Let’s Revive a Dead Email List…a New Project Begins!

About a week ago, I posted in the Niche Pursuits private Facebook group and asked for new case study ideas.

I felt like I've done building a niche site from scratch to death (4 times over 10 years), and so I really wanted something new.  I got a ton of great ideas ranging from dropshipping, paid traffic strategies, flipping websites, and many others.

However, as I looked at my businesses, I realized that there was already a project that I've been meaning to get to, that I've been neglecting for quite some time.  And so, I've decided to document my project that I should have been focusing on anyway.

That project?  Reviving and monetizing a “dead” email list that hasn't been emailed in about a year.

Watch this video for the entire description and introduction to this project:

Where Do We Start?

Currently, I have an email list of exactly 21,924 subscribers in the deals/”mom” space.  I currently make exactly $0/month from this email list.

I haven't emailed this list in about a year.

So, while I'm starting with nearly 22,000 subscribers, I'm starting with no revenue and no idea if anyone will even open our emails after such a long time.

The email list is dead.

The Goal

I hope to start making $1k to $2k a month by the end of the 90 days.  With an email list the size of 22k, I would usually think I could make more.

However, I know the subscribers likely won't be opening at a high rate and I also know the value in the “deals” space isn't very high per subscriber.  If I end up making more than $2k/month I would be ecstatic.

But who knows, maybe I'll really find something that works well and I'm able to grow the email list significantly.

While I don't have a specific goal for how big I'd like to grow the email list during this project, that is a secondary goal.  I plan to try a few things to grow the email list and will certainly share those strategies along the way. 

The Plan

The plan is not complicated, but often success is in the details and consistency.  

I plan to email the list once a day, Monday through Friday.  I've been following another “deals” email list and they email daily and sometimes twice a day.  I'm not going to share what email list I follow but there are plenty of “deals” or “freebie” email lists you can sign up for to see what strategies they are utilizing.

I will be emailing discounts, deals, or other special offers in the space.

My 2 current ideas for sourcing deals are:

1. ShopHerMedia.com.  I'm already an affiliate there and they are daily putting out new coupons and deals.  No need to re-invent the wheel if they are already sourcing great deals for me.
2. Amazon Gold Box Deals.  This would require me to create a landing page in wordpress with a few goldbox deals on my site every time I emailed my list about a goldbox deal.  Then they hit my website where I can then have my Amazon affiliate link.  (You can have your own Amazon affiliate link in an email).

However, I fully expect that as the project goes on, I will find different affiliate networks or source of deals that I can be emailing the list about.  

Outsourcing

In full disclosure, I don't plan on writing all the email myself.  While it's not that complicated and not terribly time consuming, I plan to outsource the email writing and deal sourcing.  I will just provide the strategy, direction, and ongoing tweaks.

I already have a writer for this website, and she has accepted the responsibility to write the daily emails, which take less than 30 minutes per day to write.

I created a tutorial video showing her how to source the deals on ShopHerMedia and how to write the emails.  I also subscribed her to the “competitor” email list so we can see what kinds of deals they produce and how they write their emails.

We won't copy, but we will see what strategies are working well and see if we can implement those in our own email list.

Ongoing Updates

I plan to provide weekly updates on the project until the 90 days are up.  Some of the updates will be formal blog posts like this one.  Other weekly updates may just be a quick video or a Facebook post in the Niche Pursuits Private Facebook Group.  So, if you want to be sure to see all of the udates, but sure to join the Facebook Group here.

I look forward to sharing my project results along the way including earnings, email growth and open rates, and strategies I learn along the way.