Do you want to learn how to make money online or create some side hustle cash? Starting a solo ad business can be challenging without the right strategies in place. While everybody is talking about Facebook ads or Google ads, starting a solo ad business is often an overlooked way to do just that.

In this guide, I’ll break down everything you need to know about starting a solo ad business, how to buy and sell solo ads, and how to grow an audience or an email list from scratch.

What Are Solo Ads?

Solo ads are email advertisements revolving around a single promotion.

They are a well-known way to advertise through email when you don’t own an email list. You essentially pay to use a person’s email list to promote your own offer, serving your promotion to a new untapped audience.

Instead of the usual newsletter promotion on an email list, solo ads use the entire email to promote your offer to a niche audience making them more effective.

And, the results?

Imagine if a solo ad seller had an email list of 50,000 subscribers and they get an average click-through rate of 1%. That would mean that 1% of 50,000 email subscribers, or 500 people would click the product link.

If 10% of them buy a $30 item, then he/she just earned 50 sales or $15,000. Plus they just put 50 people onto their own email list as well. 

This isn’t the case every single time as some solo ads may not be a success, which can boil down to a number of factors, like:

• Poor audience match
• Poorly written email
• Bad product match

To be fully transparent, you win some and you lose some with solo ads. This can be true with any marketing method though, from Facebook ads to influencer marketing.

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How To Sell Solo Ads

If you want to start selling solo ads, you’ll need an email list of highly targeted people. Advertisers want to get their stuff in front of very specific people, including people of a certain age, gender, income level, family status, interests, and more.

Step 1: Pick a Niche and Get Web Hosting

First, pick a niche. Your niche is your category or topic. You’ll be setting up a website and it should revolve around a specific topic so your email list can be targeted.

For example, you could run a health and wellness website where your email list would consist of people interested in the health/wellness industry. Then, when you sell your solo ads to readers in that field.

Here are some examples of niches:

• Marketing
• Finance
• Health
• Social
• Entrepreneurs

Once you’ve selected your niche, it’s time to get web hosting.
We recommend Bluehost. Having a reliable hosting provider is critical, as you’ll be doing some testing with your website and landing pages.

Bluehost also offers a bunch of perks with your hosting plan like a free domain, free SSL certificate, and a lot more.

Check out our free guide for how to start a content site (blog) with Bluehost.

Step 2: Get Email Marketing Software

You’ll need email marketing software, more specifically, an autoresponder, in order to collect email addresses for your solo ad business.

We recommend tools like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign.

Step 3: Where To Sell Solo Ads

Marketplaces are where you’re going to sell solo ads.

There are many advantages to selling on marketplaces. You get to join a website where buyers hang out, helping you make your first sales faster and giving you an opportunity to build your reputation and brand.

The main drawback is the price, though many websites will take a commission off your sale, rather than have you pay a flat fee to join or a monthly subscription.

When you participate in a marketplace, you pay them a fee in exchange for selling your services on their website. This helps you get your foot in the door and potentially helps you start making money faster than if you tried selling on your own.

One popular solo ad marketplace you might check out is Udimi.

They are well-organized and have tons of solo ad buyers and sellers. As a solo ad seller on Udimi, you’ll be able to have your stats speak for themself. Udimi has a rating system and each seller automatically has their ratings displayed on their profile:

• Number of thumbs ups (positive rating)
• Percentage of ratings where buyers report sales
• Price per visitor
• Percent of repeat orders from customers
• Average time it takes for a seller to accept an order

Udimi also has sophisticated, buyer-friendly tools that help prospects figure out what kind of email audience they want to target, what niche to work in, and more.

Learn more about Udimi to get started.

Then, there are places on social media to sell solo ads as well, like Facebook groups, subreddits, and more. So, don’t forget about these places to find solo ad buyers without the fees that come along with marketplace selling.

Step 4: Fill Orders by Sending Email Broadcasts

At this final step, you have your entire system set up, you have sales and it’s time to fill orders. Your emails can be sent up to twice a day. The first broadcast emailed and then a follow up broadcast to those who didn’t open the first email.

Make sure not to over-send emails during the course of the day and just limit it to twice. Avoid language that may be considered spammy and keep messages short.

Some solo ad vendors choose to write the email themselves, while others will have the buyer provide them with a script. You can choose the route you want to take or do both!

Then, rinse and repeat.

Step 5: Buy Solo Ads

Yes, solo ad sellers do buy traffic, including buying solo ads!

Let’s say you’ve sold a solo ad with a guarantee of sending 300 visitors to the buyer’s website but only 250 people actually clicked through.

You can buy a solo ad from another seller and send the ad to their list to fulfill the shortfall of those 50 visitors.

Don’t be afraid to invest in your business here and buy paid ads, at least in the beginning.

How to Grow and Maintain Your Email List

While running your solo ad business, it’s very important to continue providing value and cultivating your email list for growth. This is how you can do that:

• Send valuable educational material to your email list
• Limit the number of ads you share to avoid ad fatigue
• Use growth strategies to increase your email subscribers

Sending Educational Content

You want to avoid appearing spammy to your email list so, while you’re sending solo ads, you also should be sending valuable educational content that will help your email subscribers.

For example, if you have an email list in the weight loss niche, you may want to share helpful best practices for dieting, a free ebook on weight loss maintenance, sharing articles you write on the topic of weight loss, etc.

Avoid Ad Fatigue

Ad fatigue exists when your email list is overexposed to ads. Nobody likes seeing a lot of ads that are not of interest to them. If you start sending ads in your emails too often, you will most definitely have your subscribers get ad fatigue.

This can result in declining email open rates and possibly being reported as spam. You can avoid this happening by limiting how many ads you send to your list.

Use Growth Strategies To Increase Your Email Subscribers

With email lists, some degree of shedding happens naturally. That means, that regardless of the kind of content you are sharing, people will unsubscribe. And, because you’ll be sending ads along with your regular educational material, your list may shrink at a faster pace than if you were ad-free.

How do you counter this?

You grow your list at a faster rate than it sheds. Use growth strategies for this, like increasing website traffic, creating lead magnets, investing in paid ads and solo ads to grow your list, and other ideas.

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Where To Buy Solo Ads?

There are many sites that will sell access to their email lists to promote solo ads. The largest solo ad marketplace in the world is Udimi. With that said, there are countless publishers who have highly engaged email lists and are ready to promote your solo ads.

You can post on Facebook groups, Reddit, or do manual outreach to specific companies or brands that have a relevant audience to your offer.

Final Word on How To Start a Solo Ad Business

Starting a solo ad business can be a lucrative venture. If you’re willing to put in the time and energy to build a highly engaged email list. There are many advertisers out there looking to build a list or gain exposure for their products quickly. If you don’t want to grow an email list from scratch, running Facebook ads can be a good alternative to making money with advertising

This makes it a great opportunity to create a sustainable income stream. You can follow the steps I shared above to start a successful solo ad business.