Grey / Blackhat List Building Using Ebay - Make Easy $$$ - What do u think?

by 44 replies
50
Hey Warriors,

I've been secretly toying with this idea to build an email list, without the user opt'ing in. I consider this grey/blackhat for this reason. I recently stumbled upon a method of making EASY money online by selling email addresses on eBay.

What I do is take a hot topic or niche, say iPhone for example, and register an email account with one of the free email providers (preferably Gmail) that relates to the topic. Then I would list it for sale on eBay in the Cell Phones (or its corresponding) category.

Examples:

Back in November I sold a few email addresses using this method.
I sold G1Purchase@gmail.com for $152.50!!! No kidding. See screenshot:



I also sold orderG1phones@gmail.com on the same day for $46.00!




I also sold several other email addresses that day with sales ranging from $.99 on up. Its great because the email addresses are free to register, so there's no real expenses other than eBay listing fees (which is pennies).

The main reason I started doing this was obviously to make easy money, however I realized that I was also building a HIGHLY targeted email list, that I could potentially market to at later dates!

I also came to discover that I could register pretty much ANY targeted domain name, and give away lots of free email addresses that my web host offers for free!

For instance:
Let's say (figuratively speaking) I registered and hosted a domain named www.weightlossexperts.com, and I started giving away (or selling) email accounts to interested people that wanted to sound more professional or whatever. I.E. john.doe@weightlossexperts.com, jane.doe@weightlossexperts.com, etc.

The people receiving these email addresses would obviously be highly targeted to weight loss, hence I would market the crap out of affiliate products, CPA's etc.!

What do you Warriors think about this method of list building and making money in a different way?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #$$$ #blackhat #building #easy #ebay #grey #list #make
  • Bump - accidentally posted incomplete thread
  • Not one reply / comment?

    I can take constructive criticism.
    • [2] replies
    • I guess, as they say, "the market has spoken."

      That's all the feedback a marketer really needs.



      Thomas
    • Interesting. Can you talk about the size of the lists you have been able to build? If that works, that is where the real money is.
      • [2] replies
  • Hi,

    If you had a great domain then of course they would be interested.

    How many of you would love yourname@warriorforum.com or yourname@marketing.com etc..

    If you owned @yoga.com, you could sell therename@yoga.com, it LOOKS VERY PROFESSIONAL.

    The only problem with selling these on e-mail is that you need to host this domain for them, so you would have to have some sort of contact where they pay yearly.

    If you're selling GMAIL accounts you're not going to have this problem.
  • Wow! Tim I have no idea about your plan for selling those email services However,


    I think your selling gmail accounts on ebay is Absolutely BRILLIANT!

    I have to ask, how do you go about marketing those ebay auctions? or do you literally just put them up and see what happens?
  • Wow my first time to hear that you can sell an email address
  • People used to do this with GMail accounts (selling the email address) when GMail was really in "beta". Sometimes the accounts would get shut down, or the auctions would get canned, or . . . ?

    Why?

    Google's GMail TOS didn't allow it. Not sure if that has changed or not, but it used to be "don't get caught"

    I like the concept of selling or giving away email addresses at your own domain, however! Clever! (jane.doe@cashflowexperts.com, anyone?)
    • [1] reply
    • Legal/moral or not, I can't fathom why anyone would buy an email address?

      Why should I want to buy an email address, what's in it for me?
  • Whenever I saw these, I always figured the bidders were stupid and thought they were bidding on the item itself (the phone in this example).
    • [1] reply
    • Bingo.

      Notice in the listing example he shows the subject is a little ambiguous and there is a picture of an item in the listing.

      This is just taking advantage of unfortunate folks who didn't take the time to read the listing.

      This is like people who sold X-Box boxes. Bidders thought they were getting an X-Box and instead got a box.
  • You know, I never claimed that this method was moral. I did in fact say it was a little on the blackhat side of marketing. You are playing on the fact that people think they are getting an actual tangible product (i.e. an iPhone or xbox), HOWEVER I made it very clear several times, in red capital letters that they were purhcasing an email only.

