Affiliate marketers.. Listbuilding is not for all?

I agree that list building doesn't work in all niches and for all products/offers. But then again, I think it's also about the mindset. If an affiliate marketer understands the "lifetime" value of a customer, he would definitely focus on building a list because a list is afterall an asset.

As an affiliate marketer, when you're not building a list, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. It's just harder to gain a new customer each time when compared to selling to your previous customers. Your ROI is much, much higher when you have a huge list of prospects/customers who trust you and your advice.

I feel the only reason why many affiliates choose *not* to build a list is because they don't like the waiting part. But in my opinion, when you are focused on building your list, you are in fact building a real business. Even if Google disappears and PPC dies, you will still have your *own* list that you can promote to over and over again.

Different strokes for different fols. It largely depends on your
business model.

The type of affiliate marketing you describe is usually based on...

1. Find a product with a good profit potential
2. Run a paid traffic campaign with targeting
3. Quit while you're ahead and return to #1

I'm sure some folks are happy with that model and I can see its
attraction.

However, that's not for me... it has no long term potential. You
have to keep doing the same thing over and over to sustain a
reasonable level of income. And, you can't specialise... you just
keep looking for new products to promote... it doesn't matter
what niche those products are in.

I'm building a retirement income... something that has long term
potential. So, I focus my affiliate efforts on one market and I'm
building a responsive list. Every new subscriber adds incrementally
to my long term income, because I get to promote multiple products
to my list. When I step back I have options... I can hire a manager,
I can form a JV as a silent partner or I can sell what has grown into
a very valuable asset and buy an annuity.

The choice of affiliate marketing model depends on your long term
aims. Or not, as the case may be.

John

Great replies so far. Makes much more sense now.
Thanks for your input.

Think Mustafa's nailed it. I can understand why those affiliates wouldn't see the necessity to build a list, but I think list building is a worthwhile pursuit. It's a safety mechanism, another asset to an online business, another (usually passive) income stream, usually fairly easy to set up and maintain. If suddenly lost affiliate accounts/sites for some reason, what's to fall back on? Especially if they're working for themselves and relying on the income.

Most of the list building love around here comes from the fact that the "make money online" info product niche still revolves around email newsletters. Just take a look around this forum. Tons of people have income opportunities offered in their sig.

List building still has its place, but not as a primary sales vehicle. It's for supplemental income or just as a way to keep in touch with site visitors.

Respectfully, I don't agree with this observation at all. (I know the second part of it's true but I don't think that's what the list-building love comes from, at all, and I think that's shown by the fact that some of the forum's most enthusiastic list-builders aren't in those niches at all. I think, if anything, that - for a variety of reasons - "newsletters" actually have less value in IM-related and MMO-related niches than in about 298 other niches.)

Mine are the thoughts of an affiliate marketer (only - I don't do anything else) promoting products which earn me commissions ranging from tiny (low-cost Amazon products promoted only to ensure, by increasing my monthly number of sales, that I get the highest percentage Amazon commissions on the other, more expensive stuff I promote), up to about the $300/$400 range ... with a very high proportion of my income coming from commissions in the $50 - $100 range.

I look at it like this: in order to make a living from affiliate commissions, I need to do three main things:-

(i) Keep potential customers returning to the sales pages (because so very few people buy anything significant at their first visit to a sales page);

(ii) Earn repeated commissions from continued sales (typically at increasing prices) to the same people, who have bought on the strength of my recommendation, been pleased, and will do so again (because that's where most of the money is, in affiliate marketing);

(iii) Build relationships with prospective customers so that they'll value and trust my recommendations enough to be able to buy anything in the first place (because the most important "decision-making factor" resulting in the purchase is usually "the trust the customer has in the recommendation").

I'm a full-time affiliate marketer, so I need to do all three of these things to build my business: on a very fundamental level, they're "what my business is about" because they're what my short, medium and long-term income all depend on - and I can't do any of them effectively without list-building.

My more detailed reasoning is in these four recent threads ...

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7110523
Is it a good idea to spend some time on building a mailing list ?
Without Building a List, How Consistent is Your Income from Affiliate Marketing
Does anyone even make money online without an email list?

I also agree unreservedly with Mustafa's point above - my lists are my business's primary asset: without them, I'd feel it isn't so much a "business" as a "job I've created for myself".

Love this thread.

I've been focusing on PPC and direct linking them straight to the offer.

(I know it's not what the book says)

My EPC is greater than my CPC so I guess I could say it is a winning campaign BUT I don't have a list at all.

I've generated thousands of clicks and I always wonder how many subscribers would I have had if I had a squeeze page. Also, how would that squeeze page affect the number of sales.

My thought on this is if you are making money as an affiliate without list building. Keep it like that

If you don't list build you're losing the potential sales you can get from every customer. They might buy 1 thing from you then move on... but if you're sending emails and building rapport they stick with you, trust you and are willing to buy your products multiple times

LOL. Good discussion.
I think some in the forum make renting out their lists here.
Ultimately its not just building a list but engaging with your list that really makes it work.
I think we have all subscribed and unsubscribed to numerous email lists

There are a number of good points in response here, particularly from Lexy and Mustafa.

It truly is the distinction between long-term value and short-term wins... while both can be effective, only list/relationship building yields results over and over again - without completely "starting over" again.

Thanks for the replies JohnMcCabe & Jassen, gave me some food for thought.

At the end of the day I guess that most people on here started with list building, it's the business they know and one should definitely stick to what one knows in business instead of reaching for new territory all the time.