Edition #55 – 5/29/2006
Lately we’ve been talking a lot about list building. Today I want to review a certain list-building strategy that I tried recently, and that you should avoid like the plague…
Don’t buy a co-reg list!
First of all, what is “co-reg”? Co-reg is short for co-registration, and it comes in several different forms.
Essentially, co-registration is when a person subscribes to one email publication and is simultaneously subscribed to others. Sometimes it is called co-reg when marketers mutually send subscribers to each other’s opt-in pages (this is explained in Keith Wellman’s ListFX manual), but that’s not what I’m talking about. That’s really more of a co-promo than a co-registration.
In the best case scenario, a co-reg would involve voluntarily checking boxes where the specific co-reg publication is named. In other words, the subscriber knows exactly what they’re getting.
However, in most cases it involves checking a box in order to get more information about a certain topic, without knowing exactly what you’ll be getting. You can easily see this practice if you sign up for Hotmail or almost any free email provider. They ask you to check the boxes which correspond to your interests.
Unbeknownst to most users, they are registering for any number of ezines and other email publications, which will soon be flooding their inbox.
In other cases, there is no “box checking” involved. The terms of service (a tiny link at the bottom of the page) explains that they will be sharing or selling your information to other companies.
What may happen then is they will sell these leads to spammers, or to legitimate internet marketers like me who haven’t learned their lesson yet.
Let me tell you about my experience…
A few months ago I came across a site called YourNewList.com, which is run by Jane Mark and Phil Basten of JPE Advertising. In a nutshell the site offers an opportunity to instantly own an opt-in list of 50,000 or more subscribers. You can get a 50,000 member list for $795 all the way up to a 150,000 member list for $1795.
I had been considering ordering a solo email campaign with one of JPE Advertising’s other sites when I came across this offer. Since I was very interested in building my list, and the deal sounded “too good to be true” I emailed Jane about it. I was concerned mainly about the quality of the leads.
This was her reply to me…
Your New list is the best leads you can get. They are leads for a permanent list with a list mananger. You can add your own members to the list and you can order more leads and add them whenever you like. They come with our training and our introductory letters. It’s a whole different ball game than simply running a solo ad . It’s your own list that you manage and control and mail to and there is nothing like this on the net today.
The solo ads are a one time thing
We have pretty responsive lists but to be frank with you, if you can swing getting one of these New Lists, I would drop the solo add run and apply the money to this.
Having your own list of 50,000 is what we have been working to get our clients for two years and now it’s here.
It took us 4 years and a lot of money to grow our lists to 350,000 plus and now our clients can do virtually the same thing in 30 days with a much much samller investment.
We are very excited about this and if you have a long term vision for your business on the net, Your New List is where you should be but,…
You will need to take time to develop a relationship with the list so no mailing of ads for at least 1 to 2 months just introductory letterse and free offers, that kin of thing.
As I looked at her offer, I decided it must be a good deal, even if the leads were only mediocre quality. My remaining concern was regarding the autoresponder service, which was a mandatory part of the deal (and another $69.95/month starting immediately plus a $15 setup fee). I was skeptical whether it was on par with AWeber, which is where my other lists are hosted.
Jane had this to say…
I checked with Phil and here are some of the features you get with the autoresponder.
You can schedule your mailings send in html or text or both
Personalize and track them
Get demographic data collection
Gerenate a custom sign up form to put on your webiste
Manually send
Manually ad an email address
manually delete an addressBasically it does what Awebber does and it has easy set up instructions.
These lists are coming in much faster than we expected and since you really don’t need a lot of training on this, I certainly think it has much more value than any other advertising we offer.
Our frist three oders alreay have their lists in 48 hours and we expect all of the others to be in within 7 days. Thsi will slow down as we get a lot orders but right now we are only 48 hours into this and it is moving.
We are setting up three new list of our own of 150K so you know we like it.
OK, I was assured the leads were good and the autoresponder was good, so I went for the $1795 plan (plus $69.95/month).
Unfortunately, I have to report that this investment was an utter waste of my time and money.
