I Hated Spam Email... Until Today

[Hunter S Robbins]

Today my whole outlook toward spam email changed. I flip flopped from hate to intrigue.

Hey, now, don't get me wrong. I've not jumped into the world of email spammers. I don't even do email marketing. But everyone who has been around IM for awhile cannot count the times someone has said how email marketing is the best performing.

Today, as I was scanning my junk mail folder for keeper mail that accidentally ended up there, a spam email headline for a product I've been researching grabbed my attention.

Bingo. Cha Ching! The lights went off in a flash of insight.

I said to myself,

"if spamming is the #1 money maker in the IM world, and hardly anyone is ever bothered to read spam, it must be true that the people who write these emails are super good at writing copy and choosing hot, new high converting offers."

Okay. You're right... it doesn't have to be true, but it is a testable hypotheses. It presents a great way to reverse engineer winning campaigns.

You can analyze the headlines and email text to discover winning angles, keywords, and definitely products.

I'd bet spammers burn through products in a hurry, so they are always promoting the newest hottest converting offers. You can click through (using a VPN) to discover the exact offer. Then, open a search engine and search product name +affiliate. Gather all the stats on the offer to determine if it meets your criteria for testing.

Next, use the headlines and body text to create PPC ads, or mix those words with images for pre-sell pages, landing pages, native ads, or banners, or recycle for your social media properties.

Just some notes on something I'm going to look more closely into over the next couple of weeks. More of a sketch than a blueprint.

Feel free to add in your thoughts about how to develop or systematize these suggestions.

 

[PurePay]

Hello @Hunter S Robbins. From someone who has been this for some time, in many different ways i can say that i first of all hate the term 'spammer' since it is a label that should only be on those who do promotional/fake offers illegally, and i have and always will have my opt-in in place.

Second of all. I wouldn't say that we swap from one hot offer to another hot offers that easy, because a good EPC (Your earning per click) can be misleading since not only e-mail marketeers runs offers with just about all networks. And i always liked testing on my users, but mainly always stuck (I think that's the right pronouciation)(Also not sure about that one) to the offers i knew would work on my DB's. It all varies from marketeer to marketeer but these are my experiences.

In order to do Social media and others most texts that works for e-mail marketing also works for other branchen of the business. So it would be a good way to test without making your own texts, but it all depends on whom you take the texts from. Some are really bad at selling, and i am surprised they make any money

 

[Hunter S Robbins]

i can say that i first of all hate the term 'spammer'

I wasn't intending to call anyone names, just using a popular term to identify a type of email that everyone would instantly recognize. It is possible to hate the term "spammer," while not being overjoyed at having one's inbox filled up with unsolicited email. My insight (to the extent that it was relevant to anyone besides myself) was that suddenly I found some value in some of those unsolicited emails.

Second of all. I wouldn't say that we swap from one hot offer to another hot offers that easy

I wish I knew how to find (lots and lots of) hot offers that lasted for more than a few months. I find that offers and angles have a normal life span from early adopters to mass adopters to late adopters to declining market within a relatively short time span.

Perhaps, you are super successful at identifying markets with loads of early adopters and few other people mining that market.

In theory, the more inundated a niche is with an offer (via mass marketing, such as unsolicited emails), the quicker the market becomes played out. My sense is only markets like Make Money Online seem to be the exceptions because of the flood of new potential customers that are always entering the market.

I'm not sure that applies to bringing new products to an existing market, mature enough to be in the mass adopter stage, and is relatively growth neutral.

because a good EPC (Your earning per click) can be misleading

I would like to know more about this. At the end of the day, the only two metrics I trust are EPC and CPC. (Yes, I'm just a simple traffic arbitrage marketer. Maybe later, as I mature as an internet marketer, I'll become more sophisticated in my approach.)

Some are really bad at selling, and i am surprised they make any money

I agree completely. I think such can be said for any reverse engineering method, whether it involves manual research or a spy software tool. The good judgement of a seasoned marketer is a good start. After that: test, test, and then... Test.

Much appreciate your insights.

 

[PurePay]

I wasn't intending to call anyone names, just using a popular term to identify a type of email that everyone would instantly recognize. It is possible to hate the term "spammer," while not being overjoyed at having one's inbox filled up with unsolicited email. My insight (to the extent that it was relevant to anyone besides myself) was that suddenly I found some value in some of those unsolicited emails.

I understand that hehe, just stating how i don't see myself as. And i hate that everybody uses it, because it defines the bad ones, and not the rest.

I wish I knew how to find (lots and lots of) hot offers that lasted for more than a few months. I find that offers and angles have a normal life span from early adopters to mass adopters to late adopters to declining market within a relatively short time span.

Perhaps, you are super successful at identifying markets with loads of early adopters and few other people mining that market.

In theory, the more inundated a niche is with an offer (via mass marketing, such as unsolicited emails), the quicker the market becomes played out. My sense is only markets like Make Money Online seem to be the exceptions because of the flood of new potential customers that are always entering the market.

I'm not sure that applies to bringing new products to an existing market, mature enough to be in the mass adopter stage, and is relatively growth neutral.

We agree. There is always a shortage of campaigns in any business, and in the Nordics where i solely used to work back in the day i always complained about just this. Since most campaigns died at one point. But there was always some special campaigns which only ran in periods, or else i would run sweeps which always made money.

I would like to know more about this. At the end of the day, the only two metrics I trust are EPC and CPC. (Yes, I'm just a simple traffic arbitrage marketer. Maybe later, as I mature as an internet marketer, I'll become more sophisticated in my approach.)

