When I first started studying the topic of list building, I was very (unpleasantly) surprised how little was written on the topic.
Useful and actionable stuff I mean. The kind you don?t have to give an arm and a leg for and then some.
Rant begins: If you Google ?list building?, most of the results on the first page are squeeze pages or completely unrelated posts.
I suppose Google has a lot of work ahead of them to make those results actually relevant.
I confronted a challenge and a wall.
I wanted to share everything I knew about list building and more, but ?more? was very hard to find.
Enough with the rant.
And so, in the spirit of list building week, I thought to myself ?hmm? why not create the meanest, the biggest, the baddest collection of list building tips?ever.?
Just a thought. We?ll see what I make of it at the end of the post.
Now, before I go on, I assume that you know by now that:
A. A responsive customer/subscriber list will become the glue that holds your business together and in the end, creates multiple streams of income for you.
B. To build your list, you need traffic. The more, the better. But don?t worry about that part; you are definitely in the right place to learn more about getting targeted web traffic to your site.
And now on with:
Rich list builder, poor list builder ? what do I mean by that?
The amount of money you are willing to cough up to build your list will put you into either former or latter category.
Generally speaking, the more money you can spend on list building, the more money you?ll make.
If you don?t have much money, you?ll still be fine ? it might take you a bit longer, but you?ll get there.
Very briefly:
4 Elements of List Building
1. Traffic - the more, the better. I am talking about targeted and diverse (coming from different sources).
2. Lead Magnet ? the freebie you are planning to offer. And the stakes are high these days; you?d better make it good.
3. Opt-in Form ? eye-catching, to the point, and here?s the tricky part: everywhere, but not intrusive.
3. Monetization ? how are you planning on making money off your list. Your own product, services, affiliate products, etc.
But you already knew that?
Paid List Building Methods
I have a confession to make: I am not very familiar with these list building methods.
Partially, it?s because I don?t really believe that some of them truly work ? any longer, anyway. Plus, if I am going to spend money on something like this, I?d better be sure I know what I am doing and that takes time and more money, neither one of which I am willing to give up right now.
So, let me tell you what I DO know about these methods.
1. Buy a List
Naturally, this is something I would never advise for anyone to do in any niche. All you will end up buying is a bunch of names and, hopefully, working email addresses ? hard to get them to stay with you and even harder, to buy from you.
Can?t sell a steak to a vegetarian!
2. Banner Advertising
Ever heard of banner blindness? Still there.
Since I?ve never used this method, I have no idea what your ROI might be on something like this.
3. Buy Ezine Solo Ads
In online marketing terms, ezine is a newsletter sent out to thousands of subscribers.
You can choose to purchase an ad in those newsletters.
However, the only ad really worth considering is what?s called a ?solo ad?, which means that it will go out all on its own without any other content surrounding it.
4. Google Adwords
Never ventured out into that either.
I actually started my online business just around the time of the famous ?Google Slap?, which is still very much talked about. In other words, Google made it very unattractive for a small fish like me to even try PPC.
5. Facebook Ads
Now THIS IS something I am going to do, hopefully soon.
I wouldn?t say it?s easy, but it?s fairly easy to master, it?s still fairly inexpensive (in the eyes of the beholder, of course), and it brings results.
To educate myself on the subject, I purchased this Facebook Ad Power course by Ryan Deiss (yes, I do own a lot of his products and have been happy with most of them, including this one).
If you have been thinking about it like I have, I would strongly suggest buying his course, mastering the technique, and starting to use it while it?s still such a good market.
I am sure there are MANY more ways to build a list when you have money, but as I said, it?s neither my area of expertise nor of interest.
Now let?s get down to the meaty part of this post:
Free List Building Methods
What to do when you have no money, no list, in other words.
In no particular order:
6. Cross promotion
Approach other bloggers in your niche with similar size blogs and hopefully lists and agree to send an email to your list about their newsletter, if they do the same for you.
7. Product bonus
Find someone who sells a product, which compliments your freebie, and approach them about giving your freebie away with their product.
Everybody loves a good bonus, which of course will have links back to your blog.
8. Stay above the fold
Keep your opt-in form visible and above the fold, if possible.
9. Give an incentive
Some time back, I saw a post on SocialMouths.com, giving away a blog/social media audit to a random subscriber to their list.
How brilliant was that! Francisco gently persuaded his visitors (me including) to subscribe to their list in return for a chance to win.
10. Hold back
Say you write a freebie, like my 23K Blueprint (awesome Free report, by the way; comes with my brilliantly clever and useful? tips every once in a while. You won?t see any of it though, until you subscribe HERE.)
11. Create PDFs.
I am sure you?ve heard of this before, but probably never used it.
The idea behind this method is simple: create ebooks out of your existing content.
For instance, take all the posts you have on kolibri bird feeding habits and make a PDF out of it, full of the links to your blog and various posts on your blog ? write it in such a way that the readers HAVE TO come back to your blog for more information.
Send your PDF out to various PDF networks; Scribd.com is my favorite one for that.
Of course, just uploading your PDF and waiting for it to be downloaded is not my style; and neither should be yours.
Promote it. Let people know it?s there. If you don?t know how, read Kristi Hines? Ultimate Guide to Blog Promotion ? it?ll have all you need to promote any kind of content you have.
12. Guest post.
Here?s another one you?ve heard of before? over? and over?: guest posting.
Are you doing it yet though? That?s my point.
