your list and advertise to your list.

You still case new leads in the beginning but after your list gets big enough it will continue to add new list members with out as many new leads.

I hope this has been helpful,
Steve Yakim

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I make money online without a list, however that doesn't mean I don't have to work. My work simply lies outside of building/maintaining a list. To be honest, I often regret that I have not/am not building one. Perhaps, if I had a list I would have to work less (although I am not complaining about the hours).

The truth is that your emails don't have to be all that personal. Everyone's different but to me it's annoying when people talk about their life in their promotional emails.

Hi Jerry

I must say building a email list is are very effective way to make an online income.
How ever there are many ways to make money online. Building a web site / blog is another great way to build an online income. Picking a niche you are interested in is a good way to go as you will be more passionate about the content you publish to the web site / blog.
Ebay can be a great second income .
I hope you get a few ideas and find your path to success online
Take care
ATB Roderick

The funny thing about business is that sometimes it's less what YOU want and more what your CUSTOMERS want. People will always be more likely to take the suggestions of someone they feel connected with.

Now, there are many different methods of making money online: as an affiliate, as a product owner, ecommerce, drop shipping, teaching/coaching, private label, etc. Some are more hands-on with customers than others. I would say research each method and find the one that works best for you. My guess is that ecommerce/private label will be the least hands-on for you, if you can 1. find a product(s) with good profit margins 2. pay less for traffic than what you make from the profit. Down side is that it's a little work up front to find low competition products that people are buying. Always sell what products that are evergreen (or worst case, in evergreen niches) that people are buying.

But, at some point if you do it right , you're probably going to find yourself with a list. A list of people interested in your product and/or a list of people who have bought your product. Since the very early stages of business, companies realized it's a lot easier to contact a former customer or visitor who has shown interest in their products than continuously try to find new customers. That's the reason you get all those business advertisements in the mail.. you're on someones 'list'.

The building relationships part is actually very misunderstood and is in fact the easiest part of email marketing. Every email that you send should be written as if you are sending it to one of your friends. In doing so, you'll naturally end up providing value within the email with the occasional soft pitch here and there. It will become so natural after a while that you will actually enjoy doing it. You'll end up building relationships as a matter of course.

And before you know it... you'll be generating a lifestyle income.

Hi Jerry,

There is no short cut to success in anything let alone IM.

Sure there are ways to go around list building but you will need:

1- Lots and lots of moolah to do PAID Ads.

2- A System that can convert well on the 'front' end. This means that it can have the 'capability' to make sales off X amount of cold traffic (but you will leave a lot of money on the table without following up with your leads that didn't buy because most won't buy the first time around no matter how great your system is).

So either way, you will still have to put in the time to get the income.

If you can muster up 'enough' strength due to your illness, to learn and then follow through and actually move forward in this [make money] thing, you might just be able to do it.

But before you start (if you start), know this...

You will still have to 'work' for it (even in your condition).

I wish you all the success in the world Jerry (and health)!!

First off im sorry to hear about your illness.

I do understand your reasons for not wanting to build a list. But what that means is that you will never have a customer base. The reason why everyone goes on about the importance of building a list is that you have a group of potential customers at the click of a button.

Without a list you would need to spend so much more on advertising for every product you want to promote.

Saying that the only way I know, to do this without breaking the bank is through video marketing. If you can get your videos ranked = free advertising.

I do product review videos and optimise them, so I have free targeted traffic on a continuous stream.