Blog Marketing - Building A List of Subscribers

If you have a blog that gets traffic it's time to start thinking about effectively marketing your blog content so you can make money online while offering your readers more of what they really want! And the best way of marketing a blog or website is to collect the names and email addresses of your readers, so that they automatically receive updates with every new post you write, this article will give you some answers.

Should you use a plugin, set up your own mailing list or use a service to grow a subscriber list for your blog?

This article shows you how easy it is to manage a list of subscribers for a blog readership, and gives you a 'hands off' way to keep your readers coming back...

Send Your Subscribers Your New Blog Posts! Easy!

First off let me clarify that this technique has nothing to do with where you host your blog, what blog marketing strategies you already have in place or what type of blogging software you're using. If you are allowed to edit your blog template this is the easiest and most reliable method to building a list on your blog.

As soon as I say "edit your blog template", most visitors shiver and shake with the thought of mucking around in code, so let's clarify...

All you need to do is paste one line of code into your blog template. That's all the editing that is required.

Getting Subscribers from A WordPress Blog

I used to manage my subscriber lists on my blogs with a plugin called Subscribe2. It was a pretty good plugin with no glitches that I knew of, but it did involve ftping files to my server, modifying my sidebar template, and (from what I remember) took me about 1/2 hour to customize for my readers.

As my list grew larger some of my biggest concerns were that I was never sure that I was in compliance with the CAN-spam act by using it. Nor could I track whether or not my subscribers received their mail, changed email addresses, or clicked the links I sent them. These are all big 'deals' in the marketing world. You need access to the details when you're defining or altering your website marketing strategy.

Getting Subscribers from a BlogSpot hosted Blog

Most of my regular visitors know that I don't like blogspot hosted blogs for a number of reasons and I'll do just about anything to convince you to get your blog off of blogspot. So I'll try to be careful here about staying on topic. The way I suggest getting subscribers to your blogspot hosted blog is the exact same as for WordPress or for Movable Type. You'll just add one line of code to your template.

"So What's the Code That Lets Me Manage Subscribers, Track the Click-through AND Stay in Compliance?"

Use your auto-responder account! Yes, you heard me right. It's a fast setup and you can easily manage everything you need to from within your autoresponder account.

You do have an autoresponder account don't you?

"Anyone who's marketing online - whether you're selling products, running google adsense, or just making a name for yourself - who desires a steady stream of repeated visits from people interested in your views, products or reviews absolutely needs to keep a list of loyal readers. It is the most simplistic marketing strategy to implement with the largest return!"

An auto-responder account is the second purchase to make after you've created your first website. And, if you get the right service you can use one login to manage multiple lists (because sooner or later you'll start your second website, then your third, and so on) without any extra costs.

Keep Blog Readers Coming Back With Every Post

Okay, here's how it's done. I used this auto-responder to manage multiple lists of people with varying interests through one low-payment account. Paying for this account is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the traffic it sends me week after week just because I made a post on any one of my blogs.

Blog Subscribers Marketing Strategy

You can set these 'Blog Notify' lists as separate lists or simply add the ability to email an existing mailing list that you have. I suggest setting up a separate mailing list for your blog readers (as opposed to regular newsletter subscribers) because newsletter subscribers and blog visitors aren't often one and the same type of visitor. It doesn't take any more effort to run two lists than it does one, past the initial setup. And, if you really want your newsletter subscribers to get your blog posts you can invite them to change their subscriptions, opt in to the second subscription or at the very least notify them what they'll soon be receiving as part of their subscription to your newsletter (fail to do this and you might lose a few subscribers who cry "This isn't what I signed up for!").

Setting Up Your Blog Email Subscription List

This is really easy. Login to your auto-responder, Start a new list or select the list you want to add blog update notifications to, and click on the Messages tab.

You should then see a link to the Feed Broadcaster. From that page you simply enter in your RSS feed url.

Note: If you're hosting on blogspot make sure you're publishing a site feed (in your blog's control panel click "Settings" then "Site Feed" then ensure the Publish Site Feed option is set to Yes, and you'll find the Site Feed URL displayed directly below.

Feed Broadcaster is compatible with the following:

RSS 0.9 through RSS 1.0
RSS 1.0's modules
RSS 2.0
Atom

And that, basically is all there is to it! There are many customizations and modifications you can make to the email that is sent to your subscribers, as well as how often they are mailed, but you don't need to worry about those settings unless you want to start tweaking your blog marketing strategy.

Grab One Line of Code...

Your auto-responder account will generate a single line of javascript code for you to insert into your blog's template. The script works in html, php and asp files. It doesn't matter, you don't need to get caught up in the compatibility or code. Just insert the code you're given from the Web Form Generator into your template file for subscribers to enter their email address into. (Demo of an autoresponder sign up box is on the right side of all my blog entries here: internet marketing help)

How Does An Auto Responder Work?

Your autoresponder account will now check for updates every hour (subject to change - please verify with your autoresponder account) and sends out notifications to your subscribers immediately upon detection if you've selected the "Send Automatically" option in the Feed Broadcaster. If not, you simply login and manually submit the message for broadcast.

Confused?

It's okay, everyone who is new to auto-responders is a little confused at first...

The fact is that if all this seemed a little hard to follow, you've probably never used an auto-responder before. Believe me this is the best learning curve to get over as it's one of the easiest ways to make money online by generating return traffic to your websites on demand. And the service I recommend has the greatest customer service with an online chat, a 1-800 number as well as descriptive help files (some in video format).