More Email Opt-in Secrets | Email List Building Tips

By: Michael Dunlop     Topics: Blogging

How To Build Your Email List

Hi Everyone,

Today we have video post on that all important subject – How Do I Increase My Email Opt-ins?

If you have been following me over at IncomeDiary.com you will have noticed that I have started to do quite a number of video posts. They are turning out to be very popular and my confidence and skill level is improving.

This video is one of my earlier videos which I have just put on YouTube and includes some very important tips on ways to maximize the number of site visitors that join your mailing list.

Business owners and Internet Marketers in particular have always said:

The Money Is In The List

Strangely recently I have seen some Internet Marketers seeming almost embarrassed about list building. Well if you are not offering anything of value and your only goal with getting someones email address is so that you can continuously email offers for out of date products just because it may earn you commission them then yes, I’d be embarrassed to. But on the other hand if you have a good offer and a credible offer as I explain in this video then people will want to be on your subscribers list and will even recommend friends (as had happened many times with my Blogging eCourse).

I mean just about every business I know has a mailing list – even my hairdresser has an email list, my dry-cleaners, hotels I stay in – all use email marketing. So never be embarrassed to grow your list – people who follow you, like what you are presenting are also likely to purchase products you recommend. After all – it is where the money is.

One other point – I use the word OPT-IN in this blog post but words you use with your visitors should be terms like: Subscribe or Join Me or Grab My Free Report. Words used do make a difference (any Top Salesperson will confirm that) – so make sure you never use words that turn your visitors off. Many visitors will not know what OPT-IN means, so for that reason avoid it on your site.

I hope you enjoy the video. As always I would appreciate your feedback and comments. You may also like to check out my new IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.

I have also include a transcript along with some additional resources and links – so make sure to check it out also.

To Our Success

Michael

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Video Transcript – with additional links and resources

So you’re probably thinking how do I make money with a mailing list and how to get more to email opt‑ins?

That is what this video is about.

I will break it into two sections. First thing you need to look at is – why should people opt-in? What is your offer? After all people need a reason to give their email address away these days.

Back in 1998 when the Internet was first becoming popular it was easy to get people to opt-in. People loved getting email – this new found medium was exciting and believe it or not, people wanted to get more of it. So lots of people joined lots of lists.

So how do you increase your opt-ins?

Offering something free is great. I do it with a free 7 day eCourse. I know lots of people that do other things, such as video series, free eBook, coupon codes, videos from a seminar, audio, interviews, anything.

The next thing to look at is your whole opt‑in area. Where are you going to get your visitors to opt‑in. How’s it going to work? So I do this in a few ways. I started with just at a single page on my site, with my opt‑in box and some text about why people should subscribe (Opt-in)

I also did things like add testimonials from people who’ve already opted‑in. The funny thing was it became a SALES PAGE for something that was actually FREE. It converted very well.

My Top Tip

If you tell people to go to your site and request free report (or whatever you are offering) then it doesn’t matter how easy you make it – some people are still going to fail (be confused by even that).

So what I do is have a separate page (a bit like ‘sales page’ mentioned above which I send visitors to) – all they need to do is go to that page rather than hunt around on the site for a place to subscribe. Here is an example of a page like this on one on my sites: How To Create A Profitable Blog

The other thing I do now is that on my home page I add a huge big SUBSCRIBE AREA (opt-in). In the case of IncomeDiary.com – this subscribe area promotes my 7 Day Blogging eCourse.

The next tip I got from my friend Timothy Sykes of TimothySykes.com. I can’t remember the exact percentage but his earnings were up significantly in the year and he mentioned that on his blog.

So I calculated how much my earnings were up and made a banner to put on my site – saying how much they were up and Click Here to find out more, which took visitors to a subscribe area. That got a lot of subscribers!

Another Tip – Make Your Thank You Page Sell

When people subscribe I nearly always make sure that the Thank you page is a sales page with ACTION my visitors can take straight away.

Here is an example from IncomeDiary.com http://../www.incomediary.com/thankyou.html

Note – the page explains the Next Steps – 1,2,3 (Check your email, Register a Domain, Get Hosting)

Even before people have had a chance to confirm their email they have chance to take action on their dream of being a Blogger

Note: I strongly recommend you have your subscribers Double Opt-in – it avoids malicious filling in my people of other peoples email address PLUS it double confirms that people really want this info. (and avoids you being labeled a spammer)

AWeber has my strongest recommendation for managing your email delivery and you can find out more about email marketing and setting up auto-responers with AWeber here

Once your visitor has confirmed their email, they get their first email from you – along with what ever incentive you offered. This is when the new subscriber is most interested and in my experience also when people are most likely to TAKE ACTION. So make sure you give them something to TAKE ACTION on.

I do two other things. I promote some products and new product launches (as an affiliate). In addition I usually email details of my most recent Blog Posts or anything else of interest or of VALUE to the subscriber. If the subscriber is getting lots of FREE stuff of a high quality they will not object to the occasional sales promotion – and of course if they don’t like it, they can always un-subscribe.

What you should not do is inundate people with constant sales promotions — sometimes I go a month or more between sales promotions but that in part is because I am very fussy about who I promote.

I hope this helps – do go check out AWeber they have a number of special offers and you can get started for very little money.

Join Me On YouTube

Check out my new YouTube Channel at The IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.

And here are some popular blog posts to check out:

The True Story Of My Overnight Success
AND
My Personal Story, How I Created IncomeDiary.com