…Another great point mentioned is providing value – something I think a lot of us do not know how to do. Personally I feel that this is something that really distinguishes the really successful from the wannabes. …

So that’s what we’re going to do today, answer the question…

How Do I Provide Value?

It really comes down to having a mindset where your goal is to HELP your readers (or subscribers). If you look at the world with the intention to help the people in your “tribe”, providing value becomes a no brainer.

All you have to do is keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open for things that make you say “oh YEAH!”, or topics that get you thinking, or things that give you an insight, or things that make your life easier. (of course all these things will be related to whatever topic you blog about ~ or you talk about with your subscribers).

What are you looking for?

1. Videos

Videos are a great way to provide value ~ whether they’re your own videos or something you’ve found on youtube. If the video helped you, gave you an idea, got you thinking ~ or in any way moved you forward ~ it’s probably worth sharing with your subscribers.

2. Blog Posts

I love this one… I read some really good blog posts. I don’t know if my readers/subscribers read the same blogs as I do, so I share links to the posts that really give me a flat forehead moment.

In addition to other people’s blog post let me note here and now, that YOUR blog posts are some of the most valuable content you provide… so don’t phone it in. Write AWESOME blog posts… posts that help your readers, inspire them, move them forward. Your blog is the easiest way to provide TONS of value! If you’d like an example of a what a valuable blog post looks like… check out this one. It moved me to action yesterday (in a bunch of different ways!)

3. Sales

While I keep my eyes open I don’t always have my ear to the ground, I’m sure I miss things all the time… and sometimes that’s probably good! But if a great sale is going on, and you know it’s something you list may want then share the sale! Things like Dave Navarro’s pay what you want sale, or the fact Nicole Dean is having a 25% off PLR sale, or that Tiffany Dow is feeling really blessed and is having a $1 sale (for ALL her products) ~ and only til 11am Central time today!! Those things are VALUABLE to know! Who doesn’t want to save some money on something they’ve been wanting to buy!

Some of those sales could earn you a little affiliate commission, but share the ones that don’t earn you a dime as well, that’s providing value… thinking of what benefits your customer as well as what benefits YOU.

4. Your own insight

This can be tough… but the more REAL you are with your subscribers the more valuable your information is going to be for them. No one wants you to blow smoke up their… well you know. People want to know the real deal, the real YOU ~ no matter what topic you’re talking about… so share your struggles, and your successes with your readers and subscribers. You’ll become a real person to them, instead of just another marketer.

5. Podcasts or Interviews

If you listen to an interview with someone that really moves you, or teaches you something new, share that with your subscribers. It’s likely they’ll learn something as well.

Providing value isn’t tough… but it does take a bit of a mindset shift. It takes being able to think about your readers/subscribers as people who you’re looking out for, you’re trying to help, instead of just thinking about how you can make money from your list. Believe me, if you provide this kind of value you’ll also make the money.

The Logistics of Providing Value

Now you’ve got your eyes open, you’ve got some great stuff to share with your readers, now what?!

There are quite a few ways to actually share this great stuff, but you don’t want to inundate your list with email after email every time you find something cool.

That’s where social media comes in…

A lot of this valuable stuff can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Social media is a fantastic way to share and provide value without being intrusive.

However… the money is in the list and you’ll definitely want to share some of these things exclusively with your list.

One easy way to do this is to write a blog post about a related or relevant topic. Then when you send an email about the new blog post you can throw in a couple of the things you’ve found along the way.

That’s what I’m going to do today… since I’m talking about providing value in this post it seemed only fitting to throw in some extras for my email subscribers. In addition to the link to this post, they will also be getting a link to a new video I made, as well as a great free report about list building I found. “Subscriber only” content provides value to your subscribers, which gives people even more incentive to subscribe… because they know you give your email list access to stuff you don’t give to everyone else. (so if you haven’t signed up yet ~ put your name and address in the box up there in the corner! )

The main thing to remember when figuring out how to provide value to your readers is to go into the world with your eyes open and the intention to help your readers move forward (with whatever it is they’re doing). If you do that you’ll have no problem.

Let’s continue this conversation in the comments…

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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The thing about having a list is this:

You can talk to your subscribers when you want, even after they leave your site and move on to the next shiny thing! You can connect with them over the long haul. They get to know you by the things you send them. They start to love you and send you wonderful emails in response to your emails that make you feel all warm and fuzzy and make you want to keep doing your work forever. (well that last part is seriously dependent on how wonderfully you treat your list ~ but it does happen to me. )

A while back I made some decisions to change some of my business… I ended up neglecting my list building, and my revenues showed this. It really drove home just how important my list is for so many different reasons.

Over the last few days I’ve been bombarded with stuff to help build effective and large lists… so I’m taking it as a hint from the Universe, and I’m going to jump on them… but I thought I’d share them with you as well.

What does it take to create a powerful list?

1. An autoresponder.

Of course. I use Get Response. I use them because they were much cheaper back when I got started. Now they are comparably priced to Aweber… now that all things are the same I’d go with Aweber. However… I’m hearing really good things about MailChimp, and you can start off free there  ~ up until you gain 500 subscribers ~ then it will be about comparable pricing to Aweber.

