Chapter 30 | eBay

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

eBay is an online platform to buy and sell stuff. You can promote anything that you wish on eBay and watch your list grow. Although, it is not the only site that facilitates buying and selling over the internet.

Buying and Renting lists – a word of caution

There is no dearth of websites that sell or rent email addresses. However, I do not endorse buying or renting lists for building a database. I consider it risky and expensive way of list building and you won’t find many successful internet marketers adopting this strategy to expand their list of subscribers.

The major disadvantage of buying a list is that it is difficult to know whether the list you are getting is opt-in email addresses or a collection of “harvested” email addresses gathered without the permission of the owners.

It is advisable to stay away from lists that are up for sale or being rented unless you are absolutely sure that a list is made up of opt-in addresses. It is important to avoid “harvested” email addresses as by sending promotional messages to such email addresses you run the risk of being considered as spammer by the owners which could prove detrimental to your internet marketing business.

To minimize the risk factor involved, make use of opt-in manager programs to ensure that visitors have a clear understanding of your privacy policy and they know what they are signing-up for whether it is an eCourse or a newsletter. It will help you in building a mailing list that is “clean”.

By now it must be clear to you how important it is to have a cautious approach while buying or renting lists. Your internet business requires a strong foundation of permission-based e-mailing not fraudulent harvested emails which may put you in the risk of violating federal and state privacy, permission and anti-spam legislation.