Solo Ads: 5 Purchase Option Strategies The Gurus Don't Want You To know?

Getting More Traffic... With Solo Email Buys! Traffic. Traffic. Traffic.

Not a day goes by that I don’t receive a question about how to get more traffic.

I’m serious. Every single day – it’s the #1 question we get... by far! It’s not even close. 

So as we tackle the topic of traffic today, let’s first start with a 30,000 square foot view.

There are essentially two ways to generate traffic.

#1. You can get it for free

This includes blogging, social media (twitter, facebook posts, pinterest, LinkedIn, etc), content syndication, podcasting, etc.

#2. You can pay for it:

 

This includes banner buys, paid Facebook ads, Google AdWords, CPV, email, sponsorships, etc. And yes, they both can (and do) work. 

For every guru that says you can’t do well with just free traffic, there are entrepreneurs who have proved them wrong. 

There are full-fledge YouTube stars, millionaire bloggers & podcasters, and people who have generate a lot of income on Pinterest.

Here’s the problem with becoming overly reliant on free traffic. Free traffic is NOT predictable (just because your blog post get a lot of shares this week, does not mean it will get a lot of shares next week).

Free traffic is NOT scalable(you simply can’t scale something like SEO or a blog post) Free traffic is NOT reliable (Thousands of business that relied on SEO and link-farms were literally wiped out overnight when Google updated their algorithm)

And for all those reasons above why you should not rely solely on free traffic – are reasons you should start to focus more attention on paid traffic.

Simple Paid Traffic 

Look, I get it. Paid traffic (aka “media buying”), can be overwhelming.

Ad networks. Tracking. Per per click. CPV. CPA. PPV. Re-targeting

(Welcome to Confusion City!)

There are virtually unlimited ways to buy traffic – and each one can get you more visitors than you have ever imagined.

It’s impossible to do it all – especially when you take into account how each of these traffic sources are constantly changing.

For example, you can be great at Facebook Advertising – but then, they add their own retargeting. Or they start to decline ads that used to be accepted.

So what do you do?

I recommend you focus on two or three core paid traffic strategies.

Become good at those few strategies. You might be thinking...

“but Tim, shouldn’t I just focus on ONE traffic source so I can get really, really good at it?”. 

No! You are playing with fire if you only rely on one traffic source. Remember what I just said about Facebook?

We learned our lesson with that one. At one time, we were spending up to $1,000 PER DAY on Facebook Ads – before they banned our account!

(Same With Google Adwords back in 2009, SLAP!) 

Overnight, all of that traffic went down the drain. And if it was our only traffic source, it would have likely put our company out of business.

One is always the most dangerous number in your business.

This month we are tackling one traffic strategy... paid solo email ads.

Why Email?

A person subscribed to an email list, newsletter or publication is a different type of prospect.

They are people that TAKE ACTION.

Think about it... They are not just passively looking at some random picture on Facebook of their friend’s cat and happen to stumble upon your ad.

No – they are raising their hand and subscribing to a specific email on a specific

topic.

“I want this... and please send me more information”. They went to the site. They entered their email address. Plus – think about the medium.

They are already on an email list. They understand the idea of subscribing to an

email publication or requesting a special report via email.

It’s just like selling on a webinar to people who are already conditioned to buy on a webinar. 

I LOVE email – and you should too. It’s where we always start when rolling out new campaigns.

Going Solo!

You may or may not realize there is SO MUCH email traffic available to you.

And it’s one of the best ways to get started and “test” your offer.

A solo email basically works like this:

• You find a list (more about that further down) with subscribers who opted-in.

• You offer to pay for a solo email to their list (it’s sent under their name with implied endorsement)

• You either pay “per click” or “CPM” (cost per thousand subscribers) A solo email is the ONLY message that goes out to a list. Versus an advertisement that

might be one of a few. Or an advertisement that is included with other content.

A solo email is focused entirely on your promotion and offer. But because it’s a solo, you will pay a premium.

Here’s why I like solo email to get traffic...

1. Email subscribers are BUYERS!

2. It’s easier to create a short email promotion than to worry about creating dozens of different size banners/graphics

3. It’s easy to understand (if they have 100,000 subscribers and it costs $1,800 for a mailing – you “get it”)

4. Fast results. You can see if your offer is working often within hours of the mailing

5. It’s scalable. There are tens of thousands of lists with millions of subscribers available to rent

6. It’s easy to track – no need for complicated

media servers. Just create a track able link.

What Should You Offer?

More and more of my fellow marketers (myself included) are moving away from trying to sell immediately... and moving to building the list first.

That’s not to say a direct sale in an email can’t work. We used to send email that sent them right to a video sales letter.

But as I said, we are moving away from these and focusing more on list-building campaigns.

We get them on the list and sell with relationship building and a simple funnel (we’ll go into more detail about powerful and profitable funnels in future reports!).

Every list is different and there are no hard and fast copy rules.

You should ask the list owner or broker for sample ads/copy that performed well to that list.

When in doubt, stick with an “intrigue” headline like “What to Never ( ) When ( ). 

