As a blogger and internet entrepreneur one of your first major projects is to employ some email list building strategies. You need to build trust and establish relationships.
There will come a point in time when you will want to sell some affiliate products or even better, sell your own products like an ebook or a software tool you developed. Well you will not just suddenly introduce yourself and say buy my stuff, that certainly is not cool.
Many bloggers learn this the hard way by wasting away time and not starting this as early as possible, in effect passing up potential friendships, customers and future profits.
New bloggers tend to spend too much time on the design aspect of their blogs when the fact of the matter is this; the design is incomplete without some form of opt-in box for you to begin the process of gaining subscribers.
It can take a considerable amount of time to build a really decent size list so the sooner you can get started (like day one) the better.
Why you need a list
Being online today is all about networking and building relationships. It is difficult to build these relationships without some form of continual contact.
Relationships are built on trust and let’s face it, people are skeptical of others online that they really do not know or have not interacted with for some period of time. People have to get to get to know you and find out what you are about and what you represent. This cannot be accomplished by simply reading your blog posts.
The continual contact via email allows your subscribers to get to know you on a more personal level. Now when I say continual contact, I do not mean that you are going to land in your readers’ inboxes daily, but staying in touch and providing valuable information and helpful content at intervals that keeps them engaged while not being overbearing.
Much like yourself, your readers are busy people who may not have had an opportunity to come back to your blog for a while. An email from you with your latest posts, a newsletter or some valuable information about something that can help them solve a problem or otherwise benefit them will remind them about you and your blog. You and your blog may otherwise be forgotten. Think long-term on this and how it can benefit you and your readers as you share the online experience.
This is very important so do not underestimate the power of having an email list.
Here is another example:
Let’s say that a blogging friend of yours has a really hot product to sell. He or she taps you to help them with the launch of the product and establishes you as an affiliate where you get 50% of every sale that you make.
Now who are you going to sell anything to without a list?
Remember, no list, no relationships and no trust established = no sales. You have missed out on a golden opportunity to make some cash without even having a product.
On the other hand, letting your list know about this fine quality product would have yielded you some sales because you are considered a trusted friend to your readers. Not everyone will buy, but some who have a need surely will.
How does this all work?
You have no doubt seen all of those email “Subscribe” forms on blogs and websites everywhere around the internet, like the one above in the upper right corner. This is known as an opt-in box. All that is required is a person’s name and email address and they are added to your list once they confirm their intent to become a subscriber by clicking a confirmation link in their email.
There are a few services available that you can utilize for building your list and sending out emails via the use of auto responders and broadcast messages.
Aweber and Mail Chimp are two such service providers. I personally use Aweber and highly recommend them because of their excellent delivery and all around service. I cannot speak to Mail chimp, having never used it, but reports from other bloggers I know indicate that this is a fairly good service.
I can tell you that the industry standard is Aweber.
To shorten this post I have embedded two videos below that will walk you through how to setup and use Aweber’s service and provide you with an inside look at how easy the service is to use.
The interface in these videos is just slightly different than today’s upgraded version, but basically everything works the same. The videos are 7:33 and 5:58 minutes respectively for a total of just over 13 minutes.
I will close out the post after the videos and talk about what I will cover in the next post on Email list building strategies.
As you can see, Aweber is a really great email list building tool with everything you need to get off to a great start building an email marketing campaign. All of the forms are there, help videos, a live chat if you need it and a robust interface that is easy to use.
Many of the links to Aweber above are my affiliate links and I will receive a commission if you purchase by clicking them, but that is not at all what is important here, you can buy direct by clicking this Aweber link.
The point of the matter is this, if you are not building your list, you are making a major mistake. You can get started for $1. Your recurring monthly fee is about $20.00, but you can test drive the system for 1 month first. It is money well spent for what you are accomplishing. You should get started on this because it is of major importance for your business.
In the next post on email marketing I will talk in greater detail about many of the strategies for building your list and why they work. until then…
Keep Blogging!
Stay connected via RSS
Get your Free Newsletter and Business Tips delivered right to your inbox via Email by completing the form below.
Disclosure Policy
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Hehe – we just crossed paths, as I was over at your place reading that post and leaving a comment. Good stuff!
Excellent point about the balance. I really keep the selling to a minimum, nobody wants to be pitched to all the time and I would feel not so good doing it.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..The Importance of Email List Building Strategies =-.
[Reply]