Please understand that Jane and Phil are well-known marketers who have been doing business as long as I’ve been alive. They generally conduct business in a professional manner from what I’ve seen. They’ve also got a lot of friends, which means I’m probably burning a few bridges with this review…so please understand that I’m putting my relationship with you above some potential future joint ventures. But as far as I’m concerned, $1795 is a lot of money, and I want you to avoid making the same mistake.
First, regarding the leads. Were they good quality? No. These were the least responsive, disconnected, unmotivated leads I’ve ever emailed.
Before you start thinking I treated them the wrong way, let me make something clear. I took Jane’s advice and sought to build a relationship with these people. I sent them introductory letters, and a slew of free stuff.
In case you’re wondering whether I sent them good content, and well-written newsletters… I sent them the EXACT same material that was sent at the same time to my primary list which resulted in these testimonials: www.ericstips.com/testimonials/.
I’m sure that’s more than 99% of internet marketers have to show for their work… I assure you that if this was going to be done, at least I did it the “right” way.
I also did the “right” thing by closely monitoring every bounced message that resulted from my mailings. I literally spent hours sifting through bounce messages, email filter confirmations, unsubscribes, and spam complaints. I did this after every message I sent.
The results were dismal, with virtually no profit being generated from this list.
As for the autoresponder, the service is run through A1eBiz, owned by Doc Phelps. Jane said it basically does what Aweber does. Well let me tell you that it basically DOESN’T do what Aweber does.
The service was missing several key features that I rely on at Aweber. For example…
-I was unable to schedule an email to be sent at a certain time
-I was unable to see the history of any emails I’d sent
-I was unable to track open rates
-I was unable to see if a message had successfully been placed in the queue
-And more…
It was really an inconvenience, and did not meet the needs of my newsletter.
However, I do need to mention that I’m not putting down A1eBiz or Doc Phelps. It’s not Doc’s fault that it was portrayed in a different way to me. In fact, I found Doc to be a cool guy who was always there to help. When I had a problem with the mailer one day, Doc made it up to me by giving me an extra 150,000 leads for free.
I will even go so far as to say that if you have a legitimate reason for needing a service that allows you to import purchased leads (AWeber does not allow you to do this), A1eBiz is a viable solution.
You can also buy these same leads directly from Doc for a much lower price. He has them listed on his site for $600 for 100k, but if you buy them regularly he told me he sells them for half of that! They are MLM co-reg leads, so if you’re running an MLM business and you don’t mind being called a spammer then you might want to look into it.
OK, so the list wasn’t responsive, and I was paying $69.95/month to keep it going, so I decided to bring as many subscribers as possible into my Aweber account. There were about 275,000 subscribers left on my A1ebiz list. Out of that number, exactly 71 people opted to continue receiving Eric’s Tips…and that was even after a final bribe.
Again these people received the same newsletter that received accolades from my “real” subscribers. So if you’re one of those 71 people who made the move, thank you! As for the other 274,929, I guess they weren’t reading it or just weren’t interested in making money online.
Here’s the final result:
$2019.85 spent for the list and 3 months of service
At least a dozen hours pruning the list of bad emails, etc.
Several spam complaints
71 subscribers
That’s an average of $28.45 per subscriber AND I had to work hard for them. To be honest, those subscribers may be worth more than $28 over a lifetime, but there’s a LOT of easier and cheaper ways to get subscribers.
I also do not like being called a spammer (apparently some marketers don’t mind), and for that alone the project would not be not worth it for me.
Bottom line: the point of this review is not to bash any particular marketers, but to educate you about co-reg lists. Maybe Jane and Phil will learn something from it too.
As always you can leave comments here in the blog.
Have a great day!
Hi, Eric – I am spending a few hours over the holiday unsubscribing from dozens of email lists that are residuals from all the recent JV giveaways. Your blog posts like this are why I will NEVER unsubscribe from your lists. Way to go, and thanks! I got sucked in to not one but two co-reg deals in my early days, both recommended by well-known gurus, and both totally non-responsive. Keep telling it like it is!
