Easy Ways To Increase Your Email List (And How I Gained 18,000 Subscribers in 7 Months…) Step by Step!
In blogging, your email list should always be your #1 focus. It’s the only thing that you have (almost) complete control over. Social media sites and search engines have constantly changing algorithms that can affect your reach. So I needed to develop some easy ways to increase my email list.
Your email list is usually only affected by what you do. Your email list will also be your primary income source if your business model focuses on either affiliate income or your own products.
Having several ways to join your email list is your best tactic to grow your email list quickly. In fact, I gained an extra 18,000 subscribers in the last 7 months!
I’m going to walk you through my strategy step-by-step today.
Grab a free smart bar from sumome.
This is one of the most powerful free list building tactics. This one opt-in was getting me almost 400 subscribers a month alone!
The fact that it’s free is just a bonus.
You need to download Sumome (free) smart bar for your computer here.
When you’ve done that, come back here and I’ll walk you through how to add a smart bar in this video. (If you’re tech savvy, you can work this out yourself, but if you’re like me and need someone to walk you through it step-by-step- use the video. 🙂
Don’t forget to create several bars and just keep deleting the bars that aren’t performing as well (watch the video if you aren’t sure how to do that)
Create an opt-in freebie.
An opt-in freebie is something that readers get for free when they join your list. It serves both as an incentive to sign up and an opportunity for you to show them what you can do for them.
My best advice for creating your freebie is to pursue simple. Checklists, printables and simple pdf’s perform better in my opinion than e-books or anything too complicated.
You also want your opt-in to appeal to 100% of your target audience (as long as you only have one opt-in). Another strategy would be to have several smaller opt-ins targeted to different sections of your target audience.
You want your opt-in to be extremely valuable. Enough that people would pay money for it.
I’ll give you an example.
If you click this link, you can subscribe to get updates from me.
What? You didn’t click and subscribe? Pshhh. Not cool.
I’m kidding. What if I told you that, if you subscribe below, I’ll instantly send you the Quick Growth Blogging Resource Guide.
It’s a complete list of the resources, training and classes that I used my first 9 months of blogging that made me grow from $18/month in income to full-time income (and now… just 19 months after starting this blog, my whole family is being supported by this blog).
I’m basically handing over the secrets of what tools worked for me and what didn’t. And tons of them are completely free. It’s helped thousands of bloggers increase their income from their blogs. Interested?
Jot your email below, and I’ll send you blogging tips like this one and send you the resource guide immediately.
See? That’s the power of the opt-in. You’re much more likely to subscribe if you know…
- Who I am and why you should listen to me.
- What you’ll get from subscribing.
- And why you need the item that you’ll get.
Side note: I only started writing about blogging a few months ago. Most of my income and my subscribers are from my budgeting list. Where I use the Ultimate Money Saving Workbook as an opt-in. It’s a free checklist of all of the ways that we found to reduce our spending. You can find out more about it here.
But if you write about blogging as well as your normal subject, you’ll need to have two opt-ins.
Choose an email service.
If you don’t already have one, you’ll need an email service. I use Convertkit and am completely in love with it. If you’re over 2,000 subscribers, I highly recommend it. It’s much simpler to use than I was expecting (I’m not what you would call tech savvy).
If you aren’t over 2,000 subscribers than yay! You can actually build your list for free! I used Mailchimp before Convertkit and it was free and easy to build my list there.
Use HTML Codes in your posts.
Remember above, when I told you to sign up? The first time, I asked you to click a link which took you away from what you were reading. Which is a pain because you came here to read this post, not sign up for my email list and click away.
The second time I asked you to sign up, I gave you a box directly below when I asked and told you to stick your name in it and press send. That’s much easier for you and more people are inclined to do that then to click away.
You can create one of these codes in your email service.
If you use Convertkit with me, you click “forms” at the top of your dashboard then “create new form”.
Then insert it in the “text” (or html) tab when you’re writing your post. Click back to visual and your opt-in box magically appears!
Create a sidebar ad for your opt-in.
You can see mine by glancing to the right side of your screen. See that giant “Subscribe to get our free money saving workbook?” That’s an ad for a free product, my opt-in freebie for my budgeting list. You can design your own and upload it to your sidebar as a photo and then link it to your email provider.
I had mine designed by a web designer so she embedded the email from directly into it. It cost me $15 and was well worth the money spent!
Heads up: You need to be self-hosted on WordPress in order to do this (which you should be anyway if you want to earn money from blogging), you can learn more about that here. You can get hosting for as little as $3.95/month through this link.
Create an end of the post opt-in.
Very few people will actually read to the bottom of your post. But the ones that do are the most likely to actually subscribe to you. So, you want to make sure that you tell them to subscribe when they get to the bottom.
It’s the same steps as creating a sidebar ad above, but you’re putting it in your footer instead of your sidebar.
Create a pop-up.
I know, I know. You hate pop-ups. But they convert REALLY well. You can create one for free with Sumome Mat. I set mine so that you don’t see the pop up if you’ve already seen it within 30 days. If you’re totally against pop-ups, you can skip this and concentrate on the other methods.
That’s the strategy that has gotten me to over 24,000 email subscribers in 19 months (and over 18,000 of them in just the last 7 months!)
What do you do to grow your email list quickly?
FTC Disclosure of Material Connection: In order for us to maintain this website, some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and/or believe will add value to readers.
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I need to think of a suitable freebie to build my list. My blog covers a couple of different topics. It’s a bit tough to come up with the right freebie.
May EatCookExplore recently posted…A Cake Fit For a Queen with Eric Lanlard
Maybe offer one of two freebies so a subscriber can select what appeals to her/him most. I don’t have a blog yet so don’t know how doable that is.
