the death of solo ads

Anybody who is into lead generation knows that these lists are either hit or miss, you can be lucky and get a good list but that is very unlikely. A list that is being hoarded by a person who even tells you that other solo ads sellers have used the lists speaks volumes. Even if you don't equate it to IM, equate it to psychology or common sense, an inbox that receives hundreds of random emails per day with a ton more going to spam is definitely not going to open your emeils and that is the case with these lists. 
For all I know, the list in the video(which I did not watch by the way) could be very freshly generated and those types of emails open and click. You'd probably be best buying the clickers list as that is the more sensible option which is also pretty obvious if you compare the price of that to the price of the 100k option, there is simply a difference between quantity and quality. 

Funny, I have been buying solo ads for the past 3 years and I keep getting better at it. I've been able to get some of my squeeze pages to convert at 55% or better and I now get a positive ROI on approximately 80% of all of my solo ad buys.

The solo ad business is only getting bigger and bigger, and will continue to be a viable, profitable way to build a list in the "biz opp/mmo" niche.

As far as solo ad vendors sharing the same leads, I'm sure this is true on some very small level. However, the fact is that every day THOUSANDS of new prospects are jumping online and looking to live the "laptop lifestyle," which means that there is and will always be an endless stream of of new prospects to convert into buyers, just like in niches like weight loss where there will always be thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of people deciding to lose weight every day.

Now, there are a few things you have said that I do agree with, and that pertains to SELLING solo ads.

I have brought this up in quite a few threads and I've been absolutely ripped apart for saying this, primarily by those who are solo ad "coaches" probably. They tell me I'm a fool, but I know lots of solo sellers, and I know this to be true.

Bigger AR companies (and probably some smaller ones too) like Aweber & GetResponse definitely WILL terminate their relationship with you if you are caught selling solo ads or doing ad swaps. I've been told by many a solo seller recently that they have been shut down and told that they are spamming. 

Whenever I hear about this happening (which is almost every day lately), I ALWAYS ask them what reason they were given, simply because I want to know why so that if I happen to be doing the same thing I can stop immediately. The reason that seems to be commonly given by the AR companies is "directly promoting another's list."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems to encompass selling solo ads and doing ad swaps. Is that the only reason people are losing their accounts? Certainly not. There are several other ways to lose your account, and these should be common sense or at least common knowledge to anyone who wants to get started in email marketing.

You should NEVER use spammy or misleading headlines in your swipes. You should never make false income claims in your swipes. You should never use link rotators in your swipes. Find out what the spam "buzz words" are and avoid using them in your swipes. Don't promote shady products or pyramid schemes. Don't promote pages or products that advocate hate speech, illegal drugs, weapons, porn, etc. Don't send more than 1 email per day. Above all, use common sense! If you do all of the above, you have a very slim chance of getting shut down. Does that mean it will never happen? Of course not. Anything is possible.

About a year ago I started to see a change in the effectiveness of my email campaigns so I switched up my game and now I am right back on track (actually doing better than ever). The fact is that methods change and you have to change with them, or else you get left in the dust.

If you are only using solo ads to build your list and you are not selling them you should have no problem. So that begs the question, why are all of the solo ad "coaches" still instructing people to start selling solo ads using Aweber or GetResponse? I have no idea. I would guess that they are making lots of money from it and if they had to change their coaching programs to instruct newbies to set up their own self-hosted ARs and all that goes along with that, they wouldn't have too many customers anymore.

I guess that also begs the question, How are people selling solo ads? Well, to be honest, the majority of them are rolling the dice and still using GetResponse and Aweber. The really smart ones have set up their own self-hosted solutions, and I don't just mean setting up some AR software on VPS hosting. They are handling the whole process, which I am not qualified to speak on since I have no idea how it's done because I don't sell solo ads and never will.

I'm not going to say people who buy solo ad's are suckers, but I know the quality of subscriber they will bring you and why people sell solo ads in the first place and how people teach other people to sell solo ads...

There are much better (and cheaper) ways to build a list in this niche...

One example using the Warrior Forum classified ad section...

Your typical solo ad will run you about .20 - .40 per click, not per subscriber, just clicks for people to see your squeeze page.

So say you buy 400 clicks for $80...

The last 10 Warrior Classified ads I've run racked up a total of 7,212 views (a 'click' for the most part) and I spent $200. (I ran classified ads for bonus offers and not list building but, the views are what's important).

How many subscribers do you think you would get out of 7,212 thread views?

And if you place a Facebook custom audience pixel on your squeeze page, you can build a highly targeted custom audience (even if they don't optin at the time) that you can retarget and create a lookalike audience from then run FB ads which will grow your list even more.

You would be surprised at the number of buyers that are in the classified section, I wouldn't run bonus offers in there if it wasn't profitable (and since all the offers I promote are on JVZoo, I'm building a list of buyers who purchase through my affiliate link using JVZoo's built-in feature and a GetResponse account).

This all can scale up quickly and is a better way to spend your money. At the very least, you are getting the same quality of traffic solo ad providers are sending you (this is better traffic) and if things don't work out with your list, you can always sell solo ads 

Just something to think about before plunking down a few hundred on solo ads.

People who buy solo ads need to pay attention to the quoted post. I am a big buyer of solo ads and the reason I do so well with them is exactly the reason stated in this post. The vendors that I buy from have quality lists that are not filled with freebie seekers from ad swaps, click banking, JV giveaways, etc. Most of the vendors I buy from are spending big money to build their list through PPC, PPV, CPL, etc. Most of them also charge at least .75 per click. They have to if they are to run a profitable business and still maintain their current spends on new traffic. 

Does that mean I have never bought from vendors with crappy lists? Of course not. I try new vendors once in a while to see if they are any good. However, I have this down to a science and I know how my funnel should convert. If the solo ad does not perform well, I know it's their traffic and NOT my funnel. Those vendors do not get any more business from me and they go on my "do not buy" list. The vendors who bought a $30 course from a solo "coach" and were taught to build their list with click banking and then start selling as soon as they can get 50-100 clicks per mailing will never get repeat business from me.

Also, I have great relationships with the vendors I buy from. I chat with many of them on FB and Skype on a daily or weekly basis, not just when I am looking to buy. Lots of times we don't even talk about IM, but other things like hobbies we have, sports, family issues, etc. It's really cool to talk with some of the vendors that live in other countries like Australia, China, Philippines, Singapore, Israel, etc, because I find other countries customs and cultures very interesting. Not only that, I've learned so many different ways to build my list them it's physically impossible to take action on all of them.

I can't speak for the OP, so I have absolutely no idea where he/she came up with this ridiculous idea that solo ads are dying. All I know is my bank account proves otherwise.

I KNOW RIGHT!
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now I'd like to give you my opinion, because I hear these death threads alot since 2012. 
Yes, Solo ads are getting worse and it's getting harder to stand out. But that does not mean they are dying...When business is going bad in my own investment business, i use my own money to do simple " solo ads -> squeeze page -> medium -> offer" marketing to get a profit and reinvest in my own business. Because, you know, forex, stocks, commodities isn't always the thing when it comes to profit...

But if you know where to buy quality solo ads, where you can buy 10.000 clicks and you know it will be good traffic, why would business be solo ads be dead...