Hi Eric
If it eases your pain I have spent over $20000 in co reg leads – from reputable brokers, used A1eBiz among others, commissioned a robust server to host my mailing program when autoresponder providers were not delivering as promised, and worked hard at it for over 12 months. Did it right – gave lots of value – got called names and after earning less than $1000 out of the whole experience decided to give it up. Quite frankly I felt a bit stupid. Everyone else using co reg leads was apparently booming and I was going bust. So it gives me small comfort to hear that I am not alone in this experience – although I would have preferred for it to have worked for both of us. maybe another reader will set us straight.
Regards
Kevin
Eric: I am a newbie as much as a newbie can be. I have 2 websites from joining several people. However, I do not understand how to build my email list. Can you make some suggestions or have you already written about it in another newsletter? Thank you. Tobey Craft
Thanks Eric
Its take guts to tell it like it is
I appreciate your comments and time take
Keep it up
Regards
NigelB
Hi Eric
Presently I do not have a website as I am still working on getting online.
I find your reviews very helpful and informative. Your constructive criticism certainly enables those of us who are not so well informed not to make costly mistakes.
Thanks for all your advice.
I look forward to your emails as they always contain something worthwhile.
Regards
Olwyn
Eric
I feel your pain.
I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience
so it’s one your readers don’t have to go through.
Thanks heaps for sending Eric’s Tips.
Its great content that I make sure to read.
Write Your Way to Prosperity
Ken Little
http://www.Articles-Profit.com
So I’m not the only one to find co-reg leads a waste of time. I purchased over 8,000 leads from a reputable marketer, tried to build a good relationship by sending only good information and freebies for the first few weeks, and then tried to get them into my main list with a bribe.
Nothing. Not one response in any way at all good or bad.
I tried several times, and from the 8,000 I got not one subscriber to my main list. I also tried another service, which turned out to be just a way for the seller to build their own list by reselling leads, and letting someone else take the risk to get them to join the sellers mlm list bulder.
I was considering trying one final time until I read your post Eric, now I’ll stick with building my own lists the slow but sure way.
Thanks for the warning
Douglas Titchmarsh
Offers like that sure are tempting. I have a couple like that too, but I am very carefull about how I use them. The main problem is not knowing where they came from.
On top of that, they are usually quite “old”, which can be anything from a week upwards. That means they often do not remember signing up and blast you for spamming them.
Usually, I just look through them and just use the yahoo addresses, which I then can use with IM or 360.
I can certainly agree with your comment about them being very low on responsiveness. Generally, I would say they are not worth the time, energy and price.
Michael – thanks for the high compliment
Kevin – Dang! your experience is more than a small comfort, it almost makes me feel good about myself, LOL 😉
Well hopefully we can steer some people in the right direction. I heard Jonathan Mizel (one of the all-time most famous email marketers) mention co-reg leads recently. From what I recall he basically said he used to use them quite a lot, and still does a little bit with them, but does not generally recommend them anymore. So I got the impression that several years ago they were still a viable and profitable option, but now they are not too hot (I’m guessing due to the proliferation of spam). I would be interested to hear if anyone out there has had success with co-reg and if so, where and what they did…
Hi Eric
Thanks for the great tip. I was recently at a seminar in Chicago and must have recommended your blog to a 100 people! Many were newbies some old timers, but I told them if they wanted to read a newsletter from a marketer that would really look out for their best interest, to join Ericstips! Keep up the good work!
Tobey – you need to learn the basics of email marketing. The good news is that you can do it the RIGHT way from the very start.
I would suggest picking this up for only $9.95 and reading all the material and listening to all the audios:
$9.95 ListFX special
You know, I’ve always been leery about those sorts of things, although I HAVE seen them touted by people I “respect” (sorta) online. Bad enough to have to subscribe to their service, but when it can’t deliver the service you want, that’s not at all good. Then, bad leads on top of it?? Bad news all the way around. Too much like work. Guess it’s better to stick with the prominent autoresponders that build relationships with the ISPs–AWeber, EmailAces, GetResponse are the only ones I know of.
Appreciate the info, Eric. (Oh, I also have a problem with folks that can’t spell that badly, but that’s just me). Regards,
Hi Eric.
I guess you could say that I am the oldest newbie you ever had.