2. An opt in box. 

You’ll need some place for people to sign up. The sidebar is a great place to start… and of course there are plenty more places you can add an opt in box. Depending on the autoresponder service you use, you may want a second party opt in box creator. The Opt In Box Domination plugin is one that works quite well (and easily) to create nice looking opt in boxes for your sidebar.

3. An enticing offer

In the olden days a free newsletter may have been enough to entice people to hand over their details… nowadays you’re going to need something of a little higher value to give away for free. It can be any number of things, but a short free report has always worked quite well for me. If you have no idea how to write a short report or if you needs some ideas and direction Write that Report by Jonathan Leger is one of my favorites. (it’s from 2010, but the content is still very valuable for getting reports written ~ whether you want a freebie to give away or you want to write a report to sell).

4. Create a Squeeze page

Once you’ve got your offer created it’s great to have a squeeze page. A squeeze page is one page (on your website or a stand alone site) that has one goal, and one goal only ~ to get someone’s name and email address. This squeeze page will lay out your offer with a few bullet points, and provide a space for them to opt in. The reason a squeeze page is a great idea is it’s much easier to send people to a squeeze page than just sending them to your home page where your opt in box is in the sidebar. You have a greater chance of getting people opted in through a squeeze page because there are no distractions. It’s a nice clean link you can use from anywhere. If you have no clue how to build a squeeze page, this squeeze page software is what I used in the beginning ~ super simple.

5. Get people to respond!

The next step is creating a responsive list. It doesn’t matter how many people you have on your list. If they don’t open your emails or take some action after reading them the list is useless to you. Recently, Dave Navarro (the author of What’s Holding You Back ~ and a number of other wonderful workbooks I have often promoted) has been going through some really rough stuff in his “real” life. He’s leaving the internet marketing space and in so doing has decided to let people have access to all his products. He is doing a “pay as you wish” type thing, and I really hope you pay him a little something, but you can get all his products for free right now… I definitely recommend them, they are amazing, and keeping with today’s topic I’d start with Building a Responsive List. You can get Dave’s products at The Launch Coach.

6. Keep Adding new Subscribers

With a super responsive list you don’t need a million people on your list to make money, however, it’s always nice to have a stream of people coming into your list. I just found this new plugin that will harness the power of social media, and referrals. It basically creates an “affiliate”  program for your list building. This plugin will give people a specific referral id where they can send their friends, and social media followers to join your list. As they send referrals they are eligible for additional freebies. It sounds like a great idea to me, and I’m excited to go pick it up and test it out some more. I’ll give you more inside info on how it works for me soon! I think this is an excellent alternative to the big pop up boxes (which totally work but are very annoying!)

7. Keep connecting and providing Value!

From here on out all it takes to make your list a powerful piece of your internet business is to keep one thing in your mind above all else, when it comes to your list… PROVIDE VALUE.

Don’t hit your list with offer after offer… provide value, give them good stuff, help them. If you treat your list well it will become your most prized asset in your business, and will help you take your business to the next level.

If you want to see how I run my list, you can check out my squeeze page, or opt in over there in the sidebar and get the free 2 Hour Blog Blueprint. 

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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However, when I really look at it, that’s totally not true. The people on my list are my most responsive, connected (and yeah, favorite) readers. The big problem with building a list in a non IM field is there have thus far been no guides to help me do it in a “non IM way”.

How I do things in the IM niche just doesn’t feel quite right when I try to transfer it over to another niche, like my favorite books, or living green with a family. In fact, some of the techniques I would use in the IM niche feel down right spammy in other niches.

I definitely know the value of having a list (no matter what the niche) and really want to be able to create the same sense of community I have here, on my other sites.

Earlier this week I picked up List Building for Bloggers. It was on the recommendation of someone I trust, and I really didn’t expect I would pick up all that much from reading it.

List Building for Bloggers is written by Phil Hallows. He’s the founder and CEO of feedblitz ~ which is an autoresponder service. It makes sense he knows about building lists and how to do it right.. it’s his business. I was a little concerned, since I use Get Response that the book would be a big sales page for Feedblitz, and I wouldn’t get much out of it because of that. This was not the case. While Phil does talk about different features a good autoresponder has and states Feedblitz has those features, Get Response has them as well. The entire book was quite relevant, whether you’re still making a decision on an autoresponder service, or if you already have one.

My thoughts that I wouldn’t learn much were completely unfounded.  I was thrilled by a number of things about this book, the first and most of which was how it was written for bloggers specifically. Not once did I read the words “split testing” lol. Nope, it is completely geared toward bloggers, and creating a connection and community for those people blogging OUTSIDE the IM niche.

In fact, the examples he uses throughout the book are of mom bloggers in a variety of niches. I really liked that, and to be able to see how other moms are using the information and techniques to build HUGE businesses (without selling IM products).

I also liked how he set the book up. While it’s great for beginners, and there were some chapters that I skimmed because I am pretty familiar with the ins and outs of spam… it’s great for bloggers who are just getting started. I hear frequently the fear that holds people back from starting something is the idea of “not wanting to do it wrong”. I think this is especially true when it comes to building a list. You’ve got the whole “spam” thing involved which can seem scary and if you don’t know just what you’re doing it can seem pretty easy to get yourself in trouble. That fear really holds people back.

