Safe Lists: Learning How to Play The Game
Introduction
If you have been an Internet marketer for more than two hours, no doubt you have already heard of safe lists. Could even be that you have ventured TO RUN an ad or two – with no result. That’s ok. No matter how many stories you hear of the overnight success, it is not likely to happen to you.
The only thing to do in this situation is to turn to knowledge and understanding. If the way you work with safe lists is NOT working, then perhaps it is time to ask if you are wasting your time using safe lists, or if there actually IS a way to use them profitably.
Fortunately, there really IS a way to use safe lists profitably. You won’t run an ad before a few thousand people and find an immediate customer (probably) – but safe lists are still the most profitable source of advertising around. The reasons just make sense.
You can reach many people EVERY DAY with minimum fuss. You can send targeted traffic to your site in droves, and you can even pick up some paying customers. Their REAL power though, is in advertising.
The goal – as is always the case with advertising – is to get your advertising cheaply enough that your sales will cover the advertising cost. Safe Lists can do all of this FREE.
Do you want to know how to use safe lists to put your hands on the cheapest and most effective advertising you ever saw? No doubt, you do – and by the time you finish this article, you will be able to get all the advertising you need to sell any product. I plan to introduce my seven rules for mastering safelists. If you are interested at all, come with me…
Rule 1 - YOU NEED ADVERTISING!
I’m sorry to shout, but it is amazing how many people feel that they can run a business without actually promoting it. Part of the problem, of course, is that advertising costs money. If advertising was plentiful and cheap, – we would all be advertising our wares during the Super Bowl – but that is just not the real world, people. If you don’t have even a small budget for your business – then you don’t HAVE a business.
We HOPE we got that over to you clearly. If you ever want your business to succeed, you simply will need to search the couch cushions for a few dollars to put yourself before potential buyers. NOBODY actually WANTS to run an ad during the Super Bowl, but THAT is how you find customers.
Advertising is necessary, but contrary to popular belief, this need NOT be expensive. Like a good stock, you need to make your safe list investments wisely. Let us discuss how to do this now.
Rule 2 - View Safe Lists as Stock…
Actually, relating safe lists to stock is a very apt analogy. You will use many of the same indicators that point to a good stock to select a good safe list investment.
You will want to invest in a safe list whose value promises to go up. You will want to invest in a safe list that is under great management. You will want to invest in a safe list that is appropriately priced. You will want to invest in a safe list with a good ROI.
The only way to get this information is by way of research. Inspect the plans carefully to be sure that when you buy in, you understand clearly, what you are getting at the top-tier of the program. The intervening tiers are pretty well unimportant, since these will prevent you from full use of the safe list anyway –and that is NOT what you want. Whatever you do, you want to go in at the top-tier. You WANT to have access to the complete safe list.
Rule 3 - Buy in Early…
The key rule for safe list acquisition is to buy in early. As with stock, mature lists costs much more to become a part of than fledgling lists that need the publicity – and these are MUCH less likely to grow. GROWTH is where you reap major rewards. By buying in early, you take advantage of financial incentives that will certainly disappear the very moment that the site begins to show signs of life.
Fortunately, for you, even the most perceptive of safe list owners cannot just KNOW that their site will succeed. They have to play the marketing game in the beginning – and THAT is just where you want to be. These sites will offer a One Time Offer (OTO) that will amount to FREE use of the ENTIRE safe list site over time. You will pay up front, but as the site grows your investment buys more power and a larger audience – without costing you another dime!
For example, at Blaster Guru right now you can buy an OTO for about one hundred dollars. Maryanne Meyers manages this safe list. She is a prodigious safe list guru whose safe list sites almost ALWAYS grows into the tens of thousands. At this point, you should smell an opportunity (hint).
This site is new – and has only about 3500 members – but this stock is poised to go up – WAY UP. Her most popular sites have thirty thousand members or more. If you pay $100 lifetime for 3500 eyes now, when the site hits 7,000 eyes your original cost will be cut in half ($50 for 3500 eyes) and when the site reaches maturity at (maybe) 30,000 members – well, let’s just say that I own this OTO myself.
The lesson that we are trying to teach you should be clear by now. You need to do your homework to find hot properties that are coming onto the market and then position yourself to get in while the safe list stock is cheap. Then, as it grows, you take lifetime possession of a massive advertising source to promote your business – and you can use it for life!