Still learning about what a computer can do.I get Eric’s tips
and use them when I can. Being in the 80’s and trying to help
a Soc. Sec. Income. A Bit glad that I wasn”t able to buy a lot
of items ( no cas$). I did find another very helpful person tho’
and if anyone wants to visit him, they can email me for his
website. Sorry Eric, hope you do not mind. But I do need instructions, like the old song-Put your little foot right there,
some programs I need to do baby steps . Eric”s tips are grrreat. Edith
Hi Eric,
After reading your review on Co-Reg List, I wish you tell me sooner. Because I am a victim of this Co-Reg List as well. But I don’t buy this YourNewList.com. I join this sort of program handle by Gary Baker. I have to pay $45/month to get his so called responsive list of 5000 lists.
I was very happy to obtain the list. So I followed exactly the same step like you did which is by sending a friendly email to this list. Man, not only this list not responsive, most of them request to be deleted or unsubsribed. And some are very angry by telling me where the hell did I get their email address from. Before you jump to conclusion saying that I send an offer to them in my first email, the thing that I done was by giving them a lot of freebies for them to use to promote their business.
I was very frustrated after spending $45 for nothing. So I tried to request for a refund. This guy insult me. I don’t even want to mention what he said to me. He also have his own forum so I tried to post a message to everybody about him, but he is so damn smart, he already blacklisted my IP address so I couldn’t post a message. Everytime I tried to post a message, it will reply like this “You are not that smart”.
So, the conclusion is simple. To those who read Eric’s blog right now, STAY AWAY from Co-Registration List program. It will not work. It’s better to find your own list rather than to buy leads. Its so expensive and you cannot be sure the responsive of the list.
Eric,
It’s good to see someone telling the truth and I too will keep reading your newsletters and emails.
The fact is there aren’t any easy, fast, cheap ways to get good leads and build a good list except to do it yourself.
Anyone who tells you different is just after your money. Worse is the fact that you stand a very good chance of being labled a spamer for your trouble. I guess in fact you are if you end up sending out email or newsletters that people didn’t subscribe too. Just because you gave someone money for the list doesn’t mean that your not spamming.
So the bottom line I’ve learned is; don’t use email blasters, list services, or tricky misleading methods to try to build your lists.
The only way to survive in the long run while making money on line is to take your time and build a good solid list the old fashioned way one valued subscriber at a time.
Frank Woodman Jr
Liz- thanks for the word of mouth 🙂
Christi- Yes I’ve seen this stuff promoted by fairly respectable marketers too. The problem is they havn’t tried it. YourNewList has a very lucrative affiliate program, and I was so excited about the opportunity that I almost turned around and promoted it to my own list before trying it out. Fortunately, I decided to wait and see how it panned out….but I could see how a legitimate marketer could promo something like this thinking it’s a good way to help their members build a list…
I have been sniffing around the internet and internet marketing for some months and my over-all impression is that internet marketing is just a small group of people selling internet marketing tools etc. to other internet marketers. Am I just to cynical?
Eric,
Thanks for your honest and no holds barred reviews. This has been a subject that has been bugging me for a long long time as I have been burned a number of times by these co-reg lists.
The first time, I thought that perhaps I was inexperienced and did not know how to nurture my list and build a healthy relationship with them. My leads practically disappeared overnight (ok, it was 2 nights!).
The second time, I was smarter 🙂 or so I thought. I painstakingly build up my autoresponder messages… threw in tons of freebies…. did not even ask them to buy anything for 10 emails. Hmm…. every time after a mailing, I will lose around 10 to 15% of my list! I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out what was happening.
I then gave it a shot recently again. Same story, same ending.
I am getting off the Co-reg boat and applaud you for warning others about it. I guess, if its too good to be true, it usually is.
Gordon
Hi Eric,
I must say, that is an AWESOME review. Yes, yes, it was permeated with a negative tone, and had not much good… NOTHING good to say about co-reg lists, but it was awesome in it’s straight forth honesty. I have to say that I know that I will never un-subscribe from your list. I knew that as soon as I read 8 lines into this review.
Something I am astounded by, though, is that Jane and Phil are supporting something so crappy! Man! *shakes head*
Alright man, keep up the good work, keep telling it… And SELLING it straight.