Phil spends quite a bit of time going over the ins and outs of spam, what it is, what it’s not and how you can avoid being a spammer. The entire book is written in a very conversational tone which makes it easy to not only read, but absorb.

He also goes over the basics of what works and what doesn’t work in list building. When he talks about this his focus is on bloggers… he’s not talking about internet marketers who get people on their list so they can send them emails asking them to buy something every other day… no. His focus is on using your list to create a connection, and a community with your readers.

At the end of each chapter he gives you actionable steps you can work on in YOUR business. You know me, I love the actionable steps. What was really great about the steps he lines out is they weren’t huge, overwhelming steps. Definitely bite sized things you could actually do!

The middle part of the book was definitely my favorite. He really gets into the nitty gritty of using an autoresponder in a way that really works for you, whether it’s just to send out email updates of blog posts, to creating a follow series to drip on your readers, even creating the “email blast” to sell a product in a way that continues to build your relationship. Yep, that middle part is definitely worth the price of admission.

Speaking of the price of admission…

List Building for Bloggers is currently in launch… launch means a great deal right?! You know it. Right now… until Monday you can pick up this book for $9.95. Make sure you use the coupon code LBBLAUNCH when you’re checking out to get the deal.

On Monday the price goes up to 24.95. which is still a complete bargain.

You know I definitely recommend this book, and will be implementing many of the actionable tips at the end of quite a few of the chapters…

Who do I not recommend this book for?

Bloggers in the IM field

Bloggers looking for a bunch of numbers and scientifically proven reasons why they should build a list

Niche marketers… this book is really for people who are trying to create and  connect with their community

Who do I recommend this book for?

Bloggers who wants to ramp up their game

Bloggers outside the IM  niche

Bloggers who are paying for an autoresponder, but aren’t really using it

Bloggers who want to create more of a community and connection with their readers

Bloggers who have been thinking about starting a list but were afraid or weren’t sure it would be worth it

Any of these sound like you?

If they do, go ahead and pick up a copy of List Building for Bloggers. Remember if you grab it before Monday and use the coupon code: LBBLAUNCH you can get it for $9.95. That’s $15 OFF!

I look forward to hearing what you think and seeing the results you get from implementing the ideas in the book!

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You get up the next day (after having fallen asleep finally an hour or two before the little one comes screaming in that it’s morning), and you put it into action. You put the pieces together. You work your ass off. Your idea is now IMPLEMENTED! WOOT!

You sit at your computer watching the numbers… whatever numbers it is you’re expecting from the new plan, whether it’s sales, or signups, or pageviews ~ the numbers you’re looking for don’t really matter. You’re looking!

Then a day passes, and you don’t get the results you expected. Then 2 days pass, and those numbers still haven’t moved. Well.. the internet takes time… but you see all the things are there that should be moving your number and it still ain’t budged!

What do you do now?

1. Throw your hands up in disgust.

2. Give yourself a good ass kicking about how another of your brilliant plans has flopped miserably.

3. Walk away from your computer discouraged and positive that internet marketing just doesn’t work for you.

4. Test and tweak your brilliant idea.

You know the answer is #4 right?! Of course it’s number 4, all the others are silly and unproductive, so don’t even let yourself go there.

Where is this coming from?

You know my brilliant idea to put the popup domination plugin on my easy chicken recipe site. My faith that I would begin to see sign ups and then sell to them via my list instead of on the site.

well… not so much.

Over the last week that site has had around 250 visits, and not one sign up through the pop up box. I did get some sign ups when I offered the cookbook via twitter, but that’s it.

Time to go back to the thinking board.

Here’s where my thoughts went, the problem solving I did, and the solution I’ve come up with.

1. Most people are coming from the search engine looking for a very specific recipe. They aren’t looking for a bunch of recipes at that moment, but do want the recipe they are looking for.

2. This niche is irritated by/doesn’t understand pop ups

3. This niche is overwhelmed/un nerved by the pop up.

4. the pop up takes them away from what they’re looking for, and they get thrown back to the front page once they’ve signed up. (they don’t know this, but I do and it bugs me)

5. maybe they would be more receptive to a free cookbook after they’ve gotten the recipe they came looking for.

Possible tweaks:

1. put the opt in box (noticeable, pretty opt in box) in the sidebar.

2. put the opt in box (noticeable, pretty box) at the bottom of each recipe post.

3. don’t use the name form in the opt in box and see if that makes a difference (I hear it does)

4. get an ebook cover for the book done so I can feature the ebook more than them giving their names.

That’s all I’ve got now… my brain will continue to mull this over as time goes on.

For today…

I’m going to pull the pop up. I’m going to add the opt in box to the sidebar, and the bottom of each post, and let it go for a week and see what the numbers are.

Lesson…

Even the most brilliant ideas may sometimes flop, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work. It just means they don’t work as they are right now.

