affiliate marketing to your list.

Just test it and find out. My list is different from your list so until you test you'll never know.

So I can answer your question better, can you give more information about the intended strategy you've used so far to get them, how old the list is, how you communicate with them now, and describe what you mean by responsive? Plus, the guy you heard from, you have to take into account how big his list is, the price point of his offers, and if they're continuity products?

Marc

It's hard to give a specific answer with so little information on what you are currently doing.

Keep in mind that it is not just about how many sales you get, it is also about keeping people on your list. If you are "constantly promoting offers" to them, you might get a lot of unsubscribes. Even if they don't you can bet that they will be reading fewer and fewer of your emails, over time. In my opinion, 1-3 times per week should be the maximum for trying to sell stuff to your list, not the minimum. The bulk of your emails should be content to keep people subscribed, but that's just me.

Only you know what you are doing with your list and how they will react. When in doubt, picture yourself on the receiving end, and ask yourself how you would react if someone else was sending it to you.

I lost respect for every single "guru" who's email list I signed up for in the past.

You sign up because you're interested in learning from a guy you see as an expert, or because you're interested in a product and want to get news or special discounts.

The guru will try real hard to build up to a sale, when you reach a certain number in his autoresponder follow up sequence, he gives up on you and you'll be spammed with JV partner affiliate offers etc.

That's when I unsubscribe.

Personally I send (always broadcast - HATE the automated follow up lazy and money hungry auto sequenced emails!) out emails to my list exclusively when I honestly feel I have some news/updates for them which I think they ought to know. Not just whenever I need to cash in!

When you say your primary income comes from affiliate marketing, I guess an example would be if you've just tried and reviewed an AWESOME product (product of the year), then you could send out an email with a link to your blog post or video.

Be upfront with them, tell them you will get compensated when they click your affiliate link and due to the relationship you've already established, and the thorough review they'll appreciate your effort and don't hesitate to click the link and buy if they feel they need it.

I personally wouldn't ask my list to buy every single week. I think that's just the wrong mindset and motivation. Rather you should focus on giving them FREE value once or twice a week, and show them how passionate and knowledgeable you are about your subject and niche.

Good luck with it.

What you're friend making making $3k per month hasn't told you is that he's spending $2k per month generating fresh leads to keep his "churn & burn" marketing machine going.

If you just pitch all the time you have no relationship and are relying on fresh newbie leads coming in all the time at the top of your business. If you're happy to promote products with high commissions and no regard for the customer then this is a great model to follow.

But if you actually want to still be here next year, or have some morals about what you promote then a much better approach is build a small list where people actually get to know and trust you as an authority figure in the marketplace.

Once you figure out what type of marketer you want to be it's easier to test things out

And therein lies the rub, Stephen...

It's impossible to predict unless you're sitting with
a cold-read psychic giving you B.S. advice who
-- ironically enough -- KNOWS their going to make
a fortune selling you B.S. advice.

If you're hearing rumors someones making $3,000
per month.

...ask what he or she is 'really' taking home...

...AFTER expenses and taxes.

Often times THAT is the figure they DON'T want to
tell you about.

...yet it's the only figure that counts.

Even then I wouldn't take it at face value.

As far as what you can do to build a relationship
with your list...

have you seriously considered telling stories in
your email?

If not, well you should. It works. It really does.

It's the easiest way I know to sell without selling.

Both in face-to-face interactions, in emails, in copy,
every where.

Telling stories can take time to get right. But you
get better with repetition.

Give it a shot.

Stay Frosty My Friend,

~~ jO - jO ~~

I would strongly suggest that you focus much more on creating your own products and selling your own products stephen and have some kind of an end goal in mind when you build your list

selling affiliate products is fine but you should not be doing it all the time otherwise you will just burn your list

the people that get away with using this type of model are the ones that "churn and burn" they may get 30 unsubscribes per day but they generate 100 subscribers per day

i would sit down and structure your exact sales funnel and then when you get people in your list
you will have an exact end goal in mind on what you are trying to do with each member on your different lists

affiliate products can be included within your email but i tend to just include them within good content articles and promote an affiliate offer if it's highly relevant to what i talk about within th email

Paul

I promote in every email, but I write much longer ones educating and telling the benefits of the product rather than 2 sentences with a "click here!" link.

My sales have skyrocketed ever since.

I think it's handy to step back and look at what we (or you) like from an email list.

Personally the lists that make it into my main email inbox that I actually read are all interesting, typically have something to think about (or make me chuckle) and usually have something for me to click.

I actually quite like clicking on links in emails to have a look at what they're selling. Sometimes I even feel hard done when there is nothing to click and look at.

I've tried both ways, and done as much testing of as many variable parameters in as many niches as I'm willing to (testing in itself can incur some losses!). I have a range of entirely separate, unrelated niches all of which share similar traffic demographics. My conclusions are/were ...

(i) I agree very strongly with Paul's comments above, just as Retsced does;

(ii) For my business (though this may not necessarily be valid for your business), I hardly ever use broadcasts at all, for all the reasons explained in this post.

Good luck!

First and foremost you need to have a trusting (obviously them in you) relationship with your subscribers (9 times out of 10, this amounts to list building). Do you buy from people who have no reputation, or with whom you have no trust or relationship?

Find out what they want from you - if you don't what they want... how can you help them? When you know what they want, you can suggest (for free) how you can help them. How you help them can be with both your own, and affiiate products. If you're using affiliate products until your own are created, use only those YOU have tried and been pleased with, then you can be confident with answering questions that follow.

It is important to send your list daily.
One thing for sure, this will prevent your email from getting into the spam folder.
It is a myth that everyone think sending email daily is spamming.
It will only be considered as spam if you kept sending poor content or product offer.
You need to get your subscribers to open your emails.

Don't be afraid to send offer in each email.
One tip is to provide valuable content followed by your offer.
The key is not to hard sell.

Hope this help.