Your my kind of people Eric. The kind with a work ethic and integrity that screams “DO IT RIGHT, OR NOT AT ALL!”
Ya hit it right on the head with this one. Rooting for your success,
Jamie
P.S. Christi, it’s not just you. Spelling and grammar are major selling points to me too.:-) Peace folks.
Thanks for the comments Edith, Izrul, Frank, Gordon, Jamie, and anyone I missed….
Ross- You certainly have every right to be cynical, but internet marketing is not just marketers selling tools to marketers. The internet is a huge medium for worldwide commerce, and billions of dollars are being spent on the web. Only a small % of this is comprised by internet marketing tools.
Before getting into the “marketing advice” niche, I was making the majority of my income from promoting non-marketing related products and services.
Hi Eric
Thanks for your compelling and courageous blog. I appreciate you
putting your readers interests first.
Mercifully, I haven’t tried co-reg lists but I have wasted a lot of money
on things that didn’t work or which I didn’t make work so it cheers me up to hear of other people wasting their money too!
Best wishes and keep up the good work.
John Watson
Thank you Eric I really appreciate your straightness and ability to say it how it actually is. I have been burnt so many times it is not funny – however I will continue in an effort to actually make money online as I really believe it can be done! Again thank you.
Hi Eric!
Once again you tell it like it is! Brilliant Review! Up front, straight forward, no BS. Always there to help and warn others like us not to make such costly mistakes. I have already deleted many, many subscriptions because I’m not getting anywhere with them, and quite frankly I ended up deleting them without bothering to read – most of them seem to be duplicating/copying each other with the same old yada yada. But your newsletters are always refreshing and I always look forward to them!
Eric,
I’ve been very satisfied with the items you’ve recommended and with your newsletter, which is one of the very few that I get that are actually worth reading.
So, although your credibility was already high, it shot up like a rocket when I read your negative review. I had a very similar experience with Jane and Phil. Since they are such respected and experienced marketers, I had thought that it was just me.
I also had a similar experience with Doc Phelps. I found him to be willing to bend over backwards trying to help, but I got poor results using his service.
I think that you did a great job of covering the pros and cons of co-reg leads.
I’ve had similar experiences with “spam” complaints and enormous attrition as a result of purchased leads from supposedly reputable marketers.
I am convinced that the only leads worth having are true opt-in leads, where the prospect actually knows who you are and what they’re signing up for.
Great job!
Thank you, Eric. I greatly appreciate your honesty and integrity.
You have every reason to bash people, but you use tact and sensitivity. That really takes self restraint to bridle one’s emotions. You have every reason to be totally angry, but you turned your negative experience into a “silver lining” learning moment! Thank-you!
I am slowly by slowly trying to build my lists. I certainly had considered Co-reg leads, but no more. Thanks for your insights. Please keep up the good work.
Hey Eric,
I have a huge co reg list and you know what?
The first mailing I sent them was a high value freebie and guess what, 40,000 subs and only 7 clicks!
3 of which were me testing, I think the issue here is that A1ebiz has been abused by many marketers and as such has been blacklisted by most isp’s so very few mails even get delivered.
The only way to build a responsive list I’m afraid is to do it the old fashioned way, JV’s etc.
Let me know your thoughts!
Take care
Gavin
Hi Eric
I cannot spek too highly about your reviews and your erudite and regular e mails. In a full inbox yours are the e mails that I always open first and I look forward to improving my education in this fascinating area with every mail.
Its like having my own trusted friend giving me advice and that is a great comfort in this busy and copmpetitive world!
Keep up the great work Eric, from a satisfied and appreciative ‘friend’!
Sincere thanks
Paul
I am another newbie with little understanding, no money , plenty of time,a wish to find success, but still without luck. I have tried a couple of programs, lost money, and even had money taken from my credit card months after resigning. Now I won’t use my credit card on the net.
The major problem I have is understanding instructions being given to get something up, and running. It seems new words are being used to mean the same thing by different “services”
I need baby BABY steps as I always seem to be lost, not knowing what to do or be able to find where the next step is from the instructions given.
Had My gripe don’t feel any better though.
