The Unsavory Truth About Co-Registration Email Databases

When Internet marketing "gurus" a few years ago boasted of having subscriber lists in the hundreds of thousands, I listened intently. So far, I have been unable to expand my lists above the 60K mark (after many years of consistently working at it).

My research led me to discover that some of these companies routinely bought lists of new subscribers in increments of tens of thousands. The thought of being wealthy filled my thoughts as I calculated the worth of my mailing list by factoring in the average annual amount each member spent with me.

Then, a tiny thought popped into my mind, asking, "Isn't this dangerous?" Surely someone would file a spam complaint against me. How do I go about purchasing email addresses to add to my list? Is this within the law? I couldn't understand why more people weren't aware of this or participating in it.

That is why I decided to look into it further.

Among the first things I learned was that many well-known marketers have found success with co-registration leads.

The more I looked into it, the more I realized that the quality and origin of these leads varied widely.

A service that encourages people to sign up EXCLUSIVELY for your list is, in my opinion, the best way to generate co-registration lists. Some services let you provide a description of your list, which then appears on an opt-in form on heavily visited websites. Site visitors will see the information about your list and may subscribe if they like what they see. This, in my opinion, is the most effective strategy because people are opting in to YOUR list voluntarily.

Lead Factory is the service I've used the most to get the aforementioned type of subscriber. Their offerings and descriptions can be found here:

http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?subs

You can buy leads for people who have expressed interest in learning more about the products you sell in addition to people who have already subscribed to YOUR list.Forms urging visitors to request more information on business possibilities or other lucrative topics are a common way for organizations to collect these leads. People fill out the form, and their information is added to lists that are then sold to businesses or organizations that are eager to gain new leads or subscribers. This is where the situation may become complicated.

When it comes to selling personal information, the first point of confusion is that certain websites don't make it clear to these folks. They do say this occasionally, but not always clearly. They then sell these compiled lists to businesses that are looking for leads with a certain interest. People on such lists may become upset if they are suddenly inundated with unsolicited emails offering various forms of "assistance," especially if this fact was not made abundantly known prior to their purchase.

One major cause of the aforementioned issue is the fact that certain opt-in lead providers actually use deceptive practices to get customers to "consent" to receiving promotional materials. A remark like "business partners will also send them special offers" is a good example of the obfuscation that can be used. If you email them, they may get angry because they may feel invaded.

Some services explicitly state that you will be contacted by individuals offering various forms of financial gain, including but not limited to internet businesses.The best list-making services tailor their creations to each individual client and rarely resell their databases. Nitro is one company I've used like this in the past. When a consumer places an order, these men tailor a list to their needs. They provide two options: a single customer can purchase an exclusive list for their own use, or for a lower price, the same customer can obtain a custom-built list that is shared with up to three other marketers. If you're interested, go to http://therealsecrets.com/co-reg/.

Please take notice that I singled out the Nitro folks since I know them personally and have grilled them on their company strategies and lead generation methods. To my knowledge, they run an extremely honest and trustworthy enterprise. I haven't been able to make that claim for any of the dozen or so businesses I've looked into.

The risk of receiving spam complaints is a major concern when employing co-reg leads from people who did not voluntarily sign up for your list. If a subscriber finds your email to be unwanted, you have spammed them. This is more likely to occur if a number of conditions come together, but the possibility of this happening can be mitigated or even eliminated by taking certain measures.

The list's age is a contributor to the likelihood of complaints. You should expect that if you buy an old list, dozens of other individuals have already done the same thing and emailed the people on it. These people have simply grown weary of being repeatedly told they may expect "assistance." If you have a list that is only a few days or weeks old, you will be less likely to experience this issue.

Someone who takes the time to fill out a form on your website indicates a genuine interest in learning more. They would only fill out the form if they were fooled into doing so, as described above, or if they were incentivized to do so in exchange for a reward.

The best way to approach someone is to introduce yourself and let them warm up to you BEFORE you try to sell them anything, assuming they are genuinely interested in learning more about a particular issue.You must introduce yourself, provide proof that you are who you say you are, and show that you have their best interests at heart via a series of emails. This is a labor-intensive process. This requires a great deal of skill. For a long time, I've been reading and learning about warming CO2 pipes like the one that leads to you. The study titled "Co-Reg Secrets" is, hands down, the best one I've ever read on the subject. The link is: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=69919.

In the first few emails I send to someone utilizing a co-registration lead, I explain why I'm contacting them, where I found their information, and how they can unsubscribe easily. This strategy has been really effective for me; however, I rarely employ co-reg leads because my lists have grown so large. People that check out your site and sign up for your mailing list are, without a doubt, the most responsive of all your site visitors.

I pointed out one potential risk associated with not sticking to the FRESH lists exclusively. This is important since many list buyers resell their purchases to cover their initial investment. This makes a modicum of sense. Many of these leads probably don't view the vast majority of the emails sent to them, owing to filters and other reasons. Moreover, what you have to offer might not be the perfect fit for them.

Infinite list resales are a major problem!A "buyer A" sells a list to 5 other persons, of whom 2 sell it to 6 others and 3 sell it to 4 others. Those that "opted in" are probably getting very fed up with the constant stream of SPAM that is flooding their inboxes. Next, you purchase one of these lists, add the email addresses to your autoresponder, and within 20 minutes, your ISP is inundated with 20 complaints from angry customers. To top it all off, you receive a hundred emails with "choice" statements about your ethnicity and odd suggestions on how you can harm yourself.

Your web server or mailing list host has terminated your service for the safety of their other clients. Unfortunately, today is not a good day.

Using co-reg leads effectively, with a high-quality list or one generated specifically for you (with the opt-in actually subscribing to YOUR list), can be an excellent way to quickly expand an existing mailing list.When executed poorly or when faced with bad luck, it can lead to catastrophic results. One "big name" Internet marketer who used a co-reg list even got a death threat.

Before you start using co-reg leads, make sure to read the terms of service for your web host and list host.The use of co-reg leads to send email from their servers or advertise domains hosted with them is prohibited by many. They're not willing to take any chances with the potential side effects. It is not possible to bulk import co-registration leads into many autoresponder systems, including the one I run at ProfitAutomation.com.

Of course, there are other autoresponder providers that recognize the value of co-registration leads and treat them as such. If you're interested, I can provide references to a few.

This article's sole intent is to inform. This is not a request for guidance. This is only to highlight a regular occurrence and certain factors that you should take into account. The piece also aims to start a conversation. Please join me at my Internet marketing forum, http://WillieCrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi, to talk more about this.