Your subscriptions are next to zero?

All bloggers are keen on increasing their site visitors and post readers. What they need is more and more site visitors hit their Blog site and staying a while, engaged with the content of their posts.

This makes the site interesting to search engines, which notice a steady stream of site visitors who do not bounce off, but stay a while on the site.

Search engines then assume that your Blog site has something of importance for your site visitors and you site goes up the value chain in search engines.

A modest to large email list helps your Blog site grow in importance among site visitors, and in turn, search engines.

If your email list is non-existent or a tiny one, it’s difficult to sustain (or increase) site visitors by informing them of new Blog posts.  Marketing your products / services to your site visitors will be an uphill task. This combination makes it impossible for your site to deliver a liveable income, month on month, to you.

Unfortunately, for newbie bloggers, starting and growing an email list seems like an almost herculean task.  Even if you get just 1 or 2 subscribers a month it feels like you’re winning.

Gaining one or two subscribers per month, will just not work for you, making you wonder what it is you doing wrong?

What you need is to fill your mailing list with the right people.  i.e. People who are interested in what your site delivers by way of post content, products or services.

Here are 5 things you must change on your site to grow your email list quickly.

1. Increase the traffic to your site

If you’ve got to increase subscribers to your site, it’s imperative you increase site visitors to you site, i.e. increase inbound traffic.

Here are real world, site visitor subscribe statistic, which impact your email list.  From your total (new) site visitors coming to your site each month, only 1% to 3% will convert to email subscribers.  This is true of almost all Web / Blog sites today.

This means if you’re getting about 1000 new site visitors each a month, you ought to get about 10 to 30 new subscribers to your site each month. This happens when you are doing everything just right.

Hence if your email list in not increasing, you need to drive more and more new and focused site visitors to your site every month.

Tried and tested ways to increase your site traffic without advertising:

Write guest posts on other popular blog sites in your niche

Carefully choose the sites you publish guest Blog posts on.  They must be sites that deliver similar content as your site, or supportive content to your site’s content.  The rule of thumb is that your site and the site on which you guest post must add value to each other.

If you start getting inbound site visitors who are not from your niche by writing guest posts everywhere, your site’s bounce rate will sky rocket. In turn search engines will immediately lose interest in your website.

Create round up posts on your blog.

Interview other senior bloggers in your niche. Do a video or audio interview using Skype or Google Hangouts of about 15 to 20 senior bloggers in your niche.

Reach out to them via email first. Tell them that you’d like to interview them. Give them 10 questions you propose to ask during the interview.  Allow the interviewees to edit the questions if they want to.

Setup a one on one Skype call or a Google Hangout.  I do prefer Google hangouts because this records the entire interview as a video and saves this to YouTube.

NOTE: For Skype you will have to purchase 3^rd party software to record the interview and convert this recording in to an appropriate mp4 video file.

Do the interview and publish it on your Blog.  Inform the blogger that the interview has been published. Ask them to market the interview on their social media channels, while you do the same on your social media channels.

Create an inner circle of your best post commenters

Make a list of your most influential post readers.

These are people who interact with you regularly. They:

• Comment on to your posts regularly
• Share your posts with their followers
• Send you interesting articles
• Buy your products / services

And so on.

Place the email Ids of such people your special inner circle list.   Email them to let them know of their newly attained status. Let them know the benefits.

Explain the benefits of being on your inner circle list:

• They will get to see your posts before the public.
• They’ll be apprised of any new offerings, before anyone else.

Ask their opinion on your post content. This helps give them a sense of ownership over your posts and multiplies the chances they will make every effort to share your post content with their followers.

Offer them eBooks or Infographics and other special benefits that you’ve created.  Thank them for their help and offer to help them in return whenever they need.

Make it dead simple to share your post / page content

Add the easy to use, social media sharing buttons for sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Ensure that sharing your post on their social media channels is one-click away.  There are simply tons of free WordPress plugins, as well as premium ones if required, that are available today.

NOTE: If your post / page content is difficult to share, no one is likely to share it.

Your post content should have depth and add value to your readers

Site visitors like to look clever and clued in to their readers and friends.

Hence, well written and well formatted articles tend to get shared a tone more.  The simple reason is the people sharing them want their friends to think they read in-depth articles.

Additionally, when a new site visitor lands on your in-depth, value add post, they are more likely to subscribe just so that they can access equally valuable information consistently via your site.

To tip site visitors into subscribing, make sure to offer a terrific, value add bribe for them to subscribe.

Offer an ebook, one on one consult, a white paper, a terrific infographic, access to exclusive content not available to those who are not subscribers and so on.  Whatever you can deliver with confidence, and which adds measurable value to a subscriber, is going to work.

Marketing your new Blog post to subscribers

Normally the newsletter that goes out to your subscribers when you publish a new Blog post has:

• The Blog post title
• The featured image of the post or some other image
• And a two to four line description of what the post offers.
• With a Call To Action (i.e. a clickable link) to visit the site to engage with the post.