Graham
Thanks Eric. I reall appreciate your frankness. It’s great to find someone who tells it like it is (and who shares my dislike of leads).
Eric,
Sure glad to read this blog on Co-reg ! I was really toying with idea of trying out the program!
I get more information from your newsletter, in a short message then in all the ebooks i’ve downloaded and read!
Just keep me on your list and well informed, heck I need the info you send!
Ken
Hi Eric,
Thanks for that..I looked at the newlist offer when it first came out but decided against it due to financial constraints and also like Izrul I tried Gary Bakers co reg lists and can confirm it is an utter wate of time. If you want to succeed in this business then you have to build your own list – it may take longer but at least you have the chance to build a relationship with people who wanted to be on your list.
Keep up the great work it really is a refreshing change to hear from someone who actually tells it as it is even if it may upset one or two of the “alleged gurus”
Kind Regards
Dave
Thank you for sharing your pain!! I have considered this route but didn’t have the funds to gamble. Now I know NOT to and I appreciate you taking the time and having the guts to take a stand.
Dear Eric,
I have been on your list for some time now and always find your tips to be enlightening, informative, honest, and your style of delivery very refreshing. I intend to stay on your list.
I was wondering if you could give me a nudge in the right direction. I have a few challenging irons in my internet pot:
* I Create unique, hosted, and fully managed (I do all the work) Real Estate Websites: (www.miniworldrealty.com)(www.realty-net.us)
* I am creating a Holistic Portal (with real answers for the most perplexing health problems) still under construction: (www.holistic-net.us)
Lastly,
* I’m trying to promote a health and wellness product that I use every day, that I truly believe in: (www.xooma-net.us)
Recently, I purchased some biz-op leads (200) with my limited budget, and have not had any response whatsoever, which leads me to my next question:
One of your responders, Frank Woodman Jr said:
“The fact is there aren’t any easy, fast, cheap ways to get good leads and build a good list except to do it yourself.”
“The only way to survive in the long run while making money on line is to take your time and build a good solid list the old fashioned way one valued subscriber at a time.”
Eric, I honestly believe that Mr. Woodman is correct. My only problem is — how do you do that? How do you build a list from scratch – other than put up a website and have folks opt-in for your newsletter?
Eagerly looking forward to your response,
Dorothy Harper
hi eric, just look at all the people making comments here.
i thought you were my secret weapon.
people care because, You care!
you share the good and the bad with us and that makes you
human.
keep telling it like it is.
Mamadou Yabuku ll
Hi Eric! 🙂
I also did almost the same thing. But I didn’t spend that much! I started having my accounts from free autoresponder services which include a specific number of email addresses. I started having them in my mailing sequences (building relationship and giving away freebies and all) until they one-by-one opted out. Then I realized that the real best thing is to have your own list from your own sweat.
I started building my own responsive lists with the two best giveaways: EveryoneWillWin.com and EasterJVGiveaway.com and until now, they’re with me and we’re all having a great time.
I got Keith Wellman’s ListFX and it’s helping me now. I’m also looking at Jimmy Brown’s List and Traffic.
Bottom line, build your own subscribers by working on it. Co-registration leads, free leads, safelists, etc. are just a waste of money and most of all, TIME.
IAN Del CARMEN
http://iandelcarmen.net/blog
Hi, Eric~
One of the things that keeps me coming back to your Tips is the fact that you “tell it like it is.” Keep it up, and you will have at least one loyal subscriber!
I have had nothing but good things to say about Doc Phelps and A1ebiz. Several years ago I used him when first starting out with exaclty the same thing you have done w/ co-reg subscribers, using Doc as a resource. Although my experience was as typical as the ones posted here, Doc was a blessing to me. When I first signed up to his free account to test, I had trouble uploading leads, and had only been working on the account for an hour when the phone rang. It was Doc calling to walk me through it all step by step. A guy can’t ask for any better customer service than that…
Peace,
Charlie~
Hi Eric
You are one of the few marketers whose newsletters and emails I read and look forward to. I am still a newbie and I have yet to start building my list. However, I am in the process of doing something to build my list. Yes, I am taking action.
