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How to monetize a "make money online" mailing list

by James Spinosa
8 replies
Hey all, I have recently created a mailing list within the "make money online" niche which is grown using very high quality traffic coming specifically from keyword varieties "making money online" from a site that I own. I am using a free ebook as the lure to bring in visitors, and I am gaining subscribers pretty steadily.

I have set up a long series of follow-up messages spaced about 5 days apart; each one giving a good bit of useful information followed by a suggestion. most of which point to CPA offers, although a handful also suggest purchasing ClickBank products.

My problem is that I have not gotten a single sale or simple paid survey sign up (those are free to sign up and legitimately pay you to fill out consumer research surveys). At this point about 10 emails have been sent out to a list of about 250 double opt-in leads. I cannot figure out where to go from here to increase my conversions, I am deciding whether I should redo the followup sequence or completely change the products I am pushing.

Any advice is appreciated, if you happen to have a mailing list qualify it by saying approximately how large it is, years in operation, etc.

Thanks all!

Edit: The mailing list is not the one in my signature, so don't waste your time examining that
#list #mailing #make money online #monetize
  • Profile picture of the author mikestenger
    First off the bat, 5 days apart seems way too long. I'd maybe bring it down to 3. Second, you need to first build up some good value. Build a better relationship with them the first several messages, THEN you can start selling them on a gradual basis. Sometimes it feels like "Well if I do that, I won't make as much money!" however that's soooo not the case.

    People want to know you, relate to you, more importantly trust you when it comes to what you're talking about. The issue here is they don't fully trust you enough to buy anything that you're talking about. You build trust by building value and putting them first, then you sell them.

    Third, pointing them to CPA offers and various Clickbank products doesn't seem like the best idea. Whenever I come across a CPA offer it seems really scammy and full of over the top hype but then again, I know about all this stuff so that could be why. Regarding Clickbank products, make sure it's something that you've either A) tested it out yourself or B) have done your research ahead of time as to what it is and if it's really worth recommending, even if the commission is great.

    Even if you do start to get sales, if someone on your list purchases something that totally blows, they're going to remember who referred them to it: You. Will that lose some trust? Definitely!

    Also make sure that the links you are sending them to aren't an exact affiliate link like myusername.ug93d.clickbank.net or anything like that. It's a big turnoff.

    That's some of the basics so I hope this has helped you some.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
      Originally Posted by mikestenger View Post

      First off the bat, 5 days apart seems way too long. I'd maybe bring it down to 3. Second, you need to first build up some good value. Build a better relationship with them the first several messages, THEN you can start selling them on a gradual basis. Sometimes it feels like "Well if I do that, I won't make as much money!" however that's soooo not the case.

      People want to know you, relate to you, more importantly trust you when it comes to what you're talking about. The issue here is they don't fully trust you enough to buy anything that you're talking about. You build trust by building value and putting them first, then you sell them.

      Third, pointing them to CPA offers and various Clickbank products doesn't seem like the best idea. Whenever I come across a CPA offer it seems really scammy and full of over the top hype but then again, I know about all this stuff so that could be why. Regarding Clickbank products, make sure it's something that you've either A) tested it out yourself or B) have done your research ahead of time as to what it is and if it's really worth recommending, even if the commission is great.

      Even if you do start to get sales, if someone on your list purchases something that totally blows, they're going to remember who referred them to it: You. Will that lose some trust? Definitely!

      Also make sure that the links you are sending them to aren't an exact affiliate link like myusername.ug93d.clickbank.net or anything like that. It's a big turnoff.

      That's some of the basics so I hope this has helped you some.
      Fantastic response!

      Pushing people on your list straight to offers is a killer. You buy from your friends or people you would invite into your home. Until you get that relationship don't sell anything.
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    • Profile picture of the author mikeyman120
      Hey James,
      Like Mike above said I think 5 days apart is too long. Try changing it to 2-3 days apart. Also when I built my make money online list to 500 they were very unresponsive. They originally signed up for a free ebook. I tried changing the emails I sent and tried new products but I could hardly squeeze any orders out of them. I think when you're numbers are too low like your 250 and my 500 it is too early to tell anything.

