My Good Buddy and twenty identical emails
One thing I have always found hardest about internet marketing is knowing what to email my list.
It took me three years to build a list of 1000, and I pretty much didnt email them for a whole year at one point!
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of adswaps and these have helped me build my list from 1000 to 8400 and taken my income to four figures per month but I have now decided to cut back drastically.
The problem with adswaps is they are starting to look spammy – there are so many emails going out saying ‘My Good Buddy has released a report, you can grab it free here’.
How many emails have you had with the title ‘ Here’s you free download’. I’ve had far to many and I don’t open them any more, do you? (Yes, I admit to using that title myself a couple of times but it was a split test to see if the title worked – the first time it did, the second it didn’t)
The other thing that happens is everyone emails out about a product launch with virtually the same email,
and even though some products are really good, there doesn’t seem to be much point in me emailing out about the same thing as everyone else. Surely my list will all have read it many times already?
So today I decided to be different and just email my list a direct link to download my new report.
You can download it here just for reading my blog (no optin required)
Free Report
So what do you think about these issues? Please leave your comments and advice below…
P.S. In the unlikely event that you havent already got the most popular free report at the moment then you can get it here
Traffic Secrets
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Keith
How’s it going my friend. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Have been noticing you about the internet alot recently.
How did your promotion of Matt Wolfe’s product go.
It was good to hear from you. I never forget someone who helps me and at Lee’s workshop you helped me set up my buyer’s list by telling me I could integrate Aweber and Paypal.
Went home, found out how to do it and was up and running.
Thanks alot man. This MWA community is absolutely brilliant.
Keep in touch Keith. Nice to hear from you.
Reach new heights
Nathan
Nathan Rufus´s last blog ..From Information Junkie To Infopreneur. Who’s Coming With Me?…
Thanks Nathan,
Yes, I’ve been really pushing forward since March to build my business.
I’d completely forgotten I’d spoken to you about about the paypal/aweber integration…
I did get some sales for Matt and for Alex (MWA3) which is good, but I have a long way to go in some areas.
Keith
Hi Keith
I don’t mind getting the odd adswap promotion from other marketers but I do mind if I’m sent them on a regular basis and agree it can be difficult to know what to send out.
Have you tried surveying your list to see what they want from you?
Thanks for the free report I’m off to read it now.
Thanks
Dawn Kay
Hi Keith,
That makes a lot of sense. It does get spammy. I get so many emails now like that. On the other hand if you a newbie and someone offered a free report, they may think that’s great. Have you surveyed your list lately? What do they want? Then develop a Clickbank product to meet that need. Great job!
Steven
Steven Keltsch´s last blog ..That’s All Make Our Fortune Online?!
Thanks Dawn & Steven,
Looks like I’ll be surveying my list then
It’s will be a couple of weeks as I’ll want to do a blog post as well and link it to that.
HEY GOOD BUDDY!
It is great to read your post. I totally agree….I got an identical email from the same offer from three different people within 24 hours. It can get quite frustrating. Anyways….I checked out your giveaway report – loved it. Straight and to the point. Keep up the good work!
Jerry Scoppa´s last blog ..A New Feature!
Hi Jerry,
Only 3? You can’t be on enough lists!
Glad you liked the report – it took under 2 hours for the whole report and site, so I will be doing some more…
Hi Keith,
Do you know why I opened your mail? The title! It was different. You are promoting what many marketers are this week but you made it your own.
If I didn’t already have the report I would have clicked just to see what the fuss was about. It still worked, I clicked over to here to give my opinion
Personally, I think IMers are getting far too lazy and rely too much on cut and paste. I rarely open mails any more. There are a few I look out for and of course, when a title is unique and catches my eye I’ll open that too.
“Here’s your free report” and similar titles don’t work for me, and frankly, I don’t care what your good buddy is doing either!
Perhaps that is just me, email overload to the point I just don’t read any more. It will be interesting to see the results of your survey.
Thanks for the report – I am just starting list building again and using giveaway events – it will come in handy
Jan´s last blog ..5 Reasons Why You Should Take Part in the EzineArticles.com #HAHD Challenge
Thanks Jan,
I’ll be doing more unusual titles then, and I’m going to post some examples to see what people think
Hi Keith,
I agree with the adswaps looking spammy. I wonder if they’re starting to loose there effectiveness as more and more people get into them.
