What's the Best Use of Solo Ads: Direct Linking or Building a List - Your Choice and Why?

25 replies
What's the Best Use of Solo Ads: Direct Linking or Building a List - Your Choice and Why?

I did a thorough research on solo Ads and found that many say it's best suited to build a list rather than sending people directly to the offer. However, people say that list building quality has degraded tremendously over the last few years as most lists are recycled, i.e. people build lists from other people lists, hence then lists become less and less responsive.

If you use solo Ads - which way works best for you in terms of monetising on it: direct linking to offers or building lists to promote to them later?

What are your thoughts on that?
#ads #building #choice #direct #linking #list #solo
  • Profile picture of the author Ed Micah
    In my opinion, building the list is the ultimate goal.

    I'm pretty sure it has been said a lot of times already, but when you have a list, you can sell things to them again and again, where as if you send them directly to sales, that's only 1 time sale.
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  • Profile picture of the author Freddie Crossberg
    people say that list building quality has degraded tremendously over the last few years as most lists are recycled, i.e. people build lists from other people lists, hence then lists become less and less responsive.
    Most people don't really have a clue - they parrot what they heard from someone who heard it from someone and so on.....

    It doesn't matter from what list a prospect comes from and what his experience on that list was. What matters is what his experience is like on YOUR list.

    If you use solo Ads - which way works best for you in terms of monetising on it: direct linking to offers or building lists to promote to them later?
    You will never even come close to breaking even with Solo Ad traffic if you direct link - Even if you listbuild and you have a self liquidating offer meaning an OTO and Upsell - at best you will break even and you have to recoup your adspend plus profit from the backend. This can be done provided you get the follow up sequence right (most don't).

    Solo Ads are great - but it takes a bit of planning to make it profitable.

    Freddie
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Hi Jacky!

    You can always set up a OTO at the front end of your sales funnel and try to make back some of your original investment.

    If you have a good solid offer in place you can make profits at the front end by then offering an Up-sell to that OTO.

    And then another one after that if you can further increase the value of it.

    There are really no ends to the possibilities if you just create until you have enough content to knock a house down with.

    It is what you do with it that counts.

    Have a great day everyone at the awesome W.F.
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  • Profile picture of the author manicmethods
    Building a List - Capture the leads and THEN send them to that link you were originally considering sending the solo ad straight to.
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    Even though sending them to an opt in page is a no brainer, you also have to think of the value of that visitor over time. Direct linking has waaay too many leaks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joan Altz
    You can't judge list building on what other people are doing or not doing. The truth is that most of these "trustworthy" marketers who people subscribe to promote ANY NEW THING....and THAT is what kills trust, because only about half of these new product launches are WORTH promoting.

    So say some nice guy like Chad Nicely (no pun intended) promotes some pile of junk with poor support only because Chad WANTS to promote it and make bank, but his subscribers end up in a headache situation...well, Chad just lost credibility...he lost his edge...because nice guy Chad Nicely chose his own interests (money) over his subscribers....

    This kind of promotion from marketers happens every day. No wonder subscribers are becoming less responsive.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Hugall
    Simply put. Building your list and then leading people to an OTO. You win on 2 fronts you get the lead who may have said no to the offer and just left. All vendors have exit pop-ups so they get the lead and you spend the money. Also if you lead them to an OTO after sign-up you have a chance to make a sale and get the lead. That is the difference between working for free and building your own business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacky Murdock
    Thank you all guys for sharing your experiences and opinions, this is really important to me. It's always great to get opinion of the experts which many of you (I am sure) are. So thank you once again!

    All I can say is that I won't be even trying direct linking with solo ads and will concentrate on building quality squeeze pages and getting subscribers on my list.

    So my plan is:
    - Setup squeeze page with sign up form above the fold
    - Add some informative niche-related article underneath (to boost quality score for PPC)
    - Drive traffic to squeeze page (via solo ads and ppc) and build subscribers.
    - Show them OTO (or maybe a quality freebie as my "thank you for subscribing"?) on the confirmation page.
    - Show them high-end product or OTO at the "thank you" page.
    - Build relationship with the list via quality follow-ups without selling anything and then start softly promoting to them on 80/20 basis (80% info and 20% offers) emailing them once a week.

