The Shocking Truth About Free List-Building Systems
You've seen them all over the Internet for a couple of years now -- the list-building systems that are free to join. They've got all kinds of catchy, action-oriented names designed to attract your attention, to create excitement by claiming to have your list of thousands "built for you," and to get you to sign up...and a lot of well-intended people do.
Afterall, everyone has heard the mantra about the need to building a list of contacts who trade in their email address and name to opt-in to a list so that they can market to them in the future. Let's distinguish a true permission-qualified opt-in list from what you'll get with a free list-building system.
Permission-Qualified Opt-In List
The basis for a permission marketing campaign is:
- You interrupt a person with an ad to get their attention and offer them some free information of value that is of potential interest to them to solve a problem they have.
- To get this information they provide you their first name (at a minimum) and, often, their primary email address when they subscribe.
- They expect to receive information from you--and only you--about something they want to know more about.
- You are in control as to when you communicate with your list. And you have the flexibility to send your message by a variety of means. You could use your autoresponder to deliver text or html messages or audio postcards or even RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds, providing you have a powerful enough autoresponder.
With the permission-qualified opt-in list your communications are anticipated and welcome...and you address your subscriber by name. With frequent, relevant communication and feedback from the subscriber, a relationship forms with the list owner and the subscriber. Trust builds over time and the subscriber will respond favoribly to offers that solve problems that they have.
Free List-Building System
With a free list you go through the same process except that the subscriber is joining so that they can get their own opt-in list built and eventually market to it. They are not looking to receive any information from you, but only want a free system they can use to build their own list!
Now what kind of email address do you think the subscriber to the free list will give out? More than likely a garbage or junk address that they rarely check.
With a couple of rare exceptions that I know of, the list-building system is a script that runs entirely on the program owner's server. Among other functions, this self-contained system controls how often you can mail to the portion of the list that you referred. And rarely do you even know the identity of your subscribers! They remain a mystery unless they chose to give up their anonymity to you.
With a free list trust almost never forms. Yes, when you sign up for a free list-building system you agree to receive email from others. But you didn't join the program to receive email from your referrer, your upline and the list owner. You joined so that you could send email to your subscribers (who joined for the same reason you did, by the way).
Rarely do the free programs have a good method for actually building a list. Their marketing programs typically include only a few over-hyped letters for you to send to your warm market when the program gets launched.
Another problem with the free list is when you can contact your list. You can only contact your subscribers according to the rules set by the list owner. Typically, you're allowed one contact per week. So if you have an urgent communication and you've used up your contact for the week, you'll just have to wait.
With some free lists you don't get to contact the same people who subscribed under you. The system sends an email to a random set of subscribers equal in number to the number of subscribers that you referred. Now chances are those people never heard of you and certainly did not expect to hear from you about your offering...and may have not any interest in it whatsoever!
In an effort to differentiate themselves, some free systems even scramble the downline matrix. The result is that every week you get flooded with unwanted offers from people you never heard of.
Now let's look at who really owns the list. Certainly not you! You may not even have your subscribers' names and email addresses.
The only person who owns the list is the person who created the program. And the only reason that he's letting you use it for FREE is not out of the goodness of his heart. It's so you and everyone you refer can build his list for him!!!
So a free list is really just a type of safelist...except for the owner who can email you whenever he pleases.
Suppose you were wildly successful with a free system and built a list of thousands. What would you do if the list owner were to walk away from everything or lose all the data? Remember, unless you control the contact information and delivery method, you really don't have your own list.
How To Put Yourself In Control Of Your List
If you'd like to learn how to build your very own permission-qualified opt-in list using the latest tools and techniques, then I have a FREE ecourse for you that you'll find very informative. Click here for your copy.
To your success!
John C. Vincent
List Builder Central
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