Mailing lists are important. So, you throw one on your blog. You place an opt-in form on the blog sidebar and wait for the influx of subscribers. Hardly anything happens. What went wrong?
Chris Guthrie from Netbook Reviews asks the following:
What suggestions do you have for the newsletter I recently started on my blog about netbooks?
Look in the upper right hand corner. I just set it up last weekend (no subscribers yet). I may experiment with lightboxes later to get more people to subscribe but what should I send to them?
My blog has netbook reviews, netbook news and netbook news. Should I just send out emails on netbook deals to make more money and instill a sense of urgency or what do you think? Is it wise to repeat content that I’ve already posted on the blog?
I know I need to come up with another incentive to get people to subscribe – perhaps a netbook buyers guide?
You’ve got a potentially good market there, Chris. When somebody is looking to buy a netbook, they are likely to read reviews first. This puts you in a good position to get traffic in a rapidly growing market.
Aside from building your list, you might look into getting price comparison stuff onto your blog for monetization purposes. Chitika might work really well on your site. Perhaps a cobranded site with Pricegrabber. However, let’s move onto building your list.
Create an Ethical Bribe
As you correctly stated, you need some incentive to get them onto your list. Create some report or video that people will get when they subscribe to your list. If you are scrounging for ideas, head into some tech forums where they talk about netbooks and find out what the common questions are. Then, create a solid piece of content which answers those questions. A buyer’s guide would be a great idea.
Make Your Opt-In Stand Out
Your site has practically zero color in it. You can use that to your advantage to make the opt-in box stand out by providing some color. You want a person’s eye to gravitate to that opt-in.
Once you have created your bribe content, feature that next to your opt-in form. Display an image of the report next to the form. Even though it is a digital report, get a cover designed to make it look like a real book and place that image on your site. If you end up doing a video, then perhaps a thumbnail of your video with a big play button on top.
You might try also putting a small opt-in form right underneath your blog posts.
I also recommend testing use of Action Popup on your blog. It does work.
Grab Your Commenters’ Email Address
When people comment on your blog, they enter their email address. Why not provide the option to add it to your list?
That’s what Action Comments does. Every time somebody posts a comment, they can be added to your list. This is a killer plug-in and I recommend it.
Don’t Forget Landing Pages
We’re all bloggers here so we tend to think of everything focusing around the blog itself. But, realize that one of the absolute biggest problems with opt-in forms on blogs is the amount of distraction. Blogs have a lot of shiny things and great content and this all distracts the end user from your opt-in form.
So, sometimes the best thing to do is send your readers off to a single-purpose landing page. You might even want to use a different domain. However, the idea is that you have some form of teaser copy or a video and an opt-in form – AND THAT’S IT. That means that the reader has only two things to do on that page: (1) Opt onto your list, or (2) leave.
See, you want a yes/no answer. Blogs give too many options. So, try using the blog as a lead generator, sending a reader off to a special link for more information or for an additional resource. That link leads to a landing page with the only goal of getting the person onto your mailing list.
Hope this helps Chris and all the other bloggers out there who want to build their list.
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