![Debunking a Common List Building Myth](https://publishtothrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Debunking-a-Common-List-Building-Myth.png)
by Charles George
One common list building myth is that I’ll earn money once I have a big list.
That may be true.
A large list can correlate to more revenue.
But, let’s debunk this list building myth.
Here is the flaw in this type of thinking.
The more products, services, and revenue opportunities you have, the faster you can grow your list.
You should be earning money as you build your list.
It’s not an all-or-nothing game.
There should be low and high-price point products.
Different types of products have different purposes and serve different people.
For instance, some people on your list may purchase a $20 book.
Some will join a community for $20 per month.
Others may purchase a $200 workshop.
Still, others may purchase a $2,000 course.
Other people may want coaching or done-for-you services.
Different products create different experiences with different results.
The same content in the book could be delivered in different ways, providing different experiences, results, and revenue.
If we look at this from a revenue perspective, a small percentage of subscribers will purchase the higher-revenue products.
More will purchase the course, and potentially, even more will buy the workshop.
Some people will only purchase a twenty-dollar book or report.
The largest percentage of subscribers may not purchase anything.
We can monetize the subscribers who don’t purchase anything by sharing valuable content, promoting affiliate products, and selling ads in the newsletter.
So different types of products provide different experiences, but all yield revenue.
You have to sell a lot of books to equate to one coaching package, but you may sell a lot more books than coaching packages.
All the products work together to serve the most people and maximize revenue.
But it’s the revenue that drives building the list faster.
No Book, No List to Thriving Business
Years ago, I worked with an author who quit her job.
She had no website, social media, or list and hadn’t finished writing her first book.
She asked if I would help her, and I said, “Yes!”.
It took us about 18 months to build her list to 8,300 subscribers.
(I still remember the look on her face when I told her we were going to give her
first book away for free to build her list. The shock! The awe! LOL!)
At 8,300 subscribers, she reached five figures in revenue.
Now, she is a writing machine and very goal driven.
Plus, she was coachable, took action, and implemented quickly.
During the 18 months, she published around 15 fiction books.
To achieve this, she wrote around 3,500 words each morning.
Once she reached 8,300 subscribers, we had money to invest in building her list.
Plus, we had figured out a lot about her audience.
In the next six months, we grew her list to 25,000 subscribers.
While tracking her email metrics, I noticed she was getting a 48% percent unique open rate.
Our next strategy involved contacting authors with lists of 50,000 subscribers and doing one-to-one swaps.
Why? Because the average open rate for most lists is 20 percent.
Even though her list was half the size, it was just as valuable.
She took this idea to a new level and started co-authoring books with some of the authors.
Now they had twice the revenue to promote those books, and each book took half the time to write.
By the way, every book she wrote also had multiple ways to build her list.
From there, we continued to leverage the list.
Also, we started introducing higher priced products like writing courses, coaching, etc.
Everything we did created perpetual growth in her business.
Her books grew the lists and led readers to buy more books in the series.
The revenue allowed her to invest in paid media to build the list.
The list led to more book sales and revenue from her other products, more cross-promotions with authors, etc.
Every asset created growth for the other assets. This fueled the revenue and growth of the entire business.
Now, I haven’t worked with this author in quite a few years.
Last year, she messaged her community that she had reached seven figures in revenue. It took her about seven years to go from having no book and no site to achieving this milestone.
I was ecstatic for her!
One of my favorite moments was meeting at a local coffee shop, and her husband accompanied her.
He thanked me for believing in her when he didn’t.
That’s awesome!
This is just one example of a list I helped build.
Leverage Your Current Assets to Build Your List
Every list I have built is different.
I’m not loyal to any one method of building the list.
I prefer to leverage the available assets to build the list.
This is why I love the publishing and newsletter business.
It’s a proven business model that has been perfected over the last 100 years.
It begins with meager startup costs, but the potential to grow and scale is limited only by your imagination.
Especially in today’s digital world, it is far easier to grow a list than magazines and paid newsletters did with traditional media, years and years ago.
But the same principles still apply to growing an email list online.
We can grow our lists and businesses faster today with less subscriber acquisition costs than at any other time.
As the list grows, it fuels the growth of the business.
Remember, the heart of a successful publishing business is the list.
Especially, when a newsletter is involved.
Moreover, we have incredible technology and tools at our fingertips to assist us.
Remember, we can earn revenue throughout the journey, and revenue should increase as the list grows.
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