G'day gang
Genealogy lists are a hot topic amongst network marketers from time to time, and people are often confused about how to best use them.
What IS a genealogy leads list?Genealogy leads are lists of distributors with a particular network marketing company or downline organisation that has gone out of business.
A lot of network marketers buy these lists because they think that these people are suddenly left with no network marketing businesses to work with.
This may be true, but the fact is that most of them will have been inactive anyway, and the few who were active may be so annoyed because of the experience they they're in no hurry to get involved with another MLM outfit.
So they're usually poor quality lists and you can spend a lot of time, effort and money getting nothing but rejection and hostility form them.
Here's the REAL problem with them, and it's a BIG one that can cost you dearly: While these people opted into the list as part of their membership of that expired company or downline organisation,
they did NOT opt in to receive unsolicited pitches from YOU or the scores of other network marketers who've bought these lists from the unscrupulous urgers who are selling them!They've actually been betrayed TWICE: once when the company went belly-up, then again when it broke most privacy laws and sold their distributors' personal information to third parties.
What can happen to me if I use genealogy lists?If you send unsolicited commercial messages to these lists, you are SPAMMING them. You could lose your Internet access, and you could face prosecution under any applicable laws where you live.
In Australia, you face fines of up to $1,100,000
per message, per day (that's 1.1 MILLION dollars) under the tough anti-spam Act that has seen professional spammers in Australia wiped out almost overnight. (The first convicted spammer was hit by fines of $4.5 million. He's now out of business.)
The other thing that can happen if you make this mistake is that you could face legal action for any damage to the reputation or sales that your action causes your service providers — especially autoresponder service.
You could also face legal action from other members of the autoresponder service for damage to their businesses as well.
It's not worth the risk, quite frankly.
Is there any way to make legal use of genealogy leads?Yes, there is. And it's the same with ANY bought lists of leads. But this information is only provided for people who've already spent hard-earned money on genealogy leads and want to try to get some kind of meagre return on their investment. (Personally, I think you should write it off as
education — and think a lot more carefully about the potential consequences of your actions before buying leads in future.)
Step 1: Send
small numbers of the list members an email explaining how you acquired their names and email addresses, tell them that you have an attractive offer for them, and ask them to subscribe to YOUR mailing list if they'd like to receive it. (You can sell them on subscribing to your list, but DO NOT try to sell them on your offer in this first message.)
Send only small numbers of requests over a period of several weeks. And not repeated requests to the same people, either.
Step 2: Send the people who subscribe to your list, through a double-opt-in process, the details of your offer.
This is the ONLY way you can legally and ethically use those genealogy leads.Always put yourself in
the prospect's shoes if you're unsure of whether you should mail them or not. Did they actually
ask you to contact them with your offer?
If you want to avoid the risk of being reported as a spammer,
always insert that preliminary step as a courtesy.The worst most of them will do is say "no" to you. Some will say "yes".
And a LOT more will say "yes" because of your courtesy in handling the situation. Hope this helps.
John Counsel
Author