List Building - Does it work for you?

33 replies
Hello dear WF members,

I would like to ask you do you have your own mailing list and does it work for you? How did you build it, how much subscribers do you have and how much money do you make with it? I had a great experience with my own mailing list but what about you?! Do you use viral list builders and which one?

Thanks!
#building #list #work
  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    List Building has been the best method for me so far.
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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    Do you sell something to your list or you sell solo ads?
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    I don't sell solo ads, but I sell products to my list.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    I have been list building since I started 6 years ago, in my opinion there is nothing greater than having a email list that you continually provide great value to.

    I love them and they love me, I help them and they help me it's a great relationship.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarketingJessie
    Been list building for quite sometime now. I have a list with about 300k subscribed. List building is where the money is at. It's kind of like having money in the bank and when you send an email you are withdrawing your funds. If your getting started in the business it would make sense to start with list building so you are building an actual business and whatever you sale in the future you would be able to with your GOLDEN list.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MarketingJessie View Post

      If your getting started in the business it would make sense to start with list building so you are building an actual business
      This. Exactly.

      There are a few hundred threads in this forum with titles like "What's The One Thing You'd Do Differently If You Were Starting Again Tomorrow?". Take a look through a small sample of them, and you'll find that one of the things they all have in common is that they're full of replies from long-established, successful Warriors almost all of whom give the same answer: the thing they'd do differently, with what they know now but didn't know when they started, is "start to build a list on day 1". There are reasons for that.

      This little thread is worth a look: Without Building a List, How Consistent is Your Income from Affiliate Marketing

      Without lists, (a) you can't keep traffic returning to your site (and very few people, typically, will buy anything at their first visit), and (b) you can't effectively make repeated sales to the same customers (which many of us have found is where the bulk of the income is, in internet marketing).
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  • Profile picture of the author drbrucehoag
    Nicholasb makes a very good point. You have to have, and maintain, a relationship with those on your list.

    Just as a matter of interest, what is the ratio between messages with good quality information and sales that you send to your list?

    Different marketers will recommend different ratios; but the overall advice is that you should be sending more that have really good information that they can use, than sales messages.

    So, I suggest that you review your email marketing campaign to see how you can improve it.
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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    MarketingJessie, how did you build such a huge list? What do you offer them?
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    the way I do it is to always provide some valuable helpful piece of information usually in the form of a video before I make an offer, I haven't sent just a straight up offer without helping solv a problem to my list in a very long time.
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  • Profile picture of the author AmitShaw
    I have been list building from last 3 months and i have only 400 Subscriber and Yeah i mainly share tips via my mailing list.... Soon i will promote product review via my aweber email list. Lets see how i can convert email list to money. If you have any suggestion then please do share with me. Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author talfighel
      Originally Posted by AmitShaw View Post

      I have been list building from last 3 months and i have only 400 Subscriber and Yeah i mainly share tips via my mailing list.... Soon i will promote product review via my aweber email list. Lets see how i can convert email list to money. If you have any suggestion then please do share with me. Thanks.
      Amit,

      This is not the best strategy. Yes, you want to give your subscribers free and great value but you also want to put food on the table.

      You should not wait a while to promote something. You should have some kind of an offer on every email that you send out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Hugall
    List building is hands down the best way to create a reoccurring income, but keep in mind that you can't build one in a night. Solo ads, banner ads, youtube vids, goggle sites, FB posts.

    You name it and you can build a list with it. How big a list only matters if you didn't do any research on email marketing first. if you have the basics down your list retention will be solid. If your basics aren't down you need to understand that if you get into affiliate marketeing that you are just going to burn and turn your list. That is why they need to respect you opinion so they keep coming back.
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    I got out of playing the google game over a year ago and focused just on list building, ever since i have been able to sleep way better at night knowing that my income wasn't going to be suddenly
    nuked overnight
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  • Profile picture of the author masterjani
    Regularly do some adswap and increase the list size and maintain the list with care. You will get most out of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coby
    I have 18,000+ in Aweber
    I have 24,000+ in Imnica
    I have 16,000+ in Self Hosted

    I have over 58,000 subscribers and here is how I built that list...

    1) List Building Mini Events
    2) JV Giveaway Events
    3) Solo Ads
    4) Ad swaps
    5) Product Launches
    6) Blogging
    7) Article Marketing
    8) PPV
    9) Free WSOs
    10) Viral Ebooks
    11) Viral Software
    12) Affiliates
    13) Forum Marketing
    14) YouTube
    15) Twitter

    I'm sure I've left some stuff out as I feel like I've tried about everything (and continued most of it) when it comes to list building.

    List building is my main business model and my largest source of income for the last 3 years.

    Cheers,
    Coby
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    • Profile picture of the author craigc1980
      I have built a pretty nice size list in the last 2 years and I love it. It's where 60% of my income comes from.

      But like people stated on this thread, you need to build relationships.

      Sometimes it is not so easy by just sending them emails so I do other things to show people I am real and wanting to connect with them.

      I also don't throw my unsubscribes away like most do. I keep them.

