Question Regarding Selling To Your List

[Domain Name Guy]

Most of you know this by heart: the money's in the list!

However, an ethical dilemma has struck me. Maybe it shouldn't be, but
I thought I'd bring this up and ask for your input.

My upcoming ebook will deal with a technical matter which has a huge
market. But I will target the newbies and current consumers who aren't
aren't aware of the problems involved with it.

It's been said that after you gather a list, be it from those who have
subscribed to your autoresponder courses or bought your product, you
can send them offers for other products, especially one that complement
yours. If you're selling an ebook about 'net marketing, you send offers
that complement it like sales letter software to create your online sales
letters or get your site in Yahoo or Google via RSS.

But what if you want to sell them something that's NOT really part of
your field because you like it and believe in it so much you'll WANT to
sell it to your list?

Going back to my case, let's say I finally have a list, especially those who
bought my tech-related ebook. "Ethically" speaking, I can send them
offers for those that complement my ebook such as a service that'll
show them how to maximize their usage of that tech item or monitor it
for potential problems.

Then I encounter a 'net marketing product like a salesletter making
software or a 3rd party RSS autoresponder service. I used either 1 and
enjoy it so much I'll want to tell my list about it.

But note that those 2 items I mentioned above are for improving their
'net marketing, not for the tech item I referred to at the start. I
figured that if I sold my list either one, some or even many might be
turned off by this and start opting-out.

Which I don't want to happen, or at least keep it to a minimum.

Of course, I won't keep on sending my list offers for other things. In
this day and age, it pays to maintain relationships with your lists of
customers by either sending them something free and useful, or even
just saying "Hi! How are you?", you get the drift.

On the other hand, I don't want to possibly turn off my list by sending
them commercial offers for those that don't exactly relate to what they
initially signed up for or bought from me (my ebook). Well, I'm sure
some WILL get turned off anyway, but again, I want to keep it to a
minimum if it can be helped.

So where can one reasonably draw the line as to what unrelated item
you can sell to your list that, while it may turn off some people, some
might even bite and take up your offer? In the process, you make some
money, of course.

I'm not concerned about trying to please everyone (I just HAD to learn
that the hard way!). But I also don't want many people opting out of my
list just because I sent them an offer for something that's not related
to my topic, even though I sincerely believe it's something that can help
them (and me in terms of making more money) as well.

Just something I want to take into consideration before finally launching
my ebook. Or am I just wasting my time thinking about this?

[Lynn Terry]

[ElevatingYourBusiness]

[karynsolo]

[Home_Based_Mom]

From what I read in another forum posted by someone who knows these thing very well, it depends on what the terms were when people signed up to be on your list.

If, when they signed up, you told them that you might from time to time be sending them other offers and that by signing up they agreed to receive those offers, then you're OK. Don't over-do it or they will unsubscribe, but legally you are OK.

If, however, they just signed up to receive your newsletter or bought something else from you and that was it, then that's different. That's all they signed up for.

If you have built a relationship of trust with them over time, such as through a newsletter, then the chances of someone complaining of spam because of an occasional additional offer are pretty remote. If all they did was buy something and now you keep after them to buy more somethings, they could easily get tired of it and complain. If you can't prove that they agreed to receive more offers, you could be in hot water.

The key is what did they agree to receive when they gave you their name and address.

If you have a newsletter, include the offer in the newsletter. That way you would be safe.

Sandi

[americandream]