*Warning* this is a rant 
As you start putting out your own products and building lists for affiliate promotions, you’re going to run into some issues, if you have any conscience at all.
That is, how often should you mail your list, and what should you mail them?
The first thing I want to say is that no matter how often you mail your list and no matter what you mail them, people are going to complain! That is something I can guarantee you.
You have to have thick skin as an e-mail marketer — you also have to make sure you are doing right by your list members.
Before I dive in much further, I want to do sort of a brain dump of things related to list marketing:
- You have a list of people interested in certain topics. Yet, they are at different levels, with different personalities
- People on your list are there for a reason — they want to learn more about a topic, they like you, they like your products, they wanted something free, etc.
- You can’t make everyone happy all the time
- You can make many of the people thrilled when you have a good message to market match
- I’ve gotten e-mails telling me that my two e-mails in a week were too much
- I’ve gotten e-mails praising me up and down for mailing certain offers because they changed people’s lives
- I’ve gotten e-mails telling me I’m just trying to squeeze money out of people and don’t care about my subscribers
- I’ve gotten e-mails thanking me because I happily and freely respond to people’s questions whenever they right me
With all of that said, let’s make another thing clear.
The reason most people have a list is to make money.
But, let’s make another thing clear, I would say that most people who have lists (myself included) care deeply about providing value to the people on their list.
I’ve actually been lazily building a list for years. Unfortunately, I was too scared to mail it much at all for more than 3 of those years. I was worried people would hate me.
You see, I don’t have very thick skin.
Then, I decided I was being silly.
People in the Internet marketing world ARE going to buy products, and buy them often. They are on many people’s lists. These people are GOING to buy from someone. Why not me?
Why not me?
I’d rather they hear of relevant products from me than from some of the other people out there. Some who just mail their lists for the sake of mailing and making money.
I vet every single product I promote. I look for great deals (that often means using Warrior Special Offers promotions) and things that I would personally use (and do!).
It really excites me to send an e-mail now, because I care so much and take so much time to test and make sure something either looks solid, or is something I already use in my business.
I don’t mail very often (9 e-mails sent in August), but what I do mail, I feel provides value.
This blog is meant to contain tons and tons of free stuff and information you can use.
Should the two always be separated? Maybe not.
That is why I’m going to test sending an informative newsletter every week (something I’ve started and stopped in the past).
So, this Friday, keep an eye out for that.
List marketing is a challenge because you’ve got thousands of people to try to make happy, and there is no way they are all going to be happy at once.
I’m going to write that on an sticky and paste it to my wall so I always maintain perspective.
