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A massive list

by garyp
25 replies
Hi Warriors, I want to start building a list in at least one niche to start with. I have a partner who shares my vision that a list is probably one of the best ways to make a residule income for years to come.

So that said, how long would it take 2 part time IMers (with full time jobs) to build a list of about (15,000) using standard squeeze page (give away a free item) social media marketing, offline marketing, youtube etc.

Any advice will be most welcome.

Thanks for your time

Gary
#list #massive
  • Profile picture of the author Nightengale
    There's no way to be very specific about that. It depends entirely on how much time and effort you put into it. And yes, money.

    Also, you haven't said anything about exactly WHO you want on your list and what you'll be selling. Your list-building results will also be affected by your niche and it's size. It might take longer to build a list in an obscure niche versus a popular one.

    Building a list is hugely important and a lot of Warriors make a lot of noise about taking action. Rightly so. But before you run off half-cocked, make sure you have your sales process streamlined and in place.

    You don't have to know exactly how your entire business will look or have every product produced. But have at least one product in place and the initial autoresponders written and loaded into your autoresponder service.

    One of the best times and places to make a pitch for your products is on the thank you page after someone has subscribed. Assure them their free info is on the way and offer them a chance to buy your product/service.

    I know that's an "it-depends" kind of answer and probably not exactly what you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

    Michelle
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    • Profile picture of the author garyp
      Originally Posted by Nightengale View Post

      There's no way to be very specific about that. It depends entirely on how much time and effort you put into it. And yes, money.

      Also, you haven't said anything about exactly WHO you want on your list and what you'll be selling. Your list-building results will also be affected by your niche and it's size. It might take longer to build a list in an obscure niche versus a popular one.

      Building a list is hugely important and a lot of Warriors make a lot of noise about taking action. Rightly so. But before you run off half-cocked, make sure you have your sales process streamlined and in place.

      You don't have to know exactly how your entire business will look or have every product produced. But have at least one product in place and the initial autoresponders written and loaded into your autoresponder service.

      One of the best times and places to make a pitch for your products is on the thank you page after someone has subscribed. Assure them their free info is on the way and offer them a chance to buy your product/service.

      I know that's an "it-depends" kind of answer and probably not exactly what you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

      Michelle
      Hi Michelle, thanks for reply.

      Well first of all I think once we get our auto responder setup and some of our products put together, then between us I think maybe 15-20 hours per week between us on promotion.

      As you can understand, I dont really want to give away the niche, but it is a fairly large niche with loads of micro niches attached to it.

      We were hoping to gather their details of the main niche name and then market to them the sub niches and see which one has the most uptake and work around that.

      Thanks alot

      Gary
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      • Profile picture of the author Tony Grant
        Hi Gary,

        Sorry to come back so quick but I just noticed something else in your post. You say you are aiming for the big niche then sub-dividing your list down to the micro niches.

        It might actually be easier to do it the other way round. You are more likely to bring in organic traffic from Google etc using long tail keywords wich might represent the micro niches.

        You see, the trouble about going big then drilling down is that you stand a good chance of losing people along the way by hitting them with meaningless offers so give that a thought too perhaps.

        Once again, best wishes,

        Your future deserves!
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    • Profile picture of the author gtownfunk
      This reminds me about a list I need to resurrect. The list was only about 400 people, but the average order was about $800 and that was about $400 profit per order. The last couple mailings I did (a couple years ago) brought in 2 $3000 sales. So, choose your niche accordingly, but don't think that 15,000 13 year old kids email addresses are going to get you rich. LOL, as I typed that I thought.. geez, if you knew they were 13 you could market targeted stuff to them their whole lives. lol Always a new angle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Grant
    Hi GaryP,

    That is a good question but extremely wide open. A squeeze page can build a list but it needs plenty of traffic which of course is the next big issue in IM.

    If you have a strategy for driving traffic then you could build a list reasonably quickly but I feel that 15k is a big number to shoot for out of the door.

    You could give it a boost by doing a few giveaways as they are always around somewhere and with a good offer on a giveaway, you could expect to pick up 20-100 subscribers without too much trouble for each giveaway. The problem I found with these was that the people you attract are often freebie seekers and therefore not easy to convert into buyers later on down the line.

    You could buy a list which would be the quickest way but you would then face difficulty in bringing it into your autoresponder and you would quite likely attract quite a bit of spam reporting even if the list was bought from a legitimate source.

    One way that seems to be quite good at the moment might be to put up a freebie WSO and you could expect 100-300 subscribers from that as long as your offer is worthwhile. This is a good strategy as these are people within the IM niche if that is where you are going.

    So, that is just some random thoughts early in the morning and if you want to elaborate, I will try to keep an eye out and feedback if I have anything useful to say.

    Best of luck with your efforts and have a great day.

    Your future deserves!
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  • Profile picture of the author paulpower
    Hi Gary,

    Again like the other warriors here, you have to work out what niche you wish to target, plus you need some good content to build trust, and you also need to a good product or three to build your buyers list, this is the most vital list, as these good people already trust you enough to buy from you, and this will help you in your efforts to gain residual income.