      What I do is at the end of each week I take all my subscribers or at least some of them and grab all the email addresses and search fro them on either FB,Google + , Twitter, Linkedin and a few other social networks and look for them there and connect with them.

      I just leave them a simple message letting them know I noticed they signed up to my site and want to connect with them and share ideas or whatever you want to say.

      I do this with all my unsubscribes as well

      Remember alot of people unsubscribe not because they didn't like you but just because they don't know you or they might be on too many lists.

      But showing them your real brings in that bond.

      About 50% of the emails I go through connect with me.

      I don't do this all myself since I bring in 100-300 subscribers daily but you can outsource this for 10 bucks a week and its definitely worth it for all the connections you can make.

      Craig

      P.S. Leaving a message with your phone number saying call me sometimes works hell of wonders.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dain
        Originally Posted by craigc1980 View Post

        I have built a pretty nice size list in the last 2 years and I love it. It's where 60% of my income comes from.

        But like people stated on this thread, you need to build relationships.

        Sometimes it is not so easy by just sending them emails so I do other things to show people I am real and wanting to connect with them.

        I also don't throw my unsubscribes away like most do. I keep them.

        What I do is at the end of each week I take all my subscribers or at least some of them and grab all the email addresses and search fro them on either FB,Google + , Twitter, Linkedin and a few other social networks and look for them there and connect with them.

        I just leave them a simple message letting them know I noticed they signed up to my site and want to connect with them and share ideas or whatever you want to say.

        I do this with all my unsubscribes as well

        Remember alot of people unsubscribe not because they didn't like you but just because they don't know you or they might be on too many lists.

        But showing them your real brings in that bond.

        About 50% of the emails I go through connect with me.

        I don't do this all myself since I bring in 100-300 subscribers daily but you can outsource this for 10 bucks a week and its definitely worth it for all the connections you can make.

        Craig

        P.S. Leaving a message with your phone number saying call me sometimes works hell of wonders.
        Craig.... that's flippin clutch. Great tip! Takes some time, but super clutch! haha brilliant.
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  • Profile picture of the author davidtye
    List building is a really good way of making money and one which is in my view the best way to achieve your goals. I have posted solo ads in online and offline media pointing people to a squeeze page offering them free information (related to the product) with the option to buy it.
    I built a list of around 5,000 within a couple of months.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andy Money
    What are your guys' normal opens/CTRs on your freebie/buyers lists? I've had such different results across all my results, but I'm wondering if anyone has an average/normal open rate/CTR they expect.
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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    Thanks guys! I have been in internet marketing for at least 10 years and I've tried everything and I failed every time. I thought that newsletters are old and they don't work anymore, but then I found an ebook (I don't remember the name) that explained why building a list works and why it's so important. I started building a list few months ago and I don't have 300k of subscribers but I realized that this is the best way to make money online. It requires a lot of work and investment but it's worth it. I hope I'm doing the right thing in the right way and I finally think I will achieve success. I am even writing a free ebook about list building and I'm really proud of it, because I've spent so much time trying to figure out what works well and I finally realized...list building rocks!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author cpadualcore
    Having a subscribers list makes us invincible to seo changes, google animal updates etc. Wish I started building list a little earlier. Nevertheless I love my small subscribers lists. So far I have 3 in "make money online" niche and 1 in "weight lose" niche. I don't bombard them with promo offers much, but free tips mostly.

    I have used PPC, solo ads, viral list builders etc for building list and viral stuff is my personal favorite traffic source (and its cheap) , but PPC campaigns gets me a high quality list of people who actually read and take action on emails.
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  • Has anybody tried mailchimp? Is it also for creating a list? Is it good?
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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    I am also using a free autoresponder but I'm starting to use a paid one because free services usually work slow and have less features. What do you think is a better choice: Aweber or GetResponse?
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    • Profile picture of the author denysapu
      Originally Posted by sivricmarijan View Post

      I am also using a free autoresponder but I'm starting to use a paid one because free services usually work slow and have less features. What do you think is a better choice: Aweber or GetResponse?
      I'm sure not everyone has a same view as me. But I personally prefer the GetResponse, as they have many features that are very helpful.
      And fast.
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      Don't worry be happy!

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  • Profile picture of the author eniggma
    I would advise against using any free AR services. There's a reason why most don't. You get what you pay for and if your list is going to be a precious asset, dont get cheap on the AR. I like get response but I stuck with aweber cuz its a bit easier to setup follow ups.
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    "Successful people do the things unsuccessful people won't do" - (Somebody successful) :)

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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    I finally started using AWeber and I think it's great and it's not that expensive
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  • Profile picture of the author johndetlefs
    List building is the only business model that has ever worked for me online.

    I regret not starting to build a list 10 years ago when I started looking at online ventures. It kills me to think of the opportunities that I've missed because I didn't follow that one simple principle.
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    You only get one shot at life - make it awesome.

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  • Profile picture of the author sivricmarijan
    I also have the same problem I thought that lists (newsletters) don't work anymore, so I started building my list few months ago and I already see the results. But, if I started building my list when I entered the world of IM, I would be rich today.
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