How to Make Money With a Mailing List

By April 20th, 2009 Leave a response Business, The Net

I had a few of my readers asking me how to make money with mailing lists, because everyone is preaching to get one, but no one would provide a step-by-step on how to make bank on it.

I decided to pick up the glove and dive into this matter head first, in this no-fluff guest post that John, so gracefully, decided to host.

Intro: The Beauty of an Autoresponder

You will have a personal genie that will send out a series of emails that provide your subscribers extraordinary value. After all, they were looking for that info and now they are getting it, for free.

This can be a course sent during six weeks, or it can be an ezine that will be sent to your subscribers during the next two years. The beauty of it is that you had only spent four hours setting it all up…

With a series of emails sent to a person, you get the opportunity to establish trust and begin a relationship that would last years, if you know what you’re doing.

First Steps: Get Tech Stuff Out of The Way

First of all, you need to get yourself an autoresponder service. There are many ways, both free and paid, to set it up. The most important things to consider when choosing your method are:

  1. That it has tools that will allow you to conform to the CAN-SPAM Act.
  2. That it has a high deliverability rates.

Personally, I preferred a paid service because I don’t waste my time on maintenance and tech stuff. I pay a monthly fee and the sole thing I worry about it how to make money.

This was despite my being new to this marketing method. If I learned a single thing during my 1.5 years in Internet marketing, it was that you have to be willing to pay for tools and services if you see that they would help you make money.

As a side note, I eventually chose Aweber as my provider, and I’d recommend it to anyone starting out. Aweber is the leader in this industry and I wanted to be on their team.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Everyone familiar with my blog would know I hate fluff, so here’s the essence. Extremely simple, but don’t confuse it with easy.

The basis is this:

  1. Capture the email of a person that is interested in something.
  2. Sell him things he wants to buy.

How about that? Don’t stone me just yet! Let’s dig a little deeper with the following three methods.

Making Money With Your List 101

  1. Research and choose a niche that people spend money in. (e.g. fly fishing – OK, philately – NO; sometimes people are just there to get the info, without spending the money)
  2. Make a single landing page (aka squeeze page), offering an ebook or a course on a specific subject, a solution to a problem in that niche, in return for subscribing.
  3. During a period of X months occasionally sell those subscribers affiliate offers from that niche.

Since this page won’t rank well in the SE’s by itself, use the promotion methods you specialize in to drive traffic to that page.

Make sure you don’t bombard them with offers either. Take it easy. Talk to your subscribers. Make them to know you, trust you and see you as an authority in this niche.

Making Money With Your List 102

Same as 101 but, in this case you:

  1. Setup a blog / website that will provide value to people in that niche. Could be a 6-page static website, or a dynamic blog where you or someone on your behalf writes the content.
  2. Place an opt-in box above the fold and offer a free ebook / course in exchange to their name and email.
  3. Proceed as taught in 101.

This will obviously rank way better in the SE’s, so this is a long term money maker that could make you a nice income stream.

In this method you will be able to slap some affiliate offers on the blog itself, and monetize on that.

Making Money With Your List 103

Same as 101 or 102 but, in this case you:

  1. Write an ebook or a course (or get it written) where you embed your offers within the content. These offers should seamlessly supplement what you’re talking about, and provide real value to the readers.
  2. I think I would recommend a course over an ebook, because that way you get to send them a series of messages. That’s the best recipe of establishing trust and starting a relationship with your subscribers, which will lead to more sales.

So, that was the very basics. Once mastered, you can search for more advanced ways to make money, there are plenty.

Once you get a list, you are the king.

Experienced email marketers know the lifetime of their subscribers and know to valuate each one. That’s why they are not afraid to pay a premium to get a subscriber. Ever seen a $30 bid on Adwords 😉

This post was written by Alex from Net-Entrepreneur.com, Internet marketer and avant-garde blogger.