Solo Ads...My journey

by 42 replies
52
Hello Warriors!

I started my list building journey 2 weeks ago but I actually bought a solo ad like 4 days ago.

I am not sure how the results have been due to the following facts:

1. I bought a solo ad which had a universe of 18000 subscribers
2. The cost of the ad was $110
2. The regular open rate is 10% - 15%
3. The Number of clicks around 600 - 1000.
4. My tracking was supposed to be in place but during the test it got unconfigured for technical reasons and probably my lack of experience setting up the system. (I used google experiments and it was a complete mess)

In the end I ended up with 162 subscribers on my new list, probably I'll get a couple of subscribers more. Than means that every subscriber cost around $0,7. I am not sure what to think since my tracking was a total failure and could not figure out which squeeze page was my best performer.

What I have concluded:

1. Although I thought I had learned how to do experiments properly using google I still don't understand what I did wrong and therefore I'll probably stick to prosper202 as tracking system.

2. For my next test I also need a huge universe in order to track properly my squeeze pages.

The questions I have:

Since in this venture I am a one-man show with a 9-5 job, what would you do...

1. Focus on the 162 subscribers I got at the moment since to be honest I have nothing to offer them yet as an email series or something?

2. Try to grow my list and buy more solo ads?

At this point I am tempted to focus on the few subscribers I got and offer them a good series of emails and so on following good email marketing practices but still unsure to be honest.

What do you think?

Any opinions or idea would be greately appreciated.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #journey #list buiding #solo ad #subscribers #track
  • Hey, grow your list and make relationship with your subscribers, don't try to cold sell something to them immediately, because they won't trust you and many of them will unsubscribe. Send them useful information until they trust you and then you can sell them stuff.
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  • You are putting the cart before the horse. You should have your sales funnel set up before you start sending traffic to it.
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    • Well the thing is that my funnel is ready. I don't believe that's a problem. I was just wondering if I should focus on only those list members or grow my list more.
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  • ^^ This. And a few other things too. You should look for a good course on the subject, and learn the basics before you spend more money on solo's.
  • Doesn't sound set-up to me.
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    • Got it!...Fact is I already have a small list of subscribers, what to do with them? Perhaps get the necessary content for those and future subscribers?

      Thanks!
  • Look to provide value that is how you will "bond" with your list and convert(buy) as well as have them engage(click).
  • You should definitely set up some content to share with your subscribers that will help them with whatever they subscribed for in the first place.

    You should also have a product to expand on that content you send. There are a ton of ways to do it. I usually send out an email explaining a problem, how to fix it, and to get the full picture I recommend a product that provides the solution.

    For example, one of my lists is about the basics of listbuilding and on day 1, I teach about using squeeze pages which leads into a video training course on squeeze pages.

    It's all congruent and about providing value in multiple ways to your list.
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    • tapiatom -- kudos to you for taking action. :-)

      Now you have subscribers, give them what they signed up to receive. Subscribers are hard to find, so once you have them, nurture them, by giving the best you can give.

      At the same time, you need to promote, and not be shy about it.

      Look on your promotions as a "... and now a word from our sponsor" commercial break. Everything is paid for in some way, and your subscribers pay you for your advice by looking at your promotion.

      One tip: in your "thank you for subscribing" message, ask them to tell you a little about themselves. Few list owners do this (I didn't do it either, until very recently), but any responses are valuable information.

      When they respond, your list members will become real people to you, and you'll discover what they want and need.

      In answer to your questions:

      1. Yes, focus on these subscribers. Create content for them.

      2. Yes, you should aim to grow your list. However, give it a couple of weeks until you've created some content, and have given your list a promotion or two.

      This will tell you a lot -- it's all feedback. Get responses, and then move forward.

      Again, kudos to you! Action is what counts. You took action, you've got a response, and you can build from here.

      Cheers

      Angela
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  • Hey man,
    You really need to have your email series set up already before you start sending solo`s or any traffic for that matter.

    If you are list building and sending traffic to an autoresponder/optin with no sunscribers that means they are going to nothing.

    What is your insentive for them to optin on the optin page? that is what you send them in the first email...You can get some good plr (other peoples products you can use) if you look around my friend...

    You must fill your first 5 email follow ups at least my man... get that done first and then once its done you dont have to worry about it anymore.

    As for writing, you really dont have to write a lot... Short punchy copy then offer value in the form of a free gift... thats enough...

    When you promote products as an affiliate get ideas from the sales page of the affiliate. They will not kind as you are selling ther product.

    Kindest regards
    Louis Doughty
    PS if you need a hand, send over your page and I will take a look for you
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  • So I'm guessing that you didn't even have an OTO (one time offer)or something on your thank you page so people could buy something after they first sign up, am I right?

    If you had, you probably would have already made back some of your $100 before they even start getting your email series.

    With an OTO optimized for conversions you could make back all of the money you spend on advertising.
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    • Oh I definetely had it however decided to take it down since I did not want to start selling things to my subscribers at the very start...I might be wrong with this idea but it's just that I don't like beeing given that impression when I myself optin to a list. I feel as the person owner of that list will start hard selling things to me if you know what I mean.
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  • Learn from your mistake by using low cost providers first. Finetune your ads ad then step up to the expensive guys.
  • So why add more subscribers and have more that you have nothing to offer?