    Also, maybe you may want to have a monthly membership site running on your topic, however, you will need fresh content every month to justify what you charge for your clients to remain interested.

    To Your Health, Wealth and Happiness.
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  • Profile picture of the author JasonParker
    Unless your stuff goes viral, I don't see YouTube or social media working fast. I'm not sure about the offline stuff. Depends on what you are doing. If it drives alot of qualified people to your optin form then it'll work. For example, maybe a paid ad that works well.

    Overall if you're going for building a massive list fast, then I don't think these are the methods you should focus on. You don't want to depend on luck to build a list, you want to do something that flat out works. My two cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author braincandy7
    If you want to do this quickly then you have to spend money i am afraid.

    Free traffic has always got to be the long term goal but it's hard to get in the very sort term.

    It depends on the quality of your product. If it's a generic and rehashed product it will not do so well. Saying that a lot also depends on your sales copy on your squeeze. First impressions are the most important and even the most crappy product can get signups if the sales copy is very good.

    You also need to make sure you offer good value to your subscribers and don't hammer them with sales emails or your unsubscribe rate will soar and your open and click rates will plummet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adnimated
    The only way to do this, indeed, is in a big market. You'll need to spend money on PPC.

    If you want to segment right from the start, you'll need some sort of quiz. Which will immidiately segment them into different lists. for instance:

    Quiz figures out if they want to either eat carrots, cucumber or unions.

    So the quiz now asks a series of questions. Which in the end determines what type of person they are.

    Based on the answer, you send them to a squeezepage. Where they have to fill in their details to get their personal analysis. And then you immidiately segment them. And you'll be able to send extremely targeted emails.

    Either way, I'm afraid you'll have to be prepared to spend a lozt of money if you want to achieve this in very short amount of time. As in within a couple of months.

    The good news is that you'll be able to recoup your investment relatively fast, too. If you immidiately offer some sort of product. (for instance, a solution or "relieve" to the problem they have found with the analysis e.g. are you an union eater? did you know union eaters eat more sweets thus, on average, get fatter really quick. etc etc)
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  • Profile picture of the author garyp
    Hey guys thank you so much for your replies. I really appreciate it.
    Really good advice from everyone here.

    I think PPC might be a valid initial outlay.

    Ill forward this post onto him to see what he thinks.

    P.S I wont be buying a list. Im in this for the long haul. We dont want disgruntled customers from the get go.

    Thanks

    Gary
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    • Profile picture of the author Jasonmona
      Hi, yes PPC is a proven and reliable marketing strategy but also video marketing because youtube is the second biggerst traffic generator. I would suggest to have a great looking squeeze page that offers awesome value such as an ebook or free video or audio.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    Ya, to build a list FAST you need to pay for traffic like PPC and solo ads. But think of it as an investment, not a cost. It takes money to start any business. You can try and recoup the cost of the traffic if you manage to offer a low cost upsell after they have opted in to your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
    Best way to do it is to pursue and built real connections with other people in the niche.

    Just making a squeeze page, article marketing, bookmarking, etc, won't do it with enough speed.

    You need to make a compelling squeeze page, and then partner with existing sites to promote you, offer contents, etc. That is how you really skyrocket your optins or sales
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  • Profile picture of the author Val Wilson
    The size of your list is not as important as the quality - some marketers with a (relatively) small list make far more sales that people with a massive list, because they treat the subscribers with respect. Don't promise something you can't deliver, just to quickly build a list. Your conversion rate will be very poor because there will be no credibility. But build a good relationship with your list and give more than you take, and even a small list can be very profitable.
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    • Profile picture of the author World Marketing
      Originally Posted by Val Wilson View Post

      The size of your list is not as important as the quality - some marketers with a (relatively) small list make far more sales that people with a massive list, because they treat the subscribers with respect. Don't promise something you can't deliver, just to quickly build a list. Your conversion rate will be very poor because there will be no credibility. But build a good relationship with your list and give more than you take, and even a small list can be very profitable.
      I couldn't agree more with this...The quality of the list is more important than the quantity in most cases.
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  • Profile picture of the author Pierce
    I would spend a lot of time learning how to write good solo ads and finding people/newsletters to buy solos from. That is one of my main methods for building my list
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  • Profile picture of the author TopKat22
    The key to building a high quality list starts before you ever put up the site and that is in doing the market and keyword research.

    You want a hungry enough market with not too much competition so that you stand a chance and then you have to pick keywords that people are actually using to get you enough targetted traffic to get sign ups.

    Then once you have a good market and good keywords to get traffic, you have to have the right copy on your salespage to get people to sign up.

    So with all those factors, you could do it in a month or less if it is all great or it could take 1-6 months or longer if you have to tweak it.