And lead them to your optin page which has the same copy.

Finding Lists to Rent

The list is everything! The best copy with the best offer doesn’t matter unless you find the right list to mail to.

There are tens of thousands of potential email lists to rent. But before we go into finding the right list – here’s a bit of negotiating advice...

Test Small. Test Smart.

(Negotiating Your Buy)

Before you begin to seek out lists to rent, you’ll no doubt come across some very large ones of 1 million or more email addresses.

Every list is different.

And just because your offer tested well with one list, does not mean it will work for another. I recommend you ask if you can test before you do a big send.

For example, let’s say it’s a list of 100,000 emails at $75 CPM.

(CPM = Cost Per Thousand)

At $75 per thousand subscribers.. if you mailed to the entire list, it would cost you $75 X 100 = $7,500.

You could ask if you could test your email to 20,000 people, which would cost you $75 X 20 = $1,500.

IMPORTANT:

As you deal with bigger lists, here’s something you might encounter. 

Let’s say it’s a list of 500,000 and you want to do a test of 50,000 emails.

The list broker might test it with their 50,000 most responsive emails. In other words, your email will go to the people who always click.

So the 50,000 test might not be a great indictor of the strength of the entire list.

And, if after the first test looks good, you then put a lot of money into a full send – you can take a big hit.

Here’s what I recommend before you invest it a bigger spend on the full list...

Do the first test of 50,000 emails. If it works, great, ask for another test of 50,000

and see how they perform.

You’ll see if there’s a big drop off in the quality of the first 50,000 versus the second 50,000 emails.

Here are some options to find a good list to begin your solo email traffic campaign...

Option #1: NextMark

The “Google” For List Rentals

If you haven’t used the NextMark search feature before, head on over to see just how much opportunity there is to rent an email list.

It’s a massive database of email lists for rent.

The URL is: http://lists.nextmark.com/

About The Mailing List Finder the Mailing List Finder aims to help you to find those elusive "perfect" mailing lists for your direct marketing campaigns.

It gives you free access to expert information on more than 60,000 postal, email, and telephone mailing lists from more than 1,400 vendors -- virtually every mailing list available.

Your success depends on mailing lists Mailing lists are at the heart of every successful direct marketing campaign. Enter your keywords and choose “email” as the channel.

Then, click on the results and contact the lists you’d like to advertise in. Boom!

Option #2: Go Directly

To List Owners (Mass Market) there are some big players with lists for rent more “general” in nature.

And by more general, I mean topics like health, make money, dating, weight loss, financial, coupons, etc... 

These offers can work for many types of lists.

Here are two of the biggest players with LARGE lists for rental...

Arcamax: www.arcamax.com

Newsmax: www.newsmax.com

Visit those sites – and take a look at which lists will work best for your offer.

Option #3: Go Directly

To List Owners (Niched) Obviously the more your offer appeals to a mass market, the more opportunities you’ll have to buy solo emails.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make niche offers work, you just have to look a little bit harder to find those hidden pockets of the perfect prospect.

One secret source for us in the home business / make money from niche is a reliable resource called The Directory Of Ezines.

It's been around for years, and at $197, it's a solid value that can pay you for years to come as it gives you unlimited access to 1000s of lists, that you can plug into.

D.O.E. ==>

http://directoryofezines.com/60-second-recap

Option #4: Brokers and Agencies

Besides going directly to other email list owners – you can use list brokers and agencies.

These brokers and agencies have relationships with list owners and, sometimes, act exclusively.

Plus, they will save you a lot of time having to track down each list owner.

Here's one that will work for what you and I do... 

Dedicated Emails Dedicated Emails is run by Brian and Mike Litman... two guys I’ve known for years.

They have access to a lot of very good lists in everything from health and personal development to business.

Because of the quality of their lists– they are not the least expensive, but definitely worth testing for your offer.

The URL is:

www.dedicatedemails.com

Option #5: Solo Email Groups

There’s this unique underground world of “solo” email buying groups... mostly on Facebook. 

Many of them are in the “Internet Marketing” niche, but you still might find a good source or two in other markets.

Here are a few of them:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SoloBuySell/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/298937196917275/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/salestestimonials/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/223628744452788/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/adswapsolojv/

Plus in Facebook, you can use Custom Audiences and Custom Insights, to really pinpoint specific "pockets" of people that you could maybe ask that person / group for solo ad resources.

There are also places to do email “swaps”, but I’m not a big fan.

Do you really want to commit to promote another offer to your list – before you know what they sell?

It’s short-term thinking. Good for a fast dollar, but a bad business model for the long term as your churn rate for subscribers would outweigh any return.

And to us, Warriors, it's all about building long-term wealth. 

Stability. Power. Confidence. Fortitude.

Whew.. we made it through. I know it’s a lot to digest. But it worth’s re-reading a few times and digging into some of the list resources.

One good list. One good promotion can bring thousands of new subscribers into your universe.. and generate significant revenue.

Start with ONE place to test your offer. And when it works, you can begin to expand to other email buys to grow your list faster than you ever imagined!

Rock On Warrior!

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