How big should a list be before sending an ad?

The goal is to get a sale from every subscriber so there is no way to tell how your list will respond to your ad.

The quality and your relationship with subscribers is crucial for high investment return. Anyway keep a good relationship with them and you'll up to 20% conversions.

There should be some sort of offer at the beginning when they optin anyway. This could be a premium version of your free download so if you're not doing that then I recommend to start implementing that straight away.

Regarding mailing an external offer, it depends on a few factors, like your open rates, relationships with your subscribers etc. But if you're getting about a hundred or so clicks on your links within your emails then try mailing an offer.

Fact is, nobody can really answer this, as every list is unique and the only way of finding out is to test and try yourself.

James Scholes

Assuming the list is fairly targeted at worst I would say 50 - meaning a 2% or very low conversion rate. That is my personal experience anyway. Sometimes it can be a lot better if it's a really hungry market and you've built a good amount of trust with them.

I started sending offers when my list had around 40 subscribers. Of course, it really depends of on the niche market. Mine was quite targeted. Those who subscribed were looking for some sort of solution so it was easy for me to offer then a high priced item and get a couple of sales.

The most important thing that you need to do first is to build a relationship with your list. You need to come across as genuine and give out some freebies. People love free stuff. Once the bait has been taken, then you can start to slowly introduce offers.

Depending on the relationship you have with the list. Some people pull out a sale or two with 50 people. Others with 200+

Email marketing is not about size, it's about relationship.

The conversion rate at best should be 5%!

listsize>0

List size of 1 = send an ad. Send a promotion every day.

Just be cool about it. Give some value first, and entertain...

Don't just plug. It gets annoying.

build rapport with your subscribers. I do this with free advice and FREE videos etc. This builds a sort of trust with your subscribers and will make them LIKE YOU. People buy things from people that they like. Don't keep sending them products that they need to pay for. Money is NOT in the list. MONEY IS IN A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR LIST.

James is spot on about putting an offer inside the first lead magnet, you want to train your list to expect a certain amount of value for free but the REALLY good stuff will cost money.

If you establish this early on you'll have a better qualified list in the long run.

If you follow the basic principle that every freebie you send to you list should contain some kind of premium upsell, you'll have the best of both worlds.. a good relationship with your list and more money in the bank.

Hi Tony,

When you send the first promotion to your list subscribers should not be determined according to the size of the list.

It should be determined, for each person on the list, according to the time and number of previous messages already elapsed since they subscribed.

This is why it's essential to use an automated system.

That way, everyone will get (for example) your initial follow-up immediately, another message giving valuable information (say) two days later, and the third, including a product promotion, (say) three days after that.

The first person who joins your list needs the first of those emails on the day he joins. (No exceptions!). The two-hundredth person needs that same email on the day he subscribes, and so on.

I promote those for a living. If it helps you, my own little 10-point checklist for choosing ClickBank products to promote is here.

Nobody else's website can tell you which are going to be "great" products for you to promote to your lists. Only you can judge that. There are some "generally acceptable/unacceptable parameters" that put the odds in your favor (or against you), of course, but you have to apply them for yourself. Sales figures, in any case, are not available, so there isn't a reliable way of knowing "what's selling well" (perhaps just as well, because those products would probably be the most competitive ones to sell, anyway).

I think at least you should have 50 subscribers before you start sending ads. But one thing is very important : You should send your ads in the form of valuable information, not like a cheap ad. You should build long-term relationships with your subscribers. This way, you can reap rich benefits.

Size isn't as important as quality of the list.

Tony, if you haven't created a list, plan first.

Over the years, I've created and deleted a lot of lists, due to lack of planning. :-)

If you're just starting out, I suggest that you target a broad audience in your niche, because you won't know what works in a niche until you've tested. It's all very well to hear about what works for others, but you won't find out what works for YOU, until you test.

Once you've built up a "master" list, you can hive off that large list into smaller targeted lists.

Ultimately, your goal is to convert your free list members to buyers' lists, so the broader your catchment, so to speak, the better.

Re your questions:

* (expecting sales) You may get lucky immediately. You train your list, so begin as you mean to go on. Have plenty of messages in your autoresponder, then send out broadcast messages when you come across something you think they'd like;

* (ClickBank) Choose your products first, before you create the list, and your first few weeks of messages.

List building is a lot of fun. As I've said, I've found that a broad catchment in an area works best, because your list(s) will grow with you.

Have fun. :-)

Angela

I too think that subs shouldnt have to wait until your list is a certain size before promoting offers. If people take the time to opt in the first place they are interested in what your topic is anyway, if you wait you risk losing their interest.

Set up your autoresponder to send some good value info for the first 2 or 3 messages then send a promotion to a paid product. Keep a good relationship with your list and dont send paid offer after paid offer or you will lose them for sure. Send good value info in between your paid promotion offers and you should be ok.

Be prepared to wait it out before seeing good money made though, every list reacts differently. wish you success.

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for all the advice.