A personal affiliate list is much the same as the previously discussed personal mixed list, however this time, you're not sending tips, hints or content, but ads for programs that you promote yourself and of course your own products. This differs from an ad list because we're clear here that all products that are promoted are yours and what you promote through affiliate programs. There are no outside sources sending ads to your list. Although no content is provided, this can be especially useful if you're well known, and have a solid following.
Here we have it, list type number three. This is a great little earner for particular types of marketers who carry out a specific type of marketing, with a specific type of product. Now I know what you might be thinking on seeing the description of this, and you'd be right to wonder how the heck you're going to keep subscribers interested, and keep subscribers reading when all you're doing is sending ads. The key here we mentioned earlier, and that's that the ads you're sending are directly related to you, aside from the odd joint venture here and there.
You still get to promote your own products, but with minimal an amount of work. At the same time, you're aiming to not just get signups, but grab affiliates who join under you in multi level based affiliate programs and promote for you. This is probably the best example list wise here that shows that to make a lot of money, you don't always have to concentrate on instant sales, and making sales yourself. In fact, in this case, it's far more profitable to be promoting for affiliates, as equally as you promote for sales.
Imagine this; your list consists of twenty other people exactly like you that have lists of people they promote to, either for sales or for more affiliates, and people to join under them in a particular earnings program. Now when your ad goes out, you're likely to get a certain amount of sales, (depending on your list quality) and also a particular amount of affiliates, who will join under you, and promote to their lists. Keep going down this path, and before long, if you jumped in at the top of a multi level program, and your list is effective, you'll have a kind of domino effect, and will get access to all sorts of people branching off in different ways from your original promotion.
See how this type of approach is angled towards a particular type of marketing? If you've been in online marketing for any amount of time, you'll know that multi level systems aren't all bad news. There are some great, simple two, three, four, or even more level programs out there that have both a good product, and allow earnings in this way. Of course, that’s another topic and for you to separate the good from the bad. I just want to demonstrate right now, how this type of list works.
So you might be wondering, how the heck you keep your list interested if all you're sending them is ads and ads for other programs. Well as you can see from the above example, whereas the normal person might not enjoy these ads, like minded people with the same type of lists, and established marketers with promotion power may indeed feel that what you're sending them is profitable.
Not to mention the fact that if you're a big name already, or at least well know within your circle, people are pleased to know what you're doing. It's the smart ones that sit on your list, and watch you. Watch how you handle situations, what software you use, what you promote, how you promote. The catch? The catch is if you're not well known to your list already, then this can seem like a simple ad list to the unstrained eye, resulting in a loss of interest and subscribers.
My advice here is simple. Even though the work load is low, you don't really need to perform any other maintenance aside from your standard product creation, and of course searching for new products to create, you'll probably want to leave this one until you're established, or have a good base of people on your list that know your name, how much you earn and how darn good at your marketing you are. Of course there is a much faster alternative, and it involves getting yourself well known through joint ventures and through other people’s lists. Once you've done that, if people start migrating to your list, you won't have to worry about them running off and leaving because they're wondering who the heck this random person is sending them adverts that are no use to them.
If you're going to be using this type of list, make one hundred percent sure that it's right for your business, and the type of promotion you want to carry out. You'll also find that if your subscribers don't know you already, or have at least heard of you, they'll be gone faster than the previous two list types for the simple reason is they don't understand what you're offering them with your mailings.
This is definitely a great list type, and does indeed work well. There are many marketers out there, whose list I'm on right now, that utilize this effectively. Every single one of them however, was either established already when this list type came to life in their marketing efforts, or got established really quickly through recognition and other peoples lists to allow them to do this right off the bat. As you can see it's a tough balance to make, but once you've got it, this can be a great little earner.
Unsubscription Rate: ** Two stars: Unfortunately many people may see this as a plain ad list and unsubscribe, especially if they don't understand how powerful this list type can be. Once you've got a good base of people with similar interests however, you're going to reap the rewards big time from many, many branches of promotion through your subscribers lists, your subscribers lists and so on. Be very wary when selecting this list type, because if you don't have the right contacts, or the right name and expertise, it won't work.
Subscription Rate: ** Two stars again: It's far easier to get people to subscribe to your list when they know they're getting something valuable in return. Of course standard follow-up and offering valuable freebies works here as with all other lists. The problem lies with trying to pull up a good quality list that will not only be interested in your products, but have lists of their own related to your target market that will benefit you on those big reoccurring income products with standard multiple level affiliate programs.