I feel better that even experienced marketers get “conned” into purchasing leads because I have spent nearly $4500 on a traffic generating program. And I have also purchased leads from a well known marketer. But after reading so much about the risk of being accused a spam, I did not do anything with the list after all.
Looks like there is no short cut to success. However cliche it may sound, slow and steady is the way to go.
This is the first time I felt compelled to give my 2 cents worth : )
Hey Eric, thanks for giving us the straight goods. I know how you feel about the spam complaints. It drives me crazy. I am giving out FREE 200MB Online Backup accounts and I send info on how to get the most out of your free account. For some strange reason I still get the odd spam complaint. To top it off I am generating most of my leads by paying $2000/month for a text link on a site with an Alexa rating of under 360. Paying to have people complain about me is one thing I will never get used to.
Greg Miller
Eric,
You couldn’t be more wrong regarding co-reg lists.
Yes, you may have gotten a RAW deal, but that doesn’t
mean ALL co-reg leads are a bad thing.
Co-reg is the SECRET behind the BIG lists you hear
some GURUS bragging about. It is the fastest way to
build a massive list in a few months time.
The trick in making this work is finding a reputable
lead generating company that offers co-reg at an
affordable price, these leads need grooming, they
need to be viewed as an unresponsive list at first,
and expect more than half to unsubscribe, but…
The other 25% that don’t unsubscribe will be yours.
Let’s say you bought 600,000 co-reg leads and then
you sent an e mail in which 450,000 unsubscribed.
You gained 150,000 new subscribers!
That’s 1 to 3 years if you were to build it on your own.
You gained that much in a fraction of this time.
It’s all about choosing the right company to purchase
co-reg from. You happened to get burned and charged
way too much for too little leads…
Thanks For Listening,
Anthony Tomei
http://www.tomeimarketing.com
Eric::
I am still learning my way around internet marketing. I know that building a list is very key to the success of a website. But I had never heard of co-reg leads before receiving your email. Thanks for saving this newbie a ton of money. It seems we are always looking for the magic bullet, and so far, I don’t think any of them have hit the target. Keep up the good work.
Hi Eric,
Here is one to stay away unless you like giving money away. I purchased E-Blaster Pro Plus (Howard L. Moreland) for $ 397.00.
I didn’t get even 1 response let alone anyone signing up. I e-mailed them 4 times and called them 4 times but no one would return my calls. All I was asking for was what day did you send out the e-mails. After 1 month of trying to get an answer I told them I wanted my money back. They sent me a e-mail stating they would look into it. That was 6 weeks ago and still no answer.
There should be some way to report these rip off people. Eric, if you know anyway to report these programs please let me know. Thank you.
Jack Hadley
Eric, there’s no affiliate link here, so you know i’m just doing this as a favor – but take it with a grain of salt as I don’t use sophisticated metrics, etc. You already know the best lists come for the giveaway type promotions – I have had fairly good results from a local Vancouver company – Eric James at Listmedia.com – I can abolutely say A) great customer service – personal response from owner B) lots of tools to help (or at least TRY to help get better response rates, etc from whatever lists we have and C) a variety of options as to how the subscribers are gathered – single opt in – that’s what I did, roughly $500 for 5000 subscribers – price goes up if you opt for double opt in – I’m going to switch to this as I have received some 12 year old emails asking who the heck I am -LOL – and even TRIPLE opt in is available!
They have a large sign up sheet, and people tick off whatever publications they wish to receive
Response has been good – except for 12 year olds – LOL – I’ve been meaning to move to double opt in – should have done it ages ago
There are MANY big name marketers recommending it on their recommendation page, and the subscribers are just popped into your getresponse or aweber account – automatic – you get an email each day telling you how many were added
Take this as a careful recommendation as I can’t give you actual purchase numbers and how it has actually worked money wise – I was more interested in reaching a larger mass – and I passed 20,000 subscribers just the other day
No affiliate link – but maybe you’d find what they offer to be the best co-reg out there
Watching and Reading your stuff,
And loving it!
