Safelists: An Effective Traffic Generation Method or SPAM?
By John R. Bates
There is a little bit of controversy surrounding the use of Safelists. Some marketers will tell you that they are a waste of time, will tarnish your reputation, and are SPAM.
I disagree with these assessments. For one thing, SPAM is unsolicited email. Safelist users CONSENT to receiving emails from others on the particular list in exchange for being able to have others receive their ads. As for damaging ones reputation? Well, it would be mighty hypocritical of someone to look down on someone for using the same method of advertising that they are using! Finally, while its true that the users of safelist are all sellers marketing to other sellers, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a target market there that could end up making a purchase!
In fact, I started making my first consistent referrals by utilizing safelist advertising. There was a period of time when safelists were completely worthless… that is, until credit-based safelist advertising came along. Then all of a sudden, credit-based safelists could guarantee page views! I have consistently gotten a much higher percentage of opt-ins and conversions using safelists compared to traffic “surfing” exchanges. Here are a few tricks that I’ve picked up along the way to substantially increase my success with using safelists as an effective traffic generation method.
1) Personalize The Subject Lines. It’s been proven that people are more likely to click open an email if it’s personalized with their own name.
2) Don’t try to sell! I look at safelists as an effective lead generation tool, so I will always OFFER something for free as an incentive for opting into my personal list. Later down the line I can mention a business opportunity.
3) Get organized! Create a spreadsheet with your safelists, and set it up to show you how often you can mail to each one. Every time you mail, make a note of it, and track your links in order to see which safelists are bringing you the highest open rates, and consider upgrading in the ones that bring you the best results. Be consistent and you will see your opt-in rates to your own list start to swell!
My biggest accomplishment with safelists was generating over 1,000 leads in 3 months to a program I was promoting. When I mentioned this to my mentor, Franco Gonzales, he said that those numbers were on par with pay-per-click advertising… only the safelists cost A LOT less to use (most are free to join and use.) So utilize safelists without fear! Just make sure to set up a separate email account for your list emails, or you will be overwhelmed with advertising.
Finally, here are some resources that I’ve used for explosive lead and traffic generation with safelists:
Traffic Hoopla Safelist Rankings: This is an outstanding selection of the most effective safelists, plus you can use this as a tool to build your downlines and earn free credits and commissions when you refer others to the list.
My Favorite Safelists: Both ListJoe and ViralURL have very high read rates, and because I took their one-time-offers, I am able to send approximately 120,000 emails a month with these 2 services alone! (6,000 every 3 days with ViralURL and 3,000-6000 every 3 days with ListJoe). This exploded my opt-in list, and I wish you great success in using them to grow yours!
Recent Comments
2
John, Excellent blog post. Safelists can definitely give you leads, if they are used properly and in a consistent manner. In last 1 week, I invited 12 members to Wealthy Affiliate using safelists and traffic exchanges. There are pros and cons to both methods of traffic generation. But if you focus on the pros, you may be able to effectively use these 2 methods as alternate means of traffic generation.
Regards,
Sharmila
Thanks so much for sharing this. ;)