List Lending
List lending, is not actually the ‘lending of lists’ to others. But rather, it is when one marketer agrees to offer another marketer’s products and wares, to their list. This enables the marketer, who may be lacking a list of their own, the opportunity for their product to be viewed (offered) to potentially [tens of] thousands of subscribers of another marketer.
Unlike JVs (Joint Ventures) where you must offer a f.ree product, with the hope of optins purchasing an upsell product; list lending is a type of testimonial advertisement - to a targeted group of trusting, potential buyers - by the list owner. You do not have direct access to this list, nor does the list owner divulge any personal [or any other] information to you. The list owner only ‘presents’ your offer to their optin list. This is almost always done for some type of compensation or return benefit. (In some pre-launch projects, there will be a major ripple effect using something similar to this, but that’s another topic we will cover later)
Do not confuse this with affiliate marketing either. Affiliate marketing is where one marketer promotes another marketer’s product for a percentage of the sales price. This is done via a unique affiliate link for tracking purposes. Affiliate marketers have many different ways they promote products, while the product owner controls the conditions, sales copy and so forth. And while an affiliate marketer might have a list [maybe several lists] to promote the product, the affiliate is still bound by the terms of the product owner.
List lending, is more like a ‘temporary’ partnership relationship most of the time. Each party can have control over the details of the ‘lending’ agreement - how’s, when’s, why’s, dollar amounts, or any other number of dynamics that come into play. [I experimented awhile back, to take this a step further, to see if an idea I had to put a spin on this - would actually work. Obviously, someone thought it was a great idea and had the funds necessary to bring it to fruition. While the marketer who sent me the 'special friends only' offer to purchase this "NEW Amazing" program. They put their own spin on it.
While technically, one can say "List Lending" doesn't exist and still be telling the truth, the real truth is in the wordplay. Let me hypothesize a moment, to explain this method with more detail, then you can decide for yourself:
Marketer One Hypothesis:
- Has created a great script that reduces the amount of time involved in 'Search Engine Submission' and tracks crucial details [keywords, split testing, etc]. Marketer has set the price to be extremely reasonable.
- Has no list [to speak] of his/her own, but has loyal followers
- Has a great website, with a superior sales pitch, but lacks an opt-in feature
- Posts to forums on a regular basis
- Writes articles and submits to article publishing sites
- Has moderate budget to advertise product, purchased leads and targeted traffic
Marketer Two Hypothesis:
- Has created a ’so-so’ script that reduces the amount of time involved in ‘Search Engine Submission’ and offers no tracking capabilities or other features. Marketer has set the price to be reflective of the average price for this type product (maybe slightly higher).
- Has no list of his/her own
- Has no website, only a sales page
- Rarely posts to forums
- Has never written an article
- Has no budget to advertise
- Knows somebody ‘who’ knows somebody with a “List”
What made the difference between these two hypotheses? The List. Or should I say the lending of the list. While marketer one clearly offers more for less, marketer one does not have the support of another marketer with a list, that is willing to offer his/her product to ‘trusting’ customers.
On the other hand, marketer two has access to another marketer’s list, who has trusting and loyal subscribers. The marketer with the list, can provide ‘testimony’ of this product to his/her list; and potentially explode product sales - thus, the lending of his/her list: List Lending.
So, how does someone go about building their own list? [coming soon]
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