Your insurance to blogging is the list you build. A great blogger once said “Insurance keeps you from running into a loss”. Don’t try to think who it was, it was me. As a blogger one of the most interesting fact is that blogging can help you make a living, which means a considerable amount of cash flow every month. Who does not love to make money online by blogging. The important fact is that you also need to have an insurance to make sure that you can always cash out.
As for me, its all about building a concrete list by generating leads regularly and continually. If you are able to do this, you will be able to always sell to them to make in that extra cash. Its one of those ways companies sell products to customers. They first target existing customers then new customers. This post is to help you to build that list of customers and then sell to them. lets take a look at some of the ways that you can follow to generate leads and build up that list.
Offering Incentives Based Subscription To Build A Healthy List
One of the most powerful and most followed method by bloggers as of 2011. The process to entourage readers to subscribe to your blog for free by offering them some free stuff. Some bloggers offer WP themes, valuable eBooks and much more. These even though might sound very simple the are one of the most powerful ways to get subscribers and build a healthy list. Even though at time readers subscribe just for the free stuff and unsubscribe later. When they understand the value of the information that you offer, they are most likely to sign up again.
Newsletters
Darren Rowse – The ProBlogger of All time does a splendid job at this. If you check out his subscription rate its over the roof. Bloggers and readers are signing up by the minute. The key to a newsletter’s success is to not spam your subscribers but use a newsletter as it should be used. I hardly get an email a month from Darren. Its clean and uncomplicated, easy to read and he only sells me stuff that I might be interested in. Newsletters are a great way to sell online.
Web Based Tools To Generate Leads
Most of the web based organizations or sites offering web services follow this method to build list and generate leads. Evey submitted your site to hundreds of bookmarking sites and entered your email? There you go, that is how they build a list. Now that you have shared your email and used their free web services, they will send you newsletters or start selling to you. If you are a blogger, you can always build up a small web tool using odesk and put it up on your blog. You will see a massive increase in your subscription rate. However, be sure to sell to them only products that they might be interested and do not SPAM them.
Membership Sites
Yaro Starak, is considered the masters of membership sites. Its has become so famous that Daniel from Daily Blog Tips and even Brian from Copyblogger have membership sites and sell their skills. Its an effective way for you to build lists. Now that you have build their trust you can always pitch to them a new product when you launch. This is not only an excellent way to make money but also to build lists.
Web Services
Offering web services is a great way to get people to sign up. You can focus on targeted audience if you follow this method. lets take SEO for example, I offer free SEO website review on my blog. To make use of this free service you are requested to fill out a form that requires your name email, web URL and a little more details. This tell me that this customer is interested in SEO. I can sell SEO stuff to customers who sign up for this free service and I am sure that the conversion rate is most likely to be much higher when compared to other methods.
Product Releases
Selling goods online can be profitable. Imagine creating a page requesting readers to subscribe to update on release of a certain product. offering special discounts to readers who sign up for updates. These are excellent ways to boost sales as well as build a healthy list. Make sure not to create too much of a hype.
I hope these simple tips and examples help you build a healthier list, generate more leads and make more money online.
About Josh Nadeau
Hi Eddie,
I’m following Tim Soulo’s Bloggerjet site. He had a hilarious yet brutally honest post about list building. I think it was called Monday Numbers: The Kind of Newsletter That Makes Me Want To Subscribe.
I’m trying to take his advice as well. We all see the ebooks, and newsletters, but what unique and valuable information can you give to your audience that is worth them sharing their email with you? Answer that question and you’ll have a truly useful list.
Bryce, Thanks for pointing me out to Tim’s blog. i enjoyed the way he writes. His way to attract a reader is cool. I’ve signed up to his updates. Thanks.
Hi Eddie,
This is awesome! I’ve been doing some of these strategies, but your tips are really going to make them much better. Always good to learn from other marketers. Thank you!
Keep going,
Nadine
Nadine, Glad to hear that from a fellow marketer. I am happy that you can learn and improve on your techniques.