Do you have a brilliant idea that didn’t work? How could you rethink it, brainstorm around it and tweak it to see if it might work in another incarnation? I’d love to hear, tell me all about it below.

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Once you’ve got them on your list there are 3 key elements to make that list successful. You have to KEEP them on your list, build trust and make some sales.  Let’s look at these three elements your autoresponder series must have to be successful, no matter what niche you’re in.

1. Keep them on your list:

It is easy to unsubscribe from a list ~ there’s an unsub link at the bottom of every single email. All your reader has to do if they get annoyed or don’t want to stay is click it and they are gone.

How do you keep them on your list?

Quality content. While I do plan to make money from my list, and I’ll show you how I plan to do it I am not now, nor ever, advocating you just send people offer after offer after offer. Think about how that makes you feel. You sign up for a list. The person sends you content 1 maybe 3 times and then forever after it’s offer offer offer ~ and of course it’s increasingly expensive offers as they work you up their funnel. No ~ not my plan at all.

Content: I plan to create a newsletter of sorts. This will work in just about any niche ~ there’s plenty to talk about no matter what subject you’re talking about.

This newsletter will go out regularly (for the simple chicken recipes site it will be once a week). The newsletter will have a new recipe I’ve tried, some sort of tip ~ like for saving money on groceries, cooking related ~ something related to the topic of my sites ~ which is chicken recipes, and a Q and A section where I answer questions people have about related topics.

So that’s the outline ~ is it a lot to do ~ yeah. It is. BUT… (and this one’s big) you don’t have to do them ALL before you get started. You can do a few to keep you ahead of your subscribers and then do one newsletter a week and put it in the que to go out automatically from there on.

Your content is what’s going to keep them. Think about the emails/newsletters you get now. Who do you always read? Who do you always open? Think about why that is? My guess is you get something great from them each time you do. BE that.

Build Trust:

Building trust is key ~ if you don’t build trust with your subscribers they just won’t buy from you. Would you? Would you buy from an email if you think the sender is untrustworthy? I know I don’t.

Thankfully building trust is pretty easy. Be you. Really, be a real person. Let people see that you’re a real person. Let people into your life a little.  For this recipe site I talk about my love of cooking, my cooking failures, the tricks I’ve learned to save money ~ all sprinkled with real stories from my real life.

I am a mom ~ my target market is busy moms trying to get dinner on the table. It’s pretty easy to connect with the market ~ because I AM the market. I let them know that, and that builds trust.

Another way to build trust is to NEVER recommend junk. No matter what kind of commission you can get. Never create or recommend junk. It only takes one bad taste in someone’s mouth for them to lose trust in you. Of course everything won’t work for everyone, but never recommend something just for the commission. Always think of your subscriber first ~ will it help them? Will it do them some good? Would you feel good if someone recommended it to you and you spent YOUR money on it?

Make some sales:

This is where it can get iffy for people ~ myself included! I know I have grown up thinking “sales people are smarmy” and I don’t want to be sold to. I told the story of the sales guy at the car dealership when my mom went to buy a car she really really wanted. No one wants to be that guy. However, you do want to make some sales.

To makes sales you’re going to have to make offers.

2 ways to make offers.

1. The soft sell: This is something you should do in EVERY email, from the very first one. I had a hard time swallowing this, but I’ve noticed a HUGE increase in sales since I started doing it.  If you soft sell them in the first email they won’t be surprised and indignant in the second or third or when they get an entire promotional email.

How to use the soft sell

At the bottom of your email, or even in the body of your email if the product is relevant,  slip in a quick note about something that might help them. It’s an offer to help them make something easier, quicker, whatever. This is not hard sell, this is just hey ~ I found this/know about this and it might help you.

In my first email of my recipe series I offer up a service called Tastebook. It’s an awesome site where people can pull in recipes from the net, their own recipe boxes ~ anywhere and create a real hardcover cookbook that is sent to your house. You can also buy credits for more pages, and keep adding to your cookbook over time. I mentioned this because I know that all the recipes I print off the computer and use in my kitchen get wet and blurry. Tastebook is a great way to overcome that problem. Tastebook pages don’t run. (and the book has all recipes my family will really eat)

Yes, I’m going to get a commission if they set up a Tastebook Account and make a cookbook ~ but the point is it will really help THEM get dinner on the table much easier if they don’t have to find/hunt down and replace messed up printed recipes.

Hard (er) sell:

There are people who will tell you to send your subscribers an email, give them a time limit ~ really hard sell them. I just can’t do that.

Instead I’ve chosen to create a whole promotional email. One email focused on one product. Of course, the product is relevant to the market (not necessarily specifically what the newsletter is about). I don’t hard sell it though. I talk about how it can help them, the benefits of the product and then link to it.

For my chicken recipes newsletter I really thought about what people who read that newsletter might want/need in life.  Here’s some ideas I had… meal planning, cookbooks, quick easy workout programs. Busy moms who are trying to get dinner on the table might be interested in all of these things. You can see they are not all about recipes… but all about what the market needs.

Don’t get stuck into thinking you have to sell exactly what your newsletter is about ~ think about your market, what they like, what they do, where they struggle, and then provide them product suggestions that can help them in their lives.

