List Building

What An Opt-in List Should & Shouldn't Be 

In 2005, internet marketer Craig Perrine became a million dollar star overnight with his course, List Profit Secrets:

• which was heralded with massive hype from other big-wig internet marketers (who were in for a minimum 50% cut, probably 60%)
• had a heavy-duty direct marketing sales page many pages long &  
• clocked in at a bargain basement $997

A few months later List Profit Secrets was promoted for a second run at about $499 and probably raked up another couple of hundred grand but, strangely enough, I've never really heard anything more about how successful the people who bought the course were and I've often wondered what that really indicates. 

On the other hand, the deafening silence about List Profit Secrets is paralleled by the very obvious continued success of Perry Marshall, who's just about cornered the global market on introducing people to Google Adwords. Here's an excerpt from an email he sent on August 4 2007:

Google Adwords guru Perry Marshall on building and maintaining a list "...Just yesterday Victor Cheng asked a question about my approach to email marketing. He noticed that my messages almost always have a ton of content - which is why he always reads 'em - and he wondered where I learned that. Since most guys just pitch pitch pitch all the time. I said "...I simply cannot make myself write a newsletter I wouldn't want to read myself." I told him a story of when I was working for an industrial company, selling to engineers, and trying to learn to write copy. I would read typical "business opportunity" ad copy like most of the copywriters were teaching and think "There is no way an engineer would ever get persuaded by this kind of copy." Despite what some gurus said, I was right. It had to feel right to the reader. I kept at it until my copy felt natural. All this basically comes down to not being willing to be untrue to yourself. When you conform to a cookie-cutter business model, not only do you cheapen yourself....you make it almost impossible to attain the #1 success ingredient there is in marketing - a Unique Selling Proposition. Your USP is: What do you do that nobody else does? What can you uniquely guarantee? To your success, Perry Marshall

Perry provides solid INFO in his not-too-frequent emails and only occasionally asks you to flash your credit card. I don't always, even usually, but the few products that he recommends are all high quality and are relevant to his niche.

The internet marketing/SEO email lists that I belong to (and there are only about half a dozen that I actually read) are primarily newsletters, providing news. They also tend to keep to their area of expertise and keep the hype to a minimum though they will, like me, recommend products. In fact, virtually every product that I review on this part of the site was originally promoted to me via those few lists. Sometimes they go beyond their niche e.g. a motivational course or accounting software...but not often. 

Now, if you want to build an opt-in list, there are many, many resources to find out how and I'm sure you can pick up ebooks, DVDs & courses on eBay for just a few bucks. They might be good, they might not, I wouldn't know but I'm reasonably sure that all of them will tell you that:

• "...The money is in the list..."
• "...Your primary goal should be to build a list..."
• "...Your return buyers are worth far more than your one-off purchasers..."  

...and there's a great deal of sense in that...

...but as Perry Marshall says, it all depends on your USP, your Unique Selling Position. It's one thing building a list, but it's another if you want to keep it, nurture it and profit from it. List building is a long-term investment that needs to be approached with considerable thought and respect for your list members.

1   There are presently ten opt-in list-building courses and services that I'm investigating, which I hope to be able to review, one by one, through 2008. 

2   Your choice of autoresponder is incredibly important as you need to keep in contact with your list. Here's the service that I use. 

3   However, having created a list, Michael Rasmussen's videos are over one hour of FREE high-quality videos showing you exactly how to promote to them. See: promotion to your list. The videos are highly recommended