Case History: Millionaire.com & Opulence Magazine
Begun by the founder of the Rudd Report, Millionaire magazine (and later, Opulence magazine) had already made some small attempts to expand their publishing into the online marketplace. When Web3Direct was contacted in 2001, the company had a simple, flat "brochure" type website that attracted little interest among the company's upscale subscribers. Emerson Brantley developed a genuine online ezine concept, Luxury Life Digest, and began contacting individual advertisers, writing direct sales articles for each.
Then, using opt-in email to maximize new prospects and subscriptions he built the site traffic to over 4,000 users on a daily basis. Along with creating a new online "Luxury Mall" for Millionaire.com advertisers, he built their opt-in email database from fewer than 800 to over 42,000 by early 2002. These subscribers received monthly emails which summarized the newest LuxuryLifeDigest.com articles, and directed them to the specific advertisers. So successful was the program in creating response rates and new business that all 35 advertisers continued their monthly contracts at an average revenue of $3,000 per month.
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(note, this is an archived site and many links may be broken)These results were independently monitored by Touchscape Corporation for Business 2.0 magazine: Of the 60,000 direct opt-in emails monitored, 8400 new visitors were generated for Millionaire.com in one week. The offer converted a staggering 41.5% conversion to registrations. 80% of the respondents provided detailed market data on themselves and their interests, and requested more information and offers from Millionaire.com. Each respondent received autoresponse communiques that generated an additional 3.8% click-thru over the next 20 days. Click Here For Specific Millionaire & Other Campaign Results Numbers
Emerson Brantley was also asked to write a center-spread article for each month's hardcopy issues. These focused on lifestyle, individual advertisers in the LuxuryLifeDigest Ezine, and general online marketing tips.
At $75 per quarter, the primary magazine only achieved a few thousand subscribers before being sold to a new publisher in 2002. As a result of the efforts of Web3Direct, however, the online subscriber base of over 42,000 subscribers was strong and active. This prompted the national sales manager to rebrand LuxuryLifeDigest and the Luxury Mall, and he continues to build this market as a standalone independent company. The new publisher of Millionaire also incorporated the LuxuryLifeDigest Ezine and Luxury Mall concept into their own existing online marketing efforts.
Click Here For Specific Millionaire & Other Campaign Results Numbers
