What's better? A big list or small list?

There's an odd little myth that exists in the marketing & copywriting world. It's so subtle & strange that you probably haven't really noticed it. The MYTH is: Smaller lists are better. I'm a relatively small list guy for CopyHour. I've never had a big list with this business, wouldn't know how to use it... hah. And there are marketers out there that will tell you I'm doing it the right way. When I want to make more money, my general thought process is to make helpful products for my existing customers. Other marketers will tell you this is the best way to run a business. They'll say, "Most businesses focus on new customer acquisition when boosting lifetime value of a customer is the real golden ticket." Okay, okay, that's not bad advice for many, many businesses. But I'm here to tell you... it's okay to have a BIG list. It's okay to have some real slacker, never-buy-nothing-jerks on your newsletter. There's a big well-known marketer out there with a Netflix show and his name rhymes with Samit Rethi... who has a story about spending a couple million dollars on Facebook, generating leads, and getting a terrible return. He'll tell you that leads from Facebook are real B.A.D. My response is... why the hell did it take you $2M to figure that out? I've worked with, and have friends, that have big (giant) lists. They don't complain about the size of their list. They know their numbers. For them, 100 leads equals 2-5 customers. And those 2-5 customers typically don't buy much more than that initial transaction. And that's fine. The math makes sense... for them. It's all about the math. Some businesses and industries require new customers to keep going. Big ole lists are welcomed. Some businesses require small lists with focused attention. They require relationship building and finessing. This week we're talking about newsletters and building lists from scratch so the real thing to understand is this: Do NOT get ahead of yourself and determine exactly who should be allowed on your list. "I only have high quality rich buyers on my list!" That's the wrong way to think at first. Why? Because that line of thinking is surest path to procrastination and doing nothing at all. Instead... start doing stuff, getting people onto a list and then do this: - Identify what people have bought in the past as soon as possible. - Identify what people want to buy in the future as soon as possible. Make no mistake, everyone joining a newsletter buys something. If you do either of those 2 things, it doesn't matter how big your list is because you can adjust your monetization strategy to fit. In other words, you can only start doing the math when there are numbers to do math on. Make sense? One of the selling points of starting a newsletter, in my opinion, is that each and every subscriber is valuable. Here's what I mean: You can "monetize" newsletter subscribers in countless ways. Again, even the freebie-est of freebie seekers out there is buying something. Maybe they'll return revenue through ads/sponsorships. In which case you'll want to have a bigger list. Maybe they won't buy a thing and stop opening your emails. You can "sell" those dead leads to other businesses (just make sure your TOS's are in order). Yes, 100% you'd rather start with people who are more likely to buy stuff on your list. But again, you can only do math when there are numbers to do math on. Launch the newsletter. Gather experience & numbers. Get smart and do math later. I'll show you how this all works inside the Weekend Launch Party. [ Launch a profitable newsletter this weekend]( Cheers! - Derek P.S. I've gotten several questions from people who already have started a newsletter list and have some subscribers, wondering how they might better monetize their list. And they're wondering if the Weekend Launch Party can help. My answer is, check out the "30-Second Survey". This survey should help you better identify exactly what people are looking to buy or importantly, NOT buy, based on their past behaviors. That's all in the Weekend Launch Party. And actually, there's a very reasonably priced product (on discount) in the "upsell" after WLP that goes deeper into monetizing tiny lists too. Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( CopyHour.com, 340 S LEMON AVE, 5007, WALNUT, CA 91789