There you have the 3 key elements of a successful newsletter and autoresponder series.  I’ll be going into more detail about how I set my series up in my next blog post so stay tuned!

If you want to work with me to get your autoresponder series and newsletter set up join the KISS Club. We can brainstorm and get you up and running.

PS. As I was writing this post it dawned on me that most of what I’m telling you I learned from Affiliatenaire. A step by step list building course by Jimmy Brown. I took it a couple years ago and during the whole course I couldn’t see how I could make it work. Now it all makes perfect sense. I think I will review the course and see what else might work well now.

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What happens when you realize the topic you’ve decided on for your site just doesn’t really respond to that type of monetization?

Maybe you chose a topic that is early in the buying cycle, and people aren’t looking to buy something, or they’re just looking for information.

What do you do?

Do you just quit the site and let it lay around doing nothing?

Well that’s one option for sure ~ but it’s not the most profitable option I’m certain.

Let’s look at an example from my website portfolio.

A couple years ago when I went through Amy’s Niche Blogger program I built a blog featuring Easy Chicken Recipes. It met all the guidelines she talked about. I built it as she suggested and it gets traffic. I haven’t really touched the site (until just recently) in a year or so ~ and it still gets a couple thousand page views a month. The keywords aren’t the problem ~ they are getting me traffic, problem is no one’s buying.

When I stop to think about it, it makes perfect sense. I go online all the time looking for recipes. I’m looking for recipes, not to buy something. Because I realized the error I made I just left this site laying around ~ I added a cool plugin that makes it look like the site is updating regularly ~ but it’s really just rotating older posts through to the front page ~ so I just left it.

I recently read a free report from a big guru launch about email marketing. As I read it some big time lights went off in my head. The first light was about my internet marketing blog ~ but then other lights began going off ~ I realized I could look at the recipes site in a totally different way and make it work.

Here’s the new plan.

1. Add clickable advertising (adsense/chitika) Which I hadn’t been using because the amount I make per click is so minimal it didn’t seem worth it ~ but it is getting good traffic and will be getting even more traffic now.

2. Create an out of this world freebie (It’s going to be a cookbook of my favorite chicken recipes ~ I’ll also be getting a quality ebook cover done for this)

3. Add  the PopUp Domination plugin to start collecting names.

4. Create an autoresponder series that once finished will create a hands off passive income stream.

How’s that going to work?

These people are looking for information ~ we know that. I’m going to offer them a free cookbook of recipes they were searching for to get them on my list.

Once on my list I’m going to keep sending them even more fantastic chicken recipes. (Is this going to be hard ~ NO because I love cooking, and I love to cook chicken, and I make chicken a LOT, and have a lot of chicken recipes)

Here’s where the money comes in:

While they are looking for recipes ~ people looking for easy chicken recipes are probably also in need of other things that make life a little easier. I bet they are probably moms ~ busy moms!

In each email I will let them know about something that can make life a little easier ~ whether it’s a way to organize their recipes, a great cookbook or whatever. This is known as soft sell ~ just adding a little note at the top and/or bottom of the email.

Then every 2 or 3 emails I’ll send them an entire email focused on something. Something they can buy. It may be a cookbook (via Amazon or Clickbank), it may be a way to get their printed recipes organized, or a great workout program (you think busy moms are looking for a quick way to work out?), or a service that will create an entire week’s menu for them and send them the grocery list along with the recipes.

The key to this working though, is I’m not going to just shoot them recipes every week. I’m going to let them get to know me. I’ll tell some stories ~ add our family’s thoughts on the recipes. I’ll let them know I am like them ~ a busy mom who wants life to be easier. By allowing them to get to know, like and trust me it will be much easier for them to accept my recommendation when it comes to something to buy.

This plan will work in just about any relatively specific niche (I’m not talking about micro niches here though). It will work especially well if you find you’ve gotten yourself in a niche where people are looking for information instead of to buy. By getting people on your list you’re giving yourself the opportunity to be in front of them more than once.  I’d say 99% of my traffic is new people on that site. Yeah, they come by looking for a recipe, and even if they might have needed something I was advertising on the site, they aren’t in the mindset to buy right now. I can keep talking over time until I hit the moment they ARE ready ~ then they buy.

What do you think? Are there niches you’ve chosen where this strategy might work for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

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I have been actively seeking a solution to this problem.

Here’s what I WANTED. I wanted a gorgeous lightbox, that I could customize, I could easily add my own content, maybe a checklist to. I wanted it to be super easy ~ like a plugin or something ~ upload and go, no messing in the code. I wanted it to work the way I wanted it to work ~ show up once, and not again.

Well, last week I found it. Not even launched yet, but I found it.

Friday I got my hands on it and over the weekend I loaded it on my blog.

I immediately saw my subscriber numbers DOUBLE!! Which is really amazing because my numbers had already jumped greatly just with the ugly get response lightbox. So needless to say I was pretty excited!

So what did I find?

PopUp Domination.

PopUp Domination is a plugin for wordpress. You simply upload it (just like any other plugin) and then go through the 5  simple steps to set it up.

