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Buying an email list.. a wise decision?

by ExploringInfinity
10 replies
Hey everyone, I'm still new here and I know there is a TON of stuff to read.. Way more than I'll ever read.. but that's great!

I was talking with a friend the other day and he mentioned he was buying a 17,000 address email list.. I don't know where he's getting it or for how much because he went offline shortly after and I haven't talked to him since, but it really got me thinking about it.

Is it worth buying an email list? It sounds like it would be worthwhile, depending on the price, but what if all the email addresses on the list are fake or unused accounts?

Is there a 'safe' way to buy an email list? Is it worth buying one? Has anyone here got any experience doing it?

Tips suggestions or recommendations PLEASE!
#buying #decision #email #list #wise
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin_Hutto
    Nope, that used to work great when there were lots of companies willing to let you spam. But these days, not so good. Thats why building your own list is stressed so much.
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    • Profile picture of the author ExploringInfinity
      Thanks Kevin, I was thinking the same thing.

      I have my own list, it's growing, but only at 430 for my largest website.. I've also got a facebook group that I can message with about 530 members..

      Having a list of 15,000 or whatever would be nice, but when you start emailing them they're going to be like "WTF are you doing with my email address! How did you get in here?! *unsubscribe*"

      It could be profitable if it was done the right way though. I'll have to find out more details next time I catch my friend online and see what he paid, where it's from, and how it all went down.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikebrooks
    Keep us posted if you learn how it goes with him. But I agree with Kevin.

    I'd be willing to bet it would be way less expensive to build a list from scratch.
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  • Profile picture of the author phpnetpro
    I doubt there's really a good way to buy an email list, unless you can find a private owner who is just willing to part with a list for a fair sum of money.

    Even in that situation, I would want to see some sort of proof of recent activity, sales records and documents to prove it's a double opt-in list.

    There's probably tons of places that will sell you email addresses for a cheap price, but it's not something that would work for an email marketing list - just a spam list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin_Hutto
    There are still companies that will send spam for you, but its expensive and usually not profitable. And even those companies are really having a hard time. Its a cat and mouse game with the isp's and email providers. I know a guy who does webinars based off spamming big lists he buys, but i talked to him a couple months ago and he said even in the last year it has gotten way harder... I wasnt really sad about it :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author GoogleWarrior
    Sounds like a SCAM to me! But its your money to give away.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChickenMan
    I'm still a newbie here, but if you're going to do the generic build a list that many warriors for some reason love, it'd be more helpful to offer content that people would read rather than send the email to the garbage bin and believe me, I've done that numerous times simply because the email was just another sales pitch with an affiliate link.

    Building a list just to sell products you're an affiliate of ain't going to work.
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  • Profile picture of the author mills
    I think the only way to buy a list is if you're buying the website, the autoresponder account and therefore the 'name' they are used to hearing from. Renting an email list is just going to get you a ton of spam complaints.
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  • Profile picture of the author pethanks
    If your friend has something to do with that email address lists then I think it is a wise decision.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jim Cockrum
      Don't ever buy email addresses. Don't ever sell email addresses. Either way it's a reputation killer and it's just bad business.

      Need proof?

      Tell your lead seller that you don't pay until you've run a test mailing to a small part of the list to see what happens (they can even select the 100 names for the test if they want to and you'll pay them a small fee for it). Ninety nine times out of a hundred the test will be a total disaster and you'll save yourself more wasted time, money, and possible legal issues.

      They won't let you test first you say? There's a good reason for that.
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