Quality of a List of the Quantity???

Here's an example:

You are ranking first for the following keywords:
Tips dor loosing weight. --Very general, but many searches

I need to lose 25 pounds by tomorrow. --very specific, but few searches.

Which would I rather have a list for? The second one, for they want to lose weight now and they are more willing to buy my products.

Yes.

That's sometimes true, but it doesn't have to be true: "the biggest list" isn't by any means the same thing as "the biggest income".

Here are some threads which explain a little bit about why, and refer to some testing which demonstrated that smaller, better-quality/better-targeted lists can produce more income. These are just one sort of example (explaining why a big, squeeze-page-built subscriber-list can perform a lot worse than a much smaller, content-rich-site-built subscriber-list). There are many others, too.

Is the squeeze page dead?
I don’t believe this! Higher opt-in rate, fewer sales
What are the essential things to know about list building?
Website or squeeze page
Squeeze Page on Landing Page a Turn Off?
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7527028

It's subjective, and defined with reference to the purposes of the person building the list. But certainly, as you suggest, "how responsive it is" (for his purposes), and "how targeted the opt-ins are" (to what he's selling/promoting) are part of that.

I think the best starting-point for that is probably an understanding of different traffic demographics in general, and specifically "what sort of readers/visitors opt in to what sort of opt-in". Continuing the examples mentioned above, for instance, it's very easy to prove that sometimes "potentially the best traffic" can comprise people who won't opt in to a squeeze page. and even easier to prove that it comprises people who will be lost permanently to sites that use pop-ups. It's also niche-dependent, and there are other variables involved, but traffic demographics are the most important, I think.

Nicolas - please excuse my repeating something which other Warriors here have said to you, in other threads: removing from your website the offer of sending people "100,000 email addresses" in exchange for their opt-in will help to limit the damage to your reputation both in this forum and elsewhere. At the moment, what you're doing comes across purely and simply as an "invitation to spam", and the type of list you'll build from it will certainly be one of extremely poor quality for your own purposes.

Alexa's reply + Only one example from me -

Even if you have a list of 10 million people from a 3rd world country who are earning less than $5 a day, you may end up making $0 by promoting your offers to them.

Actually if you are looking for perfect result always, look for something perfect always. In that point you should always look for quality links. But in building lists you should emphasize on both the twos. Because here both quality and quantity is important.

I'll play a little devils advocate here..

"loosing weight" vs "I need to lose 25 pounds by tomorrow."

very often, those "I need to lose 25 pounds by tomorrow." people may still be on your more generic "loosing weight" list.. So if you promote a "25 pounds by tomorrow" product to that list, you will not only make those same sales to the ""25 pounds by tomorrow" people, but often pick up a lot of additional sales as well from other people on your list who didn't originally think of it..

true, it may be harder to keep the subscribers engaged, etc.. but it can still be worth the effort. There have been scenarios where I found it much easier building my list this way, and it's worked out for me.

edit: and you still have the chance to market "2lbs a week" products to the more generic list, etc.

when people talk about quality over quantity they are talking about the "churn and burn" mentality

people that churn and burn basically hammer their lists to death but survive because of they are bringing in many fresh leads every day

a quality list is a list which is responsive to your emails and trust your recommendations on products and can produce results that of a much bigger list

by no means does this happen overnight it does take work to build trust and credibility but it's certainly worth it in the end

the best way to make your subscribers more responsive is by creating constant high quality information whether it's free info or in a product

if you start sending your list garbage or any plr stuff just to keep them happy then you're going to find it very very difficult to build any lists that actually want to hear from you

To be perfectly frank, I'd rather see marketers focus on what THEY offer their lists -- which (properly done) would build interest, loyalty and 'quality" they couldn't buy at any price.

It really depends on what your goal is. Do you want a list of lots of people who may not stay with you long because you're constantly marketing to them and annoying the livin' daylights out of them treating them like ATM machines??? Or do you wnat a list of loyal people who actually READ your emails because they contain some great content and thus they trust your occasional (as opposed to DAILY) recommendations for products to buy that will make their own marketing (or other) lives better?

It's your choice. You may have been able to tell that I will no longer tolerate for more than a day or three at most the list-churner marketers.