Targeted Mailing List, tons of good buyers... What to sell after ban?

[Beer_Money]

Whassup guys...

I recognize a lot of you from spending years and 1000's of comments from 2007 to 2103 on Wickedfire. Learned a lot, laughed a lot, fought a lot, befriended a lot.

Checked back there years later, didn't recognize anybody. Knew you all had to be in a better place. I was right.

And it seems a lot of us matured quite a bit, although I'm still wary of clicking on random links. Haa...

Anway, I'm still a full-time entrepreneur, but I just lost a couple thousand in monthly income from a former partnership I was using to earn from one of my mailing list (18,000+ newsletter subscribers).

I'm looking for serious suggestions of an optimal manner of monetizing a list of primarily African-American women who buy hair products like crazy, but don't trust unknown names or generic companies who don't have products aimed towards kinky hair.

I was actually thinking about trying to dropship or private label products, but hair products from drop shippers are far too generic and would NOT have success with my list, I KNOW THIS. The lack of big brand name buying security from someone like Amazon, along with drop shipper hair products with ingredients that they shun is a recipe for disaster and even losing the confidence of my list.

They are accustomed to getting hair care tips, product reviews, etc. I rarely sway from that, and never far when I do.

Private labeling my own products doesn't seem feasible after all the shipping costs, product formulation fees, fulfillment fees because I need to be hands-off (I moved out of the U.S. a while back), etc.

Amazon is not an option for various reasons.

If anyone has ideas of how to start effectively monetizing such a list, please shoot...

I'm scrambling right now, we went from send almost daily mails to barely sending 4 a month now. List is still growing through organic SEO and huge social media traffic though.

Again, any serious reply is appreciated.

- Beer Money

 

[Ryuzaki]

So are there existing companies that these users do know and trust? If so, I'd reach out to them and offer them one of two things:

1. You becoming one of their top affiliates
2. Advertising-based email blasts

The second option would be easy for you to do and you could probably charge a decent amount of money if you have some metrics on the list to backup your claims.

Have you looked in the bigger affiliate dashboards like CJ.com and Shareasale to see if any of these companies have existing affiliate programs you could join immediately?

Alternatively, depending on the health of the list and how warm you've kept it, you could sell blasts to other websites in the niches too.

 

[nanexo]

Find a new partner that replaces what the old partner brought to the table, What exactly did he bring to the table that you cant easily replace?

 

[Beer_Money]

So are there existing companies that these users do know and trust? If so, I'd reach out to them and offer them one of two things:

1. You becoming one of their top affiliates
2. Advertising-based email blasts

The second option would be easy for you to do and you could probably charge a decent amount of money if you have some metrics on the list to backup your claims.

Have you looked in the bigger affiliate dashboards like CJ.com and Shareasale to see if any of these companies have existing affiliate programs you could join immediately?

Alternatively, depending on the health of the list and how warm you've kept it, you could sell blasts to other websites in the niches too.

Thanks Ryuzaki and Nanexo,

Nanexo, the other company gave me a cut on sales of hair products with name brand value and a variety of them, so it was just an easier sell. And consistent.

After seeing the rate of repeat sales on women's hair products I started contacting some small companies who make handmade hair products yet have great reviews from the small share of the market that they have etched out for themselves.

These companies are pretty impressive, my wife is actually using some sample products today that I was sent.

I'm trying to build a relationship with them and I am, But still don't have a clear partnership answer figured out, I'd prefer private labeling their products under my own brand name, so I'm looking into the logistics of it all.

I thought I had a dropshipping deal with one business for a minute, but later that day she contacted me and said her partner (probably her husband) said that dropshipping for me would take too much focus off of fulfilling their orders.

So that died a quick death. That would have netted me about $9 per bottle on a great product with a truly unique selling position.

I'm still going to try and woo them, by giving them a free email blast and let them see how much they can sell if I have a reason to push their product, then I'll try to restart a convo about them dropshipping for me. That leads me to your question Ryuzaki...

Yes, I've taken to selling email blasts to small businesses who make shampoos and conditioners, I find them on Instagram and message them, as well as advertise my promo services directly through IG posts.

The IG following is at 71K+ and many small brands follow our account, so I get a good amount of inquiries coming in and I have a tuned-in high-converting "info-pack" that I send out to every inquirer.

I'm selling email blasts to approved partners for $75 a pop. It makes a few hundred a month, but my concern is those days in between I'm not motivated to write (acting as if I were a woman) and give hair advice if it's not gonna make money.

So I need something to sale.

Yes, I'm approved for various products through CJ, shareasale and the like, but those offers don't convert as highly. I'm assuming the ladies, read the email, decide to buy and head over to Amazon to get it. That doesn't help me unless they are going through the Amazon links on my blog, which many do, but not all.

In this market, they will buy directly from you if you hair product is unique (handmade/boutique) and not available on Amazon for equal price or cheaper on Amazon.

In fact, many of these handmade product manufacturers are charging FAR more than the normal brands on Amazon ($30 per bottle vs $9-$19 per bottle of big brand products) and making sales left and right.

I see women in the reviews all the time saying stuff like: "My only complaint is the price is a little steep, but it works and I'll be buying again."

I looked into buying wholesale from one of the small handmade hair product companies and selling it with FBA Amazon, but after calculating all the different fees, shipping from manufacturer to someone who will re-label and pack appropriately to be accepted for stocking at Amazon, then all of the FBA fees after that it just isn't feasible.

But I'm gonna figure something out. That's for sure.

I'm sure you all can relate to those issues that wake you up in the middle of the night with ideas (or frustrations). That's where I'm at, just waiting for the right idea to hit.

Thank for taking the time with suggestions.

 

[ApeRunner]

@Beer_Money I think a good idea is to "rediscover" the identity of your list.

You could use a survey tool like Feedier or Google Forms to blast a survey to your list and get an insight that can help you find out how to monetize it.