Step 1.  Look and Feel

Choose the color options you want to use to best match your site. You can pick from a lot of different colors for the box itself, but also the color of the button. You also choose the template you want to use in this step.

There are currently 4 template options. They are all awesome and one will probably just “speak” to you. You’ll know which one you like best. Choose the number and on to the next step.

Step 2.  Email code

This step is where you insert your email code. All you have to do is go grab the html code from a box you’ve created for your site at your autoresponder. Then just paste the code in the box provided. Make sure you grab the html and not the script code.

Step 3. Template Fields

This is where you start filling in your content for the opt in box.  You choose the headline, the words to use your name/email field, what you want to say on the submit button.

It’s super easy, and the developer has even outlined the typical length that each of these things should be.

(after each step you can hit the “preview” button and see what the changes you’ve made look like.)

Step 4: List points

This is where you add your bullet point content (if the template you’ve chosen has them).  Pull your biggest reasons/benefits for people to opt in (think what’s in it for them) and just add them right there.

Step 5. Schedule

Here’s where you tell the lightbox how often to pop up. You schedule by the day. So if you want it to pop up every 7 days you just put 7 in the box.  It’s completely up to you ~ and another thing you can test and see what works best for your site and your audience.

That’s it. Preview, and then turn it on. You’re all set.

Here’s a quick video of my PopUp Domination review. You can see just how easy it is as I create a popup box for my Squidoo blog.

This process literally took me 5 minutes to create the new lightbox for this site. Opt ins are on the rise already. If you aren’t using any kind of lightbox on your site then your opt in increase could be huge. Testimonials are coming in for over 304% increase in opt ins ~ that’s huge. That kind of increase in your list can mean infinitely more connections and lead to a huge increase in sales.

Who is Popup Domination for?

If you have a blog, and you are building a list ~ you need popup domination.

If you have niche sites ~ you should be building lists and popup domination would be perfect!

Who is it not for?

If you’re building micro niche sites I don’t think you will need popup domination.

If you’re building lenses you do not need popup domination.

With that said, it’s time to take your list to the next level. Grab your copy of  PopUp Domination. Go ahead and head over now ~ there’s a great video on the sales page. Take a couple minutes and watch it and then get the plugin. It’s totally worth it, and will pay for itself.

If you purchase through my link (yes, that’s an affiliate link in there) I will be glad to help you if you run into any problems getting your light box up and running.

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Whether you’ve got your freebie ready or not, create your opt in box and get it live on your site. You can start off with just providing blog updates, it’s ok. The most important thing is that you have a way for them to “buy into the bus tour”, and your list is it.

Today I’m going to share with you some ways you can improve the rate at which people will join your list and therefore be on the bus! (This is also known as joining your list/opting in/ and the rate at which they do that is the opt in rate.)

Put your opt in box in more than one place.

Having your opt in box in your sidebar is important. However, that’s not the only place you want to have your opt in box. The more places you can put it the better ~ as long as it doesn’t become the only thing you see on your site of course.

I had no idea there were so many places to put your opt in box until I read John Chow’s free report last week. I must admit I have never read John Chow’s blog before, but Gideon Shalwick did such an excellent review of this free report I grabbed it. He talked about 5 or 6 different places to put your opt in box on your site. (BTW ~ this is an excellent report. I learned a lot. Especially the chapter on building your list. I did get a little overwhelmed by the final chapters but … it was good information, just a little more than I’m willing to do at this point ~ although I probably should. Anyway… you should grab it and take a look at his indepth analysis of getting people on your list ~ it’s really good.

Where Else Can I Put My Opt In Box?

Sidebar ~ of course. The prettier you can make it the better. Here’s a post on how to do that.

The lightbox. The lightbox is the opt in form that pops up once someone gets to the site and blacks out the site until they do something with it ~ either opt in or click the x to make it go away. You get the code for this opt in box from your autoresponder (Get Response is currently having a 33% off sale until the end of June ~ I’m just sayin’) and then add the code to the footer of your site before the </body> tag. It’s controversial I know. I resisted it for a LONG time ~ years. I find them very annoying… but here’s the deal. They work.

Here’s an example. I added the lightbox to this site last Thursday. It’s only been a week. Last night I looked at the stats from June 10-15 (the week before I added the light box) and then from the 17th -22nd (the same time period after I added the light box) Here’s the results. It’s pretty amazing.

10-15: 9 opt ins (yeah, pretty miserable right ~ I have not been doing a great job of getting opt ins)

17-22: 48 opt ins (yeah, huge difference.)

The only difference was the lightbox. That is one simple change that makes a big difference.   A lot of these opt ins are coming from older pages on my site that get traffic from the search engines. These are people who I would never have had any future contact with… but now, they get my email series as well as updates when I post to the blog. I get to pull them in, let them get to know me better, and hopefully they turn into raving fans of the blog and me!

Because the lightbox is so intrusive you want to make sure you set it to only show up once. It would be over the top annoying if it showed up every time someone landed on your site, but once isn’t too bad, and it really helps make your opt in box the main focus ~ at least for those few seconds.

