That is not the particular one I was thinking about but thanks!

You are right, lots of good information in those comments!

Hi Lauren. Yes!! Please let me know when your review is published! I will read it.

I think the post I saw here was for Aweber or Getresponse. It was not for mailchimp or one of the free ones. I know I want to avoid those.

Thanks for letting me know about your review! I hope you are doing well online and offline.

Jessica

Perfect, Jessica. I'll keep you posted (excuse the pun).

Doing grrrreat Thanks. Hope all is well in your world too?

It been a rough winter so far. The earthquake is still a worry since we have been getting large 5.0 aftershocks and we don't know how much it will cost to fix the damage. We just had to pay over $1300 for a plumber a few days ago...and had to pay for a plumber right after the quake to fix broken valves as well. My husband's computer died in fall as well and that was $2000. It seems to never end! We have to take 2 kitties to the vet for dental cleanings too.

We still have 2 vacancies in Mom's 6-plex that we manage. Life goes on!

I am hoping 2019 will be better.

Well keep an eye out here and hopefully we can figure it out.

I could have been an Ambassador, but it was not from the person I thought it was from, Roope. I PM'd him and asked and he said it wasn't him.

So have you set one up yet? I have not. I started but then worried about the no affiliate marketing restrictions and stopped.

Hi Melissa,

That sounds really interesting! I will check that out.

No, it was a post about Aweber or Getresponse I think. I am avoiding the free ones since I know they don't allow affiliate marketing.

See C-Lab's explanation below about how you can get around those restrictions however.

I will check out this new one you tried.

Thanks!
Jessica

Thanks Jessica.

Even though there may be ways around it for MailerLite and Mailchimp, I'm certainly not going to risk building up an email list with them only to have it all shut down, especially when the rules are really clear about what they allow and don't allow. A few people on this platform have reported having their Mailchimp accounts closed without notice.

Email Octopus specifically says that affiliate marketing is OK, so that's why I've signed up with them.

I'll see how it goes!

Cheers
Melissa

I agree. I would rather not risk it either.

Thanks!

Hi Mia, I use MailerLite and thought this info may help you. This is written in their Terms of Use...
____________________________
“Affiliate Marketing (Prohibited)- is a type of business where you earn a commission by promoting other company’s products. We don’t allow this activity, because there’s no direct relationship between you and your subscribers. You are not allowed to send unrelated offers to your subscribers or pretend to be another brand.

Affiliate Links (Allowed) - is a way to recommend product or service to your subscribers in your campaigns. Advertisement for another company (Affiliate Link) can only appear under your branding and be clearly presented as a special offer from another company. Moreover, the offer has to be related to your content and meet subscriber expectations. You are not allowed to send emails with links to content that is prohibited in our Terms of Use. Campaigns with blacklisted links will be stopped automatically and we may be forced to close the account permanently.”
_____________________________
What they mean by affiliate marketing is when you essentially spam inboxes with random ads. Email marketers do this a lot with paid email lists. The ads don’t tell you who sending them. (Like those random ads you get for weight lose products or viagra, lol)

Affiliate links are ok when you’re sending emails to nurture your email list. As long as your subscribers know that the emails are from you and your brand, this is acceptable.

I’ve done a lot of research and I think this is where people are getting confused.

Hope this helps!
Suzanne

Thanks Suzanne, yes I did read that. They also explicitly say that they don’t accept anyone in the mmo niche, or anyone promoting an mlm.
I wrote to them and showed them my mmo website, and they told me that they would not allow me to set up an account and link back to it using their product.
Thanks
Melissa

Wow. Ok. Good to know! Thanks

Thank you so much for the detailed response Caleb. That is what I was looking for, information from someone who can really explain the pros and cons of the major options.

I focus on organic traffic but never got around to setting up a mailing list. I know I need to. I am aware of the no affiliate marketing restrictions but have not learned the ticks around that so thanks! I think the post I saw was about Aweber.

If anyone knows of the original post I saw I would still like to see it as well.

Jessica

Thank you Jessica! I appreciate it.

I'm feeling helpful (maybe good, maybe not haha) so here is some more stuff I've learned:

They say the "money is in the list" but that is not, really, true.

The fact is: the money in in the Relationship with the list.

There are affiliate marketers, like Andre Chaperone, who get just as much money off a list of 2,500 people as other cats do off of a list of 100,000 people.

What are you looking for?