    It is indeed their fault for not reading the entire auction if they were under the impression that they were purchasing the item thinking it was an iphone or xbox. Some people wanted the email addresses for business purposes, and they emailed afterwards thanking me for the email account.
    • [2] replies

    • Well, have a look at this first if you are going to try to split hairs on what was actually being sold in the auction. It says it all...

      YouTube - eBay Scammer on Judge Judy
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
    • you know you are scamming people

      • [2] replies
  • I thought the same thing i.e. that the people thought they were buying a phone for example. I can't really see anything wrong with selling email addresses even though you did get them for free. Just because it was free to you doesn't mean it's not going to be in demand.

    As for the list building, surely it's not the end of the world if someone gets an email they didn't ask for.
  • I'm confused.

    In what manner could people who you've tricked (scammed) into buying an email address be a responsive list? What good would having their email address be if they ignore, spam, or delete all of your emails because they don't trust you?
    • [1] reply

    • Who exactly was tricked or scammed?

      I just replied a few minutes ago that in the auction in that they werent getting a tangible item, that they were getting an . How are they tricked if they don't read the auction or terms? You obviously didn't read the entire thread and posts otherwise you would have answered your own question.

      Also, I never claimed an email list generated this way would be responsive, I just said it would be targeted. I also never said that you HAVE to email or market to that list. You can just sell the email account and move on to the next. Rinse, Lather, Repeat as they say.
      • [2] replies
  • IMChick - that was just brilliant!!!!
  • Hey Tim I "get it"... you did post in big bold red letters that they were purchasing an email address... but pictures do speak VOLUMES. Some people only look at the picture and just go from there.

    I'm no judge... but I think you've done your part to let them know that its an email addres. If they don't actually read the listing, then its THEIR fault.

    be careful though, because your eBay ratings could go into teh toilet if many people feel they are cheated. You're playing with fire, but have yet to get burned.
    • [1] reply
    • People that do this are idiots!

      My point - thank you!

      I have several accounts, and no longer do this method anyway because it has not been very profitable for me
  • Folks, take a closer look, there is no record of these sales on the feedback page, not surprised are you ?

    Just as Judge Judy illustrated in the clip the item description is not what is being sold:


    T-Mobile


    --


    N/A


    --


    Google


    --


    G1


    --


    Smartphone (PDA Phone)

    I don't consider Gmail a
  • Seems that there are a few people doing this:
    http://completed.shop.ebay.co.uk/ite..._ipg=50&_rdc=1

    Martin
  • It seems like a lot of potential problems with very little upside to me. Maybe I just don't get it, though.
    • [1] reply
    • And my advice is to either not try it at all, or try it and dont tell anyone about it because you will just be criticized for your efforts.


      FOR THE RECORD - I do not use this technique anymore. Yes, it probably was not right, so rest assured that I only experimented with it becasue I saw others doing it on ebay as well. I am not a blackhatter or a scammer. Just an experiment that got results, which I posted here on the forum.
      • [1] reply
  • I own the Domain
    IAMWarrior.com

    do you think anybody wants to buy an email address here?

  • Tim, I understand that you spelled everything out in the auction description very clearly.. but you also said that you were banking on people not realizing they were not getting the actual product.

    It's cool that you have stopped doing this.
  • This reminded me of the guy who sold xbox boxes on eBay many years ago. His auction said you get everything in the picture.

    In the picture was an xbox box. Yep you got the box. Many people purchased these empty boxes for hundreds of dollars.

    I could not live with myself if I had done something like the xbox box guy did. It's not worth the bad karma.

    Re's
    Rob Whisonant
    • [1] reply

    • Wow... that's almost as bad as people putting up bogus donation sites right after natural disasters... that's just plain wrong.

  • This makes me laugh, and when it comes to using your real name it keeps you honest and makes you more trustworthy. LOL
  • tim - I didn't realize someone had dragged this up from archives..
  • Seems an interesting idea, and would agree that I'm a little confused as to how you can sell indivdual email addresses and not the domain itself. But the techniques seem viable though, I think your selling gmail accounts on ebay is a different and unique way to build your list for sure and earn an income at the same time!
    • [1] reply
    • Well, I don't see anything wrong with that except that you listed it in the wrong category that's all.
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