How To Spot, Weed Out, But Still Profit From Those Ezine Subscribers Who Will NEVER Buy From You!
| Category: E-zines: Subscribers | Date: 2003-10-31 |
If you're lucky 80% of your subscribers will never produce a dime of income for you.
Seems like an odd way of putting it I know. And I say, "if you're lucky" because most of the time the numbers are worse. Much worse. In some cases the percent of "never buyers" littering an ezine list approaches 99%.
But that's not all. If you depend on ezine ad sales it's downright scary.
Cut throat competition and plummeting online ad rates are shrinking ad revenues. Just ask Yahoo!.
What's more there's simply too much response killing spam to wade through. Which makes it harder to make money with ezines.
These problems have become so bad some prominent internet marketers have all but abandoned free ezine publishing.
Others are hampered by failing to recognize a critical ezine subscriber reality. That is, at best no more than 20% of your subscribers will ever become buyers. And that's only if you do a super-human job of bonding with them. Plus deliver a constant stream of useful and original content.
Yet you and I both know most don't do that. Not even close.
Still that leaves an obvious question unanswered What do you do with the leftover 80% plus?
Because if they aren't going buy from you they are really pretty much useless.
At best they dilute the responsiveness of your list - while expecting all you've got for free.
At worst they are the first to complain, make cutting remarks about content, or go on and on about how "pushy" your promotions are. Wasting your time and making your life miserable. Who needs that?
The solution? You need to thin the herd and separate the buyers from "never buyers" as soon as possible.
Do so by making an irresistible offer to new subscribers. One that any who will ultimately buy from you can't refuse. In other words a limited time offer that compels them to buy fast. Compressing their buying cycle down from months to weeks.
In fact, if done right, most of the time you should know within six weeks after they sign up if they're ever going to buy from you or not.
Having spotted the winners next you need to recycle the leftovers.
For instance you could offer to joint venture with another publisher in your niche. Even a direct competitor. Running an article and pitching a product to non buyers (both of which the JV partner provides). Then splitting the proceeds - which can at times be considerable.
And why not? It's found money for both of you with little risk for either party.
Same idea with a twist. You could offer to test new products on your list for a cut of the action. Just because they won't buy from you doesn't mean they won't buy a new product from someone else.
Another idea would be to trade baskets of subscribers. You get access to a new crop of subscribers to see how many will respond to your irresistible offer and go on to spend even more with you over time. The other publisher bulks up their list count. Perhaps letting them sell their ads for more than before.
That's just three quickies. I'm sure you can think of more.
But doing things like this lets you boost response rates…gives you a constant flow of new potentially profitable subscribers…and adds to your bottom line…all at very little cost to you.
So those are just a few ways you can weed out but still make a profit from those subscribers who will never buy from you.
Copyright 2002, John Gergye
About the Author
How much is more traffic worth to your business? Take John Gergye’s Search Engine Quiz and get a special report "Coming Out On Top" with 49 tools that make it easy to get more traffic. http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml Plus webmasters can host the quiz on their site FREE and give that report to their visitors! Want more details? Just send a blank email to => mailto: seoquiz@www.traffic-test-tube.com
gergyej91@aol.com
http://www.traffic-test-tube.com
Seems like an odd way of putting it I know. And I say, "if you're lucky" because most of the time the numbers are worse. Much worse. In some cases the percent of "never buyers" littering an ezine list approaches 99%.
But that's not all. If you depend on ezine ad sales it's downright scary.
Cut throat competition and plummeting online ad rates are shrinking ad revenues. Just ask Yahoo!.
What's more there's simply too much response killing spam to wade through. Which makes it harder to make money with ezines.
These problems have become so bad some prominent internet marketers have all but abandoned free ezine publishing.
Others are hampered by failing to recognize a critical ezine subscriber reality. That is, at best no more than 20% of your subscribers will ever become buyers. And that's only if you do a super-human job of bonding with them. Plus deliver a constant stream of useful and original content.
Yet you and I both know most don't do that. Not even close.
Still that leaves an obvious question unanswered What do you do with the leftover 80% plus?
Because if they aren't going buy from you they are really pretty much useless.
At best they dilute the responsiveness of your list - while expecting all you've got for free.
At worst they are the first to complain, make cutting remarks about content, or go on and on about how "pushy" your promotions are. Wasting your time and making your life miserable. Who needs that?
The solution? You need to thin the herd and separate the buyers from "never buyers" as soon as possible.
Do so by making an irresistible offer to new subscribers. One that any who will ultimately buy from you can't refuse. In other words a limited time offer that compels them to buy fast. Compressing their buying cycle down from months to weeks.
In fact, if done right, most of the time you should know within six weeks after they sign up if they're ever going to buy from you or not.
Having spotted the winners next you need to recycle the leftovers.
For instance you could offer to joint venture with another publisher in your niche. Even a direct competitor. Running an article and pitching a product to non buyers (both of which the JV partner provides). Then splitting the proceeds - which can at times be considerable.
And why not? It's found money for both of you with little risk for either party.
Same idea with a twist. You could offer to test new products on your list for a cut of the action. Just because they won't buy from you doesn't mean they won't buy a new product from someone else.
Another idea would be to trade baskets of subscribers. You get access to a new crop of subscribers to see how many will respond to your irresistible offer and go on to spend even more with you over time. The other publisher bulks up their list count. Perhaps letting them sell their ads for more than before.
That's just three quickies. I'm sure you can think of more.
But doing things like this lets you boost response rates…gives you a constant flow of new potentially profitable subscribers…and adds to your bottom line…all at very little cost to you.
So those are just a few ways you can weed out but still make a profit from those subscribers who will never buy from you.
Copyright 2002, John Gergye
About the Author
How much is more traffic worth to your business? Take John Gergye’s Search Engine Quiz and get a special report "Coming Out On Top" with 49 tools that make it easy to get more traffic. http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml Plus webmasters can host the quiz on their site FREE and give that report to their visitors! Want more details? Just send a blank email to => mailto: seoquiz@www.traffic-test-tube.com
gergyej91@aol.com
http://www.traffic-test-tube.com
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