Social Environment

The Best Safelists for June 2013

by

Hello June!

It feels like safelists and mailers have been getting a lot more attention recently.  Even compared to just a year ago.  It seems that more and more people are finding out what a powerful advertising medium they can be and I couldn’t be happier.

Last month saw the release of another new viral list builder called List Viral.  It was launched by Matt Baker with a little help from the guys at TimTech.  If you are a member of List Nerds you will notice the similiarities right away.  The design is simple and proves that you don’t need to have a million complicated options to get good results from a mailer.

The other big launch was the new social networking site from Darren Olander and Matt Koskho called Marketing Checkpoint.  This one is a little more than your typical mailer.  It’s a full fledged social networking site.  Sorta like Facebook for Internet marketers.  Members can earn “activity points” by being active within the community and those points can then be used to send ads through the mailer.  The mailer is still offline until June 14 so that they can build up their membership first.  It’s still definitely worth joining Marketing Checkpoint now.  There are some great discussions going on about safelist marketing and it’s a great place to get know your fellow Internet marketers in a social environment.

Ok, on to the stats…

Here’s how it works.  Every day I submit my ads to 40+ safelists and viral list builders promoting splash pages for my own Mister Safelist.  I am upgraded at most of these sites which typically allows me to send my ads more often than free members.  I also spend time every day reading emails for credits which allow me to send my ads to as many people as possible.  The stats below are the result of my own marketing efforts and your results will probably vary.

Hits Unique Signups Ratio
Adchiever 4020 65.00% 13 0.32%
Viral List Builder Plus 3910 58.00% 12 0.31%
100 Percent Mailer 3952 61.00% 10 0.25%
List Adventure 4675 66.00% 9 0.19%
Max Mailer Pro 5725 52.00% 8 0.14%
Bweeble 2414 69.00% 7 0.29%
Viral Nugget 2260 62.00% 7 0.31%
State of the Art Mailer 2641 69.00% 6 0.23%
List Nerds 1268 72.00% 6 0.47%
List Jumper 1943 70.00% 5 0.26%
Puffin Mailer 2716 52.00% 5 0.18%
AdTactics 1113 53.00% 5 0.45%
Viral URL 85 72.00% 5 5.88%
List Bonus 1354 65.00% 4 0.30%
List Joe 469 67.00% 4 0.85%
Elite Safelist 2508 57.00% 4 0.16%

Total May sign-ups (including those not shown above): 146

A bit of a light month for me.  I think I have identified a few problems with my campaigns and will try focusing on my higher converting splash pages to see if that helps to increase my results for next month.

That’s it for this month.

Don’t forget to join Marketing Checkpoint if you haven’t already and come get involved in the safelists discussions.  We would love to hear your thoughts.

As always the stats above are only provided to show what is working best for me.  What works best for you might be something entirely different.  The only way to know for sure is to track your own results.  You can get the same link tracker I use from trck.me.

 Safelist Marketing Tactics
Click here to receive a free copy of Safelist Marketing Tactics

Ponzi Scheme Frustrations

by

Hello again!

Sorry I haven’t been updating my blog as often as I would like.  I’m still around, I just haven’t had much time to write.

But today I am ready to rant!

Yep, welcome back!

So, lately I have been spending way too much time on Sweeva.  Frankly, i’m addicted.  Whatever.  In case you live under a rock Sweeva is a social marketing site / traffic exchange.  So by using it you are not only getting your site seen by other marketers but you are also getting to know a lot of other marketers socially who are promoting their own sites.

I guess recently it has really started to bug me to see how many talented Internet marketers I know are out there promoting illegal pyramid and ponzi schemes.

I know.  These programs have been around even longer than I have.   It’s not like I haven’t seen hundreds of them come and go over the years.  But it’s interesting now to finally see the faces and talk to the people who are promoting these programs in a social environment such as Sweeva.

Ok, for the record i’m no angel.  I’ve been known to bend a few laws in my time.  If I am in a hurry I might go a few mph over the speed limit.  I probably play the stereo in my car louder than I should and I might even admit to having a few mp3s on my computer that I didn’t pay for.  Hey, I’m like a modern day Jesse James.

Let’s be realistic here.  The police probably aren’t going to break your door down and haul you off to jail for promoting an affiliate link that might not be entirely legal, but does that mean you should do it?

As long as nobody gets hurt, right?

Wrong.

People do get hurt.

Money doesn’t just magically appear.

No program pays out more than it takes in.

The only way for you to make money in these programs is for other people to lose money.  Your success can only come from someone else’s failure.

Am I the only one bothered by that?

No, i’m not a lawyer or a judge.  I can’t pass absolute legal judgment over every site out there.  But if you are not selling a product or service and the only thing you are offering people is a money making opportunity then chances are it’s either an illegal pyramid scheme or an illegal ponzi scheme.

What’s that?  You program offers a product or service?  I guess that makes it legit, right?

Of course it does!

In fact, Bernie Madoff would be a free man right now if he had only thought to provide his clients with some ebooks and a rotating banner ad on his blog.

You can dress it up anyway you like.  If people are spending money on these things with the goal of making more money back then slapping on a worthless product or ad credits isn’t going to make them any more legit.

It’s frustrating to me though because sometimes I just want to grab these people and tell them what they are doing is wrong… but I can’t.  Who am I to tell them what they should or should not promote?  Right?

Look, if you have the money and you want to gamble it on one of these programs I don’t really care.  Maybe you’ll get lucky and eventually make a profit.  Congratulations on your wise business investment.

My problem is with the program owners and the people who use these programs to prey on newbies who don’t know any better.  The people who only care about making money and don’t care where it’s coming from.  To me that is more than just breaking the law… it’s just wrong.