There are a number of different types of safelist, from normal safelist (you rely on members opening your email and clicking on your hyper link) to credit-based safelist (in order to send messages members must click on a special link contained within your message in order to earn mailing credits).

Normal safelist can work but you have to be the clever one in order to get them to work. First, you need to have a paid membership where you are sending to more levels of membership. Second, be clever about your subject line (but don't be ridiculous). What I'm trying to say is that you need to catch their eye when they scan the subject lines in their email, however crazy subject lines like "Payment Enclosed" or "Confirmation Needed" only tend to lose you your membership. Besides if your product or opportunity is that lame that you need phony subject lines to guarantee exposure than I suggest you get out of what you're in.

The content of your message is very important. People are not going to read something two pages long, in fact you probably lost them after the first paragraph. Short and sweet is the key. Again, some people get ridiculous and just simply type their url a couple dozen time (no there is a real winner). You have to say something about what you are promoting but you need to be concise. Don't try and cover all the major points, but instead concentrate on one or two of the more interesting points. If you feel you need to cover more than a couple points, do it in a list format rather than a paragraph format.

You need to be persistent when using safelist advertising. Repeating the same ad and same subject line gets you farther and makes you more successful than if you change your ads day after day. Program hopping doesn't pay. Decide which program/product you feel most comfortable with and advertise it day after day. Every so often you might want to change your subject line, especially if the hits to your site slow down.

Credit list usually mean there is a link that the user has to click on in order to earn mailing credits. No mailing credits means you can mail. Some credit list not only require credits in order for you to send but the limit the number of times per week that you can send. There are two type of credit links, the one just simply brings up a web page that tells you how many credits you have earned. The second type usually consist of two frames. The bottom frame will take the members to your site. THe upper frame is a timer that counts down the number of seconds you must stay on the site in order to earn credits.

The same rules apply to credit list that apply to normal safelist (non-credit based lists). The advantage is that they must open your email or even visit your site in order to earn credits. You will end up with more exposure and possibly more sales using credit lists rather than non-credit based lists.

There is one other type of credit list, however, I will not expound on it much only because I don't approve of this type of list. This credit based system is called safe ads. You login and post your ad. It is then stored on the system not emailed to the members. Now it gets to be more like a manual surfing site, in that members must log in and surf the ads to earn credits.

The positive side is that your email doesn't get crammed with hundreds of emails. The drawback is that you are relying on members to surf enough ads so that they at least see yours. Another draw back (from the little amount of time I spent as a members of a safe ads list) is that there isn't any timer running so that members have to remain on your ad for any amount of time. They can just keep clicking on to the next ad and building up credits.

I honestly can't tell you how well these "safe ads" are catching on. I really don't care for their concept. I don't think you have a ghost of a chance at achieving anywhere near the number of hits as you can get from a good old fashioned safe list.

Safelist marketing requires patience and persistence. But it will pay off in the end as long as you use your brain when advertising.