So last week I told you guys that I made almost $1,200 in October, and 80% of that was thanks to email marketing, and having an email list, which I’ve been building since December ’09, when I started this blog.
Without that list, I would’ve not been anywhere near where I am today. I could not have had launched two products successfully.
And I could not have made a few great affiliate promotions that introduced people to well-deserved solutions.
4 Reasons Why Having An Email List Is Essential
Getting an email list up and running is as easy as tying your shoes, and if you run into any obstacles, there’s plenty of help out there, and if you pick a great service provider, like Aweber, then you’ll have a whole support team on your side, which never hurts.
1. Community
If you have your own newsletter, you can gather all your readers who are interested in hearing more from you.
The amount of stuff you can do with an email list is only limited by your imagination. You can create a special subscriber-only area, you can create subscriber-only posts, or you can just send your people a special email once a week.
How you use your email list is completely up to you, but having one is a definite hells yeah in my book.
2. Feedback
You can easily encourage feedback by simply telling your subscribers that they can send you an email whenever they feel like.
I do this with my emails, a lot. I am completely cool with chatting with my subscribers, answering questions, or listening to them if they have any feedback, thoughts, or concerns.
I have also recently started doing surveys more, which has proven invaluable. It’s funny really, because what I’ve been feeling intuitively is often confirmed in the surveys. My intuition seems to be functioning well.
3. Control
Having your own list gives you control, which may or may not lead to the dark-side, but just having a page on Facebook or a huge Twitter following is not enough.
Even if you’re receiving tons of search engines traffic, which most people aren’t, Google could kill you at any moment. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always cool to diversify.
4. Leverage
Last, but definitely not least; having an email list will help you improve your bottom line. You’ll be able to help more people and make more money. That’s just the way things are.
There’s so much you can do with your own list. You can ask, interact, recommend, or sell.
How I Made $1,200 Last Month With Two Emails
Whenever I post a new blog post, Aweber pulls the post from my RSS feed, and puts it into a nice, warm place until I send it off to my newsletter readers.
The post I’m talking about is this: benefits of minimalism and living with less. I simply put a note about the promotion at the end of the post and removed it when the promotion was over.
24 hours before the sale ended, I sent out a reminder email to my list. I did this because there were some last minute bonuses added to the package, and also because many people probably missed it the first time around.
I know I certainly miss stuff a lot, so I’ve found myself appreciating that extra reminder email a lot lately.
Email marketing doesn’t have to get any harder than that. You can add emails, and do it your way, but that’s pretty much all there’s to it.
Keep it simple, to the point, and fantastic!
Photo by John
{ 11 comments }
Email marketing is definitely worth looking into. The return on investment is so much that it sometimes sounds plain stupic not to start right away. Good stuff Henri..
I completely agree, James!
Always one of the best advice you can give to people who are or want to get into blogging or any business for that matter. Even if you don’t know anything about email marketing, if you follow what seems logical, you can get a lot out of an email list. You don’t have to abandon the idea if you can’t afford a fancy course that will teach you everything. Even the smallest efforts with an email list will bring you results. So definitely definitely go for it where ever you’re at.
Exactly. The important thing is that you set it up from the beginning, or almost from the beginning (no need to stress it up). Look at what other people are doing. Sign-up to their email lists and learn!
What’s up Henri,
I currently am with MailChimp on my blog and am using Aweber with my niche site(s) but am strongly considering switching to Aweber completely. Yeah it’s 20 a month compared to free but seems as though it over delivers so the price really isn’t a big deal to pay.
My list isn’t too big just yet but I still send out emails and do things to show I want to help those on it improve their blogs and their lives and that’s where it’s really at anyway.
I know I’ll be making money with my list in the future but for now I just need to build it up. Btw, any suggestions on what I could do…. I already know I need to get some kind of ebook graphic up on there to show off a bit.
Good post here btw… simple and to the point and it’s true, your list is power.
Yeah, MailChimp is good. Something you also have to remember is that MailChimp has a sending limit on their free package, so if you email frequently, or if your email list grows, you’ll have to start paying.
You don’t have to get fancy with your email list in the beginning. Get an email series/ebook going, and send people your blog posts when they go up, then as you come up with more stuff, you can keep adding.
Keep it simple!
This is one of those things that I had to get myself comfortable with for a long time until I fully realized it’s potential.
I see now that building your list (even with a niche site) is very important, since you are able to capture your leads (and not to let them go as they leave your site).
I’m in a process of writing a free report, which I’m offering for people landing to my squeeze page. I’m really excited about this, but nervous at the same time, because this is the first time I’m doing this.
Anyways … you gotta do it the first time and the next time is much easier.
Look at it this way; now is the perfect time to hone your chops, because your list is still small, so once you get to thousands of subscribers, you should already have the basics down (hopefully
).
Hope you’re doing well, Timo!
Henri: Thanks for asking, I’m doing fine
Also, thank you for your encouraging words!
Great post. I also like the way you try to get people to subscribe to your newsletter. It’s great to give people something that they would actaully want.
Yeah. It’s easy to produce something small, but put in just a little bit more effort and you can give people something of real value.
Thanks for commenting, Niels!
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