When I first started blogging, I was really gullible. Somehow I believed everything the Internet returned to me. I learned some hard lessons along the way and always tried to bring those lessons to you, the loyal reader. Now, a new lesson…why you need to avoid safelists.
What Is A Safelist
A safelist is a mailing list that double opts you in for security and spam reasons. Basically, people use a safelist as a huge free mailing list because everyone on the list agrees to receive emails from other members. Ususally these emails come with advertisements that you must click through to in order to receive credits. The credits in turn allow you to mail more frequently to the list or even send out solo emails.
Why You Need To Avoid Safelists
I jumped on the safelist bandwagon when I began blogging as a way to get eyes on my blog. It sucked. Plain and simple it was a huge waste of time. Time that could have been better spent that first year with productive tasks. Here is the skinny on safelists.
You receive literally 100’s of emails a day from other members on the list. Most of them have a scam subject line like; re; you have money, here is your account info, etc…..crap. Why do people have to lie?!
Then you click on the email and you read some regurgitated affiliate marketing BS and are asked to click the link below. Below that link will be another link to claim your credits. You click on that link to get your credits and you are presented with a 15-30 second ad from the safelist founder. You have to view the whole ad for the specified amount of time before you get your credits. More crap!
Safelists do not work for the simple fact that people only click through your email to grab their credits. They do not care about your product, service or website. They only sit through the advertisement to gain the credits to start emailing more people and the process begins again. I used to click through, but my mailbox was completely inundated with bogus crap every single day. The more lists you join, the worse it is.
I no longer click through junky subject lines because I have learned. And believe me, if I have money coming I know it! Therefore when I know it, I will click through it. It took me almost 2 whole days to remove myself from all the mailing lists. I had forgotten that they require 2 email addresses when you sign up, so I had to remove both the mailing address and the security email address.
I have always said the Internet is filled with a lot of Bs’ers, but this takes the cake. Safelists DO NOT build blog traffic, DO NOT make you easy money and are a complete waste of time. There is much to be said about building your own list with people who WANT to do business with you.
So, if you were thinking about joining a few safelists to increase profits or traffic, do think twice as it’s best to avoid safelists altogether.
Hi Lisa.
I can tell that you said some true things here.
But you must understand that safelists are just another internet marketing tools.
And to be useful this tool must be used on a proper way. You can’t cut trees using a screwdriver, don’t you? Accordingly, you can’t use safelists for direct selling (sale pages). I don’t know if you can use them to promote a blog, I don’t have enough experience on this particular kind of advertising.
To be honest, it should work for your blog because it is a very good one as I can see. But if it not worked mean that safelists members are in fault not you or safelists system. They are not enough aware yet how powerful can be a good blog. This is because almost every member on safelists are a newcomer on Internet Marketing.
To use safelists on a proper way need first (not just what Dan Reed said to you before, this is just an administrative task) to understand who the safelists members are: newcomer Internet Marketers. They don’t look to buy something but look to sell. They don’t even understand how to use those safelists on that they are members.
Safelists are very powerful tools to create your OWN LIST. Do do that you must offer to safelists members a free and really valuable gift that they will receive after they will subscribe to your opt-in list. And as a additional gift send them a newsletter created from your blog posts, inviting them to post comments here.
Other thing: yes maybe some safelist owners are doing what Ivan said, but as a safelist owner I can tell you that this kind are rare. As rare as in real life. Most of them are very honest peoples and are dedicated to what they are doing.
Hi Lisa…:)
Yes, Safelists are a pain.
For those that do choose to use them though, the best way is to open a Gmail account for your “credit” mails to be sent to (NEVER use your personal E-address!)Then you can go in to your account and set up “filters” in there for each Safelist you belong to, so that they all go into individual “files”, that way you can open them up, according to the particular safelist, click for your credits (on the Subject Lines that interest you)then delete all the rest. It really makes it easy to get a bunch of “send” credits racked up.
Not saying they are for everybody, but if you do use them and you do it right, this can certainly save you a lot of time.
Hi Dan, I never looked at it that way. I did use a gmail account and was just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of emails….that most equated to spam! Nice to see you again!! 🙂
Lisa,
To add – once your email is on the so-called “safe” list, your email address will travel far and wide in a negative sense – it’s possibly being shared to other list owners, including email blasters’ and spammers. Arrgh!