A "safe list" is a mailing list with subscribers that have
agreed to accept advertising from each other. Safe lists are useful because
their members will not complain about spam when other members send them
promotional material.
When you join such a list, use a web-based email account for
your email address, but don't waste your time with zWallet, as it bounces most
of the mail sent to it, and you will be removed from safelists for using it.
In truth, I rarely read them, although some interesting
opportunities do show up from time to time, and they should not be overlooked.
The most valuable "safe list" is the one you create
yourself. When you visit successful marketing sites, note that every
single one of them offers a form for capturing email addresses. You'll find
mine just below the Table of Contents, on the first page of this book.
Operating your own
newsletter or "ezine" is the best way to establish a good relationship with
your prospective customers.
Safelists often offer Affiliate programs, paying small
commissions for signing up new members. This page, for instance, provides me
with a steady income stream, since most of the lists here pay commissions for
such referrals. With diligence, you will be able to earn enough income from
safelist Affiliate programs to use the safelists without cost.
It is not, however, necessary to spend a penny, and
it is relatively easy to build a large and effective safelist portfolio
exclusively through free lists. If you do not have a budget for safelist
subscriptions, I recommend that you join as many free lists as you can handle.
There are hundreds to choose from, and it doesn't matter where you begin.
Check every safelist link that anyone sends you. If the list
offers free membership, join. If not, forget it. As you join more lists, you
will need to organize your portfolio.
A real problem with lists is simply this: The more lists you
join, the more email you have to deal with. That reality suggests another:
Never, ever, use your primary email address for safelist subscriptions.
Instead, you'll need one or more of what I call "dump
mailbox" addresses. Ideally, these should be addresses that permit you to
automatically delete all incoming mail, simply by setting a few filters.
Once you have such a mailbox set up, and understand how to
turn the filters on and off, you're ready to start joining lists. When you do
join a new list, you will have to provide two email addresses. The first will
be the CONTACT address, and the second will be the LIST or SUBSCRIPTION
address - i.e. the one that receives the list's mail.
Most safelist scripts will send a validation email to your
LIST address, and you will have to follow the instructions provided to
validate your subscription. In order to validate your subscription, then, it
follows that you'll have to login to your dump mail account, turn the filters
off, and wait for the validation email to arrive. Sometimes, alas, they never
do, but normally they arrive within minutes; if they don't arrive within the
time you have available, forget about them and move on to another list. Once
you have received the validation letter and validated your subscription, turn
your dump account's filters on again, and log off. All incoming mail will be
deleted upon arrival.
It's good practice to make time - say 20 minutes a day - to
login to the dump account and watch for messages offering new lists. Quite
often you can obtain Pro subscriptions for nothing, so they're worth watching
for. Just login, turn off the dump mail filters, and join any lists you see
advertised within the time you have available, validate the memberships, turn
the deletion filters back on, and log off.
If you do this religiously every other day, you'll have no
problem at all joining hundreds of lists within a very short time.
Eventually, you'll find it too time-consuming to post to all
of them each day. When that happens, you'll have to automate, and there are
several good products which help you do that. I use, and recommend, the
following two:
