Question for all the list builders...

My advise would be don't afraid of competition, even you don't introduce them to warrior forum or WSO, there is already much competition there anyway, so just go ahead and also actively promote your WSO, that's the way to beat the competition.

Your job as a list owner is to get your list to connect with you. Get them to look forward to your emails because they know you don't send them crap. Get them to know you, what your life is like, what you do, how you do it. Entertain them, treat them like humans, market to them, but do it wisely

Do that and it won't matter how many lists they're on. Everyone of us in here who has a list, those people I guarantee you are on at least 3 other peoples list. It's being able to get them to stay on YOURS when they do a house cleaning that will separate you.

I just didn't think of it that way...thanks.

one more question...

to get optins....I have a product that I believe will pretty much guarantee me optins for this niche...its something that will help them and they will also be curious abou but it doesn't have anything to do with internet marketing ....

my plan is to promote IM products plus offer more free products like the one they signed up for.

My question is....is it ok to offer a product that has nothing to do with IM to get them on my list when I'm gonna be promoting IM products? ... hope that makes sense.

I hear you @Rob...what if I offer my product plus a free guide that is related to helping them get more clients?

Once their on the list, I will be providing more freebies plus promoting the paid ones...they kinda go hand in hand because one is to help them perfect their skill (my product) and the other is to help them make more money using the skill...

If they are kind of related I would do a test for a month and if the list was responsive and happy with the offers then I would scale it up.

Can you do the job of helping them achieve what they're looking for? Can you do this without introducing them to wso's? Can you do this without introducing them to a million and one different ways to make money online? Are you going to run the risk of your list getting into the information overload phase? Can you create your own sales funnel that guides them through the steps necessary to achieve their goals?

This is not a simple case of "more competition, more opportunities." This is not a case of competing for search engine traffic. This is YOUR list, YOUR business, Your strategy. Think very clearly about what you want to achieve from this. If you have found an untapped target audience that you can teach how to make money online to, you will be far ahead of most people on this forum.

Don't listen to these people who are telling you to not think of the competition on here. Make your marketing strategy unique to you. If you approach this in the right way you will be the expert they rely on for information. My advice is to steer clear of wso's. There are far better products out there for your list. Not to mention, there are far more lucrative offers that will yield higher commissions for you.

Don't scatter your lists interests by promoting unrelated offers to the ones they signed up for. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to do this, unless of course, you have no bloody idea what they are looking for. Don't make the mistake of THINKING you know what people want, and then go try and sell it to them. Make damn well sure you know EXACTLY what they want, and ONLY THEN go get it and give it to them.

Think outside of the box when bit comes to your marketing strategy. You can promote a "how to make money online" product to a plasterer, but you cannot promote a plastering product to a person looking to make money online. I use this example because i was a qualified plasterer, until someone introduced me to making money online. Anything is better than working on building sites

Thanks for the advice retsced...

Competition is good, show's there's a market out there for you.

But here's a little tip - don't constantly send out marketing mails, thats the fastest way to get me and many others to unsubscribe. You want to build a relationship with your subscribers, as somebody else said above, so stand out from the crowd.

How? Send them useful content, an article you have written, updates from your blog, short email course, hint and tips anything that will excite them and make them look for your mailings.

You can add a ps at end with something like "I saw this and thought you might be interested" so the pitch is a kind of after-thought just make sure it compliments your emails content.

I don't start sending sales messages until they been on list for 2-3 weeks, by which time they know the mails are worth reading. Even then only send max 1 sales mail a week (or fortnight) with lots of content inbetween.

My current unsubscribe rate is 0.02% so my subscribers seem happy enough.

Hope that helps a little

Liza Shaw

Thanks Liz...Well that is my plan to send them helpful content and tips and things, not just sell.

My original plan was to start a free resource/tutorial type site because I do truly want and like to help people (something ive been wanting to do for years now even before I knew what internet marketing was). Im good at a certain skill and I want to help others get better because I know when I was a newb in my niche....the people that I looked up to wouldn't give me the time of day when I would ask for help and I always told myself I would never be like that.

I just recently decided to start a list because everyone says 'the money is in the list'....so why not start in a niche I have a passion for.

Thanks for the advice.

It's all skin in the game. If you can't play against
competition, then marketing isn't the best idea for
you. It's all about superseding competition!

Winston Tian

There are some solid advices in this thread. And its better to build a relationship with your list rather than thinking about your competition.

Hi Nickels,

Don't worry about promoting WSOs... Of course, your subscibers will get emails from others... Of course, you will have fierce competition... But, don't worry about that. There are 2 points you have to take a note of.

1. When you send your first sales mail 3 weeks after someone joins your list and he/she buys that WSO, he/she will automatically be added to the WSO seller's list. However, you will already have the trust of your subscriber by then, whereas, the WSO seller has to start from ground zero to get the subscriber's trust. Hence, your mail will be of more value to the subsciber rather than anyone else's, as long as you provide useful information.

2. You should keep adding new subscribers to your list consistently, so that, even if you lose the old subscibers, you have new ones to promote to.

Thanks guys!