I don't trust it anymore, so i always find myself asking the AM's about EPC for e-mail marketing rather than to say aha 0.5 USD epc, looks good let's go! Because i have lost a lot of time and income on doing that. At the end of the day it all ends up with you having to know your DB if you do e-mail marketing and stick to the offers you've tried before. For the rest it is hard since you might not always hit the same person again, but i guess you will figure out which offers you sell best and which you lose money on.

I agree completely. I think such can be said for any reverse engineering method, whether it involves manual research or a spy software tool. The good judgement of a seasoned marketer is a good start. After that: test, test, and then... Test.

Much appreciate your insights.

I had someone finding my campaigns via a spying tool, which is funny. In the Nordics i always know who is who by clicking on campaigns and following the link in your loading menu (Bottom of screen). Then i know who is it, and i can always check the www. address where it usually says ref=evoleads or such. And it is about knowing yourself and see what you had/have success with and continue!

 

[Hunter S Robbins]

else i would run sweeps which always made money

I've made a few bucks with sweeps. But not like some guys you read about. Wish I did!

In the last day or so about a dozen sweep offers ended up in my email junk folder. What caught my eye was they were pretty upfront about announcing "participation required." Sounds like they are targeting an experienced market. Who knows?

You still run sweeps?

don't trust it anymore, so i always find myself asking the AM's about EPC for e-mail marketing rather than to say aha 0.5 USD epc

Now I get it. I agree!

I don't put a whole lot of stock into the CPA network avg. EPC. I find it to be a decent indication of whether anyone is promoting the offer. Anticipating what my EPC for an offer by looking at the network avg. EPC is kind of like asking 14 different friends how long it takes to get from here to a local pub. Always someone at the top of the avg. always someone at the bottom of the avg. and often no one in the middle. Details matter.

I do pay attention to network EPC as a percent of payout. The higher the ratio of EPC to Payout, the better. I'd take 1 buck offers with 60 cent EPC's all day long. But, I've tested offers where I blew out network EPC's and where I never even came close to network EPC's.

I know... someone might be thinking, "what if the avg. CPC is higher than 60 cents... You dumb fool." That is a great point!

Maybe it's just my level of PPC skill, but I've noticed over the past few months that the network EPC (and the EPC's I'm able to get after doing some optimization) for offers in the verticals I'm familiar with are not even close to the avg. CPC for keywords in Bing. Bing keywords, I'm able to find (with any decent volume) are 2 to 3 times higher than network or my own EPC's. Just sayin'. That's why I've been poking abound asking all kinds of personal questions about traffic sources.

The big lesson I've learned the past few months is the FACT that there must be a happy marriage between the offer and the traffic source. In that sense reverse engineering unsolicited emails may be a good start but it is no guarantee. Now, I've got to learn how to master a high volume traffic source and hook up with a CPA network that has offers exactly matching that traffic source.

Great chatting with ya Bro.

 

[PurePay]

I've made a few bucks with sweeps. But not like some guys you read about. Wish I did!

In the last day or so about a dozen sweep offers ended up in my email junk folder. What caught my eye was they were pretty upfront about announcing "participation required." Sounds like they are targeting an experienced market. Who knows?

You still run sweeps?

Yeah i do sometimes, but it isn't as big as it used to and there will be fewer and fewer of those in the coming future. I have done many subject lines in my day with something similar to that haha.

Now I get it. I agree!

I don't put a whole lot of stock into the CPA network avg. EPC. I find it to be a decent indication of whether anyone is promoting the offer. Anticipating what my EPC for an offer by looking at the network avg. EPC is kind of like asking 14 different friends how long it takes to get from here to a local pub. Always someone at the top of the avg. always someone at the bottom of the avg. and often no one in the middle. Details matter.

I do pay attention to network EPC as a percent of payout. The higher the ratio of EPC to Payout, the better. I'd take 1 buck offers with 60 cent EPC's all day long. But, I've tested offers where I blew out network EPC's and where I never even came close to network EPC's.

I know... someone might be thinking, "what if the avg. CPC is higher than 60 cents... You dumb fool." That is a great point!

Maybe it's just my level of PPC skill, but I've noticed over the past few months that the network EPC (and the EPC's I'm able to get after doing some optimization) for offers in the verticals I'm familiar with are not even close to the avg. CPC for keywords in Bing. Bing keywords, I'm able to find (with any decent volume) are 2 to 3 times higher than network or my own EPC's. Just sayin'. That's why I've been poking abound asking all kinds of personal questions about traffic sources.

Haha you and me both. It all depends on sources, since there are some who target to perfection via FB and they will always pull a EPC up, whereas a noob doing bad traffic sources will pull it down. At a UK network i have learned that they have done e-mail offers alone so there i can trust the EPC to some extent but again there is still a difference in how good ones mails are.

So it is kinda like going to a party and ask your mates how it was the day before (As you more or less mentioned). Some would have had the greatest day of their life whereas others will be like nah.

I am gonna branch out to PPC, Native and pop under traffic soon. Just want to try since i have never done anything like it before.

The big lesson I've learned

the past few months is the FACT that there must be a happy marriage between the offer and the traffic source. In that sense reverse engineering unsolicited emails may be a good start but it is no guarantee. Now, I've got to learn how to master a high volume traffic source and hook up with a CPA network that has offers exactly matching that traffic source.

Great chatting with ya Bro.

It's all about the big traffic man! You will get there, if you scale up alittle by little then it will be good in the long run!