Footer:

You may have seen some blogs lately with a little opt in box in the footer of their site. It looks really cool right? It’s another great way to bring your opt in box into focus. They do that will a plugin called Ultimate Footer Ad This little plugin acts like any other plugin, just upload and activate and you can create a unique opt in box in your footer. You can also use it to get more followers at twitter. This is less intrusive, but still pretty noticeable. It will help with “ad blindness” where people just don’t see the opt in box in the sidebar anymore, it will get your opt in box noticed.

Here’s an example:

After someone comments:

If you’ve got people leaving comments you’ve got yet another way to increase your opt ins.  I haven’t yet implemented this one, but I can see where it would be really effective. There’s a plugin you can use called Optin Comments. This plugin works together with your autoresponder software. It will send out a quick email message to the person who just commented on your blog. You create this email, and can ask them to grab a copy of your free report ~ or whatever you are giving away to build your list.  If they agree they will be added to your list from the email.

This is a great tactic. The person has just taken time, been engaged enough to take action on your site and leave a comment. Chances are they liked what you were talking about, and would enjoy your freebie. Especially if you’ve created a very related freebie.

This plugin will also give you the option to put a check box under your comment box. If the person checks the box they will automatically be added to your email list. It also has other features and is something worth looking at.

In your RSS feed:

There’s yet another plugin that will help you with this. It’s called Feed Footer. It will allow you to add advertisements to your RSS feed. So people reading your site from a feed reader will get the messages as well. You can use regular ads or you can encourage them to get your freebie and join your list.  (When your feed numbers get high enough you could even sell this ad space!)

This plugin also allows you to add a copyright notice to your RSS feed ~ which is nice.

Facebook:

If you have a facebook page you can add an optin form to your fanpage by using the fbml option. This is somewhat complicated, but it can be done, and each time someone visits your fanpage it’s yet another opportunity to get them on your list where you can start building your relationship even more.

This is a lot… I know. You may not feel comfortable adding all of these options, and that’s ok. I am not either ~ at least not all at once.  You know how “they” always talk about “testing” ~ this is one of those times you can easily do that. Add one thing ~ start with the lightbox, or one of the other options. Add that one thing and then wait a week or two. Make sure to check your stats and see what changes have happened in your subscriber rate. If there’s no change… give it another week and see. If there’s a big change hooray!

As time goes on keep adding these opt in elements, and keep checking on what effect the new element has on your site. These are simple changes you can make and as you’ve seen can create a huge influx of subscribers, and subscribers are what we’re after to create a profitable blog and bus tour.

It’s time to get started. What are you going to do first? I can’t wait to hear what it does for your site. Make sure you come back and let me know!

Related posts:

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2. 5 Ways to Ruin a Guest Post Request

This is really simple ~ it’s no different actually than the first message we put in our series with the link to our freebie.

When to send:

You’ll log into your autoresponder.  You, by now, have decided on how often you want your newsletter to go out. Depending on your autoresponder you make this happen by sending it out so many days AFTER they first subscribed or it may ask you how many days since your LAST message. VERY DIFFERENT so make sure you check your autoresponder to see which one it uses.

In Get Response we’re going to “add a follow up” ~ remember the newsletter feature will send it out immediately ~ you want this to go in your series so it will go out at a certain time no matter when the person joins your list ~ whether it was yesterday or a year from now.

Make sure you’re working on the correct list ~ there’s a drop down menu in Getresponse you can choose from.

So if you’re doing a weekly newsletter you’d choose 7 in the box (in get response) because it goes out so many days after sign up. I want them to get this email a week after they subscribed to my list.

Subject line:

Subject line: This can go one of two ways and you’ll have to make the decision for yourself.

1. Brand your newsletter so when people see it they know it’s you and open it.

2. Create a catchy title that is based on the content of the newsletter that week.

If you’re going to brand your newsletter you would use the same title configuration each time.

ex: **Everyday Life Balance For Busy Women**

ex. Internet Marketing Tutorials: Squidoo (or whatever the weekly topic is)

You can mix up including the title of your newsletter and the topic as you can see in the second example.

The second way you can do this is to just come up with a catchy subject line you think will get people curious enough to open the email.  It should be something relevant to the topic you wrote about for that newsletter edition.

You might also use the name of your newsletter and the edition number ~ so they will stay in order in people’s email box if they create a rule/folder for your newsletter.

Date:

If  you want the date to show up current on your newsletter you can use the code: [[date_med]] (including the outside brackets and everything) That’s in Getresponse.  That code will show the current date on your newsletter no matter when it is sent out.

Content:

Now if you’ve written your content somewhere else already go ahead and copy and paste it in. If you’ve done your writing in a word document, make sure you paste it into a text document and then copy from the text doc into your autoresponder. Word does some weird things ~ it adds extra code you can’t see and then it comes out as weird characters in your final product. This is true for everywhere ~ so if you’re using word to write always make sure to paste it into a text doc before you use it in your final setting.

You can also just write right in the autoresponder content creation area. That’s where I usually do it.

Tracking:

Depending on what format you use you can track different elements. At the very least try to track your link click throughs ~ that way you can see if people are clicking the links in your newsletter. When you check the click through tracking box it will make get response change your link so you won’t be able to see where it goes. They will change it to a tracking code.