0.0125% conversion rates off of a ton of cats?

or 40-50% conversion rates off of a few?

A little known secret (but common sense, economically and mathematically) it takes more work to get more leads.

So building a better relationship with those leads you already have is the best way to ensure that you'll get the highest conversion rates for your time and money.

After all, they've already opted into your "funnel" and, thus, are warmer traffic than what you would normally encounter...

You can increase your conversion rates by making sure that your emails provide two things:

Entertainment and Value.

This is because people are bombarded by a ton of emails every day.

How do you make sure they stop to read yours?

You tell a story.

You provide value;

Gary Vaynerchuck (One of the best marketers around) uses a technique he calls "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right-Hook" which basically translates to "give, give, give, ask".

This means that you might want to consider giving 3 emails worth of entertainment and/or value to every 1 email offering an affiliate link to a good or service.

The good thing is the 'entertainment' or 'value' can be a link to one of your blogs.

Blogs which will contain either:

internal links to posts on your site (thus increasing time spent on your site and increasing your rankings on Google)

or

off-site links to affiliate offers (thus increasing your chances of "making a sale" and increasing your revenue).

I've spent around 600 hours learning all this stuff since I joined here, including as much as I can about email marketing.

I hope the information I've provided has been more of a help than a hindrance.

Thank you for your kind words and I wish you well!

Thank you so much!

That is part of why I avoided adding a list so far. I wanted to make sure I could establish my site as a place of value before I tried to "sell" it. I started making sales fairly quickly and have continued to increase my sales even though I have not had time to add a lot of content this year. I am on target to make a new record amount from Amazon this month (this is still not a lot but it is making me happy). My websites and WA are my third job so I just don't have a ton of time.

I am happy to admit I am on the slow track here. I am building up my online business slowly but surely. I felt pressured at first due to all the hype about needing a list but then I read some advice from Kyle that we don't have to worry about it right away and it is fine to build up our site and traffic before we start a list. I took comfort in that and just focused on adding content, getting good comments and getting sales.

I know having a list will help capture more repeat customers.

I definitly want to make my emails useful and not obnoxious. This is also the reason I have not added many banners, no Google Adsense and no pop-ups on my site. I do not want it to look too "salesy".

I don't have any paid content at the moment. All the information I have to offer on topics such as supplement for cat and dog health problems (on my primary site) and mineral supplements for conditions caused by common nutrient deficiency (on my second site) is free for anyone to read. If they want to purchase something they can, but they don't have to. Eventually I plan to add e-books etc.

I think my honest approach offering information based on years of personal experience and research has helped since I get regular sales. I try not to promote anything I don't use myself. Of course this is a bit limiting and will have to change. This base has served me well however.

Thank you so much for doing the same and offering your knowledge here for all to use!

Jessica

Yo, I'm not gonna lie: it seems like you're kicking serious ass to me!

I will not tell you to "promote yourself" more or "push yourself" on your site's visitors.

They will like, respect, and maybe even love, you more for how you are conducting yourself.

You're not gonna break any short term records for sales, that is for sure, but you may just be building the foundation for a long term, and sustainable, business.

A real business.

The way you are conducting yourself?

That is how you build the most valuable asset in the world of commerce: trust.

So don't change a thing.

Just optimize.

My only piece of advice?

Get that list going.

Like, yesterday.

You don't want to be "sales-y?"

Fine.

Just offer value to your readers.

But get them on your list.

The biggest regret of most online marketers?

They didn't start their lists sooner.

I, honestly, like the way you're doing things.

Just add the list.

Don't bother selling, yet.

Just keep offering value to your readers.


They will appreciate it, trust me.

"What is value, if not a link to my blog?" you may be asking yourself.

Shorter pieces of info, similar to what you'd otherwise be offering on your blog. Or links to other sites that are similar to your own.

Seems counterproductive, at first, but it pays off in the long run.

When the time comes, and you finally ask for the sale, they will be more than happy to help you out.

You're a trusted source of information after all!

Anyways, I reiterate, it sounds like you're really kicking ass to me, so keep it up!

Thank you very much! I appreciate your thoughts and advice.

Totally agree C-Lab! ...100%...with everything you said above

And you also Jessica. I’m taking the same approach that you both are.

Great discussion!

Cheers!
Jeff

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and thoughts with Jessica and the rest of us who are reading the post here. Much appreciated.

Thanks Jeff!