I have never been a lead person type, meaning keeping the leads to myself and then monetizing.
I have done multiple several lead gen CPA offers in the past. I personally say that I would rather focus on the revenue now than later. This mentality prob messes up with my train of thought for traffic. Now I want to just do lead gen for myself and try to make it profitable. I have also done lead gen to offer and prob only saw a 4% diff in conversions but still never really monetized the leads.
hell I have 1mill records from being an advertiser and still haven't done much with it.
question is I want to get some ideas or talk to someone that has done lead gen to offer or self branded site. my idea is to create more of a WH campaign sites to prob flip later. I just need to know the numbers and metrics more to better see if this is viable which it is probably is.
my idea is fairly simple...
website branded in the evergreen niches
create content, adsense
after the basic setup create lead gen form to capture leads
send the submission to an offer, probably VSL (did this before)
then email leads to website, to other offers
create community around (social)
email content, email to community.
start to rent list. (still understanding this)
sell site after generating 5k a month
seems pretty basic but atleast I have an asset of sort, I just need to measure these leads. how much leads to sustain the amount spend etc. numbers I am curious about. as long as I can break even on the lead to offer I think this will work out
On your current data set, that is a goldmine. Have you tried to mail it or work with mailers on revshare?
If you have not mailed it and is not on any ESP, it may be challenging to import since most won't allow
imports plus aff offers except aweber and getresponse. There may be others as well.
As for direct list rental (export/import), that may not be as viable as it once was.
Setting up proper mail infrastructure is more challenging nowadays due to the evolvement of
security and authentication (dkim, dmarc, spf) mechanisms coupled with IP and domain reputation.
Its probably better to have on ESP or internal infrastructure and provide the mailings
either as private paid ads or sponsored ads with content or both.
Providing content would keep attrition low but requires writers.
On your enumerated plan, that's actually what im trying to do (less the list rental and flipping).
I come from old school mail (2000) and have mailed networks like azoogle and neverblue etc...
which are all gone now. Nowadays, even with 4000 ips is challenging and require precise
segmentation and rep building to make work. So now i've been learning paid ads to generate leads to mail
auto responders, ezines and offers. Transitioning to that seems less hassle.
Conversions do come in slower but with email ROI is there and can milk till they either abandon address
or unsub.
If your data is buyers data, those addresses are good for many many years.
My2c, your 1M data, is worth a lot, whether mailed, rev-shared or even sold.
ahh Azoogle and Neverblue - my first networks that got me to where I am at today!
I have worked with some mailers on revshare, but I am thinking they are just mailing too aggressively that it doesnt do well. I did well with one person that took like 3 months to warm them up but email servers started becoming the issue, that became a headache. even cleaning the list through impressionwise and neverbounce..
we worked on getresponse enterprise as well and also server issues started becoming a hassle.
Yup they are buyer data but also they are old data from like 4 years ago as well when I began as an advertiser.
The mailer was probably getting blocked or other delivery issues, despite warm up.
My guess is engagement issues and recipients unfamiliar. Eventually marked as "spam".
This is the hard part nowadays with list imports used on internal infrastructure, vs
using an ESP or building directly on an ESP.
Since IW was involved, did you have issues with traps and/or complaint rates?
Have you tried only the openers and clickers (engaged data)?
It will be a smaller chunk but will make filters happy since only engaged data.
The metrics will look positive and engaged.
IMHO, a different approach to importing the data will definitely help.
yup we started segmenting and it did well on the openers and clickers data, but we only did a small test sample of 10k to make sure we strategize right in the end I just canned it and just want to work with someone that can handle the email data themselves.
Sent you PM
also anyone here that does lead gen for themselves, use a platform to validate email addresses like neverbounce before sending them to an offer or a ty page?
This is exactly what I'm working on at the moment. It makes me sick to think about the dollars i've left on the table without collecting leads, just for some immediate profit.
Anyways, your approach sounds solid. I need to look into the content side of things, that's the only piece missing for me.
