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Friday Tips for Keeps: My Highest Email Subscription Pages Ever

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email subscription optin box
One of a kind and it works…

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, a very successful blogger whose blog most of you know, read, and love.

For the purposes of this post though, I’ll keep the mystery and won’t reveal her name.

She asked me this question:

if I wanted to make say $1200 tomorrow, what should I do?

I told her that I would do two things:

  1. I would send my list an email offering them a special discount on my services, like I did just a couple of weeks ago - my subscribers got a chance to get their blogs audited at half price of a usual blog audit. See it really pays to be a part of my list - I would love for you to join it now.
  2. I would review a great product of sorts, do a write-up of it on my blog, and would send an email to my list letting them know what I thought of it.

As you noticed, both my ideas included emailing my list because, as you may or are yet to experience, people who opt in to your list are your most receptive audience.

They already said yes.

Back to the conversation with my friend. When she heard my reply, her reaction startled me for a moment.

“Oh, I don’t have a list” she said.

??!!!

The point of this post is not to tell you that you need a list.

That goes without saying.

Rather I wanted to share with you how to build you list even quicker without spending a dime - with the assets you already have, which are your blog and (hopefully) your Facebook page.

My Highest Converting OptIn Forms

It’s not in my sidebar, although it’s the most visible one.

#1. My highest converting optin form is on a page that I created especially for this purpose - to let my readers know why they need to subscribe to my list.

It’s nothing fancy; just a page that took me half an hour to put together, if that.

You can find it at http://www.GetFreeSEOReport.com.

How do I drive traffic to it?

Mostly by casually mentioning it in my posts, like I did at the beginning of this one. Did you notice it? Not my best mention, but it was pretty smooth.

I also always link to it when I do any kind of guest posting, as well as in my “about author” box on my own blog.

This page converts at 50% exactly!!!

#2. My Welcome tab on my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/TrafficGenerationCafe

This one converts at 12.6% - not too shabby!

Do you have one yet?

#3. My recently created “Thank You For Commenting” Page.

I used to ignore my first time commentators (sorry about that, guys!), but finally made myself find the time to add a simple thank you page with an opt-in form and some posts for further reading.

This page converts at 9.1%.

Marketing Takeaway

Get creative and get busy.

Forget about having only one optin form in your sidebar; give your readers more opportunities to join your email community.

Just remember: there’s a fine line between being subtle or coming off pushy. Stay on the right side of it.

By the way, just stumbled upon a brand new email list building plugin that I am testing out on my blog. So far I found it to be pretty exciting, and I will share my findings with you next week.

Additional List Building Reading

For those of you who would like learn some incredible list building tips, I would recommend to take a look at these posts:

As always, I’d love for you to comment to show me that you’re alive!

ana hoffman email subscription

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Comments

      • Nothing that I’m sure you haven’t tried. I’ve been doing quite a bit of ad swaps and solo ads lately which have been workin great.

        And with solo ads if you have a good thank you page you can turn a profit.

        I have also started niche site list building which is working quite well. I have two separate niche sites that are generating between 2-3 optins a day each from organic traffic which is awesome.

  2. Hey Ana,

    Great tips as always. I need to create a “Thank You for Commenting” page considering that I get loads of new comments every single day.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Mavis

  3. Lot to take away from this post.
    I’ll have my coffee to go then thank!

    Great stuff Ana.
    Think I need to look at this list building again LOL.

    No Stop it Ana, I need to get back to niche sites.
    Stop distracting me!

    • Oh, Alex! Are you that easily distracted?;-)

      You know list building is the way to go. You know you want to! 🙂

  4. Hi Ana,

    These are great options for increasing your email list. I have just started using MaxBlogPress Subscriber Magnet and am testing different ways to use this plugin, so I’ll let you know what works for me.

    I also have heard that the sidebar optin box is low converting, mostly because people are so used to seeing them.

    Love the tip about your Facebook welcome… next on my list.

    Thanks, Ana!

    • Thanks, Dr. Bob. Please do let me know what works for you. The sidebar opt-in is becoming more popular and it is converting well for me.

    • Yes, that falls in the ABC Category = Always Be Closing. If you don’t remind them, they won’t know.

  6. Hey Ana, thanks for the tips! What did you use to create the Facebook Welcome page? I think it looks great and I’m very close to launching my Facebook Page. I love how you have the video embedded.

    • It’s been a while, Ileane, but I think I used a service called FanPageEngine.com. It’s not free, but was worth every penny - I did everything you see on my page with that service.

    • I created a regular blog page with my thank you content, Justin, and then used a plugin called Comment Redirect to redirect my first time commentators to that page.

  8. Hi, Ana:

    I too want to know what you used for your “Thank You for Commenting” page, do let us know. Thx!

    • Missy, I used FanPageEngine.com. A small payment is required, but it is certainly worth it. As I said, it really helps the subscriptions.

  9. Hi Ana,

    I have added a form in my sidebar and below my posts. I also added one in the header, but I removed it yesterday. Too many forms, my blog looked like nothing but forms 🙂

    I haven’t created a page yet, and that’s probably something I should have done a while ago. But, what type of plugin are you using to thank your first time commenters?

    Jens

  10. Aloha Ana, great content as usual and you’re born to be a blogger… Lol You probably say otherwise, but I am sure with your talents it took persistence. I like most of your strategies here and it seem so simple and creative at the same time. I know eventually my mind will be thinking similar to those who are doing their thing. Glad I came by and thanks for sharing! Mahalo, Lani 🙂

  11. Hi Ana,

    It’s always nice reading good stories about lists, I’m working on that point.
    I wonder, how did you do the “Thank You For Commenting� Page. I’m clueless about it, more as I’m pretty new on WP 🙂

    Creativity is a must in all aspects of life - blogging included.

    Have a great weekend!

    Gera

    • It’s pretty simple, Gera - you just create a regular blog page with your thank you content and then use a plugin like Comment Redirect to redirect all your first-time commentators to that page.

      There is a plugin for that! 🙂

  12. Thank you for the kind words, Paul and thanks for visiting my blog. I hope to see you around a lot more. Glad you liked the video.

  13. Ana, Surely your this blog post will give an inspiration to many bloggers on the internet to write good blogs.
    Your post is to the point and gives in depth analysis of the matter.
    Thank You for sharing this information.

  15. I will contact all my best blogging friends and offer them a percentage of the sales and tell them to send it out..I will make maybe triple that if you have a good group of bloggers.

    “Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”