As fun and enjoyable as blogging is, it is also a serious business for many people. And as with any business, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours each day tweaking and optimizing your blog to have a successful blogging business.
Blogging is merely a means to an end. And that end should include building a list of email subscribers.
Now before you say but I’m in the [insert niche here] niche and that’s not a good market to build a list in, let me caution you that any niche is a good niche to build your email list in.
Any niche!
So if you are blogging about the latest baby products, you should be building an email list. If golf is your thing, build a list of golf enthusiasts. Regardless of what the niche is, build your email list and build it now.
Bloggers are at such an advantage when building their lists. Take the baby products niche for example. If you write blog posts reviewing baby products, chances are you have or are developing a good following of people looking forward to your reviews.
This is ideal because:
You’ve identified your market
You have already established your value
And you have huge potential with your email marketing
The fact is that people subscribe to email lists with a what’s in it for me perception.
Your blog has already preconditioned your readers on what to expect from you. They can look around and see the quality content you provide. Giving them the option of subscribing to your email list and giving them something of value in return is a piece of cake for bloggers. Your readers are already there. Offering a compelling free offer, targeted specifically to them is all it takes to get your list growing a rapid rate.
How to Build Your Email List if your Blog Doesn't Have a Following (Yet!)
Even though blogs develop a steady readership fairly quick, there are a few ways you can up the ante on your readers and generate some reader-love if your blog isn't quite hopping yet.
- Read and comment on others’ blogs. This tried-and-true method works and works very well. This is something I refer to a lot on my own blog and even though I've been blogging for some time, I still spend time every week reading and commenting on other blogs.
- Use social media wisely. You can use social media and then you can USE social media. In one case, you are just throwing links out there, there’s no interacting or responding to anyone, maybe you’ve even paid for followers. In the other case, you genuinely connect with your target market, potential business partners and other bloggers and share their information first. You don’t put any sales links out until you’ve built up your messages and given all your best stuff out for free. Yes, free.
- Produce content, produce more content and produce even more content. Blogs can get stagnant very quickly if they are not tended to. In addition, all the content you are producing can be spread out as articles in article directories, guest posts, short reports, products to sell. The more content you can produce, the more exposure you’ll have and the more readers you’ll see. Thus the more opportunities to build your email list.
Start Building your List
The worst thing that can happen with your blog is to produce all this compelling content, only to have it read once and forgotten. The reader says, that was nice and clicks to move on to the next blog.
Don’t let this happen to your blog!
At every turn, every blog post, every sidebar, even your About page, there should be an email opt-in box to subscribe to your list.
Every blog presents a great opportunity to build not just a subscriber list, but a lifelong business that will be there throughout the algorithm updates, the social network changes and whatever else the future of the Internet throws our way.
What about you? What do you do to build your email list?