I know you have heard it over and over. The money is in the list. It was drilled in my head back when I first started affiliate marketing in 2009. I have had lists and I have a list now. I have made and still make money off of my list. I have even sold a email marketing list for a nice little penny.
Here is the thing though. Most affiliate marketers claiming you need a list are in the affiliate marketing niche. They have their own products or they promote the products of others while also giving out valuable information to their subscribers (hopefully). Not all affiliate marketers however are in the make money from home, affiliate marketing niche.
Many of the clients at Pajama Affiliates promote Amazon products. If you have a blog and most of your links are to Amazon, a list is probably a waste of your time. While you can make a lot of money as an Amazon Affiliate, people just don’t want to get an email every week about a new Amazon Product that they probably aren’t even looking for or remotely interested in.
When you think about this, think about how people find your blog to start with. For the purpose of an example lets say your blog is on Birthday Theme parties. It’s my nieces birthday and I search Elsa Frozen theme parties in Google and land on your blog. I buy some stuff and leave. I am done. Birthdays only come once a year and I don’t really care about your post on Peter Pan theme birthday parties, so you are just wasting time sending me an email on it.
When do I need a Email Marketing List?
There are niches where a list is very effective. An example of a list I joined is one by a Author and public speaker on grief. I experienced a lot of loss in 2013 and I found her on Google. She would mail out what she called a Message in a Bottle and include her link to her book in the end. I bought her book. More than once. I gave it away as a gift several times. A list is very beneficial to her business.
In order for a list to work for you, you have to stay relevant to one topic. If I signed up for fashion advice, I probably will unsubscribe if you send me something not relevant. To have a list to go with your blog, you blog needs to be targeted to a specific audience with specific needs.
That being said, if you have your own products and you target the market that your product can help, you need a list yes! If you are in the self help industry of any sort, you probably will benefit and make money on a list. When I was in the dating and relationships niche, I would send out emails to my list about common dating issues women would have and often link to a product that would help them solve or give them insight into the issue and sales would be made.
The purpose of a list is to offer value to your reader and also to make money. It is not a popularity contest. I don’t know about you, but I want readers that actually want to buy something and I am sure you do too! This is my business, my livelihood, How I eat, pay bills and have fun! An email marketing list is just a tool I use to offer a win win for my readers and for myself.
So is the money in the email marketing list? Why in some niches, yes. In others, your time would be better spent building content and working on creating an authority site in the niche you are in!
Image credit Pixaby
That makes perfect sense. A list is not always the way to go.