Free Ebook On Building Lists – No Takers???
I have to say I am a bit “flabbergasted” – for a few weeks now I have had the free ebook from Alex Jeffreys (“Listbuilding with Alex”, you can see it in the sidebar on the right) up for grabs, and I have had only very few takers.
I wonder why? Building email lists and marketing to the subscribers is one of the most effective ways of earning money online (the money is in the list, remember!), and nobody wants some free info on it? How strange!
(Here I have to throw in that you might think – well, Petra has never talked about list building on her blog, what would she know??? – Well, whilst I am right now only at the very beginning of my list building efforts after joining Alex Jeffrey’s Coaching, there is one message out there in the IM world that rings loud and clear, and you will be hearing it over and over again, and that is to build a list because the money is in the list. And those people are right. Whilst you can make a decent amount from other affiliate marketing, if you have a closer look you will see that literally all of the really successful Internet Marketers owe their success to having huge email lists which they market to.)
Alex Jeffreys, one of these aforementioned “List Building Gurus”, is giving away some really great information in his report “Listbuilding with Alex”, how come nobody seems interested? Now I can only think of a few things:
- Either that nearly everybody who visits my blog has got a copy of the book already 😮
- People who visit my blog are Listbuilding experts themselves (….? Yeah right!)
- You are all scared to leave your email address for fear to get swamped with emails after.
Well, let me assure you on No.3 that I haven’t even got any follow up emails set up yet, as – if I am completely honest – this is one of my personal “FEAR FACTORS” in listbuilding that seems to hold me back from progressing in this field – I am scared of having to send out emails to my list on an ongoing basis. Don’t worry, I will tackle it in my own time (like everything else), but for the time being you could just grab the book without being hassled by me for a while!!! 😉
So I would really be interested to hear from you why you don’t seem to think it worth getting a free ebook from a great Internet Marketer. Seriously, please leave me a comment below as to why you don’t go for free information when you can get it. Might it be that you are sick of the OTO’s (One Time Offers) that appear so often after you sign up for the free stuff? That you don’t trust yourself not to spend money on it? Or is it something else?
Let me know! I am looking forward to this!
(And, by the way, if you think you might like the book about building lists, just go and grab it now! 🙂 )
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Hi Petra,
Great post! I really like your truth and honesty about your fears to do with emailing.
I think more and more people are becoming a bit weiry about signing up to people’s list for a few reasons now.
Fear of their email being sold on. I know of a few big Guru’s who are doing this “MF” is one of them. I didn’t want to say the whole name to sound like I was saying something bad. 😉
Another fear like you said is being sold to constantly. Recently I culled myself from quite a few lists because of being constantly sold to. I have been finding that there are a lot of email marketers that only sell and don’t give any content. It should be the other way around content and then maybe a little selling.
I will sign up to your list as I am curious as to what Alex teaches. And as they say “The money is in the list” but so is community and good will.
Hope everything is going well.
Jacinta 😀
.-= Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..Creating My Business Online Daily Tasks & The Future! =-.
@Jacinta, thank you, thank you, thank you! 😉 I should do the same like you and unsubscribe of some of those lists, I am getting 50+ emails a day now and only about 3 or 4 of them are worth having a look at. I also believe that you should put out content, and only after you have earned the trust of your readers might you do a little bit of selling (only a little!), and then only things you preferably have tried and tested yourself and know that work and are of good value.
Hi Petra,
Every blog I visit has one thing in common, they are all different! I too am a point where I think I may want to invite some traffic over for a visit, but am not sure if my blog is a place where people want to re-visit or subscribe to yet. Matt Wolfe sent an excellent email on generating traffic from Amazon. It’s something I’ll be looking at doing in a week or so. Also there are always give-away events going on. Why not get a small ebook together and enter it into one of those events? The ebook that Dean Holland has is only about 25 pages, and that seems to work.
Anyway, if I can be of any help drop me a line or contact me at the blog.
Talking of blogs, would appreciate any feedback on mine you’d like to offer.
Go for it!
Ciao for now 😉
@Dave, I believe I have to change the site a bit, make it more unique, just as Peter Davies suggests. Will contact you through your blog.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way to do this is to personalise your own squeeze page as this product is all over the internet.
I think this rule should apply to anything where there are many of the same thing, hope this helps
.-= Peter Davies´s last blog ..Hitting a Brick Wall and Getting Back To The Drawing Board……….. =-.
@Peter Davies, I have come to that conclusion, too. Now I just have to find the time and expertise to change the site to something equally professional, but different.
Hey Petra,
I’ve experienced the same with my AJ free ebook.
I’m pretty sure the reason is that it’s already done the rounds.
I’ve had 6 subscribers to the AJ ebook in 2 months and I’ve seen them a lot in giveaway events.
BUT, when I wrote my own short ebook and put that into giveaways, I had far more success (currently at about 65 subscribers in 3 weeks).
I’m pretty sure that the reason is it’s mine, it’s new and it hasn’t been circulated before.
All the best,
Andrew.
.-= Andrew Vaughan´s last blog ..Is Your Strategy Online, Right for Online Marketing Success? =-.
@Andrew, I think that is a good idea – to provide your own ebook and put it into giveaways. Thanks for the tip!