If there’s a link you don’t want cloaked in your email leave off the http:// then it will just show up as www.whatever.com

I do this for my site address under my name for my emails, so people can see the url.

Send:

When you’ve chosen  your tracking elements you’ll just click save. This will add your follow up to the series. You will be brought to a manage follow up screen. This will show you all the follow up messages you have done for this email list. Double check your send out numbers and make sure they’re going out when you want them to.

Edit:

If you need to change/add to a message you can do it from this screen as well. Just go to the message you want to edit and click the edit link next to it. It will open the edit screen and you can change whatever you need.

Spam:

If your autoresponder offers it, check the spam level. This will tell you how likely your email is to get through to people’s in boxes. When you do the spam test it will show you words that are likely to get your newsletter stuck in a spam filter. Change those words. Doing this for a while in the beginning will give you some great experience and learning on how to write in a way that gets your messages delivered. There are certain words like FREE that will set off the spam alert ~ so check that if you can, until you get used to writing in email.

You’ll find the spam check next to the action: options right under your text area in Get response.  I’m sure it’s fairly similar in Aweber.

Test:

When you complete the newsletter edition it’s nice to run a test. That way you can see exactly what your newsletter is going to look like for your people ~ it’s when I check spelling and all that stuff is in the test ~ in my own email box. I find it easier to see mistakes that way for some reason.

Next Newsletter:

You can create another newsletter right now and post it for 7 days later or you can come in any time in the next 7 days and do it.

Just remember if you do it after 7 days your subscribers will not receive it because it will be out of line. So this is one thing you have to pay attention to. I like to do 2 newsletters up front so I have a little lee way to get in there and get it done. Doing two up front gives me 14 days to get in there and do the next one and still keep it in line.

Questions?

Feel free to ask if you’ve got them. Keep taking action and let us know when you’ve gotten your newsletter done!

No related posts.

No worries ~ there’s plenty of places you can find content for your newsletter, and it doesn’t all have to be written by you!

Article Directories

There are so many article directories out there now. You may even find there’s an entire directory related to your niche.  Articles posted to article directories are there to be used by others ~ go take a look at what you can find. If you don’t find anything you’d send to your subscribers you can at least get some good ideas. Make sure you keep the resource box intact if you use an article from a directory.

PLR

Another fantastic way to create content for your newsletter is with PLR. You can get a whole pack of articles for really cheap. Then use each article as your featured article in a newsletter. You can even break them down if it seems too long.

My best recommend for PLR is Easy PLR by Nicole Dean. She rocks it with 2 writers and editors ~ always quality stuff. If you don’t see your niche send her a request. She’s likely to have something written on the topic.

Other newsletters

Sign up for industry newsletters. For example, in the gardening niche there are some FANTASTIC newsletters that come out from the bigger nurseries. They give me so many ideas, tips, hints not only for my newsletter, but blog posts too. You could even write and ask if you could use their articles in your newsletter. Contact your affiliate manager to ask.

Old blog posts

If  you’ve been blogging for a while you can always repurpose older blog posts and use them as featured articles in your newsletter.

Article swaps

Find someone else in your niche and ask them to do an article swap with you. This means they write an article (including a resource box) for your newsletter and you write one for them. You both get good content and more traffic. Win/win.

Other blogs

You are regularly reading other blogs in your niche. Use their blog posts to give you ideas for your newsletter. Did someone do a post you totally agreed with ~ write about it. Did they write a post you absolutely disagreed with? Write about that.

Magazine articles

Magazines are great ways to come up with ideas for newsletter articles. As you’re browsing though an article on your niche you may see something that makes you want to give your opinion or how you see it ~ great newsletter article (and/or blog post as well!)

Just remember to keep your topics evergreen so no matter when your reader gets the messages they will still make sense.

Easy ways to get organized

One of the toughest things to do is get organized enough that you can stay on top of all this stuff. Writing blog posts, promoting, newsletter creation. It can seem really overwhelming.  One of the easiest ways I’ve found is to create an editorial calendar. I know we’ve talked about this before, but here’s a little bit different spin.

When you create your editorial calendar decide on a “topic of the week”. Then come up with 3 ideas for blog posts for that topic, and then you can find/write  a related article for your newsletter.

This pulls things together beautifully because you can at the bottom of your newsletter move people to  your blog with something like “more articles on ___fill in the blank”. If they have read your featured article it’s likely they will enjoy even more articles on the topic. You will get more traffic to your blog and you’ll find it is pretty easy to come up with content when you’re writing on different aspects of the same topic during the week. It really helps me get in a flow and stay there throughout the week.

It also helps me not have to waste so much time with wondering/contemplating/getting really aggravated over what to write about.

The easiest way to stay on top of all this is to get as organized as YOU possibly can. Your organizational style will not be mine and that’s ok. Getting organized will allow you to get into a rhythm and allow you to use the time you have available to its fullest potential.

Hope this helps you come up with some newsletter ideas, if you have questions or want to brainstorm feel free to ask in the comment section. I’m here for you if you’d like to do a blog brainstorm about your site or your newsletter.

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