You must have heard that your blog email list is your most important asset.
But how?
If you still don’t have the answer, let me quickly explain it to you…
You can get traffic from search engines, social media, or you can buy traffic.
The sources are infinite...
The question is, are you taking advantage of that traffic? ...
If your answer is no, then you have a serious problem. What you are doing is not helping you…
Create an audience...
Create Brand Advocates…
And get the sustainable traffic you have…
One thing you need to know:
If you’ve already added a Facebook page box, a Twitter follow button, and various other social media buttons, and thought that was enough…
You are wrong..
how??
You can’t control what people see on social media sites. Your readers may or may not be constantly logged into Facebook, Twitter… but they definitely check their email.
I check my email every day...
Don’t you think so?
Adding one-time visitors or even regular readers to your email list is the best thing you can do today…
If you haven't done so yet... this guide is written just for you...
The biggest mistake I made in my first year of blogging was…
One of the biggest mistakes I made while blogging was not building an email list on day 1. From the past 7 years, I started using Aweber to build my email list.
In simple terms, when a user subscribes to my email list, I have full control over what updates to send and when.
Even if you have millions of followers on social media platforms, you don’t really own your readers. What I mean by owning is that you don’t know if your social media followers will see your updates.
Emails are more personal and everyone, including me, checks them every day. Emails are the best way to reach your subscribers and I have a few success stories to share with you, which I will share in a few days.
When I was looking to start email marketing for my blog, I wasn’t sure how to get started. I thought it would require some skills that I didn’t have, but I was wrong.
Anyone without any technical skills (yes, even you) can start with email marketing and make it one of the best promotion channels for their blog.
I wrote this guide to cater to the needs of users like you who don’t have any email marketing skills.
This guide will help you build your own email list and create a signup form that you can add to your blog. The whole process will take the next 25 minutes of your time, and you’ll get started with one of the best online marketing channels that will work for you.
I use Aweber to run my email marketing campaigns because they are cheap and their policies are great for bloggers and affiliate marketers.
Plus, you can get started for just $1 and decide within a month whether to continue. That's how I got started, and I recommend you start now before it's too late. First, create your Aweber account using the following link, which offers a 30-day free trial.
Once you’ve signed up, just follow all the steps I’ve listed below and within the next 25 minutes you’ll have your very own email marketing funnel setup.
How to Use Aweber: A Blogger’s Guide to Email Marketing
Visit Aweber.com and log in with your email.
The first thing you need to do is create an email list.
You can create unlimited email lists and create different email lists for different purposes.
For example:
If you have 3 different blogs, you can create 3 different lists for them. Or, if you only have one blog, you can create one email list now, and in the future, if you host a giveaway, you can create a new list and have users subscribe to that list. This way, you can target future giveaways to a highly targeted email list. Anyway, let’s keep it simple for now, because I’ll be sharing various tips in future posts.
The first thing you’ll want to do is create a signup form so your users can subscribe to your blog. The process is simple, and this tutorial will help you create and set up your first email signup form using Aweber.
Log in to your Aweber account dashboard and follow the steps below to create an email list.
After creating the list, you will also get the code to add the Aweber signup form on your blog, I will share how I added it on my blog.
Go to this page and click Create List:
On the next page add your business name and website URL. You can use an existing address (one you have in your Aweber account) or use a separate address.
Remember that this address appears in every email you send, and this is a mandatory rule for everyone and all email autoresponder services must follow.
Also, add your name and email address on the same page. You can also use your company name or blog name here. I prefer to use a personal name because it makes the email more personal and I get better click-through rates.
This is basically the sender name of the email. (You can also use something like BlogName, for example: Harsh Agrawal in ShoutMeLoud).
Once you’re done, click Next and now you need to enter a name for your list and add a description. Make sure to add a suitable description because this will be displayed to your subscribers when they click on the unsubscribe link. This way they’ll know which list they’re unsubscribing from. Here’s how Aweber explains its importance:
If your subscribers later choose to unsubscribe from your list, they will see this information. Providing a brief and direct description of the list helps them understand what they are unsubscribing from.
Let's say you have multiple lists and someone wants to unsubscribe from one of them. They are shown all of their lists and asked which one they want to unsubscribe from. Describing each list helps the person decide which, if any, they want to continue to be subscribed to.
Set up a confirmation email to ensure double opt-in works
One of the advantages of Aweber is the double opt-in. This means that when a reader enters his name and email address on the subscription form on your blog or landing page, he will receive an email link to confirm it.
This is very important to ensure legitimate registration. On this page you can customize the email asking them to confirm the email communication. I personally use something like
Hey $name, before I start sending you blogging tips or free books, I need you to confirm by clicking the confirmation link in this email
You can tailor it to your blog's user base.
Now click on Approve Message and create the list. Congratulations, you have created your first email list, before you take a break, let’s quickly learn how to get the email subscription code for your newly created email list.
Aweber offers several pre-designed email subscription boxes, and you can simply copy and paste the code on the plugin you are using.
I have listed the best WordPress plugins to get more email subscribers and I use the OptinMonster WordPress plugin on SidelinePlay .
How to create a signup form for your Aweber list:
Click on "Signup Forms" and you will be taken to the email signup form creation page. Click on "Create your first email signup form":
One of the best features of the Aweber email form builder is that you can add other fields in addition to name and email. For example, if you need to get an address or phone number from your subscription, you can do that by adding a new field.
(This step is easy to do, even without any design or coding skills).
My suggestion is to just choose any template from the page to add Aweber signup form on your blog.
Click Save Form and go to Step 2.
Here’s where the fun part comes in, as you can specify where users will be redirected after they submit their name and email in the form. You can choose the basic version, which redirects users to a page where they’ll see a message saying “Please confirm your subscription by clicking on the link sent to your email.”
Click Save Form and go to Step 3. Here you will get the code you need to embed in your blog or plugin to display the subscription form. If a developer or designer maintains your website, you can mail him the code directly from here and he can do what is necessary.
That’s it, now you have successfully created an email form and added it to your blog.
Now, in the next series on Aweber Email Marketing, I will share my secrets on how I engage with my subscribers and how you can use my techniques for your blog. For now, you should go ahead and follow the steps above to create your own email list.
Start Your Blog Email Marketing Now
You can subscribe to SidelinePlay's newsletter to learn how I use email marketing for my blog, and I'll also email you the next article in this series. If you have any questions, ask me in the comments. Please share this tutorial with your blogger friends on Facebook and Twitter.
That’s it, now you need to use your marketing brain to grow your email list.
I missed building an email list from day one, but as time went on, I realized that it’s one of the first things every blogger should do. No matter what, it’s never too late to do it right.
I hope this tutorial helps newbies in creating a mailing list.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
Was this helpful?