Lists versus Community

Anyone who has been around internet marketing for any length of time has heard the saying, "The money is in your list".  For some businesses this is true - especially affiliate offers or an Amazon or Shopify store.  Or, for information and private label products.  There are more...

Many of these list advocates (you guessed it) market their list-building funnels with an attached affiliate opportunity to push their funnel.  This convenient and ultimately symbiotic function is great for low cost and "free plus shipping" deals, however, they are not necessarily what is needed to build an organization that is built upon a community, support, and interdependence - with a higher ticket, lower volume numbers.

Large lists work for what they are intended to do - and many people make a ton of money with this strategy.  However, many would have you believe that the "be-all-and-end-all" in internet marketing is building a large list.  This is simply not true.

Our model is building a strong community.  On average, replacement incomes can be achieved with groups as small as 40-60 people depending on the income being replaced.  Our model places a higher value on the higher value.  That is to say higher-value relationships, higher-value investment levels, and overall higher "lifetime value" - spread over a much smaller number of people.

This is not to say that many of the same skills used to build a large list are not employed to build a small list.  Mass marketing is mass marketing and the more eyeballs you get your message in front of, the higher potential for your success.  Therefore, I am not discounting sales funnels, but challenging the end result that you are trying to achieve.

We do not see the large list as an asset.  We see the value of people we pluck off of the list and those we work with and help develop - as the asset.

The money-in-the-list advocates have their reasons for saying so... and the skills they teach are fundamental to internet marketing.  However, how we monetize the list is where we diverge in terms of the value and depth we build in the business partners we attract.  As such, if people are on our list, but not active participants in our community, there is a re-marketing opportunity, but essentially are just names until they engage and choose to learn about what we do.