October 31, 2005

Unsubscribes - a good or bad thing?

Today I sent out a promotion for one of my products to my ezine list. Got a handful of unsubscribes within the first hour.

It happens every time.

Is this good or bad if you publish an ezine? You may be surprised to learn that I look at it as a very good thing. You see, anyone with any common sense knows that an ezine has to be paid for some way - either through advertising or selling products. So if someone is sooooo offended when they receive a promotion that they unsubscribe, they are really telling me they would never be a qualified customer anyway.

Bottom line, I'd rather have 5,000 qualified subscribers than 50,000 "tire kickers".

One interesting point, though. Let's say you're a cheapskate who never wants to pay a cent for anything and only wants whatever you can get for free. If you were truly a student of direct marketing, you'd do yourself a greater favor by remaining on the ezine list and studying the promotions - often that's where the best lessons are to be found!

Your opinion?

Posted by Bob Serling at 07:33 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 05, 2005

Affiliate programs vs joint ventures

A lot of people ask me why I don't have an affiliate program. Actually, I do, but just for one product and I really don't do anything to promote it.

The reason I put so little time into affiliate programs is that I much prefer to work with a small group of hand-picked joint venture partners for any product or service I'm offering. In my experience, both in my own business and consulting with many of the most profitable online marketers, affiliate programs produce very little real results. Only a small percentage of affiliates generate any significant volume of sales.

With joint ventures, you're dealing only with those partners you choose to do business with. This gives you two major advantages. The first advantage is that you pick your partners and know that you're investing your time in quality partners who will go the extra mile to sell your product.

The second advantage may be even more important. Joint ventures give you the ability to make sure that only the kind of people you want representing your product do so. If an affiliate is a whack job and gives their customers poor customer service or engages in questionable business practices, because they're selling your product, it could reflect poorly on you. And you'd never know it's happening.

For my money, give me 3 great joint venture partners instead of 300 mediocre affiliates.

What has your experience been with affiliates and joint ventures?

Posted by Bob Serling at 08:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack