what REALLY is the TRUE benefit of building a list? Would really appreciate some insight into this..

by Sonny Am

Posted: 14 years ago 19 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi,

I have been told by many internet marketers that if you have an army of niche sites making you money and passive income then thats great, but you can never be really successfull untill you start using that traffic to build your list.....I started thinking, is list building really that important? what is wrong with carrying on building good solid niche sites with great content and not building a list and reaping the passive income......

From what I can see the main advantages of building a list are

If anything happens to your site in the rankings, you still have a good traffic source as every time you create a new post people on your list will get a new email.

When you release a new product, you can promote it to your list and make money....

However, how many people check their emails that regularly and more importantly would click on your email and land on your site.

Will people not get annoyed receiving emails every other day with new blog posts, or do you only send them the most important blog post emails?

Also are there any benefits of list building that i have missed out above?

I would really really be grateful if someone could clear up the whole list building thing and its true benefits for me.

#benefit #building #insight #list #true

drooblez 14 years ago

I'm not sure how you are making your passive money from your websites, whether it be through advertising or promoting products, but to put it pretty simple...

If you are not building a list, then you only have that one opportunity of when they arrive to your site to make money from you. If you ARE building a list, then not only can you make money from them right when they are on your site, but you can also market to them later on down the road through emails.

Yes, people do check their emails. And if you are providing them with products that can solve their problem, then you will make more money from your list. However, if you promote junk, or if you are sending out multiple emails every single day, your list may not respond like a normal list would.

So building a list is still important and can still be helpful, for the simple reason that it allows you to be able to market to that same person later on down the road.
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loi77 14 years ago

It's true, you must build a list for long term success. It is crucial that you know how to do it properly. If you spam them, you are killing your list.

When the visitors land on your page, they are "strangers" and they are skeptical because they don't know you. When you give them a free report in exchange for their name and email, they will trust you more because they perceive you as a giver and not a taker.

After that, you can send them useful information, build relationship with them and turn them into "prospects". Once they trust you, it is much easier to sell to them and you can turn them into "customers". Eventually some will become "long term customers" and you can sell to them over and over again.

Think big, think long term and build a list!

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I sincerely wish you all the very best!

To your success,
David Loi
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drooblez

14 years ago

People who complain or whine about "the list method" being dead or outdated are people who either a ) never tried it or b ) never knew the proper way to build a successful list. Lists are still VERY powerful and a lot of money can still be made.

Thanks
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Des Lau

14 years ago

Originally Posted by drooblez

Werd to that!

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Chrisbroholm 14 years ago

I think you should only build a list if you have any good additional content to offer, if then you are simply expanding into other medias.
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- Jill Carpenter 14 years ago
  
  Your list can give you insight on which direction your sites/business should take.
  
  If someone makes a purchase from you and they are on your list, you can determine them as a qualified buyer. And if someone buys something on the web then there is a good chance you can convince them to buy something else.
  
  The list in most cases should enable you to build a relationship of trust. The true/best benefit IMO is that when you grab the email it gives you a portal to communicate regularly, get feedback, suggest products, and a way to continue reminding them of you and your sites and what you can offer them that will help them get what it is they truly want.
  
  I initially learned I should be list building and had done some minor reading on the topic - but was actually pushed into making it happen quickly when something I was promoting had a massive site outage. I was doing PPC and so all the clicks going through my ad and through my site were landing on a site that was "out of order" due to massive volume. I was losing several hundred dollars (ad spend) and losing all those people I had paid for to click on my ad. With a list ready to go, I immediately could collect names and redirect the traffic later when the site was working again.
  
  Having said all that - not all types of campaigns may need a list to be built. There needs to be a long term strategy of what you think you might do with these buyers, and things will also depend on the full intentions of each website.
  
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paul nicholls 14 years ago

building niche sites is all well and good but if you really want to build massive leverage online then you need to start building a list

niche sites should only be part of your income, if you have to rely on them for all your income then your business as very unstable because as you know google can shut businesses down overnight due to some of there algo tweaks that they make

im not paranoid but i just like being in control of my earnings and income, this is very good business practice and should be everyones priority that wants to create an income online

paul
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drooblez 14 years ago

Originally Posted by bowerboy

can you show us the site you use to generate your list so that we can see you are walking the walk?

I am still making a lot of money from the sites that I am building lists from, and the last thing I would need is more competition from marketers.

And to be completely honest, it doesn't matter to me if you believe me or not. It's not like I'm charging anyone money for this.
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Tjalling 14 years ago

In my opinion the old IM market saying ''the money is in the list'' still applies.
Once you have people in your list, you can stay ''in touch'' with them until they unsubscribe! Now that's a huge difference compared to one time exposure.

Little bit of neuromarketing:

Everyone has an ''emotional bank account''. You are the person that is providing good free content and relevant information to the person that opted in on your list. The emotional bank account of your follower will be out of balance since you give them so much for free. They will have unnoticed have the feeling of doing something back. Now you will have a higher chance to sell your product !
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Shimon 14 years ago

Hi, the main benefit of having a list is that it is another stream of income which is long term and of course sustainable. And like others warriors have stated, there are many benefits of having a list, therefore it's defiantly worth building your list of subscribers.
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one1990 14 years ago

Well 'Sonny Am' people won't get annoyed by emails, as long as they are interested in the subject matter and you have something good to offer them(value is important).