Rule 4 - Buy Small Safe Lists…
This rule might seem similar to the last one, but it does differ slightly. Earlier, we admonished you to get in early to take advantage of the incentives. Here, we make the point that you need to buy in while safelists that are poised to grow are still small.
Be careful with this rule. Not EVERY safe list is poised to grow – and if it fails, then your OTO is pretty well meaningless. GROWTH is where the action is. You have to select your safe list investments with care, just as you would any stock. When a company is small, the stock is cheap – EVEN IF WE ARE DEALING WITH A VERY GOOD COMPANY. What you want to do as an investor is to find the good stocks while they are still small – even if they not necessarily new.
By way of example, let us consider “Safe List X.” This safe list has been around for years, run by a mediocre management and the business simply has not gotten off the ground. Now along comes a safe list manager who knows their beans like Louise Cardow or Maryanne Meyers who takes over “Safe List X.” All of a sudden, this becomes a safe list stock that I want to own. What about you?
Rule 5 - Buy Plenty…
- You found a GREAT penny stock, and according to your research, this company just keeps sounding better all the time. Just because this is a penny stock, are you going to buy a nickel’s worth? That would be ridiculous – would it not? What you want to do is to invest heavily – and then wait for the value to go up! No, I am not a stock expert, but some things just make good sense.
This seems obvious, yet I am continually amazed to find how reluctantly safe list users are to buy themselves into the safe list game in a strong position. They hover just over the ground, clicking for credits using free accounts or perhaps buying in at the first tier. THAT is a total waste of time and money.
Let us clear up one question right away. Your waste your efforts with a safe list – UNLESS you can reach the entire list! There are many reasons for this. Some reasons are simple and some VERY complex, but let us look at it this way. Advertising is most effective when the same people see your ads all day – EVERY DAY.
Dipping a toe into the waters just will not cut it. A safe list will behave entirely differently when you can mail consistently to the entire list. You NEED that repetition. That is why they call it an ad campaign.
Plans on the lower tier structures send your ad to a few random members, which is better than nothing – even if just by a whisker. This means that the people who saw your ad yesterday may NEVER see it again. As you raise the bet (buy higher tiers), more of the list is open to you.
You will find a draw dropping difference in response from a large list to which you have full access, but of course – now that the list is large the cost to get in will be stiff. Even if you can afford it - are you really going to spend $50 dollars every month to participate in a safe list? Really? No, really?
Rule 6 - Buy the One Time Offer
So, your best option is to buy in while the site is cheap – and to buy in all the way! If you do not buy in right as the start, I submit that you will never buy in – and this opportunity will be lost to you. This offer will become less generous as the site grows, that is for certain, so you MUST take this step when you sign up.
Borrow the money if you have to. Turn up the couch cushions. Float a loan. ARE you in business – or AREN’T you? If you take this advice, you will soon find yourself with an arsenal of advertising power over time for which you paid a pittance.
Remember, whatever YOU pay for the top-tier when the site is small, NEW members will be paying excessively to join up with this safe list now that it is mature, but there you are on easy street – with access to every amenity that this site has to offer – and your benefits will last – for the LIFE of the site!
A Caveat: Make sure that the OTO for the top tier package is a lifetime OTO. Anything else is just a fraud – it’s that simple. You will be paying year over year for the same benefits that a serious site will give you for LIFE – and as the site grows, you will pay MORE to remain a part of it. That’s just bad business.
Rule 7 – Take Care with Auto-Submitters?
Here is a secret. Most of us are lazy. You probably think that you are more lazy than I am – but I doubt it. I really do. I would never move if I did not have too – unless some fun was in the offing. Therefore, if you ask if I mind spending an hour or two clicking ads for a few credits – the answer is probably clear to you by now.
The problem is that, when it comes to safe lists, you have to give to get. This means that if YOU have to visit other people’s ads, then THEY have to visit your ads. In this regard, there is little room for alternatives.
You will find some software and outfits on the net that offer to submit automatically your ads to the safe list sites. These do not work – period! Quality safe list sites go to extraordinary lengths to ENSURE that you must visit every site for which you collect credits. Put more simply, you must view an ad if you want your ad to be viewed.
Now, as with anything, there are shades of gray. Fortunately, for YOU, most people are just not willing to follow the rules that we have laid out in this article. It makes no sense at all – but there you have it. They just refuse to spend a dime on their business – period. This means that, MOST of the members at these safe lists are FREE members.
