What you do sounds admirable pretty much, but we both know it’s not the norm. And, as you said, you at least have a product every once in awhile; that doesn’t happen with a lot of these guys either. Plus, as you also said previously, this is kind of your full time job now, whereas it’s not mine. I’ve ruled it out for now, but if I ever get to the point where it makes sense because I have a legit product to market, then I may invest in it at that point. But right now, it’s just illogical for me, or at least it seems to be. And, as you can see from some of the comments, I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

I gotta say, nothing pushes you harder to gain that “steadiness” we all look for as far as income is concerned.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Time Has Come. The Deal Is Done. It’s Time To Move!! =-.

Personally I have never bought from an email, but I have bought from offers that I’ve read in a post.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Viddler And Why Some People Prefer To Use Them =-.

1/ A means to pump out sales pitches. Or
2/ A means to pump out a list of your posts.

I see it as neither. I see it as a way to add some real additional value to those readers who subscribe.

They get a weekly newsletter from me, which talks about what I’m doing and thinking, much more personally than I do on the blog. They’re invited to reply, and boy, do they!

I also send them stuff I come across that I find on the web. For example I managed to get a couple of good business books that were PLR, so I sent them out to my subscribers as a freebie.

I like to think that people really enjoy what they get from me, and the feedback and the fact the they don’t un subscribe suggests that’s true.

So what’s the benefit for me? Well here it comes. When I launch a product (and bear in mind I’ve only ever had three, so it’s not a frequent thing) I offer it to that list first.

At my most recent launch, more than 10% of the people on that list bought the product. Now I don’t know how you do with the affiliate products on your posts Mitch, but I would suggest the conversion rate is somewhat less than 1%, which is typical as a conversion from web readers.

That’s why any blogger who wants to make money online needs a subscriber list, and why they should invest time and energy in giving value to that list.

Which makes more business sense to sell 100 books?

1/ Writing a 15 minute email to my subscribers saying “Here’s my new book, I think you’ll like it.”

2/ Or desperately scratching around for weeks to drive 10,000 cold, un-engaged people to a sales page for it?
.-= Mike CJ´s last blog ..Why I unsubscribed from your blog =-.