Your previous customers and affiliates are your best bet here, as they already know you and know your name. Not only are they more likely to stay subscribed longer, but they'll be more likely to take an interest in what you have to say, and have promotion power of their own.
Ad income: *** Three stars here, although, this is a hard one to judge and depends entirely on how well your list is performing. Generally ads to this type of list are in demand for two reasons. One it's your personal list that no one else has access to (always a real value adder that one) and number two, to sustain a list that works in this way for any length of time needs what we spoke about earlier. Good affiliates and sales stats.
Many marketers in the know are clued up about exactly how valuable such a list is. Generally it's unlikely that you'll be selling ads very often, but like the previous personalized list, if you're stuck for cash one day, it's a quick fix. Try not to do this too often, though, as we already talked about, your subscribers are there to make money. They're there because they know the programs you create and join make money, and know you know how to make money. Starting to send out ads to offer ads to a very borderline list type like this, and you risk alienating your subscribers, and losing some really valuable people with that all important promotion power.
JV Circle: **** Four stars: This is a list type that despite what it seems on the surface holds a lot of value joint venture wise. The subscribers are quality subscribers, with list of their own, ready and eager to promote affiliate programs, and buy products all at the same time. It’s the best of worlds, a short term money maker and a resource builder.
It's also a list personal to you, most likely consisting of the people that have purchased from you before, or even affiliates who have promoted for you before. All of these factors bring in a high value and make your list a great bargaining tool when talking about or looking for new joint ventures.
There is one downside though, as with the pervious personal list, the more money you try to make short term by selling ads to subscribers, aside from the risks of alienating your subscriber base, the more you devalue your joint venture prospects. Now one or two won't hurt, but start up on a regular basis, and you may find yourself subjected to a demotion to an ad list, which doesn't hold much water joint venture wise. Keep it clean, keep it strict, and withhold access. Keep the quality subscribers and affiliates (the resource builders) up, and you'll find that in JV negotiations, this list type holds much more water than the e-zine or ad list, in some cases as much as the personal list.
Response Rate Over Time: **** Four stars: In general, this list types response rate over time doesn't seem to vary too much from the very personal list we talked about previously. There are only two real times that this list type will falter, and that's firstly if you alienate, like we talked about above, and if your subscribers don't understand the purpose of it.
For this reason you may see a smaller than average list, but this is fine, because lets be honest, what good are people that don't understand your list type, or just question your intent non stop? They're not going to make you any money, and they're not going to be making themselves any money either, so if you have to sacrifice quantity for quality, that’s a good trade off. Once you have these big resource gatherers, affiliates, buyers and list owners, and they know your name, and your game, you'll rarely lose them unless you change your list type, in which case, they might all just scarper due to the fact the reasons for them staying in the first place have been removed.
General usefulness: **** Four stars: Because this list is also very personal, it's not hard to get important tracking information from the subscribers. They're happy to give it to you simply because they know it's going to make them more money in the end, and of course many of them are on your list solely for the opportunity to join your programs and things you promote, and make wads of cash. They're all too happy to reveal to you what turns them on, hence the four stars.
Remember, no matter what list you have (maybe with the exception of the one coming up), research is good. Ask them, find out what their own lists are tailored to promote, and you'll see some big returns if you listen to the numbers at the end of the day. The only ones that won’t be forthcoming are those that don't quite see the concept of this type of list, and it's likely they won't be hanging around for long anyway.
Maintenance Time: ***** Five stars: If you're short of time, don't like writing, or want to put more of your efforts into creating products, family time, vacations or whatever it might be, this list type will save you a few hours a day compared to e-zine lists. The only type of research that you'll find yourself having to do is questions to your list to find out what makes them tick, and of course searching for products to promote. How do you find products to promote? Get yourself on some well know marketers affiliate lists such as this. See how it's a big chain? The bigger your name gets, the more cash you earn, the more subscribers you pull, the more people are going to do the very same thing and jump on your list to find out what to promote and how, earning all of you a whole lot of money.
Important note here: These are base figures and your exact results may be higher or lower than the above. It's more to give you some insight into aiming your business in the right direction than to give you exact figures and numbers and guaranteed base earning, response rate, income, number of JV prospects etc.