One reason could be that you are targeting people who already have heard about this book and are therefore not interested in getting it. Either you could expand the offer by adding a second less famous book or simply try to reach new hunting-grounds.
.-= Stefan´s last blog ..Get People to Work For Free =-.
@Stefan, I think I might have to either re-do the squeeze page (make it more unique) or create my own giveaway book.
Hi Petra,
Just thought I would pop by again. Definitely agree with the idea of the free ebook and to join the giveaway events. I think that was how I ended up on a lot of people’s list, but definitely a great way to list build. As we know we can always unsubscribe! 😆
Be Good To You
Jacinta 😀
.-= Jacinta Dean´s last blog ..My Internet Business Daily Tasks 5-10-09 =-.
Hi Petra, I just started as an affiliated marketer, so a lot of this stuff is new to me (I am learning as I go). So I am just learning new things such as “building a list.
I will take advantage of the free “list building” information you are offering.
Thank you so much.
.-= gigi @ best madame alexander dolls´s last blog ..Vintage Madame Alexander Cissy Dolls =-.
@Gigi, I hope you will find it useful! Thanks for signing up – you are in absolutely no danger of being flooded with emails from me 🙂
Hi Petra,
No takers for the ebook seems to be happening to several people for reasons already mentioned – it is not new and it is on hundreds of web pages.
In addition to that I think that list building is not a very popular subject. Those few who are interested in it would have seen the ebook already.
Plus people want quick results. I think they’d bite easily if one offered them a big list of subscribers. Having to learn and work for it is not attracting them.
I come across the view very often now that ebooks are not valued much anymore. That is why creating video products seems to make more sense than creating ebooks these days.
Vance
.-= Vance Sova´s last blog ..Why Should Your Life Story Matter? Show Up To Harm Or Help ? =-.
@Vance, what you are saying makes complete sense. I have been saying I need to get the video camera out and start making my own little movies (I have even downloaded Camstudio already), but I seem to be missing the time right now. Never mind, will get there!
That trust issue and web as you rightly mentioned in your blog exists. My own blog where I only update people about latest research in the field of marketing still gets very few people subscribing while I get more than 10,000 visitors a month. Shows how weary have we become (1) of web itself and (2) of free things on web. Caveat emptor situation. However, I like your simplicity and honesty about it.
I quit list building a lot time 2 months back. I was building using Free make money online downloads. In the course of 4 – 5 months I saw little sign-ups and this is because most folks are wary about giving away there email details. On my part, I’m quite lazy when it comes to drafting follow up emails just as you are.
I loaded the free ebooks as a page on my blog and it’s generating quite some traffic from folks looking to download mmo ebooks without signing up.
I’ll probably revisit list building when I’ve got my own unique freebie to pitch.
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Patchwork Of Tips´s last blog ..All You Need To Know About Nigerian Web Hosts =-.
wonderful article nicely written.this ebook seems to be very useful for everyone.keep posting
Building up the list is really very helpful for increasing up your business but how to increase list is a big task.But a e-book on the same topic really helps to increase the list.
I had an attempt at list building when i first started out. It didn’t go that well! I was gutted, I thought my campaign was awesome…..hindsight is a wonderful leveler. I realise now that my whole campaign was rubbish although my free guide that I offered was actually pretty useful.
I was knocked back an put of trying to list build. My approach now is to offer the chance to subscribe to my various sites or blogs but I do not push it. I figure that if someone likes what they see or what I have to say then they will subscribe and at least I know they will be following me……not my free offers.
Offer great content and you will get your followers.
Thank for the advice about Alex’s free book Petra, I downloaded it and it is a great read and very informative. Hopefully, using some of the useful tios and advice I found in the book and on this site, i might finally start building my list!
I had the same experience as the above commentator – I launched my own ebook and was quite shocked how many people signed up to it – free but required the email. I think it was because as readers they wanted my take on a new topic which I hadn’t covered previously on my main blog. I’ve had 101 signups in a couple of months
I’ve read that people who are looking to sell things (like opportunities) online are some of the toughest folks to sell to. It might be because they are a bit cynical or jaded from being burned over and over.
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..Green Depression Glass =-.
The only reason I haven’t downloaded the course is that I am actually too lazy a marketer to have a list. I know people say the money is in the list but there is money everywhere if you work for it and since most of my projects are mini-sites and not blogs, I prefer not to spend a great deal of time on them.
Autoresponder series just take a hell of a long time to do and I’d rather focus on something else.
.-= Roy@Hostgator Coupon´s last blog ..Hostgator Coupon Code for Winter 2009 =-.
Roy, I have to say after dabbling with list building I feel kind of the same… 😉 Too much work to come up with interesting emails all the time. That’s why I am into niche site building now – I enjoy it, and it will earn me money over time, without having to do too much maintenance.
When should you start list building? I am not quite on the level where I am monetizing or doing any affiliate promotions so I don’t think I need a list. I don’t have the following or the authority yet.
I personally find listbuilding and everything associated with it too hard, as you have to provide your readers with new and good content and newsletters with different topics, and I simply don’t have the time to put all the research into it and writing emails all the time. I will stick with niche sites right now, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with not having a list!
I like the animated monkey here. I saved it to my PC 🙂
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I think building a list really helps your buisness alot. By the way the article was very informative, thank you.
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