Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
Ever since the start of list building, marketers have been using solo ads to grow email lists in the thousands. If you’d like to rapidly grow your list starting today, solo ads are the way to go. Seriously, they are dirt cheap and I always advise my “students” to use them to begin with. As really, they are the only guaranteed way of quickly building a list. Once you’ve got that initial list, you can do grow your list for free using strategies like ad swaps.
Until you’ve got that initial list, it’s a bit of an uphill battle. You could spend your time doing article marketing, video marketing or other free marketing strategies. OR… you could eliminate the struggle and spend some money. And… if you are going to spend some money, there’s nothing better than buying solo ads.
So what are solo ads?
Well, solo ads are where you pay to have your email sent to someone else’s list. You actually get your entire email sent out to someone else’s subscribers. Good for us, there are thousands of marketers selling solo ads. The whole idea of buying solo ads is to “steal” other people’s subscribers in your niche.
You simply send other people’s subscribers to your own capture page and therefore “steal” them. Out of all paid list building strategies, solos are by far the best. Just think about it, what would you rather pay for:
- Visitors who say they are interested in your niche.
- Visitors who are definitely interested, are subscribed to a related list and are getting a recommendation to check out your stuff.
It’s a no-brainer in my eyes. Best of all, the cost of both types of visitors is similar. #1 would be visitors coming from an Adwords campaign at around $0.20-$2 per click.
#2 would be visitors coming from a solo ad, and while the prices do vary, you’re looking at $0.20-$0.50/click. Both types of traffic cost between $0.20/click on the low end to $2 on the high end. It totally varies, but the conversions are huge with solo ads.
Really, an Adwords campaign is a lot more expensive, but it’s a nice comparison…
As I said, solos are amazing and you can literally use them to borrow someone else’s list for a day. Getting 200, 500, 1000, or more clicks with super high conversions in a matter of hours. If you have the money, solo ads are the first thing you should buy.
And…
If you have a solid one-time offer in place for new subscribers, you can eventually get a campaign going where you’re making more money in OTO sales than you spend on solo ads. So really the subscribers are free. (An OTO is where you present subscribers with a one-time offer straight after they opt-in – Your OTO can be an affiliate product or your own, it’s up to you)
With most solo ads, people set their own price for a mailing to their list. The majority of marketers will give you a guaranteed number of clicks per mailing. If they don’t meet the number of clicks, they have to either refund you or do another mailing.
No solo ad sellers want you sending junk to their list! So they will only approve your solo ad if you have a good email with something GOOD to offer their subscribers. This is where your offer comes in. If you have a free report or video series, getting solo ads will be a piece of cake.
Obviously, you want a super offer anyway to boost conversions. You just need something like a free report or download of some sort that will appeal to the people in your niche. Then there’s the cost. Seriously don’t worry about the cost, set aside $100 for testing out a few Solo Ads. You can actually get them for around $20.
In fact, I once paid $20 for a Solo that went out to 800 subscribers. In return, I got 160 clicks and 113 subscribers. That works out to be around $0.17 per subscriber. Pretty amazing for a $20 Solo. Those results aren’t typical, but most of the time you’ll always make your money back in the long run.
A lot of the time you’ll even make your money back instantly in OTO sales. The great thing is the visitors you get from solos are already on a similar list, so the chances are they’ll be happy to join another. (As long as your capture page and free offer is good)
Lastly, the visitors are being referred to your capture page by someone they already know, like, and trust. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be on the email list. That’s why solos are so powerful, the people you buy them from can greatly influence their subscribers. So where do you buy solo ads?
If you’re in the Internet/Network marketing niche, then you should start with soloaddirectory.com. The guy runs a blog there where he buys and reviews different solo ad sellers. Great site, the owner lists around 50 solo ad sellers, provides reviews and links to buy them. He even tells you how much he spent, how many clicks he got, and how many new subscribers. So that’s the first place you should go to buy solo ads if you’re in the IM/Network Marketing niche.
2. Forums
You have been paid late before
You have watched the number on the dashboard not match the number in your account. What is different now is simple: it settles on a public contract you can check yourself, not a dashboard I control.
Read the contract →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
The best places to find other marketers are on forums. They are communities of people who all share an interest in the same thing. If you’re in the IM/Network Marketing niche, then the Warrior Forum is perfect. You simply start a thread asking if anyone will sell you a solo ad. You’ll get a bunch of responses, just remember to get this information:
- List Size
- Typical Response Rate (Clicks) Per Email
- Price Per Guaranteed Clicks
- Proof
When I got started with solo ads, I made the huge mistake of not asking for any information. I asked for list size and a price. Turns out people can bend the truth when it comes to solo ads.
