my totally selfish case for selling classified ads in your emails

It’s too bad more marketers who do email my way don't test selling classified ads in their daily emails. I've now done it three times so far. The first time was back in 2020 where I sold five $500 spots in a daily email and made $2,500 for the bargain based price of writing and sending an email. Ooh. The next time was in 2023 when I ramped up the price 5-10x (depending on if it was an Email Players subscriber or not) and sold 3 spots - two of them at $2500 and one of them at $5000. And most recently (earlier this year) I sold them again and all the spots sold out in just a few hours. Some benefits I experienced selling these classified ads: * it was all "found" money since I do not have to produce anything other than copy & paste their copy into an upcoming email * Money was only accepted by wire transfer these last two times, so no dealing with merchant account fees or nervous nellies who sometimes flag big numbers and create unnecessary drama * The customers love it - especially the returning ones who had a lot of success that last time, this most recent time the first spot was sold a week before I even announced it.. * Since I heavily curate who I allow to buy one of the spots I know my list will get a lot of benefit out of the free stuff these customers will be giving (it was especially insane this last time, lots of synergy between the advertisers’ offers) to my list who respond to their ads * Because I don't offer it very often, and because of how ridiculously successful advertising to my list has been for most of those who have bought classified ad space from me before, it just makes my list more of a “novelty” I can charge even more for in future such offers should I do it again Something else: I have often thought the perfect email-driven business would simply be a big, quality list that talks to a passionate market about something each day, and just sells paid ads. People who hate selling or who suck at it (most) don't even have to pitch anything. They can just teach and write about their passion and let the advertisers do all the pitching with a little blurb at the bottom saying if interested in advertising in the emails to contact you. There is obviously nothing new about this. The “email newsletter” guys think they invented it. But it was a thing back in the 90’s. And I’m hoping it goes back to being more of a thing. Take my pal Robert Bruce, for example. He used to be one of the editors over at CopyBlogger. He's also the guy (so he gets at least partial credit or blame..) who persuaded me to start writing my twisted Enoch Wars horror novels way back in 2013. And a few years ago he was telling me about a print newsletter in his area sent free to local fisherman who subscribe to it. A very rabid market. And while he sent the newsletter free, he was selling twenty $500.00 ad spots in each issue and had a waiting list stretched many months out. I don't know how many issues he mails or if he’s raised his prices. (I suspect he has, with inflation, postage rates, etc) So I do not know his hard costs or net profit. But that was $10,000 per month, already collected, before doing anything else each month, or writing even a single word of his newsletter. A fat $10k he could count on no matter what, in the bank. And assuming he monetizes the newsletter in other ways (he'd be foolish if he doesn't), that is one helluva business model. Not a “new” business model. But it might as well be considering how few smaller operations do it. One last thought on this: Recently I was talking to Stefania about homeschooling Willis. And she was saying how there is a local homeschooling Facebook group. But apparently the person who runs it is bat shyt crazy (so goes the local gossip, if it is true then probably means I'd dig her)… and is not very active on there anyway. And since Stefania had had this itch to just start her own for a while I said at this point she has to do her own anyway. i.e., she has to be her own "gatekeeper." Not just in that, but with everything. And, I would say, this especially applies to advertising. Having your own email list means you make the rules. It also means you sell whatever the hell you want because you are your own gatekeeper - and there is nothing any of the big tech platforms that everyone likes to advertise on can do about it. Enter BerserkerMail: In my totally biased opinion… it is perfect for this kind of business model of running pure content and monetizing via classified ads. If you are using our platform and don't know what to sell, make an offer to run classified ads and see what happens. You obviously have to work out the logistics on your own (do not ask me, my list is not your list and vice versa, two totally different animals — I simply tried it and made mistakes, learned.. that is how grownups figure things out, not with an endless series of pedantic questions) and there is no checklist on how to do it I would recommend. You have to be realistic about how valuable your list is too. You also have to think not like a writer, but a publisher. Totally different psychology. All right I've probably just said more than I know. I also suspect some of the over thinkers will now want to know how much to charge, how big their list should be before attempting to sell classified ads, what niche to do it in, and a bunch of other things nobody can tell them (I certainly can’t), that they have to figure out that is simply part of the process of being a grownup and a business owner. It’s also part of being a publisher vs a mere writer. Something you can do by, you know, becoming a publisher. And, yes, having your own email list makes you a publisher. To get a free BerserkerMail test drive go to this link: [( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA