Web Traffic Tips: Email Groups
Feb 10
I’m going to take a guess and bet that you are not using this traffic strategy ~ in fact, I’d be willing to bet you’ve never even thought of it!
- Image via CrunchBase
Email groups ~ remember those? Yahoo groups, and now Google groups. Those email lists you can join where the entire conversation is held via email messages?
OH MAN!! I love Yahoo groups. 
Don’t get me started.
Ok, in case you are not familiar with email groups ~ and you may not be, they seem to have gone by the wayside with Facebook and Twitter being all the rage these days, but … they are still alive and well, and will bring you traffic if done right!
Email groups: A group of people who have a common interest join a group and have conversations and discussions about the topic via email.
If you’ve never seen these before let me show you how to find them, because there is literally a yahoo or google group and ANY topic you can imagine!!
I like Yahoo groups a little better, but that’s probably because I’ve been using them longer ~ Google groups are fine too.
Go to Yahoo (you’ll have to have a yahoo account)
Once you have an account go to http://groups.yahoo.com. (you can click it ~ it opens in a new window)
If you’re not signed in you will have to sign in.
Once you’re signed in you’ll see the groups homepage and be able to search the groups for any topic you want. YAY.
Go ahead, search something related to your topic or to the market that uses your topic. If you have a location specific blog this is a GREAT place to find others to connect with in that area.
When your search comes up here’s a few things to look at before you decide to join a group.
How many members? It will tell you how many members belong to this group. You want to find a group with some members ~ the number is up to you, but this is about leveraging your time ~ a group with 5 members can bring you no more than 5 visitors.
Email traffic? How many emails is this group generating? When you find a group you like, click on the title and it will take you to the group home page. If you scroll around you’ll see a chart of the group message activity. It will show you how many messages get sent through the group each month.
Here’s the chart for the group in the picture above:
What is an acceptable level will depend on YOU, your email habits, how you handle email coming in. I personally LOVE email andI don’t really care how much comes in. There have been some groups I’ve opted out of though because there was a lot of email ~ and I wasn’t responding to any of it. 
So for this group you’re going to get 10 or 15 emails a day from this list. But remember you can possibly reach 10 THOUSAND people each time you respond to a message (on this group).
So think about it. You can always change how you read messages in your group settings ~ you can have your messages come as a daily digest ~ where all the emails are in one email, or you could read them on the web only ~ however, I find the groups I’ve set to web only, I never read.
Group policies? You want to read through the group policies and make sure you’re clear on what their policies are. Of COURSE there is a no spam rule,but you also want to check on the policy regarding signatures. Most groups allow them, but some don’t. If the group you found doesn’t allow signatures, then don’t join.
Found a good related group?
Go ahead and join. There will be a message that says “join group”. Click that button and you will be given some options you need to fill out.What email address you want them sent to etc. Some groups will ask you to answer a few short questions about yourself and why you want to participate. Don’t tell them it’s for marketing please. lol.
How is this going to get me traffic?
As you may have guessed it’s your email signature that is going to get you traffic. You already have a signature file in your email right?
Your signature file in your email is just like the one you use in forum marketing, except it will be in your email. Setting up a signature file is really easy but there are so many different email programs out there it would be impossible to explain everyone. If you’re using Gmail ~ find the settings (usually in the top right hand corner) and then scroll down. You’ll see a box that allows you to put your signature in there. Just remember most email programs strip out html so I usually just use a line of text and then the url ~ which will be clickable in most cases.
How do I get started?
Once you’ve applied and been accepted to the group you’ll begin to receive emails from the group. If you want to respond all you have to do is click the reply button in your email! It’s so simple. Type your message and then click send. It will automatically go out to all the members of the group who are receiving emails, and your signature will be attached as well.
If your website is well aligned with the topic of the group you will find some people will click the signature link and go to your site.
Does this really work?
When I first started my site Road to Bike Across Kansas I joined some Kansas Bike yahoo groups. Not because I was trying to get traffic to my site, but because I wanted to talk about how to get ready to do Bike Across Kansas! I had quite a few people not only click through to my site but become regular readers. They also decided to follow me at twitter and facebook which really allowed me to get to know them and them me as well. Yes, it really works if you do it right.
How do you do this right?
This really should just go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway because… well you know.
DO NOT SPAM THE GROUP!!
What is considered spam?
Any messages that are not directly related to the conversation at hand.
Any messages you send just to tell people about your website.
Any messages where you solely just try to get people to go to your website.
DON’T DO IT. It will not be tolerated and you will be kicked out of the group. Again, let your signature do the talking and you just participate in the conversation. Be helpful, give suggestions, answer questions. Interact and participate.
What if one of my blog posts answers a specific question?
well… how long have you been in the group and how much have you participated?
Have you built up some credibility with the group? Have you participated? Have you answered questions? If you’ve done that then I say it would be ok ** in the context of your answering a specific question ** you could link to your blog post for more information.
Be judicious with it, and only do it when your blog post specifically answers the question/problem going on in the conversation.
How am I going to do this without wasting the whole day?
Good question. I personally use email for my “breaks”. lol. (I told you I love email). So when I need a 5 minutes break between tasks I’ll read my latest emails and respond if necessary. This includes my yahoo group emails.
If you don’t want to do that, you could create a folder or a rule and have the emails from the group go directly into a folder so you could set a timer and check them and reply for 15 minutes a day.
Either one of those options would work ~ or you might come up with something unique to yourself. If you have a unique system that’s working for you I’d love to hear it.
Have you used email groups to drive traffic to your site? I’d love to hear your success stories, feel free to share them in the comments section!
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Nice article..I tell my friend to read this and bookmark..
Suzi ~ I have all my email go through one place so I hadn’t really thought about it. I have different addresses but then they all forward to one place so I can keep up with it all. I guess it would be a personal choice.
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Hi Jackie – I don’t think I have actually heard of email groups either. So much to learn. So would you advise using your personal email for this, rather than any you may have set up for your business?
Suzi
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Ah email groups, yes indeed. The fondness of memories, when you were all excited to show off your new geocities website. LOL!
Seriously though, very cool, not to mention unique (considering) article Jackie! I’ll definitely be looking back into them.
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wow!!! am looking for this post for so long . through your post its a big help to understand more easier. And now i know how to set my signature to my email. I love this post thank you for sharing this information. i will share it to my family and friends
Hi Jackie,
I really did not how to set my signature in my email and I had the opportunity to learn from this post . Thank you so much for sharing and also how to join the yahoo groups.
This is why everyday i come over to your blog to learn from you …. thank you
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This is a great way to expand your reach across the internet. I would also try using Twitter as it is basically doing the same thing except more targeted and less spammy as this approach.
Hi Anthony ~
I’d love to hear what part of the plan I outlined seems spammy to you. Twitter is similar except you have to build the targeted following and build trust with them, whereas with email groups the targeted group and trust is already established.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Thanks for sharing this one! I’m still new in this internet marketing business and i’m glad i’ve read your post. Very informative, thanks alot!
Excellent idea! I completely forgot about Yahoo Groups. Thank you Jackie.
Hi Jackie,
You have done it again. I never knew about the emails groups. Thank you for this, I will start immediately and if I have a problem, I will get back to you asap. Thank you so much for this.
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I do participate is some Yahoo groups, mostly to do with my niche, since it really is my interest area. But it’s hard for me keeping up with the emails. I’ve now signed up to some as web only, but like you Jackie I end up not reading them. I have tried digests too, but find they are much harder to reply to a specific post. It’s so easy when you get them individually. But you know what might just work for me is an RSS feed of the group messages. I’ve never seen one available for Yahoo groups, but maybe I’ve missed it. Do either Yahoo or Google groups have RSS options?
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I’ve belonged to different Yahoo groups over time to share news
and opinions with some kind of advocacy or community group but it never occured to me to do what you suggest in your post Jackie…
Thank you for another great suggestion!
Fran
Follow me @francivile on Twitter!
Great post Jackie! I never heard of these groups before either and this is a great way to interact with people in your niche and drive traffic.
Wondering if this would work for the smaller 5-10 type post niche sites that some of us end up with.
Thanks
Chad
Hey Chad,
I think this might not be the best use of your time for that type of site. Usually they are based on pretty non competitive keywords ~ I think you’re probably better of doing blog commenting or forum marketing for that type of site ~ just because it not only drives traffic but builds links which is something that type of site really needs to get free search engine traffic.
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You think of so many creative ideas to drive traffic to our sites. This is the first time I have ever heard of a yahoo group. I just joined one group and hope to join 1 or 2 more for now. It seems as if I could get a decent amount of traffic. I just simply have to provide quality content and help others out. There is nothing to it!
Thanks Jackie!
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If the number of emails is out of hand, I’m pretty sure that most of those email groups like Yahoo give you an option to receive all the messages from the day in one mail, rather than receiving 10 or 50 separate emails a day.
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I never even heard of email groups before, so this post has really enlightened me!
Thanks!
Cindy
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IF you click on the forum marketing link in the sentence that post will explain how to create a signature.
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So what do I put in the signature link, my email address or my site link or both?
You know, this really is a great idea, Jackie! I use the love the heck outta my Yahoo groups! Spent a lot of time on them. As far as I know, the Mom Pack group is still going and that is a wonderful group!
And you know, it’s funny, there are little pockets of things that so many people are now saying, ‘ah, they don’t work, that’s a thing of the past’. But the truth is that there are still a lot of people at these ‘dead’ places – Yahoo groups and Myspace being two very good examples.
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Hey Lisa,
What you say is VERY true ~ the thing is, the people who are gone are the … marketers!! So you are left with real people in your market to talk to .
YAY!!
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Good post Jackie. One point you made and I would like to stress, provide quality content to any group you join, or you will be dropped like a hot potato.
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Jackie
Although I belong to an e-mail group (in a very different niche as my current niche), I never thought about using this method to drive traffic to my site….duh!
I should have thought about it as I do get traffic from this other group to my site and they actually allow me to use my new niche signature in e-mails I send to them.
I even sometimes ask their help when I want to know something about my niche.
They are really a friendly, helpful bunch of people – sometimes though, the number of e-mails tend to get out of hand, at other times the e-mails can actually reduce stress, …lol
I have learned a lot from this group, not only about their niche (and mine sometimes) but also about marketing your business and a lot of other useful information for building your internet business.
Thanks for reminding me that I can also use groups to promote my business.
Elsie
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I am new to the blogging community and social media marketing and google so this blog was very helpful. The content was very useful and I will be definitely looking into it! Thank you!