There are plenty of other ways of finding solo ad sellers. I actually used Google search to find several great sellers. The point is they are not that difficult to find. You can even email marketers in your niche asking them.
Tips:
- Always Get Proof – Most marketers are liars, make sure you get proof of their list size and average response rate.
- Negotiate The Price – Solos aren’t set in stone. Sellers just make up their own prices, you can negotiate it down.
- Use One Time Offers – Over time you’ll realize just how powerful solo ads are. Especially if you have a one-time offer in place. A one-time offer will allow you to instantly recoup the investment you made in a solo. I’ll usually pitch something right after I deliver the freebie.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Feel free to leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions in the box below.
Comments
UniversalLawLOA, November 5, 2011, 10:20
Great idea, I actually never thought of doing that because I, for some reason, thought it was a lot more expensive. Glad I found your page! Thank you, and thanks to the law of attraction lol!
Tim Singleton, November 5, 2011, 12:45
What do you guys think of the solo ad specialists who conduct the campaign for you, doing all the copywriting themselves?
Etieno Etuk, November 5, 2011, 14:10
In marketing or in any business, one needs to advertise to make the brand or company known. For people who want to make some money with the small enterprise one has, writing a solo ad will surely help out.
Here are some keys to note when creating solo ads:
1. A solo ad should have a good catchy line.
2. Whenever putting up a solo ad, it should never start with anything that looks like a forwarded message or regarding a certain topic from someone else.
Thanks for sharing, Dave.
Rakesh Pandey, November 5, 2011, 16:35
Hi David,
Your website is looking great.
Lisa Smith, November 5, 2011, 18:00
I’ve been trying to use solo ads for my business, but I’m not getting the results I expected. Do you think it’s the offer or the list I’m using? I’d love to get some feedback on what might be going wrong.
Amelia Turner, November 6, 2011, 09:10
This is exactly what I needed! I’ve been on the fence about trying solo ads, but your post made it clear that they are a powerful tool for building my list. I’m definitely going to give them a try. Thanks, David!
Oliver Hayes, November 6, 2011, 11:30
I appreciate the practical advice on solo ads. I’ve used them a few times with mixed results, but now I realize I wasn’t negotiating the price as I should have. I’ll keep your tips in mind for my next campaign.
Sophia Barrett, November 6, 2011, 13:05
Hi David, what’s your take on using solo ads for niche markets? I’m in a relatively small niche, and I’m concerned about finding quality solo ad sellers who can deliver results. Any tips on how to vet them?
Henry Lucas, November 6, 2011, 14:20
Solo ads seem like a great way to build a list quickly, but I’m curious about how to integrate them with other marketing strategies. Do you have any advice on combining solo ads with social media or email marketing?
Grace Mitchell, November 6, 2011, 16:45
Your article really opened my eyes to the potential of solo ads. I’ve always relied on free methods like SEO and content marketing, but I see now that solo ads could really boost my efforts. Thanks for the insight, David!
Three posts a day. One email a day.
Everything I publish, in one short daily email. Real numbers, no hype, unsubscribe in one click.
Get paid 100%, on-chain, the second the sale clears
Most affiliates earn little, and that is disclosed up front. The difference here is not a promise about what you will make. It is that you can verify every payout yourself, on a public contract, in about twelve seconds.
See how the payout works →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
The whole solo-ad economy assumes a marketplace of strangers buying and selling access to lists. In a town of four thousand I already know everyone I’d ever prospect by name. Paying to borrow a stranger’s list is solving a problem I don’t have, and creating one, my neighbors would spot a stranger’s pitch within a sentence.
Lonnie’s right this doesn’t translate to a small town, worth saying plainly instead of nodding along just because it’s the strategy that’s written down.
We were calling this list rental back in the early 2000s, same mechanic, different vocabulary. Lonnie’s not wrong about the mismatch, though solo ads were never really built for a feed store’s customer base to begin with. It’s a strategy for people selling to strangers online, which not everyone here is doing.
Fine, call it list rental. Doesn’t change what it costs to rebuild trust once a list’s been rented out a dozen times. The post’s own math, twenty dollars for over a hundred names, is the cheap part. What it costs the list six months later isn’t in the spreadsheet.