I think it would be a shame because they allow you to offer value to your list with great products that you feel will help your subscribers.
We can’t be all things to all men so products and reports from other authors can actually be more useful, in terms of offering your list information from experts in their area of strength, rather than the list owner trying to expert at everything.
There’s a fine line between that and using adswaps purely to sell offers and build lists, but clearly the two purposes go hand in hand. Its a tough one.
Great article, thanks, I’ll let you know what I think of the report.
Tony
Anthony Murphy´s last blog ..My 4th, 1st Blog Post
Thanks Anthony,
It’s going to take time to adjust but certainly filtering out the best quality free items and only adswaping with those is something I want to aim for.
PLR packs are going to be out for me now…
Hey Keith, great blog post, and I am sick of getting the same pre-written emails, when will people realize that they need to start thinking different and stop acting like the pack, you need to try and stand out from the crowd to get noticed, Sally
Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It And Need YOUR Help
hey keith
ive only recently set up my blog have to say yours is looking great good content keep up the good work
Thanks
Davy
@ Sally,
Thanks, it’s not easy but I’ll be working on being more outstanding
@ Davy
Thanks and keep working on your blog – don’t do posts too close together – make them into an event and give people time to comment.
Hi Keith,
This is a great post and needed to be said – adswaps are great but they cannot be relied upon indefinitely.
I grew my own list to about 7k using primarily adswaps but it has all but burnt out – those subscribers must have been on several lists and getting hammered by numerous freebies every day soon gets old.
I am changing tactics a bit now. I will still do adswaps but will try and integrate the freebies into more personalised content emails, rather than as solo ads.
I haven’t got it totally figured out yet but it keep my emails fresh and the freebies a nice bonus, rather than an annoyance.
Let me know what you think.
David
David Walker´s last blog ..Behind the Scenes of the 30th Birthday Giveaway
Hi David,
I’m doing a couple of things – one is as you said personalise emails – I’m going to add one of mine to my post to see if it sparks off some more ideas.
Also I’m swapping mostly with smaller lists and spliting mine so people get less emails, and I’m putting new subscribers into a different list which I dont use for swaps with very often and it has a content based AR sequence.
Thanks
Keith
Hey what’s up Keith?
I found your blog from a comment on someone else’s blog. I liked this article. Really straightforward and honest. I’m just starting out with MWA 3.0 so I’ve been looking at all sorts of blogs trying to make mine better. You seem to be offering good content.
I’m curious, what happened when you emailed that list after about a year of no emails?
Peace,
Darren L Carter
Hey Keith, I am one of those guys who won’t open emails after a launch of a product…too many of them. I have a few “big” guys I follow and when one of them send me an email at the launch of a product, then I will open it and maybe I’ll check it out.
I have to draw the line somewhere. It’s getting to be email overload real fast.
Great post. Check out my post about list marketing on my blog.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike Helton´s last blog ..Building Relationships Through List Marketing
Hi Keith,
Nice point you bring up. As a newbie I’m also wandering what am I going to email my list?
Although I haven’t built up a subscriber list yet I want to be prepared for when that time comes as I definitely don’t want to come across as spammy.
It is important to be unique and to continue to provide value, which is something that I always stand by. Maybe you can try to write unique emails so that they aren’t the same as everyone else’s? Just a thought.
Well take care and good luck with your email list!
Anna
Hi Anna,
Thanks for the tip on nested replies, just testing it out!
Hey Keith,
I appreciate the post. I have recently built up a small list. I have been struggling with the very thing you are talking about. I don’t want to be spammy at all. I haven’t figured out yet how to communicate with my list in a way in which I am not always pushing some free offer via adswaps. It just seems that there has to be a better way to communicate with people. I want to provide value through relationship. i want to take care of my list not exploit them. Keep up the good work.
PJ
Thanks everyone, and good luck with Alex’s coaching…
Hi Keith,
You are right in changing things around. I’m sick and tired of getting the same promotional email from 10 to 15 people when there is a launch.
Wasn’t email list building meant to build a relationship with the people on your list?
I can’t see how a relationship can be built on canned emails that have nothing in them that is related to you the sender which is what a lot of people send out.
Instead of building a relationship you are likely ending up alienating them.
Good to read a post like this and to know that you too have realized things need to be done differently, the proper and not necessarily the easy way.