Andrew
Eric,
A very BIG thank you. I was this close to signing up for one of their packages. I have become
very gun-shy about these kinds of leads. As other participants replied in this bog, there absolutely
right about finding ways to build you lists …”the old fashioned way”. I don’t think you ever have to
worry offending anyone when your putting out this kind of review and experienced it yourself.
Great advice and thank you for having the courage to write it. We need more of this type of honesty
about different “bally-hood” programs.
Michael
Hey Eric
Its about time somebody has the guts to let all know about the lead sellers.
I have been burned many times. The best and safest way to get a list without
many spam complaints is build it yourself. The Listf/x you mentioned is a
great start for anybody they know what they are talking about.
Thanks again Eric
Love your tips and use them
Bruce
Thanks for the Great Info Eric! I too am a Newbie, but learning daily. You know the more you learn the more you seem to need to learn to keep up. Each day I weed through my emails, still get a lot of spam from people I know I did not sign up with, so I must have been on one of those lists. Also I have noticed I get a lot of duplicates right after the other and of course you can’t talk to an autoreponder to let them know about it, you just get another auto reponse to send a support ticket, who has time for that. After I weed through all the worthless stuff and duplicates they are flagged and then I go back and read through them. Your tips and newletters are always the first ones I read. Please, Keep the Great information coming I learn a lot from you and its Greatly Appreciated. I got a very disturbing blog letter from another person I subscribe to on marketing practices of pre-made ad sense sites, if anyone is interesting in reading it, go here,
http://www.howtocorp.com/cgi-bin/webbbs_config.pl/read/55186
Again thank you very much! Suzanna
Hi, Eric!
I knew you were more than just another pretty face! 😉
I am simply delighted to read this post, as I was considering the same purchase, from the same people!
I may be a bit old-fashioned and over-cautious, but I really do prefer to build my list through slower, more personal means. I’ve never had someone accuse me of spam, and I spend most of my time GIVING things, rather than SELLING things…
For me, this is rewarding.
I hope to build the incredible trust and relationships with my own list as you have with yours.
You are a true inspiration!
God Bless!
Warmest regards,
Lisa Preston
Graham – Hang in there and don’t give up the dream. The one thing I will contend however, is that you will probably need to spend money online at some point before you can become successful in online business. I’m not saying you need to go out and buy every gimmick and tool… after all, another well known marketer (maybe Mark Joyner?) said something to this effect…
“You don’t need money to make money. If you can’t make money without money, what makes you think you can make money with it?”
In other words, there is no magic program out there that you can buy which will make you successful.
YOU are what will make you successful. However, that being said, there are certain things you need to buy simply due to the nature of this business… like a domain, web hosting, and usually some form of advertising.
I’ve had this type of comment many times, and I’ll try to take the time in the next couple months to put together a special newbie page with my personally recommended “baby steps”.
To the dozens of replies that I don’t have time to respond to – Thank you for your encouragement and support! I appreciate every comment.
Eric,
Thanks for the tip. Was about to go with Nitro Marketing and their penny a lead deal on co-reg, but got the news from you in time. I, also, will continue to build our Found Secrets list a few subscribers at a time the right way.
To answer somebody’s question earlier about internet marketers just selling to each other, we know there are some that do that. But, then there are some good ones out there, like our good friend Eric, who has proved otherwise. There are others who branch out into a niche market so they are not competing directly with other internet marketers.
There’s good and bad in internet marketing. And, sometimes, you just have to LOOK to find the GOOD!
Make it a great day!
Brother Paul
Webmaster
Dorothy – There are a lot of techniques which can speed up the list-building process. These are the most successful ones I’ve found so far. Hopefully I will be able to expand upon this at some point in the future…
1) “Butterfly marketing” style sites, with a free giveaway. You can actually build these type of sites without any software, but I’ve found it often helps to use a program like BM or my Motivated MArketing system.
2) Join free giveaways. I did a newsletter about it here: Ebook giveaways and directories
3) Do co-promos with other marketers. You email your list and they email theirs (obviously you have to have a list before you can do this)
4) Buy solo email ads from respectable marketers. I’ve found lately that I need to suppress the desire to use solo ads to promote products, and use them only to get subscribers. You can make money by promoting products, but if you can capture some of their subscribers you’re building your business.