Safelists, good or bad? Do you use them to good effect?
A safelist, for those who are blissfully unaware, is like a social marketing group where you agree to accept mails from other members perhaps twice a day and also perhaps mail them twice a day. The purpose is to be able to send your marketing mails without the danger of being reported as spam. That's why they are called "Safe" Lists.
Members receive mails and get credits for viewing the links and can then use these credits to send their own mails.
Normally you can upgrade with a small one off payment which will provide you with monthly credits too.
The difficulty with safelists is that everyone on them is selling stuff and generally not interested in buying or opting in unless it's either cheap or brand new (pre-launch preferred).
I've been using safelists for a while and find them not very effective for direct selling (unless it's a $2 product) but more effective for the following purposes.
Adsense income. I have a video portal where I host videos from youtube using purpose built software and direct safelist users to pages where I have say marketing videos or even just funny videos. When they get there, the hope is they click on the adsense ads. So far? Quite lucrative!
List Building. I set up various sites offering a free ebook for signing up to one of my lists. This has moderate success.
Downline building. Again moderate success but free sites such as Qassia, other Safelists and List Builders are reasonably successful.
All in all, if you only send a freebie you'll get a decent response.
The biggest difficulty, like all email marketing, is getting your mail opened.
Catchy headers are a complete necessity. People know that "Notification of payment received" does not mean that, it means they are getting sold something and won't open. You need something that gets the attention. Make your headers stand out!
Personally, I like to put my name in the header to try let any previous successes who have signed up to something before and trust me. This hopefully will get the mail opened. For instance, "Another freebie from Al" or similar. That also helps build up a relationship with readers which is difficult to do in a "Hard Sell" environment like a Safelist.
So, are Safelists good or bad?
Depends upon your expectations and the purpose you use them for. You won't make your fortune online overnight with them but, with perseverance, you just might get the active referrals you crave as, ultimately, the members Do Want to Make money.