About the list benefits: if you have a good, large and responsive list, you can market your products to your list. You also won't have to worry about traffic anymore, because you will have your own customers.

Regards
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thetrafficguy

14 years ago

Well to say you won't be successful if you don't have a list is BS.

But it is a good thing to build a list, is an asset for your business, and will make you more money.

The thing is it's not just having a list, but the relationship you have with your list. Having a list doesn't mean anything if they don't respond.

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celente

14 years ago

Originally Posted by thetrafficguy

I do agree with this.

I have lists of about 500 people that can bring me in thousands.

But I also have lists of people maybe like 100k list, that does not do much.

The reason is the relationship with your list. If you do not have that you have nothing, really. That is where the power lies.

Think about the lists that you are on. You know some idiot keeps selling you stuff, so you unsubscribe. But other marketers will send you cool stuff and you will always open and have a look. That is what you need to do. Create repore and get more lookers into buyers.

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Christopher Fox 14 years ago

I don't possess a list at this point, but its benefits are quite obvious. Think about catalogues you get via snail mail. You are sent those because you have made a purchase previously or requested the catalogue.

Me personally, I like the Victoria's Secret catalogue, but, umm ... never mind.

You get that point, right? Victoria's Secret gets your information while you are in the store, and then sends you their catalogue so you either:

a) Pick up the phone and make a purchase with your visa

or

b) go to the store to purchase something you saw in their catalogue

For Imers, a) is a click on an affiliate link (or your own product you are advertising) in the email and b) spurs them into action to revisit your site so you keep their interest and they don't forget about your site amongst the multitude of sites popping up everyday, competing against you for the surfer's time online - and maybe buy something off of your site while they are there.

It is very simple. It is a tried and true method in the offline world and IMers did not invent list building - they merely saw what worked in the offline world and applied to the online arena.

It is not dead and will never be dead in our lifetimes. It was going on way before anyone here was born (think Sears & Roebuck). And, it obviously works as companies still invest large amounts of cash sending things to their snail mail lists.

It ain't rocket science and I, for one, believe the people that say there is all kinds o' money in a properly targeted list.
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drooblez 14 years ago

Originally Posted by bowerboy

Above is a pretty good sample of what I was referring to..

Check the sites in the above posts..walking the walk or just talking the talk??

I'm not sure how long you've been in internet marketing, but people aren't going to oust their campaigns and successful sites to prove a point. I'm not selling anything. I'm offering my free advice.

You can ride on Pat Flynn all you want (and he is a great guy) but when he makes a new post about a strategy or technique he doesn't share with you all of his successful sites either.

I'll assume that you are just new to internet marketing and don't realize that people aren't here to share their successful campaigns with a forum of thousands of other other marketers. That, or your logic may be a little messed up if you think people are actually going to oust their successful campaigns, hahaha.
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- Birdi 14 years ago
  
  having websites set up and bringin in x amount of income is just as good, how long can it sustain depends.
  
  the way i look at a list is simply they are my customers, and im providing to them a solution to their problems. To have customers that buy from you already is easier then to have new customers that still need to trust you. Any traditional business believe this....
  
  it is far easier to retain an existing customer, but much harder to get new ones.
  
  so with an list, those customers trust you enough that they will buy from you, so long as you provide them with quality products that solve their problems. You dont need to keep going out and finding new customers all the time. even though i would still do that help expand my customer base
  
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TopKat22 14 years ago

I didn't make any real continual money in my IM venture until I started list building ans concentrating on that.

It is relatively easy and as I always knew in my offline businesses, people who buy from you once are more likely to buy from you again.

Also, you do all that work to get traffic, why not keep it (by way of people signing up) and reuse it time and time again while you ALSO get new traffic.

I know a pretty new IMer make over $75000 on one Saturday after he sent an email to his list to be on a webinar and sold them a product.

There really isn't a right or wrong way to make money online.

I tell people, do the method you like if it works.

I like this method because it seemed easy to me, once it is all set up with autoresponders and you are getting consistent traffic that converts to your squeeze page, it really kind of runs itself. I just add an article or may send out a broadcast email.

Then you move on to another niche and do it all over again.
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drooblez 14 years ago

Yup, just as I thought, you have nothing to say.

Now we can get back on the topic of why list building is beneficial.
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Patrick Batty 14 years ago

having a list gives you the opportunity to have ongoing rather than just transient communication with your readers.

What you do with that.. that's what seperates the boys from the men.

If you offer ongoing valueable information, rather than just sell, sell, sell.. then IMHO your list will stay with you for a long time,

There are some real masters out there that do just this. It appears to me they have about a 60/40 ratio of info vs. product.

I'll stay on those lists.

The guys that send me an affil linked mini post every day.. I'll drop like a hot potato.
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what REALLY is the TRUE benefit of building a list? Would really appreciate some insight into this..

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