?
You see when you publish a great guest post, the readers of that blog are already sold on you. Most of MBP readers subscribed from my home page, meaning they came, they subscribed.
13. JV Giveaways
Basically, a JV giveaway is an event set up by several bloggers with an intention to build each other?s lists through leveraging their own lists and social networks.
The way it works is each participating member submits one or more freebies that lead to their squeeze pages. Then they agree to send emails to their lists and promote the event via their social networks to bring in as big of a crowd as possible.
With a good product, it?s possible to generate hundreds of new subscribers per giveaway.
The last one I participated in, I got over 200 new ones within 2 days.
The argument of course could be that the retention rate for these subscribers can be low, since all they want is your freebie.
However, that can be said for all your new subscribers and it?s up to YOU whether they stay or go; you and your brilliant follow-up emails you send them.
Here?s are a couple of sites for you to take a look at if you are interested in participating in a JV Giveaway: jvgiveawayblog.com and newjvgiveaways.com. There are plenty more, of course.
14. Leverage other blogs.
With this list building strategy, you round up a few bloggers and each will write an article promoting each other?s newsletter and/or freebies.
15. Your Thank You Page
You?ll read a great post on how to really leverage your ?Thank You for Subscribing? page on Friday, but today I wanted to mention another trick you can use for that.
Simple enough. Get a group of bloggers together and recommend subscribing to their lists in your Thank You page and they will do the same for you.
16. Create a Forum
A bit time-consuming, but a great way to brand yourself and get quite a few new subscribers to your list.
17. Sharing is caring
Create a squeeze page with freebie/newletter opt-in and ask your readers/subscribers to share it with their team, online friends, etc.
Once again, you?ll read more about this strategy on Friday ? don?t forget to come back! You?ll also get access to software that will help you do just that.
18. Forwards
At the end of some of your emails to your list, why not ask your subscribers to forward the email to a colleague/another online marketer they know? Doesn?t cost you anything and, if they really enjoy your awesome tips in their inboxes, they might just do that.
This tip won?t get you direct subscribers per se, but it will get you traffic that will be up to you to covert.
19. Affiliates
People will want to promote you if there is something in it for them.
Affiliates send visitors to get your free subscriber bonus. When any sign-ups happen, the affiliate gets rewarded for delivering the lead ? maybe, through a free copy of a product or a special report no one else gets access to.
20. Password protect your posts
I am not talking about a membership site here, although you can create one of those as well.
What you can do is choose to set a password for some of your popular posts or, even better, for a part of a post.
Of course, you?ll need to let your readers know that in order to access this (and other) password protected content, they?ll need to subscribe to your list, and also let them know you?ll send them the password as soon as they subscribe.
You can also set up a special page that will display the password as soon as they subscribe.
There are several plugins that will get the job done; just search for ?password protect? in your plugin directory and you?ll find quite a few.
List Building Tools
What I use on my blog:
1. Aweber email autoresponder
The de facto autoresponder for most bloggers I know.
2. MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet
Lets me strategically place my opt-in forms wherever I want to (I think they have about 8 different options, if not more), plus fills out the form automatically for my readers.
Have you noticed that? For most of you, the form already has your name and email address in it ? all you have to do is click the sign up button.
Doesn?t get any easier than that.
The ones I don?t use on my blog, but are still valid options:
3. Hello Bar
It?s that little stripe at the very top that invites your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. You can find it at hellobar.com.
4. MaxBlogPress Banner Ads
This one is an even better option then Hello Bar, in my opinion.
It has MUCH more flexibility, can be displayed at the top or bottom and can show a different message, whether it be ?subscribe to my newsletter? or your affiliate products, as you refresh a page.
It?s also free and can be found here: http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/mba/
5. What Would Seth Godin Do
Free plugin that allows you to display any message you want within a post.
Wildly used on many blogs and can be found in your plugin directory.
Random thought: I never see it used on bigger blogs.
The ones I wouldn?t use on my blog:
6. PopUp Domination
I know, I know many bloggers are in love with it. It just tells me that PopUp Domination team is excellent in marketing.
I personally don?t like it.
It looks the same on every blog; it whacks me the second I am in (I don?t know whether the plugin doesn?t have the option of when and how many times to show up per visitor, or most bloggers don?t know/don?t care to set it up correctly.)
Bottom line for me: I know we all hate pop-ups, yet most bloggers know they work ? including me.
So I suggest two better options: just do a pop-up form through Aweber (you are already paying for it, might as well use it) or go for MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet, which is much less intrusive and gives you a whole lot more options.
How to Build a List Marketing Takeaway
With these list building tips you have no excuse. Really.
Start Your Own Email Marketing List for Only $1.00
If you haven?t started building your list yet, let me tell you ? you are missing out big time. My list is number one reason I make the money I make with this blog and have such a strong readership.
Aweber is the best email autoresponder I have even used. And I am not the only one. Many A-list bloggers I know also use it for their businesses. This segmentation feature is just one tiny example of what you can do to improve your email marketing with Aweber.
Aweber offers a $1 trial month for all new customers. You?ll have access to all features a paid account is entitled to: unlimited lists, email campaigns, automatic follow-ups, broadcasts, and many, many more. If after 30 days you don?t like them, just let them know and Aweber will give you your $1 back. Guaranteed.
Source: http://erevs.info/how-to-build-a-list-paid-free-ways-list-building/
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