Vance
Vance Sova´s last blog ..Email List Building Ebook, How To Build Email List In Any Market
I was just thinking that recently. Not only about the same messages but about all the free stuff that people are offering once you join their lists. I am being offered so much free stuff that I ignore it now. I have downloaded so much already but do not have to read them all.
I did find some great headlines in my good my friend Codrut’s Email Subject Lines Exposed. It is a paid product but I have tried some of the subject lines and they work. He offers it once you get the free 99 Good Email subject Lines report which is available from my website. These are not all for the IM niche but useful for some ideas.
Sandy Halliday´s last blog ..I’m Getting Seasick With All This Oil Rig Hopping!
Hi Keith,
Your right on the ball,I get so much free stuff from everyone telling me it is from “Their best buddy etc”or “Their good friend’ has just launched the next best thing.
I am now reluctant to answer anything!!
To our success
Pete
Pete Burns´s last blog ..Determination, Passion, commitment and self improvement.
Sending people to your blog is a great idea. Alex talked about educating the consumer about your product- from suspect to prospect. That’s it! Don’t you just love “aha” moments?
-Jules
Julie Watson´s last blog ..Deer in Headlights Part Deux: Am I Testing Google Analytics or Is It Testing Me?
Hi Keith
I really appreciate reading your post and what you’re saying is something I’ve been hear a lot from other marketers.
In fact, i do believe that the majority of the people don’t open the emails with Free Offers or Gifts in title. They’re too spammy.
I receive myself several emails like that everyday and, unless they’re from someone that I really respect and admire, I just delete them.
There is a guy that sends me an email every time he makes a post in his blog. He is careful in what he writes and always try to provide excellent content. Of course I always open his email and go to his blog reading the post.
Both hos emails and blog promote products, but the promotion is NEVER the aim of the email, there are just some links there.
That’s a path I pretend to follow. In my opinion, better then send emails to promote you rather send emails with good content that really builds a relationship.
But for now I just have 3 people in my list, so I’m still wondering how to make it grow and to start I see few alternatives to giveaways and adswaps.
Cheers
Jorge
Jorge´s last blog ..Traffic and List Building – Part Three
Hey Keith
I know exactly what you mean and I think Sally Neil covered it in her blog before she started on Alex’s course. She made it sound quite humorous in the fact that this marketer must be the most popular man in the world as he had so many friends whose products he was recommending. I think we are going to have to think about something different to catch the subscribers eye now without going away from offering free content.
Regards
Simon
Hi Keith
I am a newbee and you have just replied to a post on the forum of mine. I wanted to thankyou for taking the time out to do so.
I have just read you post and am looking forward to reading the downloads… As a newbee I think you are spot on regarding the volume of “my good buddy” stuff, I am late into this market and have loads to learn, but I do think the best approach is to try and build a more personal relationship with prospects,
I am of the old school I think people buy from people.
In my offline business I have always dealt with people I liked or respected…. and you are only as good as your last order… by that I mean… if the product is rubbish your valued customers will soon drift away… We all know there is no such thing as a free lunch… even me as a newbee.
Thank again for your help
Vince
Hey Keith,
Thanks for your free report – I’ll be getting into my first giveaway event this week so it’ll come in handy.
It’s an interesting thing that people are getting so turned off to email (“email overload”). I don’t mail out regularly so when I do I generally get a good response BUT I think the fact that the bar is continually getting raised with regards to creating interesting and eye catching headlines can only be a good thing. It’ll reward those prepared to put in the effort vs the copy and pasters…
Rob
(** RJB **)
** RJB **´s last blog ..The Super Sneaky “How To Get Over 1.3 Million Safelist Credits In 3 Days” System
Hi Keith
I also think that if you do to many adswaps, you will devalue your own list, because they will end up being on lots and lots of mailing lists.
Henning
Henning from Denmark´s last blog ..Be a successful Go-Giver and money will flow your way
Hello Keith and fellow MWA student.
I really liked your post today.
I agree 100% with the adswap situation
and I for one only do 4 a month.
I feel you almost have to do a few a month
to keep up. But after they are on my list
I funnel them around so I can better target
them.
It’s the old adage about anything in moderation
is good. Too many swap “forums and groups” rely
entirely on adswaping and I have seen so many people just beat up their list. It’s sad really.
Before I swap with anyone, I check their offer and ask them when and how many times do they mail out. By asking them flat out how they treat their list, you will get a decent feel for the quality of subs you will get.
So, Stop on by and say hello,
Douglas J Gregory
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