Do safelists really work? Yes, they do. But if they aren't working for you, then I can virtually guarantee what your two problems are. There are really only two reasons why you aren't getting more (or anything at all) from your safelist marketing efforts:
1) You've got a bad email.
2) Your link doesn't go to a capture page.
Like their cousins, Traffic Exchanges, safelists can be very tedious, time-consuming and even completely worthless. But getting consistent results with safelists isn't terribly hard. You just need to know what to do, and then be willing to put in the up-front work before you start marketing. This is where most people will probably stop reading this post, because I said that dreaded word, 'work'. But it is necessary to get your email ad crafted properly, your capture page set up correctly and have a well-sculpted AR series behind it before you ever start advertising! And you know what? It might just take you a week or two in order to get it all set up and ready. Let it take as long as it takes because you'll waste a whole lot more time than that if you don't.
First of all, let's talk about the email itself. The very first thing to remember about safelists is that you are marketing to other marketers! Don't bother trying to get them to join your program through a link to an affiliate page. And whatever you do, don't load up the subject line with hype. If this is the way you are using safelists, it's a big part of the reason why the results you are seeing have been slow or non-existent. Nobody cares about your 'Get rich in 30 days' headline and nobody wants to join your program. They want you to join theirs! There are important exceptions to this, however. People will join your program if - IF - you can show them a plan and a system for using and promoting it as an affiliate. That's what other marketers want. They want tools and systems that work. But explaining your approach to a particular company's program is more than you can (or should) do in a single email. That is why the link in your ad should go to a page with your TrafficWave capture form. In short, what you want to do is take the prospect out of the safelist and place her or him in front of YOUR message on a regular basis, and in an automated way. That's why the autoresponder is so critical to email marketing. It's also why 97% of 'Internet Marketers' fail. They never bother to learn how to use it.
Anyway, getting back to the email itself...
Your message will get opened, read and acted upon far more often if the subject line and text are written correctly. Rule #1: Make it a conversational style. In other words, write the headline and the text as if you were talking to someone at a lunch counter. Speak the words out loud, so that you are writing in the way that you would talk to somebody in person. If you wouldn't say something in a natural way (to a real person sitting beside you), then don't write it!
Secondly, get to the point fast. Tell the reader what you want them to do, what the defined benefit is for doing it and then tell them how you've made it easy for them to do it. If you need some examples, just email me at twoceanswell@hotmail.com and I can help you out. And if you simply can't create a capture page that gives a compelling reason to opt-in, adkreator has a plethora of splendid templates and all of the work has been done for you.
So that's it. Take the TIME to learn about effective email sales copy, create a compelling lead-capture page and back it with a persuasive autoresponder series. Do these three things (and do them well) and I promise that your fortunes will change when it comes to safelist advertising.