    I hope you like my plan but any comments or suggestions are highly welcome of course!
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  • Profile picture of the author zoldusta
    solo ads are best for list building, and promoting OTO's .
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  • Profile picture of the author tyronne78
    If you're an affiliate or you plan on being one your focus should be on building a list that YOU own and control. People will buy from you once they know,like, and trust you. If you recommend good solid products to your list they will buy. I wouldn't be wasting my time building some one else's list which I see a lot of people doing.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie123
    Both! Try and sell them something and give away something free that requires them to opt-in!
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggerDeen
    Without any doubt, building a list is definitely number one priority for solo ads.
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    • Profile picture of the author SEOSteveO
      Building a list. Direct linking will only at best get someone to click on your affiliate link or what ever link your trying to send them too. Get them on your list and you can send them links as many times you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author samb39
    Building your list should be your number one goal when
    using solo ads. If you have a good offer, usaully a product
    that is of good value, you stand to make money on the front end
    while building your list at the same time.
    Rule of thumb is, every one subscriber on your list is worth $1
    per month.
    Always treat your list like it's an expensive piece of real estate
    because... it is...
    Best of luck...
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    Another "I have heard list building is dead" :-)

    With solo ads 99% of vendors will never let you send their traffic direct to a sales page anyway

    The rules are you have to give a free offer

    And why you would want to send traffic direct to a sales page anyway is beyond me

    Anyone that tells you that sending traffic direct to a sales page is more profitable is either lazy or doesn`t have any idea how to convert prospects into buyers....Or both!

    Forget all the hype that most people out there pedal, you need to get in the trenches yourself and find out what works. You will soon realize that most things that you hear about various topics is a load of rubbish

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
      Look at it this way:

      You buy 500 clicks and you direct link to an affiliate product which pays your $30. You make 25 sales totaling $750. Sweet you are happy because your only spent like $400 for the clicks so you are $350 in profit.

      But guess what? You are right back at square one as it relates to making more money..

      But what if you sent those 500 clicks to a squeeze page to build your list?

      Well possibly this could happen: about 30% may sign up which means you have about 150 new persons on your list. Plus you then present them with the affiliate product you promoted earlier as an OTO.

      You make the same 25 sales! You know why? Its the same persons who bought when you direct link would sign up to your squeeze anyways.

      So now not only are you in profit but you also have a list of 150 new subscribers that contains proven buyers that you can market to over and over again.

      Having used the analogy above, I'm sure you know which route I'd take!
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      • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
        Originally Posted by yesacpow View Post

        Look at it this way:

        You buy 500 clicks and you direct link to an affiliate product which pays your $30. You make 25 sales totaling $750.
        out of 500 clicks you would be lucky to see 10 sales and that is if the sales page converts at 2% on cold traffic which most don`t

        solo ads traffic is good but most people don`t set their front end funnel up properly that`s why most people don`t do that well off of them, meanwhile, a small percentage are killing it with solo ads :-)

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    I have dabbled with Solo Ads for years now, along with List Building sites like ListJoe and ViralURL. Although I do get solid amount of leads, I find they seldom convert. Which makes me feel like my time is better spent with targeted Search Marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author QuanWar
      Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

      I have dabbled with Solo Ads for years now, along with List Building sites like ListJoe and ViralURL. Although I do get solid amount of leads, I find they seldom convert. Which makes me feel like my time is better spent with targeted Search Marketing.
      I second that, I find solo ads a tad expensive
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  • Profile picture of the author Daikatana
    For me the List is the Ultimate goal in everything I do. Solo ads included.
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  • Profile picture of the author JPBailey
    "With solo ads 99% of vendors will never let you send their traffic direct to a sales page anyway"

    Exactly. There is free traffic, takes time, and there is paid traffic (solos) fast - but either way if you don't know how to set up your complete funnel, email follow-ups, etc. and buying process, give value and promote good offers with converting sales pages (test, test, test) then your traffic will drop off and even unsubscribe.

    The 'rules' on solos are that you have to offer a freebie to get someone to opt-in to your list. Once they are on your list - you can promote to them however you want, build relationships, build the TKL factor over time, etc. etc.

    As a solo ad seller, I'll tell you this - I charge extra for sales pages...and I don't accept every sales page. It has to be something really good at a low price point. I don't just sell clicks for anything... I want to send my list quality stuff from people who know what they are doing.

    If I sent out sales pages to my list, it wears out my list and I'm working to make you money...when my job is to work to get you subs... and help you make money via fast list building from fresh subs - but not at my expense. It takes money to keep my lists going so I can offer fresh leads...

    If someone buys a solo with pop-ups and a ton of OTO's and all that - they either need to pay for that - everyone pays for advertising, or I just refund them. It's clear on my page what the rules are and it's like, don't they think I'm going to check their links??