    Here are some tested and true tips I got from someone who has been doing this for years, builds huge lists and makes millions:

    don't use graphics, pictures or videos on your sales pages.

    list 5 -7 problems your market faces and then 3-5 solutions to their problem offered by signing up with you.

    Have no other link on the page other than the sign up box.

    Make sure that what you give the people actually meets everything that you stated in the sales letter.

    Then, test, tweak, test, tweak until you see the results you want.

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    427 days.

    If it's a leap year, 428.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Gary,

      You want to build a big list? Get big traffic. There are a lot of ways to do that, but I suggest learning two things and doing them well and consistently:

      Content syndication
      Paid traffic

      All the SEO folks will howl about that, but one good campaign with paid traffic sources can beat the results of years of pandering to the Google Gods. And content syndication, done right, can bring in some of the most targeted traffic you'll ever see.

      Another way to build a big list in jig time is to offer a high-converting affiliate product, and give away 100% on the front end. Get the EPC (earnings per click) over $2 and you'll have no trouble recruiting plenty of people to promote it for you.

      Whatever you do, don't fall for the "write a bunch of articles every day, spin them, and spam them across the net" pitch. Or the "forum sig files and free classifieds" stuff. Plan for something that you can scale up when it succeeds. Then make sure you're making money on the subscriber acquisition process, so you have the resources to build things up quickly and steadily.

      Free promotions can be very profitable, but not if you tie your results to the amount of personal time you have to invest. Look for leverage, and do the math.

      Don't think in terms of subscribers. Think readers. That's where the content syndicators have it all over the list builders. If you can spend a couple of days writing a great article and send it out to a few dozen people who publish it, and they each have a few thousand people who read it...

      Learn to create great content, and you can get all the traffic you want.

      And don't let your limits be defined by others. 15,000 is not a massive list. It can be a very profitable list, if it's the right people, as can 300. But it is no harder to get 15,000 targeted subscribers than 150 if you plan properly.

      What do the people want who can bring you to the attention of your target market?


      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    could take a couple months could take a couple year, I would focus on attracting some higher quality buyer leads by buying banners on thank you pages, making offer to buy solo ads in people customers lists.

    You wont get as much traffic or subscribers but they will make you way more money.
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  • Profile picture of the author garyp
    I cannot believe the ammount of help you guys have given me. All of these posts have given me a complete new prospective on how to build a list.

    I appreciate the time you guys have given up to help me out.

    Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author KingMedia
    Well, if you use an aggressive PPC plan and perhaps JV with someone who has similar interests that compliment your offer, then you could cross promote each others offers, thus increasing the size of your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Barnett
    Originally Posted by garyp View Post

    Hi Warriors, I want to start building a list in at least one niche to start with. I have a partner who shares my vision that a list is probably one of the best ways to make a residule income for years to come.

    So that said, how long would it take 2 part time IMers (with full time jobs) to build a list of about (15,000) using standard squeeze page (give away a free item) social media marketing, offline marketing, youtube etc.

    Any advice will be most welcome.

    Thanks for your time

    Gary
    Hi Gary,

    Firstly, nothing wrong with aiming for 15,000 - there are people on here that have built lists of 100,000 in a year. Don't let other people's limiting beliefs hold you back.

    There are a number of things to think about here:

    - Is it really a list you want though, or a RESPONSIVE list? A list of 1,500 that gets you 500 clicks every time you send them something is better than a list of 15,000 that gets you 150 clicks

    - are you prepared to spend money? One guy on here a few days ago was selling a WSO that showed how to get (and how he got) something ridiculous like 6,800 subscribers in 48 hours. Bust it cost him $3000 or so to do it.

    - If you are going to spend money, can you make it self liquidating? ie you pay an average of $0.50 per subscriber but one in ten of them immediately go on to buy a $5 product from you...

    - Think about your squeeze page at least as much as your traffic source. Paying for 1000 clicks is fine, but if you convert 10% you only get 100 new subscribers that sucks. If you get 80% conversion rate and get 800 new subscribers, that's a lot better. (Free report on this subject in my signature block below).

    All in all, nothing wrong with your plan to build a big list. It's definitely the way ahead over all. Just make sure you are thinking clearly about what you are doing on the way though.

    Drop me a pm or get me on skype if you want to chat further on all this

    Cheers

    Matthew
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  • Profile picture of the author Dann Vicker
    I agree with Paul Myers above. If you've got some funds available, you can quickly fasttrack your successes in list building.

    I'd recommend getting a great product done and finding affiliates on a 100% commission basis. This way, you'd be getting paid list subscribers who are capable of paying over and over again.

    Moreover, soloads and adswaps when done rightly also have a huge role to plaly.

    Regards,
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  • Profile picture of the author louie6925
    I'm building a list at the moment and the best advice I can give is think about it carefully, build your list for quality not quantity! Get as much info as you can first about building a responsive buyers list, there's tons of good info on the WF. A 1000 responsive list can be more profitable than a list of 15000 feeble seekers!

    Good luck buddy!
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