In the internet marketing industry, you will often hear this: “The Money is in the list”. This is only partially true. The money is earned by building relationship, communicating and sharing content with the list.
In our online business, the list refers to the email database that you have and I highly encourage anyone who is looking to build this business for long term revenue to have their own list regardless of which segment of the market you are targeting. Even in the offline business, company collects your email address and phone number in order to contact you and follow up with you.
In order to have a list, there are 2 ways to do it. 1) Build a list 2) Buy a list.
Today, I want to discuss with you why you should never buy a list. Below are the 3 main reasons on why you should never buy a list to kickstart your business.
1) Unknown Quality Of Subscribers
You will never know if the list is legitimate or not. The seller can claim various ways of building his list and offers you the screenshot of open rates and click through rates. But, do not believe everything he says, the screenshots can be fake.
In addition, you do not know if the list is updated or if the list is interested in the niche that you are in. When you buy a list, you are not buying the autoresponder account of the seller but just the email database that he had collected. Hence, there is no way to tell exactly the quality of the list.
2) The list does not know you
When you buy a list from another person and start emailing them, they will think who is this guy? Did I subscribe to his emails?
The chances of getting marked as spam increase because they do not know who you are and they will not know how you got their email address. The chances of them opening your emails decrease too. That will mean the subscribers will not be reading your emails and clicking on the links which is something that you do not want. Overall, you will get a poor response rate.
3) The list probably did not make any money for the seller
If the list is making money for the seller, he probably will still hold onto his list even though he already “sells” you the list. If not, it is likely that the list is not making him any money and that’s why he likes to sell it away. That will also mean that he may be selling the same list to another buyer too.
If you think about it logically, regardless of the reason, would you be selling something away that is profitable for you? It is quite unlikely. If the list is already not making money for the seller, it may be more difficult for you to make money from the same list.
Buying a list may seem as an easy way to start your own business quickly but it will not be effective in the long run. Instead, build your own list and grow a relationship with them. This way, it will be more sustainable and profitable for your online business. So, start building your list today!