    From my point of view, see, when I offer your freebie to my list - you'll get a Ton more subs for your clicks.... if I have to push a sales letter in front of them, they tend to click less, and unsubscribe, which makes replenishing my list to keep selling traffic more expensive. And, they may unsubscribe from your list too. Remember people don't like to be sold to, they like to buy what they are looking for.

    Sales videos with no pause button or no indication of how long they will be are the worst, people click off those faster than you ate your Turkey dinner last night.

    Freebies should also be good content so they like you from the start. And that's what you are paying for - to get in front of my huge list so you can make sales from them when they get on your list. I don't make sales off my list so they are hungry, and open to buy what they see coming from you.

    I really do have the solo buyer in mind.... or I wouldn't be in this business very long.

    I hope this helped. I think you have a good plan, but ask some experienced marketers to take a look at it and TEST it too.

    Oh, and don't forget... you can also Swap to help build your list...

    When I started I had a weekly schedule of content, swaps and solos. I built my list, built relationships to my list, networked with other swap partners, got to check out their stuff for ideas, and also promoted good stuff or did product reviews. Especially products I used myself.

    You're on the right track though, don't be afraid to ask questions. Take all answers into consideration, run it by some folks or a coach and test them out yourself. NEVER just go by what you "heard". Because how do you know they aren't just saying that for some reason or another or that they just "heard" it?

    JP Bailey, MA

    P.S. (Safe-swaps is a good place to swap and get used to how to do it. People rate each others results there, so you can see who are good swap partners. I have no relation to them. I used them to swap when I first started and then out-grew it.)

    P.P.S. (Oh, and make sure you have good tracking in place so you see exactly what you're getting from your solos/swaps - clicks, subs, traffic sources even what Country they come from. Once you know a few good solo sellers, it takes 1 or 2 200-click solos to test a new funnel - so if you're funnel gets say, 30-35% optin rate and you buy a solo that only got you 10% you know somethings not right... and you want to check your tracking so you're not getting what we call "junk traffic" - generally traffic from sources that don't even have the ability to pay... tire-kickers, freebie-seekers and not all - but alot - from places that you don't think of as big spenders, Pakistan, China, hate to sound bad, but, if you don't get a good percent of subs from USA/UK/AU/CAN/ etc. that's junk traffic - or even cheaters who pay people to subscribe from those countries for pennies!!!! Check testimonials and don't be tempted to buy 10,000 clicks for $5 - that's junk traffic.)

    damn, I could go on and on here. but let me say.... good coaches will send you to good solo sellers, or buy a WSO of a current solo seller rolo-dex, some come as bonuses to a good list-building product! But always test and track. Network - it's hard doing this on your own... develop friendships with swap buddies and ask them who are good sellers. You'll soon have a nice list of reliable traffic sources. You can even ask solo sellers to refer you to people they know who sell solos too...I always refer out when I'm booked and I had better refer to good sellers or I look bad!)

    Hope you're getting all this - it took me alot of time, money and training to learn it!

    I'm just avoiding my sales page I'm suppose to be writing, now let me get out of here!

    Good Luck Guys,
    ~ Jeanette ~
    JP Bailey, MA
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    The best use of solo ads is to let newbies go broke buying them so they quit and don't become your future competition. Solo ads are glorified spam and most of the money is being made by the sellers of solo ads - not the buyers.

    The sole purpose of not letting you link directly to a sales page is to keep you from tracking conversions. They know that if you spend $25, $50, $100 or whatever on the solo ad and see no sales, word gets out and people will stop buying.

    And the requirement to offer something free is to keep their list from viewing the emails as useless crap. However, traffic generated through a free offer is universally considered near-junk traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author Freddie Crossberg
      You have absolutely NO idea what you are talking about

      Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot View Post

      The best use of solo ads is to let newbies go broke buying them so they quit and don't become your future competition. Solo ads are glorified spam and most of the money is being made by the sellers of solo ads - not the buyers.

      The sole purpose of not letting you link directly to a sales page is to keep you from tracking conversions. They know that if you spend $25, $50, $100 or whatever on the solo ad and see no sales, word gets out and people will stop buying.

      And the requirement to offer something free is to keep their list from viewing the emails as useless crap. However, traffic generated through a free offer is universally considered near-junk traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rukshan
    If you buy someone else solo ad, You should make a big list by using those stuffs. Most of the these lists have high responsive users.
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