This is very helpful! I’m so focused on working on creating posts with great resources for my blog that I feel like I haven’t been able to really look at strategies to grow my blog so that people actually read them. these are simple strategies that I’m going to work on implementing.
I am so glad this was helpful 🙂
The Busy Budgeter recently posted…How to Make Money From Home Offline in a Business
Great tips! Happy to find out how to add a sign-up to my sidebar. I haven’t been able to figure it out until I read that I could add it as an image. Visiting from DIY Sunday party.
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled recently posted…How To Quickly Recover Barstools and Add A Padded Back
Great list! I have only had my blog up for 1 month so my list is super small, but I am working on a freebie printable pack plus a free resources library for subscribers. I currently have MailMunch set up for my pop-up and subscribe bars, but I am going to look into SumoMe now. Thanks!
I’ve just recently started working on building my email list. This post was so helpful to me and I’ve already pinned it to refer to later. I’m excited to check out all of the tutorials that you laid out for how to apply these tips to my blog. Thank you so much for simplifying this! Also, I subscribed! 😉
Gina recently posted…What Is The Purpose of A Yard Sale?
I just switched to convert kit, it’s working great! My list has grown a lot and the automation works well. Great tips as always!
Aja Mcclanahan recently posted…How to Start a Blog like a Total Rock Star!
Thanks for the tips and the great resources. I can’t wait to read them.
I really need to get going on my opt-in(s)! It’s almost a shame how much I’ve heard this and don’t yet have one published. I think I’m just not sure which one to publish first…uggh! 🙂
I’m over from the linky. Great post and I had to pin it for future reference. Thank you!
Thanks for the info. I’m still trying to determine where God is leading me with my blog and so far not getting answers to grow big.
Honestly, I think all of this advice is wonderful. Yet, at the same time, I think your options are truly what has been the ultimate reason why you’ve had such a great response with people signing up for your subscription service. (I know I for one LOVE your e-book!!) I’m trying come up with my own e-book idea that will make it hard for people to resist wanting it. 😉
Thank you for sharing these tips and tricks with us on the #MotivationMondayParty. We hope to see you again next time.
Crystal Green recently posted…Why You Should Consider Homeschooling
Thank you so much for your comment. Totally made my day 🙂
The Busy Budgeter recently posted…How to Update All of Your Accounts… in One Step.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday. 🙂
Dee recently posted…Easy OREO Puppy Chow
This is great information for all bloggers.
Thank you for sharing this at Thoughts of Home.
We love having you.
Sooo many helpful tips here, and I love your writing style! I felt like you were addressing me personally! You’re such an inspiration! xoxo
Tehila recently posted…5 Ways to Get Your Laundry Down to Two Loads Per Week (From a Mom of 5)
Great post! I don’t know if you have yet, but I would love it if you could share this over at our Totally Terrific Tuesday party today! I think our readers would love to read this!
Nice tips! I have been thinking about opt-ins and now just need to create one. I love the different ideas you have about then promoting that opt-in so that it gets clicked on! Thanks 🙂
Kendall Patton recently posted…The Summer Culinary Giveaway!
Rosemarie, you once again are FEATURED on our next Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop as this post is HIGHLY popular. No wonder….what a great title and valuable information.
QUESTION: I am already opted in on your site so I don’t see the bar (at least I don’t think I do)
And, you are right, I HATE the flying opt in forms. Is the one you are talking about intuitive so that once they have opted they never have to see it again??? I even wrote a post about websites that are so complicated you never get to read the post LOL!
Building an email list is big on my priority list just alongside building my Twitter following into the 10k’s.
Thanks so much for your advice
Sinea ♥
Ducks n a Row recently posted…Save 5% PLUS Get A $10 Target Giftcard w IAMS Dry Dog Food
Thank you for the resources and tips!
Hi Rosemarie!
This is such a helpful series, I’ve been reading multiple posts from your blog tonight. It’s inspiring 🙂
I was almost finished with setting up my sumoMe pop-up form when it finally told me they won’t connect with Mailchimp (which is free) unless I subscribe to the pro membership for 20$/month.
As of now, I earn no revenue with my blog and don’t really feel like making yet another investment.
Any advice for how I could by-pass that and still have a Newsletter pop-up?
Thank you so much!
Cheers,
Aryane
I just did a test and I entered my own email address. Then I went to my SumoMe dashboard and was able to see it.
It’s just a thought, but do you think I could just go to the dashboard every day and then enter them manually in Mailchimp? I only have about 4k visitors per month and I doubt they’ll all subscribe (even though that would be awesome!!).
And then after a while I can see if SumoMe Pro is worth it..
Hope I’m not taking up to much of your time with my babbling! 🙂
Aryane
Aryane recently posted…Happy Cow – how to find vegan restaurants while travelling
UGH! I wonder if they just changed taht. Try Hello Bar for the same service and see if they’ll work with mail chimp? I wouldn’t pay for it unless you know exactly what you’ll be getting out of it.
I hate pop-ups, they actually make me leave the site…
I’ve done a lot of these and I found sharing a freebie for a subscription works great!
Thanks for sharing this week at the Merry Monday link party!
We hope to see you again next week!
Kate | TheOrganizedDream.com
Kate recently posted…Wake Up Wednesday #141
Wow.
I have 3 followers on my blog.
I would love to make some money on it too.
Great information.
I found you on a linky party. =)
Meena recently posted…CHOCOLATE CHIP HEARTS
You bet! I’m glad I was able to help 🙂
Great tips and ideas to help build a list! I just started a few different lists and wondering what sort of optin freebies you found converts the best?
Jolene Ejmont recently posted…Best Hotels & Resorts in Vietnam: Recommended Places to Stay for a Memorable Trip!
Thanks for the information, all great ideas! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday. Hope to see you at the party next week!