Free WSO Opt-Ins vs. Solo Ad Opt-Ins

Sounds like something worthy of testing to me

Without writing a book about the "ifs", "ands" and "buts" involved here, I more or less agree with this belief.

This I find much harder to believe. My guess is that most people who "buy" a free WSO (i.e. get product-delivery in exchange for only an opt-in) are on a large number of other lists.

Tangential point coming up, and based on no personal experience at all (I've never done a WSO): I think you probably build a far, far better list by promoting a $1 WSO rather than by offering a free one.

In one case you have a buyers' list of people known to have credit-cards and/or PayPal accounts and both the ability and willingness to use them online.

In the other, you have a mixture of some of those people and a (larger?) number of people of whom that isn't true, with no way to distinguish between the two groups.

All that said, if you have a big list of a mixture of different types of people, I think most marketers agree that on average, you can expect each subscriber to be worth $1 per month. True that most of them will be worth $0, but the few buyers on the list will make the average to be approximately $1 a month. Of course, if your list is made up solely of buyers, then each subscriber is worth much much more than $1.

I can see why you'd think that and I see your logic.

The reality is that we're all on a ton of lists.

The only place you're going to get subscribers who aren't on a ton of lists is with organic traffic, ppc, or media buys.

A good solo ad usually runs $0.65 to $1.10 per subscriber. I am talking the better list jockeys like Reed Floren test.

I would think(optimal word here) a $40 WSO would get subscribers for a lot less than that for the fact the WSO runs until you close it and a solo is a one time deal.

Now solo or WSO .. really doesn't matter .. most of these people are on a lot of list but I tend to think like Alexa and think the WSO list member is probably being hit harder.

Either list member will tend to open your emails more often if you wine and dine them longer than you would someone you collected from a content based capture page you are driving traffic to yourself.

Give them free tools and free advice for a couple of weeks before they ever face a sales page or even a funnel change.

Interesting points, all. I was considering making my WSO (in my sig) $1, but the way I looked at it was: if someone is going to spend $1, they'll also spend $0. This means some of the subscribers, probably "most", won't end up converting... at least initially (if ever), but the ones that hopefully will, will also have subscribed. Sure this means I'll potentially be spending a little more than I have to (AWeber's fees are based on subscribers i.e. 500, 1000, etc.).

Very interesting thought indeed.
I guess if you have the money you can try both. Or try both over a couple of months at least.
Also with the WSO approach, you will be building a list of "potential buyers". Obviously they aren't real buyers because they will be the kind of people that hang out in the WSO thread at least.
Give it a go.

This is the exact question I have been asking myself over the last two months and in my experience, solo ads yield better results than free WSOs. With the exact same funnel, I was able to add 150 subscribers on my best day from one of my free WSOs. However, on the back end I only had 5 sales which totaled around $45. The smallest solo ad I have done was for 500 clicks and that was for $150. I was able to add 270 subscribers and made $270 ($1 per subscriber off the bat is pretty great) on the back end. So although I got more subscribers for the amount of money on my free WSO, I made more money on the back end through the solo ad.

I agree. The result of one test should not be considered conclusive. However, my experience with solo ads has consistently been better than with free WSOs. Both have been effective for me, but solo ads have the advantage in my experience. One reason may be because free WSOs bring in opt-ins from people browsing the forum or receiving alerts from Warrior Plus (this may be very significant as there are tons of freebie seekers being automatically alerted when a free WSO is launched). On the other hand, solo ads bring in opt-ins from a recommendation, which may affect the "trust" factor significantly.

Also, a quick note to anyone thinking of running a free WSO. Instead of bumping your WSO, I recommend you start a whole new thread, even if it is the exact same offer. Don't worry, it will be approved even if it is the same offer as another of your WSO threads. The reason being is because Warrior Plus' Alert system has a feature that will alert people when a NEW WSO is launched based on the keywords in the title of the thread. For example, if "PLR" is in your thread title, 524 people will be notified via email through Warrior Plus that your WSO has launched. This is because 524 have signed up to be notified whenever "PLR" is in a WSO thread title. However, if you just bump your thread, no alert will be issued. I actually learned this by observing Jason Parker's WSO listing history in Warrior Plus

The quality of your leads will be higher from the WSO. Most solo ads are sent out to non-buyer lists, but if your marketing/relationship building skills are strong you can still get sales.

Also, sometimes people will be on your list for well over a year as a non-buyer and all of a sudden their circumstances will change and they'll start buying all of your offers.