I had a good chat with a Solo ad provider this morning and wanted to share with you some of his advice and tips. 

First off, solo ads - where you pay to send your email and affiliate link to someone else’s list of subscribers - sometimes get a bad press from marketers. 

That’s because .. well … it’s someone else’s list … kind of a Catch 22 thing.

You don’t really know what the people on that list are like: Where they came from, how serious they are and how many other offers they are being bombarded with day in and day out. 

But - they are a cheap way to get leads onto your own list. And there are some solo ad platforms out there that let you do some research before you buy.

The guy I was talking to this morning - Kelvin - sells through a network of solo ad buyers and seller called Udimi. 

On that platform sellers are ranked by buyers and comments, recommendations, criticisms and info about their subscribers are posted on their profiles. So you can ask questions about their lists, see what results others have had with them and generally get a better feel for them. 

That’s what I was doing with Kelvin this morning. As he didn’t know me he assumed I was newbie marketer (never assume) But that actually was quite a good thing because he went on to offer some quite valuable, honest information. 

Key points: Probably 99% of solo ad sellers don’t actually use the email copy you provide them with. They just send your link with a little copy of their own that they know will get their list to click on that link. 

That’s how they can “guarantee” a certain number of clicks and optins. 

So it really depends on how good your landing page and sales funnel are.  

As an SFM affiliate you have some of the best landing pages and funnels in the industry BUT you need to understand another of Kelvin’s points: 

Of all the millions of people who are looking for ways to make money online A LOT of them are still looking for an easy fix - a magic button solution that will get them rich quick. Those people don’t want to hear that what they really need is an education or that they will have to do some work. 

So solo ads that are targeting the make money online or internet marketing crowd will be seen by a lot of people for whom SFM is really not a good fit. 

BUT of course there will be some people who are fed up with all the false promises and hype out there and are looking for a serious education and a REAL life-changing online business. 

If you get those people onto your own list and start to build a relationship with them by offering value and explaining the SFM model properly your money has been well spent. 

To a large extent this “filtering” process is the same with any lead generation method. It’s all about return on investment. 

I’ve bought solo ads from Udimi sellers a number of times. I generally test with 100 clicks which usually costs $45- $50. I generally get 20 - 30 new subscribers from that. 

Sometimes I get some SFM applications and new full members from that which gives me a pretty good ROI - more than compensating for the ones that generate no immediate sales. 

This brings me back to the funnel thing though: SFM does not set time limits on the commissions they pay you. So even if your new subscriber doesn’t apply or become a member until 1 or even 2 years later - you still get paid. 

On top of that the SFM sales funnel offers very high value products that pay high commissions further down the line. If you work with your list - provide value and establish trust with them you will start to receive those commissions. 

So in the longer run your return on investment with a cheap solo add can in fact be vast - much better that in any other (legal) business on the planet. 

So whilst I wouldn’t recommend blowing the bank on solo ads they are worth investigating. As with everything start small and if you get good results - scale up. 

SFM members will find a list of solo ad providers in your SFM back office. I’d suggest Safe Lists and Udimi (which is an offshoot of Safe Lists) as a good starting point. 

Cheers