For you, this is a good thing, because you ARE ready to do things differently. You realize that if you can find a site with plenty of free members, this would be a GREAT site to auto-submit to. Why? Because these visitors MUST view your ads – even if you do not have to view their ads! Sweet deal!
To take advantage of this fact, at the highest tier, many safe list sites offer an auto-submit function to submit your email to their safe list to save YOU time to run your business. If a safe list does not offer an auto submit, they will at least send your emails to the entire list without charging you any credits, so that you do not have to click for credits any more.
If you need another reason that free membership is not a smart idea, bear in mind that there really is no such thing. Eventually, a free account will run short of credits and then free members will have to sing for their supper.
Credits are expensive. It is common to pay $1 dollar per 1,000 credits and you need hundreds of thousands of credits in your account to carry on a serious mailing campaign every day. Pay a bit up front now, and you can forget about buying credits. Make that investment, and you never need to worry about spending another nickel with that safe list site – ever again…
External Submissions
Here, we throw you another safe list gem to look into. Now, pay attention.
Best List Mailer, offers external auto submission. It will auto send your ad to three well-populated and powerful sites (HotSpotMailer, Wondermailer, Safelists.com), with some 56,000 members altogether.
Yes, they DO offer lifetime plans for the serious. The “Founder” level will cost you a single payment of around $100. The site is currently at about 7,000 members and it grew to this level in only 274 days (less than a year). By end of next year, this number could easily be 15,000 members.
There is still plenty of time to get on-board this plan. This safe list site projects growth into the Tens of Thousands. Here is a perfect chance to grab another great OTO (we gave you Blaster Guru earlier) and start to build yourself some great lifetime advertising resources.
So, now you understand what buying into safe lists is all about. Safe lists are not just a great place to market your goods. They are a place to make a killing – but you have to be able to pinch your nose, spend some money and make a good business decision. Nobody likes to spend any money. However, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
We should note however, that not all safe lists make a good investment at any level. Some are overpriced, some are too mature for you to afford them and some just don’t offer a sweet enough deal in exchange for your money. Do not get lured into offers that pile up the banner ads, login ads, traffic links, hot links and surf credits. These don’t pay off too well in terms of response, and you have to be careful with your time.
Text Ad Exchanges (TAE’s) also need serious consideration before joining them. These are usually very small, and it is my opinion that (as a rule) they will probably never grow. They certainly don’t grow fast enough to make a decent investment. I formed this opinion by looking at growth rates of the TAE's that I am a member of since I signed up – but you can join one or two and make up your own mind.
The terms for sign-up with a TAE are usually extremely liberal, but that is the way of things with small sites - especially if they feel they will stay that way. You will amass a million credits (literally), but the problem is that you got nobody to talk too.
Some sites are important enough to have a presence, even if you can't afford the full package. Yes, you are being cheated - but everybody stood face to face. You still need the coverage, and it will take you time to build the advertising power that we are describing here. Meantime, you’ve got a business to run.
Never be satisfied with such a position. Look every day at how you can buy fully into that list, but in the short term, you may be forced to join that site and click for credits. You are leaving every bit of the real power of that site on the table, but sometimes we just have to work between the lines.
Conclusion
So, there are your seven rules for making the most of safe lists. You will spend a bit of money up front, but in the end, you will be sitting in butter.
While other marketers are talking to 5000 members of a 27,000 member safe list, you will be talking to the entire list every day – without even clicking for credits! Other members may be tired of seeing your ads – but they WILL see your ads – and that is the goal – to familiarize your audience with your product.
Emailing ads in only the beginning of the benefits coming your way. Buying in early usually means a handsome incentive package to include front page ads, truckloads of credits, random referrals, even solo ads.
Always keep your eyes open for new safe list launches. I’m not aware of any source that you can trust to keep you abreast of these, so plan to cozy up with the search engines a few hours per week to see if there are any good offerings out there. Keep some money available to take advantage of what you find.
Do some comparisons with the safe list managers. Before investing in a stock, you want to understand the management, and so it is with safe lists. Do they know what they are doing? Do their offerings usually go up? If they do, and you have recovered yourself from the excitement – sign up and buy the OTO right away. You have found gold!
It is not hard to find good sites that almost certainly will go up. In fact, I just threw you two solid investments in this post – and you hardly even noticed. There are others – if you are willing to spend a bit of time and money on your business. If you have even a small budget for your business, these rules ought to help you to grow a bigger one. Once you have this advertising clout in your pocket – the sky is the limit!
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