    Sort out your sales funnel before you add any more subs.
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  • you should set up your follow up emails first , a sales funnel is the road from the opt-in page to making the sale , if you don't have already this up and running you can't say my sales funnel is already made .
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    • It is. More completely, it is from your ad, to your last offer. It includes any upsells, downsells, your buyers list, your follow-up series and any other segments you may create.
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  • For me - The system is generally to ensure that my funnel is set up for the first 7 days, during that time I will give what I believe to be useful content whilst also offering my subscriber the opportunity to purchase a quality product.

    After the first 7 days - I usually go with a series of 3 quality content emails followed by 1 product offer.

    For listbuilding you can just continue with the solo ad.

    Hope this helps
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  • Wow.

    Why did you pay money for a solo ad without a plan? You should never pay money to build a list without a clear plan and sales funnel.

    You should have had an OTO after they opt-in to a freebie, and you should have a series of at least 30 messages set up to go out to them over the next 20-30 days to build a relationship and offer them products, either yours or others.

    As far as the opt-ins, you got a good amount for what you paid but who knows about the quality? Even with poor quality you can at least make your money back with the preparation I just described.
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    • Yup, since almost everybody has told me so I believe I have learned my lesson now.:p However I got my reasons for having proceeded the way I did and one of them is because I have suffered all my IM life from analysis paralysis, always over planning to death, so I decided to take action which seemed a bad decision too.

      Anyways and as I have said several times...I already have a list of 166 subscribers and there's where I'll focus on instead of growing my list anymore at the moment.

      Does getting outsourced content for my email series sound right?
  • Sounds like every mistake I made happened to you all at once.
    No business plan.
    An incomplete sales funnel.
    No follow-up emails.
    No stats!
    It's time to start plugging leaks. But on the bright side, you have an email list!
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    • I agree that you should grow your list and make relationship with your subscribers, but you are also have to offer them something valuable after they signup and make at least few follow ups through auotresponder. That way you will have a chance to make money immediately. If you don't have your own product yet look for a good affiliate program (JVZoo or Warrior pro). Once you will earn enough you can outsource product creation and offer subscribers your own product.

      Dana
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  • Wow excellent where can i buy solo ads that are NOT in the internet marketing niche?
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    • It has been explained here many times mate. Try googling this:

      keyword+"solo ads", or keyword "newsletter", or keyword "mailing list", etc. So you try to contact those list owners and see if they would sell you a solo ad. That's how I got my first one.
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  • Always have your entire sales funnel setup before you begin building your list.

    The most important thing to do with your subscribers is to set proper expectations.
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  • Why wait 3 week until presenting them your offer? In one list building course I read there was this theory that you should make an offer in the first email... that's when they are the hottest after just having opted in... in other courses it says to establish a relationship first... so I don't know which route is best cause I'm just starting with list building myself. I will test it out I guess.

    Anyway 3 weeks sounds like too much I think. Besides if the offer is a really good one and it will give them results(which is the whole point of a legit offer right?) why make them wait so long for it?
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  • Try to get your e-mail series done for the next 3 months if possible. Offer soft sells in your messages. A good soft cell would be giving your subs a free ebook which has your affiliate link(s) in it.

    Keep building your list with solo ads, YouTube videos to your squeeze page, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
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    • Exactly!...I'll focus first on mastering solo ads, I will then try to promote my squeeze page using other methods such as forum marketing as well.
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  • Banned
    Use low cost providers at the beginning and then look for something different.
  • Great to read about your journey so far

    I would suggest looking here on the WF for sellers. There seems to be alot of people selling at review prices.

    Also you may be able to read some honest and true reviews here
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  • If you are having trouble with google experiments then I would just go back to using prosper202, but if you can afford it switch from p202 to cpvlab. Once you get the hang of cpvlab you'll never look back.

    Also, before you buy more solo ads, you need to get your autoresponder sequence setup and figure out how you're going to monetize those subscribers. If they subscribe and you don't initiate contact with them then they will become worthless over time and then when you finally do have something to send them they won't even remember who you are.

    Good luck.
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  • What is the best way to set up a sales funnel of great emails that build a list? Does anyone have any thoughts?
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    • Thanks for your replies guys and for the suggestions. Since my niche is not really IM there aren't many solo ads I can find here in the WF I'm afraid.

      UPDATE:

      I finally inserted my clickbank affiliate link on today's newsletter and so far have had 13 hops with no sales yet.

      I have bought another solo ad which is more like an ad displayed in my provider's newsletter. I was told it has a reach of 60K users and on average 10K people open the emails daily. The ad is to be posted for 5 days starting next monday. The ad cost $100.

      THE PLAN:

      Next saturday when I have some time I'll add more content to my autoresponders and also today hopefully I'll set up my prosper202 to finally track and decide what my best converter squeeze page is.

      Let's see how it goes.

      Thanks.
  • I also have this problem, of getting constant hops on my clickbank affiliate offers or my own product, but there seems to be little to no conversion. hm. How should we improve this?
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    • Well in my case, since the offer is a proven converter and since my list is too small it all comes down to a numbers game so I definetely need a lot more subscribers. That and lots of tracking and testing.
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