Are List Mailers Dying?

As an affiliate marketer, I’ve been using list mailers or safelists for many years. I’ve by and large got reasonable results from them for that entire period. You might notice that I used the word reasonable. Results have never been outstanding. They’ve been consistent. If you use List Mailers as I have, they will deliver somewhere between 20 and 30 list sign-ups per week. Maybe a few more, if I’m running a new campaign. As I said, that’s solid but unspectacular.

I’d say that my experiences over fifteen years at least, qualify me as something of an expert in this area. (My best mate tells me that expert is a conjunctive word made up of Ex meaning has been and Spurt which is a drip under pressure, but that’s another story) So, when I feel compelled to put up my hand and say “Hey, there’s something really wrong here,” I think you should at least read what I’m thinking.

The model sucks

I’ve deliberately used the word “sucks,” because the karma bus is headed someone’s way. (Those with long memories will understand). For years, there have been proponents of List Mailers (usually owners) who have made List Mailers the business.

After a while, you can see through the smoke and mirrors but what they want you to believe is this.

• Join my new whizzbang mailer that uses the same script as my last 4 whizz bang mailers but has slightly better graphics.
• Upgrade and advertise my affiliate link to all the people you can advertise to allready on my existing 4 whizz bang mailers so that you can mail the very same people on the new mailer.
• You’ll get lots of credits to use to advertise to people who don’t upgrade and are so busy clicking to earn credits that they probably won’t notice your ad for two weeks.
• To cover this you’d better upgrade to least one of my other 4 whizz bang mailers

Do you see a problem?

I sure as hell do.

I’ve seen it for years, and I’ve tried to work around it in a variety of ways, but the truth is that in all honesty, this model has always had a use-by date. The industry has been eating itself for at least five years. When you draw back the curtains you can see the casualties hanging on by their fingernails.

They’re the mailers that no longer offer upgrades or where rumours of admin existing persist despite the evidence to the contrary. It’s always been a cynical business. It’s just becoming more obvious.

And still, the “new launches” come with their lifetime offers and the skewed claims of targeted advertising.

It’s all so web 2.0

There are dedicated owners who are trying to make things better. Marti Petrizza’s Website Traffic Games is at least an attempt to try something different as was Crypto Mailer. Herculist keeps reinventing itself and has become an advertising hub rather than a mailer.

But inevitably these attempts although well-intentioned amount to more than painting over the cracks. If the industry is to survive then it has to be torn down and rebuilt.

Fortunately, someone has done just that.

Heralding in a new era

When is a list mailer not a list mailer?

When it turns the entire model on its head and makes it possible for everybody to really benefit from participating.

How could you possibly do that?

By encouraging engagement rather than the relentless death spiral that everybody seems to be stuck in.

How do you encourage engagement?

By offering tangible rewards for the sender and the receiver in the form of cryptocurrency which Is generated through the acts of reading, voting for and sending emails. It’s a brilliant concept. So brilliant in fact that affiliate marketing becomes an afterthought.

Engagement is much more profitable and infinitely more fun.

You can get started today at List Nerds. It’s not just another mailer, it’s the start of a revolution.

List Mailers 2.0 are dead. They just don’t know it yet, Long live List Mailers 4.0
Photo by Juan Vargas from Pexels