In my case, I'm building out the offers as well, at least on the front end. In the end, I'll have 3-4 different offers, all related to the same niche at varying price points. Ebooks, full on courses, subscriptions...etc.
What sources are you using to get the leads?
Most sources will enter their emails to check whats on the backend, this is a challenge for me as my niche is littered with regulations.
I'm curious also, why rent the list OR sell the asset at $5k/month?
It seems like a no-brainer, at that point, you've put all the effort into that asset and going from $5k -> $50k is just a matter of adding more leads/more offers?
By the way, if you haven't already, I'd recommend getting on Ben Settle's email newsletter, some real good info on mailing.
ben settle? I am interested. what is his website?
ill be getting traffic through maybe facebook or google to start then expand to native. the content is the challenging part but I think 3-4 pieces a week might be fine. or maybe doing something like 2 good content and then 2 spun content? idk yet. but my crypto site its all content that is useful, but then again I realyl do just want to just grow a branded site.
I was thinking doing some offers as well like even simple content subscription or ebooks or something.
the regulated ones just put a survey, cause Im thinking of doing a finance niche and will end up doing a survey to sel it to a call center later on if I want to.
well renting the list as because its just another means to revenue.
as far as selling the asset, mean selling the website as a whole, cause I know me. I will end up getting bored of it soon enough - I realize i like to create and go as to why i think I have done multiple projects in the past.
one thing too I was thinking is if I collet leads is it best to utilize a ESP or just use a platform and utilie mailgun sendgrid etc to do the mailing? that is another question I am tackling and to even prevent bounces to sync it up with neverbounce to check validity of the email. maybe I am thinking too much but that is something I was thinking as well to make sure my emails are always inboxing at some point.
I also started collecting leads recently.
Running COD offers on the front-end and collect leads into my DB.
From there it's distributed via cron job tasks & api to affiliate networks, emails system, queue personalised SMS messages.
I know who orders what and I got granular data on the leads as well.
The tricky part will be the backend which is all new to me.
If anyone runs similar setup I would love to mastermind on milking out those leads.
For Ben Settle — http://bensettle.com/v3/
I think we're in a similar vertical. I'm running it on native with some kind of advertorial with email capture and survey before the main offer.
haha, fair enough. I'd be worried about burning the list through renting. At least, I'm looking at it as a long term thing where I control the narrative, offers...etc. Anyways, I'm sure you can mitigate that somehow.
Right now, I'm hooked up to GetResponse via API. I'm not too worried about bounces at the moment, but you've got the right idea by validating the email.
Erik, thats smart, again pretty similar to what i'm doing. I'm keen to mastermind. PM me and I'll add you.
Taking a bit of a hit on the front end, so want to work out ways to get every penny out of the lead.
Ian, if you're also down to chat on skype. PM me and I'll add you.
Do you completely ignore gdpr and stuff or are somewhat compliant?
Using ESP or managed SMTP is the best option.
ESP and managed SMTP good to have content. Easy hire journalism/mass comm graduates.
As for bounce verification, no need on SOI as the system will remove those when mailed.
Auto send a welcome letter and that is like verification without necessarily confirmation like DOI.
On DOI, that's a given during confirmation prior to adding onto system.
As long as data is not being stale then chances of traps and scomps are lower.
Emails from top providers will auto expire accounts if they are not used for X months.
Those abandoned accounts are turned to spam traps and email meta data sent to spamhaus, and other reputation providers.
On GDPR, thats tricky. If you have subscribers in EU then best to follow.
Most ESP have something in place for this during collection process.
I am assuming that double optin would comply with GDPR
To my understanding, and not to be construed as legal advice, i believe if;
the subscriber is in EU and explicit written consent is obtained, then GDPR is in compliance,
and as a lead collector, both the ESP and you are the "Data Collector" under GDPR.
I think with sufficient notice and records of DOI by subscriber, it may be GDPR compliant.
Maybe a EU legal expert could help clarify.
However, I still do SOI on my current data, with majority in NA,
while a few in EU (maybe 8-10%).