      Remember a list of freebie seekers is not as good as a list of buyers.

      Wait until you have a few thousand people and then see how your numbers are.

      Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author James Spinosa
    Thanks for the responses so far, and while yes a lot of the CPA offers seem scammy I do test everything that I push out and it takes me days to find an offer worth pushing. The majority of the offers I am pushing are for paid survey companies which I have received checks from to my door step.

    One change I am going to make is I am going to push back my offers until about 2 weeks in so that I can fill it with non-biased information to see if that helps a bit.

    Mikeyman, you made an excellent point. I do have to remember that the traffic I am getting wants to make money rather than spend it, but that also ties in to why I am pushing more free offers than anything else. I know that I don't have the numbers to be too concerned yet but I still figure at this point I should be getting some conversions.
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    • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
      A lot of people are suggesting to you the 'give them tons of great content before you try to sell anything' approach... I have a list in this niche, and I have successfully pitched products to them from the very first day they singed up.

      I agree with some of the others regarding your frequency - I would space your initial emails closer together.


      Originally Posted by James Spinosa View Post

      The majority of the offers I am pushing are for paid survey companies which I have received checks from to my door step.
      maybe your list simply isn't into the "paid survey" thing...

      Here's what I would do (I do this with very good results).

      Pick 3 products in your niche to promote, but choose 3 that cover different areas of your niche.

      For example for your MMO list: the free survey thing, an affiliate marketing product, and an ebay product. At the bottom of EVERY email, add a small 'recommended resources' section, and list all 3 with a 1-2 sentence description for each. Make the rest of the email message straight content with no sales pitches. After every few emails, pick one of the products and make your email a much stronger pitch for it (the 'typical' email sales pitch).

      After a while you will get a lot of insight into what sort of products work best with your list just by tracking the hops and sales from those 3 different products.
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      • Profile picture of the author James Spinosa
        Originally Posted by jasonl70 View Post

        maybe your list simply isn't into the "paid survey" thing...

        Here's what I would do (I do this with very good results).

        Pick 3 products in your niche to promote, but choose 3 that cover different areas of your niche.

        For example for your MMO list: the free survey thing, an affiliate marketing product, and an ebay product. At the bottom of EVERY email, add a small 'recommended resources' section, and list all 3 with a 1-2 sentence description for each. Make the rest of the email message straight content with no sales pitches. After every few emails, pick one of the products and make your email a much stronger pitch for it (the 'typical' email sales pitch)
        Hey Jason, that actually is how I have my list split up as well as the free ebook I am giving out. I try to alternate the three between eBay, paid surveys, and internet marketing. I do agree however that I should attempt to link all three with the resources section, and that I should pick more specific products to push. I'll have to toss a link to this thread out to my blog later, I am getting some great feedback.

        Since there seems to be a consensus that I need to make my emails more frequent, would you suggest that I keep it consistently close together or begin to spread them out? for instance keep it at 2-3 days for the first month and then stabalize it at 4-6 from then on, or just always try to keep it at 2-3?
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  • Profile picture of the author johnlagoudakis
    Hi James,

    I was in the same situation as yourself... and then I thought to myself, "when do I buy from another internet marketer?" That's the question you have to ask yourself.

    I have only bought from other internet marketers that I have a strong relationship with, e.g. the first one that showed me how to make money online.

    Other internet marketers that I take the time to read their emails are those that provide me with quality information and are sincere.

    It may take a while before your list begins to buy from you. I've heard it said that it takes an average of 7 communications before a purchase takes place.

    Frequently communicate with your list, provide quality content, be sincere. That's my advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    james - I send the first 5 or so every 3 days, then I start to space them out to once a week.

    I still get tons of clicks on the links in emails that are 5-10 messages into the autoresponder series, and this is using the exact same 3 links/text, so it's worth testing out.
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