[UPDATE: This program is no longer available]
You may or may not have seen the multitude of emails regarding Jimmy Kim’s free ebook on email list building and his Build My List program. I have, I read the ebook and I’ve bought the program and I have gone through it.
Now list building is arguably one of THE most important things any blog, whether for business or hobby, can and should do. It is also one of the least utilized, most poorly executed, horribly abused, and most misunderstood tools in existence.
My long-term readers know, or should know by now, that I don’t really do list building, not actively anyway, but that doesn’t mean I won’t or can’t, nor does it mean you shouldn’t. Indeed, you should. This is one of those things I was talking about in my last post, Do As I Say, Not As I Do.
Now I’m not saying that what Build My List teaches is the be-all, end-all, of list building courses, but it gives you a good understanding of the importance of it and it walks you through how to set up your funnel and get traffic. You’ll still need to learn about best practices elsewhere.
Here’s the short version:
Though the ebook is a brief overview, what is said inside the ebook is sound. The Build My List on the other hand, is reasonably priced, very informative, thorough, and walks you through it from beginning to end, step-by-step.
So what all do you get?
There’s the course itself, and there are two optional “extras” one of which I bought.
For the course itself, you get videos walking you through their 5 List Building Steps. I have listed them (more or less) below. You also get a free 90-Day trial to their autoresponder, and a customized version of their ebook that contains your affiliate links so as you give the ebook away in exchange for email addresses you have the ability to earn some cash. You also get 10 “Business Models” you can duplicate. Those basically are 10 templates for landing pages (or squeeze pages or optin pages, they all mean the same thing) that you can duplicate. You also get a 5-Day autoresponder sequence.
If you join their optional autoresponder service, those templates are built-in and it is really easy to edit them. The videos were awesome for explaining how to do it. More advanced people might be a bit bored, but there were a few tips here and there that are useful. The autoresponder service will also host the landing page and thank you page, giving you a unique subdomain address so you technically don’t have to have a website of your own, not right away anyway.
I’ve shared my thoughts on things like that before, I don’t recommend not having a website, but you can do it that way. I would think at the very least you would want to buy a domain name and redirect it to the subdomain address, but that’s a discussion for a different post.
The Autoresponder
The good thing about their autoresponder is that there is some automation abilities with it. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry about it. Though not comprehensive, it does provide much more automation than I was expecting. You can do things like send a specific email when someone opens an email, or if they click on a link (any link or specific links), if they subscribe to a specific form you can unsubscribe them from a campaign or start a new series. There’s more but you get the idea.
Now I haven’t signed up for their autoresponder at this time, I may but I haven’t decided. Overall I’m pretty content with the one I have but the automation possibilities intrigue me. I also have never heard of their service before so I have no opinion, good or bad, on the service. I do know it’s been around for a couple years and they started it with an internet marketer’s needs in mind. Plus the templates and easy editing of those templates makes it nice for newcomers and the cost was in line with other services.
The Upgrades
There were two upgrades, both optional, and they are independent of each other. You can buy the second one without buying the first one. To clarify, I’m not positive they are One-Time-Offers, they may very well be something you can add later, but I can’t swear to it.
If you buy the first One-Time-Offer (OTO) then you get an additional 20 “Business Templates”, a 15-day autoresponder sequence and a case study of a campaign that earned over $25,000. That alone was why I bought it.
The second [possible] OTO gave you (I think) personal coaching and a couple other things, but to be honest, I don’t remember. I knew that I didn’t need it, and forgot about it. If I had thought at the time that I’d be writing a review, I would have taken better notes, however it was a good price for what you got.
The Videos
The videos are fairly short, there’s a few that are long, but by “long” I mean 25 to 30 minutes. They do an excellent job of walking you through creating landing pages, thank you pages, setting up your autoresponder (if you use theirs anyway), rebranding their ebook, etc. If you are a beginner, or don’t have a lot of experience under your belt, you’ll find the videos helpful.
A good chunk of the videos go over how to use the templates with their autoresponder service, but there’s some tips here and there that you can use even if you use a different service. If you do use their autoresponder, you can export the templates once you’re done editing them and put them on your own server.
Here’s a list of topics and several of the videos you get. I changed the name of the videos to reflect what the video was about whenever I felt the title wasn’t clear enough.
STEP 1 List Secrets
Why we build a list
The value of a list
How we build a list
The 3 essentials
What makes a squeeze page work
How to write an email swipe
How to create a voice
Single vs Double Opt-In
The thank you page
Open vs click thru rates
STEP 2 The Profit Machine
Sign up for their autoresponder
Why use their autoresponder
Features of their autoresponder
How to create your list and autoresponder
Working with landing pages
Opt-in forms and campaigns
STEP 3 Max Commissions
How to sign up for JVZoo
How to get 100% commissions for promoting their product
How to get a lot more money with another [specific] affiliate product
STEP 4 Business Wizard
5 Day Autoresponder Sequence
Copy & Paste Files (OTO?)(Logo?)
How to promote Build My List ebook
Build My List Templates 1-5
(Reason, Secret, Simple Money, 5-Step System, Facebook Profits)
MOBE Templates 1-3 (now) 4&5 (coming soon)
(Survey, Mercedes, Done For You)
STEP 5 Instant Traffic Triggers
Free vs Paid Traffic
Winning Traffic Strategy
#1 Traffic Source
Making Money With Reddit
Clickonomy – Get Your Traffic Direct
BML Brander Tool
Branded Version of Build My List Ebook (Not a video)
Copy & Paste Profits
Extra businesses you get with an OTO
The $25k a Month Case Study
BML Elite
Bonuses
The Good:
The foundation of Build My List is solid, the course and even the upgrades are reasonable, the videos are relatively short and easy to watch. This is designed for newcomers but there’s things that even experienced people could be reminded of.
The Bad:
A lot of the videos are oriented around their autoresponder service as the templates are built in to their service. You don’t have to host the templates with them however, you can put your landing and thank you pages on your own server.
They focus on paid traffic rather than free traffic. Now they do explain their reasoning, reasoning I agree with by the way, but they don’t spend much time on free traffic. You’ll have to learn about that elsewhere
The Verdict:
I was pleasantly surprised at how solid this was. I give it an official recommendation.