Ideas to build your email list
Nowadays, professional bloggers build their empires around three key concepts:
a) Relationships: The most important if you ask me. You can’t reach the top of the mountain without a good equipment and a couple hands ready to hold yours if you fall.
b) Content: Obviously the content is usefull, else you can be the best marketing guy around yet nobody will want to enter your blog.
c) The email list: The real money maker and the difference between a real problogger and an average blogger.
Having an email list not only provides you a monthly income; it’s also a statement you make shouting “I’m a man now not a boy
anymore!”
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today; how to increase your email list subscribers.
When it comes to email list, size matters:
- You get more reputation: Readers will respect you if you had achieved something that just few people had. A counter with a huge number will do the work.
- You get more exposure: Here’s where the ‘word-of-mouth’ kicks in. You’ll get noticed thanks to your big email list. It’s like a brand.
- You get more money: obvious, huh?
Now we’ve already made the approach, to the tips!
#1 The content itself
Nothing new here. The cleanest way to get users to drop their emails in the form is to provide the best content you can, as it will make them to want stay tuned to your blog.
#2 Exclusive content
Sending to your subscribers-only exclusive tips, offers reviews and so on it’s also a great way to attract readers’ attention, as it’s something not to be shared with the regular audience.
Some people may think this technique is not… ‘fair’ because you’re supposed to provide within your blog the best you have, but that’s not how it works at all. This method is like a V.I.P membership –which hell… it’s FREE!- for everyone who wants to get exclusive content, that’s all.
Be careful: Exclusive and unique may be synonyms, so bear in mind that the content you write must still be unique. Whether is going to be read by subscribers or not.
#3 Ebook
And with this one we start with what I like to call the ‘Get a freebie’ strategy.
Writing an ebook is not something that everyone’s willing to do. It may be easy, but it takes time if you want to do it well. It takes time both to write it and to promote it.
Again, you’ll be shouting “I’m a man now not a boy anymore” but you will be giving your readers an incentive to sign up.
Not only everything’s free –the updated you send, offers, exclusive content, etc- but you’ll also get an ebook that worth something, whatever is a lot or not.
#4 Giving away video tutorial series
Again it’s all about giving incentives, but I found this one to be cooler than any other idea –apart from the one coming after-
I think it’s one of the coolest way because of the fact that you’ll be sending emails –spread between them- to your readers, engaging and building a relationship with them even without noticing.
Not only that, your readers will surely have doubts or thoughts that will be sent to you… Again, building relationships, the base to build a profitable blogging empire.
#5 Giving away free wordpress themes
I love this one. Really. I’m in deep love with this.
Delivering a .rar file with, say, 15 free self-made wordpress themes is such a great way to encourage a visitor to sign up that you won’t want to try any other thing again. Ever.
To demonstrate I’m not actually close to exaggerating, I’ll expose my two main reasons:
- 95% of bloggers out there are so worried about the design that they even forgot to take care about what really matters: relationships, content and email list, so it’s evident that they will jump into the pool once they see ‘Free WordPress Themes Here’
- SEO benefits. You read right. If you play it smart and drop a link on the footer with an appropriate anchor text pointing to your site, you’ll get a huge positive impact from the SEO viewpoint.
So, you’re not only getting a new email to be added to your list, but also SEO benefits.
How to get your design? Well you can either design it yourself or go to a website like freelancer.com and hire someone. It’s an investment, a smart one.
#6 Contests
This one is easy but works too. You prepare a contest –please, with a cool prize or not only nobody will join but it will also project an image you definitely don’t want-
It’s simple: You want to enter the contest, you must enter your email to receive further instructions.
#7 Guest posting
When you guest post, instead of dropping the typical author message with a link pointing to your site, if you really want your email list to be increased you can ask the blogger to link to a landing page you’ve previously prepared.
You can use Squeeze Theme from UBD, it works great.
We will make an approach about how to make decent landing pages later on.
Use your imagination to get more subscribers, take your time and hold your hopes, it’s not an easy task on which results will appear overnight. But the reward is really amazing.
You have more ways that have worked for you? Drop a comment and let us now!
Thank you all for reading.
