Purpose of Email Opt-In

I have seen all kinds of entrepreneur blogs, and pretty much all of them go after the viewer for an opt-in as quickly as they can.

My question involves the use of these for monetary gain.

What is the purpose, generally?
Some treat it as a gold mine.
Sure, I have signed up for these- and opted out after the first email most of the time.

Are RSS feeds a better method of getting their attention, or is it the "whole picture" of utilizing both that brings revenue?

Is the basic idea to sell your readers e-books on how to make money online?
Please help me out here to understand the value of these before I go to all the work in setting one up.

 

Hey Claymation,

As a marketer who's never tried the opt-in list for himself, it seems like a stupid way to waste your traffic. When you sign up for a list yourself, you immediately opt-out because you're "in the biz", and you know what the deal is. I used to think exactly as you do.

But anyone who has tried building their own list will tell you, it's remarkably effective. However, the idea is not to constantly promote to your list - that's just a waste of subscribers, because they will quickly opt-out.

However, if you try and build a relationship with your list, you'd be surprised at how easily you could sell something to them when you do choose to recommend something to them.

All in all, I shall summarize like this:

The money is in the list, but you will never believe it until you try it.

 

Very insightful response.
Thank you.

I'm thinking of creating one that would offer people something of value each time just for opting in, but hope for repeat traffic to our web presence through the link, perhaps a "signature link" or two connected to useful affiliates to bring income, etc.

 

The value of a list can be beyond belief. Now, alot of people do the wrong thing once they start building a list. The point is to have a bunch of people all interested in the niche you are involved in. As the IMer you already know they are interested in that area or else they wouldn't have signed up in the first place.
Where some go wrong with the list is they try SELLING 100% of the time and are just trying to make a quick buck. Now this still can work but not nearly as well and alot of people end up leaving the email list.

The best way to go is to make interesting content emails that keep the reading happy and learning as well as building a sense of trust with the email list. If you are giving good content then most will not leave your list. After you have built up some trust then the list should also be way more responsive when SELLING comes around, again the selling should be added into quality content, don't just send off a sale only email to them.

Treating your list well and giving them what they are really looking for can make for a huge pay off anytime you need it. It's as simple as sending your list of 3000 members a $17 product. Even if only 2% end up buy that is over $1000 right there. Generally if you work at a list it should be way over 3000 members so just think of the money!

Hope that answers it

 

the money is in a responsive list..
there are people making more money from a responsive list of 1000 opt-ins then people with 10-20,000.

 

Hi, all traffic generation methods come and go. First it was the Safelists, then the FFA and so on. But one thing will remain, your LIST. As long as you continue to grow it and nurture your r/s with your subscribers, you will be able to offer them great help and in the process profit from it. Read my free report on more affiliate marketing secrets.