STOP! Doing this.
Instead ensure your emailed newsletter markets your new Blog post properly.

Build curiosity. Indicate measurable benefits, describe great takeaways for subscribers when they read your blog posts.  That’s when your click through rates will double/triple and your post engagements soar.

2. You’re not giving your audience enough places to opt in

I’ve often landed on a site that I’d really like to subscribe to, and I’ve had to work hard finding out how to subscribe to the site.  There are times when I’ve failed to find out how to subscribe as well.

The subscribe form is buried at the bottom of the Blog post’s side bar, under half a dozen affiliate ads. Alternatively, the subscribe link has been placed in the footer section.

I’ve always been curious to know whether they want subscribers or are they actively avoiding subscribers.  It’s hard to tell.

Do avoid the mistakes is you are serious about getting subscribers.

Here are simple techniques that definitely increase your site subscribers.

1. Include an opt-in form (i.e. subscribe to your site) right at the top of your Blog home and post pages.
2. Describe your lead magnet (i.e. subscribe bribe) prominently within the opt-in form.
3. Ensure you have an unobtrusive slide-in box at the bottom of your blog post either on the left or right hand side that describes your subscribe bribe.
4. Include pop-ups which displays your opt-in form and subscribe bribe. Ensure the pop-up can be dismissed easily and does barrage the site visitor again and again while they navigate through your site.

NOTE: BTW, if that pop-up opt-in annoys a site visitor, it’s a 100% iron clad guarantee way to lose subscribers and site visitors.

Some newbie Bloggers may feel they are bothering people by offering so many opportunities to subscriber on their site.  My advice is, please stop feeling like this.

Don’t feel guilty about asking site visitors to subscribe to your email list.  Once they join, just ensure they get terrific value add from you.  Now you are sure that you are actually helping them by giving them many chances to subscribe to your mailing list.

3. You’re not offering a tempting enough bribe to subscribe

Too often the subscribe opt-in bribe offered is Get Email Updates or Join The Newsletter this is really as good as offering no subscribe bribe at all.  No one want’s email updates anymore.

Today it’s imperative your site offers something perceived as really valuable to your site visitor, as a reason for them to subscribe via your opt-in form.  Otherwise your subscriber list will just not build.

Examples of great subscribe bribes include:

• Free reports
• Webinars
• Email courses
• PDF checklists

Take the time to create subscribers-only content that is truly valuable. Ensure that the value of the subscribe bribe is clearly described on your opt-in form. This is the best way to grow your subscriber list.

4. You’re not offering the right lead magnet.

Now you know you need the perfect bribe (also called a lead magnet) to grow your subscribers.

How do you figure out the subscribe bribe you are offering is something that your site visitor’s actually want? This really needs you to be clear about what sort of transformation your site visitors want for themselves.

Your site visitors must perceive that your opt-in form, subscribe bribe, will help them experience a measurable, small, win. It must give them a taste of what they can achieve if they sign up with you.

If you are not clear about what your site visitors want to achieve, engage with them. Use emails, a free webinar, Skype chat, phone calls, or any other means that delivers such engagement.

To multiply your site registrants, which helps boost your Blog driven Internet business, it’s absolutely vital to understand your site visitors / Blog post readers intimately.

Once you are clear about what your site visitors / Blog post readers are struggling with, especially what they want, you will be able to create a subscribe bribe for which they will happily trade their email address without a second thought.

5. The subscribe bribe is packaged in a least enticing way.

You have an almost zero subscribers, yet you’ve got your subscribe opt-in form displaying your subscribe bribe everywhere.

What could be going wrong?

It could be the simple matter of packaging your opt-in forms badly.

Take a close look at your opt-in form, ask yourself:

• Am I highlighting the benefits of my subscribe bribe effectively?
• Can site visitors instantly understand how they benefit by subscribing?
• What’s the head line used in the opt-in form? Is it arresting enough?
• Does it describe exactly what your subscribe bribe is?
• Does it describe exactly how it will help a subscriber?
• If there is an image used on your opt-in form, does that deliver the perfect visual representation of what your subscribers can expect if they subscribe?
• Ensure that your opt-in form looks appealing.
• Ensure that the Subscribe button is nice and noticeable.

Layered PopUps have great opt-in form templates for growing your subscriber list. Check it out here.

To Conclude

Are there any of these commonly made mistakes happening on your site? You now have all the information you need to correct any/all of them.

• It’s time to multiply your site subscribers.
• It’s time to create the perfect subscribe bribe in the perfect opt-in form.
• It’s time to create subscribe boxes that compel your site visitors to take action.
• It’s time to place the subscribe boxes strategically throughout your blog.

What do you do to grow your email list? My Blog post readers and I will be grateful to you for sharing your insights and actions on this issue, do share in the comments section below.