Safelists - Pure Madness or NOT?

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

If you're anything like me you have been or are still trying to figure out the best ways to reach people on the Internet with your offers. I just wanted to clue you in to what I have learned from my experiences with safelists, also known as optin lists. You have probably seen or read other articles on this subject before already, but maybe my insight might strike a little bit of a different or higher note in your head. I'm also going to include a little bit on the safelist submitters too as they are a major player in the safelist game.

The safelist is a great concept and one that catches everyone?s eye when they first start a program or business on the Net. And why not? We are all looking for an inexpensive way to get our offers out in front of some eyeballs. They actually were pretty decent when they first came about. Ok, so what's the real deal?

The lists you join usually ask for two different email addresses. One is called the contact e-mail address, which is where administration can e-mail you. The second address is known as the list address which is where the mail from other members for their ads will be sent to you as a list member. With your contact address, the administrator will send you updates along with one other little tactic that I'm sure you know about if you have tried safelists already, contact solo ads.

For the most part, the list email addresses that people use are ones that are set up in one of 2 ways. The first being a free account where the list mail is delivered to and most mail from time to time without reading anything. Sometimes people set up filters that direct the incoming list mail right into the trash folder. In other words, your mail isn't doing much good, ;0(

Wonderful huh?

The other is what they call a potty e-mail account that automatically dumps all the mail at set intervals which again means, no eyeballs looking at your ad. The funny thing is that most of the potty accounts are offered by the safelist administrators themselves. Now, what does that tell you? Pretty simple answer, they don't care if your basic list messages you send
are read or not. They want to sell you solo ads which makes them money and there's actually nothing wrong with that I guess, if you don't mind donating your money. Even contact address email can and many do get dumped. It's definitely better than having your message delivered to the members list addresses though.

Read on, there's more......

The other popular safelist scripts are based on credits. You usually get a few credits for signing up which is to lure you into the list. Then you earn credits for reading other list members emails. Sounds like a winner, right? Hold on a second now. Lets take a closer look at this type of list and what is actually taking place.

First off, for the most part you have to read a TON of email to earn enough credits to send a message. You might read them for a little while but, believe me, it WILL get old fast! Oh but wait. You can purchase extra credits to send more mail if you like. Yup, another way to make money for the list administrator. Hmmm...again, there is nothing really wrong with that but, if your messages are simply going to the list addresses, then odds are they are just getting dumped and NOT read. Even though you now spent money for credits to send a mail with, what did you really accomplish?

Oh there's more, don't stop reading yet..........

Most lists offer free memberships which allows a member to mail the list like every 3, 5 or 7 days depending on the lists setup. Some of them only allow free members to send to a specific number of members per mailing. Of course the lists even have a few paid upgrade options and depending on which level you choose corresponds to how many credits you will receive every month to mail with. Generally it's one credit equals one mail sent to one list member. Great idea, but again are your messages doing any good? I don't think so. Who's making the money here? You tell me.

But wait, there are a few credit based lists that offer a unique feature that is pretty nice. It's the ability to actually use credits for placing a solo ad to the members contact address. This means that even as a free member you can use this feature, at least in some lists. Now the nice thing about this is that once a person receives the e-mail and open it, there is a timer that runs and you have to stay on the site until it finishes in order to receive the credits. But, you usually get a nice reward for your time and you catch some interesting sites too that just may be of interest to you. I know I have from time to time. The cost in credits for a free
member to send one of these is pretty hefty, but I think it's definitely worth it for what you receive in return for you time. At least it's a solo ad that has the best odds of getting opened plus it doesn't cost anything out of pocket. If you would like to get a look at one of these types of safelists, you can even get a free account to try it out if you like, jump here:

http://tinyurl.com/s3k36

Now here's the real kicker......

You can sign up with a submitter and have your ad sent to 100's or 1000's of safelists with a few simple clicks of your mouse. This means you can reach all kinds of people, right? Figure it out. Hundreds or even thousands on each list times 100's or 1000?s of lists equals 100,000 or more. Yes you can, but once again think about where are your messages are
ending up, ( in the trash). What really irritates me is when a list owner offers a submitter, for a monthly fee. Many of them offer potty e-mail accounts too. Isn't that a double edged sword? Basically you are paying for your submitter monthly to send your messages to supposedly reach 1000's upon 1000's of eyes, but they are actually going to the potty accounts that members also pay for monthly, so who is reading any mail?

Nobody, it's a catch 22.

That falls right in the lines of what politicians and magicians use, the old smoke and mirrors routine to cover up the truth and what's actually happening. Wouldn't you agree?

Hmmmm..so is there an answer?

Well, hold on a second now. There is a newer type list that has just recently come about known as a viral safelist. So what is so different about this over any other lists? Good question, here's your answer. With this type of list you can sign up free or of course purchase and upgraded account. When you sign up members, they go into the system under you and any members these people sign up go under you too. This is your personal
list. Here's where the difference lies. Instead of just having your members and the members that they sign up under you, once a week they do what is called shuffling of the list. What does that mean? Simply that it randomly shuffles all the list members and even if you did or didn't have any members join under you yet, you could end up with a sizable downline to
mail to that week. It's a pretty interesting concept. You never lose your members no matter what. If you would like to see one of these lists which you can also try out free, take a look here:

http://tinyurl.com/l8bqq

You know, I guess it's better than nothing if you can get even one set of eyeballs out of 1000 safelist members you send to reading your mail. It's better than NO eyeballs at all. Go ahead and use the free ones. But, watch out for paying services as for the most part, they make someone else money, NOT you or I. Are you really getting a good value for your dollar?

So, are safelists Pure Madness or NOT?

Probably not madness in the eyes of a safelist administrator. But, how do you feel now? Hey, do you want to join my safelist FREE? LOL. Just kidding, I don't have one.