[Case Study] Building a List Via Ads - DP, Fiverr etc

We all know the money is in the list, right? After all gurus tell us this all the time. The problem comes in building the list - how do you get people to subscribe?

One of the most popular pieces of advice is to use paid options such as solo ads and traffic to drive interested people to your squeeze page. But do they work?

I am going to look at trying out various methods to build a list from scratch using the likes of Fiverr and DP offers. Now I am not sure on the rules re showing specific offers so I will likely not reveal EXACTLY who I used, but stats, info etc I will be sharing.

What I Have Done

So far I have created a quality free report on making money online (via niche adsense sites), which I will be offering to subscribers. I have also created a squeeze page using the free option here - http://www.squeezepagecreator.net/

The next step will be to purchase some offers and track them carefully to see how they do.

My first effort seems to be a bust. I used the 'safe list' option of going via Email-hog which allows a certain amount of emails to be sent out for free to their list. Despite 900 emails going out, and 40+ clicks, no sign ups. Seems people only click links to get the 'credits' (I know I do). they allow one email per week for free users so I will try again in a week.

My next step is to buy some email solo ads. I'm off to Fiverr to see what I can do. I will be reporting back with my findings tomorrow. Wish me luck!

 

Thats interesting , would have to think about it

 

Great post, I'll be following this thread.

 

this was nice. subscribed to this thread. lets see how it goes.

 

Latest update.

Some MAJOR ISP problems have meant I have struggled to get online today, never mind actually achieve anything. But the latest on my email-hog campaign...

60 clicks, 3 sign ups and no backend sales. Not exactly record breaking but better than a kick in the nuts. Conversion rate always going to be terrible because of incentivised clicking rather than actually caring about what I said (I do it with their emails too, never really pay attention to what I am looking at).

There is one fiverr gig and one DP gig that I want to order, but right now I can't even send emails from my normal accounts on this dongle so will wait until tomorrow, by when my ISP (blwydi Virgin) should have things up and running again.

In the mean time I may try another free safe list or two. If I do I will let you know about it

 

I wonder if there's any way to use the fact that traffic is "incentive-ized" to your advantage? Since we already know what makes people on the list "click", maybe it's a matter of offering the right product or service.

Of course, figuring that out ain't easy!

Keep us up to date. I'm interested in your results.

 

Indeed, and there are so many of those types of services it could well be valuable to come up with something. But that's not the focus of today (you have got my gears turning on what could work there though, damn you)!

 

This is a very interesting experiment - I'm curious to see what results you get. Thanks for sharing.

 

Okay Nick, I am going to give you something really, really valuable and not known to many people, and if they do know it, they don't talk about it.
But I work on the belief that there is more than enough for everyone. The universe is incredibly abundant! Because you have more does not mean that I must have less.
You want traffic. You want lots of traffic. You want targetted traffic and you want opt-ins.
Go to: http://adf.ly (NOT an affiliate link, btw)
Join up. Get oodles of traffic. 40 cents per 1,000. $8 for 20,000 pairs of eyes to your offer. And they do opt-in. Trust me. This is the exact method I used to build my list and it works.
Don't tell anyone and especially don't tell anyone I told you.
Enjoy.

 

Interesting campaign, the thing with getting subscribers, is you need to think in the mindset of a subscriber, too many times we get emails we click delete or mark as spam, you have to put yourself in their shoes, and make that title and content compelling enough that they want to find out more

 

Thanks for sharing this strategy. Can you expand on it a little? Are you saying that you have an adfly URL leading to your squeeze page, and you then promote your URL/s-page? How exactly do you promote it (if that’s not revealing too much)? Do you have any methods that you’ve found to be particularly good for list building?

Thanks again.

Edit: this was supposed to be a reply to dailybread2011's post - it's appeared at the end of the thread for some reason

 

Hi Simon101,
When you set up your campaign in Adf.ly you purchase a certain number of visitors to your site/squeeze page. Adf.ly then sends those real visitors to your website. If you have a good offer and a good squeeze page, then a percentage of those visitors will opt-in and give you their email addresses. This builds your list rapidly. Faster than any other way I know or have heard of.
Shhhhhhh........

 

Thanks to dailybread my first purchase has been for 14k from adf.ly using their cheapest option (proxy). Should that fail I will use their targeted country efforts.

Thanks for the lead, I'll be reporting back with my results

 

System is quick at getting ads running. 1,000 page views according to the adf.ly - so far just one sign up but to be fair

1) this is poor, cheap, untargetted traffic
2) I am not sure my landing page is any real quality, I am going to find someone who knows their stuff to take a look (let me know if you know anyone, paid or otherwise)

 

Hey Nick,

PM me with the url of your site and I will take a look.
1 sign up from 1,000? That will make 14+ sign ups from 14,000. In a day. How many were you getting before per day?
I have pm'd you the url of my site so you can have a look at how I have it set up.
Best wishes mate.

 

Oh, I agree. $6 for 14 sign ups (if thats what I end up with) is well worth it, so no problems there. it's about trying to optimise my site - I am confident it should be better and having read around about landing pages I realise mine is very poor (its in the sig).

Appreciate your landing page, top quality. I have much to learn

Current stats. 1.5k views, 2 sign ups. Not exactly great stats wise but far from a kick in the nuts, and hardly an expensive system!

Will let this run pass then try a new landing page and rebuy. Better I do this on cheap traffic than on solo ads and the like I could be spending more on.

 

Hey Nick,
Sent you a PM. I hope you enjoy it.
Martin

 

Thanks for that. Incidentally, (if you don't mind my asking) what kind of response rate do you get from your list? I have no experience with email marketing & I'm curious as to how it compares to conventional direct mail. Are the numbers similar (1-3%)? Better? Worse?

Thanks again.

 

Hey Simon101,
Using adfly is the first part of this system. This list responds around 1-3% as normal, BUT, once you build it to 300+, then I use some other resources to build a really responsive, LARGE list that responds over 5%! Consistently! PM me if you want more details.
Good luck.
Martin

 

Hey,

How about building up your subscriber list within days by joining a massive JV Giveaway Event? (Can get up to 2k subscribers within a few days). The event works like this: You share a product for free on the event, and promote the event through whatever methods possible. The more you promote, the more points you earn, and contributors with more points would receive higher publicity for their respective products. This means that thousands and thousands of people joining the event will be downloading your product, and filling up your subscriber list! For more information you can contact me at