What Are Safelists? Are They Effective? What Are The Top Safelists?

A serious online business needs the right tools and the desired amount of consistent traffic.

Then there is the lead capture or opt-in landing page with a system that follows up using email autoresponders to have a smoothly running business.

The Easiest Way To Grow Your Email List For Free

A steady stream of traffic to your site heavily depends on what platform you are advertising on and how you are managing it. To me, safelists are very (extremely) cost-effective and also a free way to get that traffic you deserve as long as you have a good strategy.

Internet Marketers, even the ones earning 5 to 6 figures monthly use safelists for their list building and traffic source.

This post will cover your question: What are safelists?

The use of email safelists and the right way to do so can be the game changer – effective tools for advertising if all is planned well. Time consuming and frustrating if you’ve got no focus.

What are Safelists?

Safelists websites are platforms where there is a membership that allows all of its members to send emails/email ads between each other.

A certain amount of members will be able to receive your email advertisement on the basis of it being spam free. Sounds good?

This is because all members of a Safelist website have agreed to receive these particular emails.

Here are reviews from my good friend, Barry Cross, a fellow Internet Marketer, talking about on the Safelists he uses for his business.

Credit based Safelists are most common which is what I would recommend. It’s similar to a traffic exchange – delivering traffic to your website.

Credits are awarded to you whenever you view a page for a certain time limit. Could vary between 10 and 20  (some even 25) seconds depending on the website administrator.

All accumulated credits can be used to send out your emails to show your own websites pages, offers or promotions.

Safelist Membership Options

Safelists mostly are free to join but with some limitations.

Free members, on some safelist sites can only send one email a week or even once in 5 days – some have already increased the frequency of mailing for free members to once in 3 days. Which is good news for internet and affiliate marketers.

Upgrading to a paid membership has its advantages, grabbing the OTO’s (one time offers) that come along is advisable.

Here’s a very satisfied European Safelist member and what he thinks about the site.

Here’s my take on how versatile banner ads are on Safelist sites for even more exposure

Join European Safelist For Free

Some have membership upgrades that start between $7 and $12 a month for a good amount of credits and extended features. Hence, your ROI (Return of Investment) could double if you have a good strategy.

On some Safelist sites, upgrading would allow you to email more than 10,000 (probably more) members at once at a frequency of 3 times a day depending on your membership level. European Safelist (my referral link) is one of them and the best so far in quality delivery & high opt-in rates.

Who are using Safelists?

Anyone who wants to promote their home business opportunity, affiliate websites, video courses and software tools for internet marketers are those who use these safelists.

Usually promoting tools or software that other internet marketers need for their business work great as you will be tapping into their niche and presenting more opportunities for them to discover what you are offering. Great deal!

Effective Safelist Tools

When you sign up on a Safelist website, you will need two gmail email addresses for the sole purpose of emailing out your offers and receiving them.

Usually, the first would be your contact email address and the other, a ‘list’ email address where all Safelist emails are received for claiming your credits and promoting your offers.

Email Subject Lines

You will need good, creative and eye-catching subjects and email content – a skill which can be developed over time.

Actually, the most important is still the subject line to catch the attention of the reader to click your email to open it. One view means one visit to your site. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

A useful tool to check the quality score of your email subject line

Another tip is that you can learn by reading other emails that have been sent out and observing their subject lines. If any of the subject lines catch your curiosity and attention then you will know the approach and angle you would need to use.

It would be good to take notes and try to re-work on the ideas that have caught your attention. Make it your own. Make it stand out and unique. Better results will follow.

Safelist formatting

Some safelist websites will allow you to send out emails in html format for both free and upgraded members. In this case, its best to use a banner of your product, a logo or even an image of yourself, a short write-up or 2 paragraph article explaining about your offer (but not too much. Keep them curious).

Scheduling and organization is also important when strategizing on sending out emails.

It’s important to keep track of when to send the emails out and filing these emails (text files) in folders that are easily referred to. 

Tip: I usually keep my sent emails in the draft folder of my Gmail or Google Docs account for easy access.

Safelist and Viral Listbuilders

Viral listbuilders let you build your downlines (up to 10 levels) of referrals and you will be able to send your email ads to this downline you’ve built.

New members to the program who are referred will affect the growth speed of your downline. Safelists usually don’t have as many to reach out to as compared to Viral listbuilders.

Referring new members is a task even if you’re disciplined and focused – but your emails are not limited to be sent to them. Usually the credits earned can be used to send to other additional members.

Purchasing an upgrade will give you a bigger list of people to send your email ads out to. You can buy credits too. Highly recommended.

Safelists are a good place to start building up traffic to your website or offer. It’s proven that your list will start to grow – but it will take consistency and time.

Safelists, when used wisely and strategically, would benefit you tremendously.

Are Safelists Effective? Here’s some proof.

Well, through my own experience, yes. Positively, yes!

Some may be skeptical about the use of this ‘free’ channel to promote products or to send out emails, but here is my take on it…

Ever since seriously utilizing safelist websites, and frequently sending out my promotions to my affiliate websites, subscribers to my email list could happen overnight.

Case Study:
Within 2 weeks of sending out my emails from 3 different safelist websites, I had gathered 8 opt-ins/subscribers who have willingly given their contact information to know more about the product/website. 

It doesn’t end at that.

Like what was mentioned earlier, a good follow up system within the email autoresponder service of your preference plays a vital role in reaching out to your list.

This is where you take control and provide them with your own brand of nurturing.

I have been using LeadsLeap’s SendSteed for all my autoresponder and list management needs.

Other great autoresponders to consider

Once again, safelists let you acquire opt-ins and subscribers for free so you can promote a product that will earn you some profit. Good deal! Of course there are certain etiquette and strategies to abide with when it comes to email marketing.

Read User Reviews for Safelist Mailer Sites

Top Safelists (List Builders) based on my consistent results of opt-ins

This list is based on their rankings on deliverability and good opt-in rate ratios based on an average of 5,000 emails sent out to their members.

Note: The first 5 have brought me sales.

  1. State of the Art Mailer
  2. European Safelist
  3. FreeAdvertisingForYou
  4. ViralMailerForYou
  5. ListOutbreak
  6. MegaMailBoost
  7. ListJumper
  8. EasyTrafficBuilder
  9. Adchiever
  10. Traffic Bonus
  11. Herculist
  12. Global Safelist

Bonus Review