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List building has never been very high on my priority list. Since this blog is about Internet Marketing, I have no problem being completely transparent with you guys about the goings-on related to my own business-building tactics. Today I want to discuss my newsletter/mailing list. Or, really, lack there of.

In the almost-two-years I have been seriously into blogging/internet marketing, I haven’t managed to build my own list. I know “the money is in the list,” but I hate signing up for a list and then getting hammered with “buy this or you’ll die” or “buy that or you’ll never make money online” messages. I wanted to build a list to occassionally share information outside the blog and maybe promote a few products. I wanted it to be an avenue for useful information, but I felt like “saving” stuff for my list might lower the quality of the information on the blog.

I have always had a list sign-up form some place in the Pajama Professional sidebar, but haven’t really made much effort to promote the list until recently. As I mentioned before, I cancelled my aWeber account last January-ish and forgot to migrate my list. It wasn’t a huge list, but it wasn’t pitiful either. Then I tried a few different list options (hosting it on my own server, a free service, etc.) and decided there was no substitute for - ready for the affiliate link? - aWeber. So I signed up again to start from square one.

This time around, instead of following all the hardcore list building rules, I decided to see if the rules really mattered. I broke two major rules just to see if it would affect my sign-ups. And boy did it ever! In the first couple of months I had the form up, I literally had two people sign up - and one of them was me. This was the case even though I dedicated an entire post to how I had a great surprise for those who signed up.

Here are the two major rules that I broke - for those of you who haven’t already been saying to yourselves, “What the hell is wrong with her?!”:

List Building Rule Number One: Newsletter Sign-up Forms Should Always be Above the Fold

Yes, I want people to follow me on Twitter, but, honestly, a list is more important. Burying the sign-up form halfway down the page with a lame title like “Newsletter Signup” is just not the way to get it noticed.

The above-the-fold section of the sidebar is prime real estate on your blog, but there are only so many things you can place there. It’s all about priorities. You must think carefully about what is really important to you; what will bring in the most traffic/attention/money/whatever in the least amount of time? If you sell ads, you are more likely to get more - and higher - offers if you give up the very top of your sidebar. In my case, I use my “Sponsors” area to try out ads, not to make money. For many bloggers, those 125×125 boxes are their life-blood.

Right now I am starting a business, launching a new blog and soon I’ll be giving away an information product. I need to be reaching as many people as possible and a list is the very best way to do that. So, for me, at this moment, building my list is the most important thing I can be doing in my sidebar. By burying my sign-up form, I pretty much buried my chances of sign-ups.

The Change: I moved my sign-up form to the very top and gave it a call-to-action title: “Be The First to Know!”

Offer a Valuable Incentive for People who Sign up

People like free stuff. Even if I’m not absolutely in love with a certain blogger, I might sign up to their newsletter if they offer me something fresh and interesting in return for my contact info. All I offered was first notice of an unnamed upcoming information product I am developing. And, although I am developing a product, that doesn’t give the reader any kind of immediate benefit. Just like with signing up for a membership site, everyone wants to see at least some sort of measurable result as quickly as possible.

My blurb in the Newsletter Signup section was also very lame:

For news and tips deliverd to your inbox, subscribe to the PJ Pro email list. You will also be the first to learn more about my upcoming FREE information product.

Ooooh! A super-secret free information product. (and, yes, I had spelled delivered incorrectly as well. Way to go, English Major!) I’ve never heard of one of those in the internet marketing industry. Ugh. This might work if I was well-known as an info-product genius, but I’m not (yet!) so that’s not exactly a good reason to give up your email address to yet another info marketer.

The Change: I changed the intro and added a useful incentive - Directory Buzz software.

You’ve heard it a million times: the money is in the list. I never really wanted to sell to my list so I didn’t put much time in developing one. I don’t plan to directly market to my list on a regular basis. However, there is no doubt that having thousands of people you can email when you have something exciting to share is the very best way to get that information out there.

As for my experiment, I guess it’s not really over yet. I’ll have to track my sign-ups over the next few months and see if the numbers improve. Then I’ll really know if breaking the rules was as detrimental as it appeared to be. The results sure couldn’t be much worse.

If you haven’t signed up for my list, please let me know why. Is the incentive too lame or are you just avoiding extra email? I would really appreciate any feedback you can give.

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Viewing 7 Comments

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    You can spot all of these lists from a common trait: they're all spread on one single page, make use of bold and colored text extensively.
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    Forrest - Sorry I missed your comment before. I'm not offended at all. You are absolutely right that lists are generally meant to sell. The first thing I remember being told when I started internet marketing was "the money is in the list." But I hate the idea of flooding people with sales emails.

    That was exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. I know lists really work for some people, but I hate being hype-y. Also, I stick to my guns when I say i won't recommend something if I haven't tried (unless I state that I haven't) so it could get pretty expensive for me if I was sending out new offers every other day!

    I'm signed up to TONS of lists, but more to study the sales pitches than to learn about the products. Every once in awhile I'll purchase, but I hate MLM type stuff. I think selling people a product that tells you to sell other people a product when the product itself is simply the selling is the most asinine circle of bullsh!t ever.

    So, yeah, no offense taken if you don't want to join my list. I'll just spam your blog comments with MLM offers. Kidding! LOL.

    Darryl - I know what you mean. I am a bit addicted to free stuff myself. That's why I like to give stuff away here.

    Rod - I mentioned aWeber in the article and that's really the only mailing list service I would recommend. It's stable, inexpensive and get the job done.

    Sara
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    I wanted to create a list but how do I find an affordable mailing list software to do it?

    Rod's last blog post..3 Worst Copywriting Mistakes You Should Avoid
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    JR,

    I fixed the link on the download page, thanks for the heads up. I sent you an email with the download page link as well as a link directly to the file. Please let me know if you have any problems.

    Thanks,
    Sara
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    Hi Sara, I signed up for the list, but the Directory Buzz software link is not working, says, "nothing found" when clicking on it.
    Thanks,
    JR

    JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies's last blog post..Link Building - Another Do-Follow Social Bookmark on Turbo
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    You had asked:

    If you haven’t signed up for my list, please let me know why. Is the incentive too lame or are you just avoiding extra email? I would really appreciate any feedback you can give.


    And the interesting thing is, you touched on the main answer in your question. I don't want the email. I have two addresses: one for personal correspondence, and the other, which seems to be down, is more of a honey pot. My Excite email address gets hundreds of messages a day, and has become useless, apart from having an address to give out at will.

    The other reason - and I mean no offense by this - is that, as you mentioned, the reason for building these types of lists is to sell them. I have respect for you, based on everything you've expressed in your blog. I wouldn't be offended in the least if you decided to write me. But that respect doesn't carry over to partners you may have ... again, I'm not trying to single you out, but this general line of thinking is why I don't join lists at all.

    In terms of incentives, I've joined the Union of Concerned Scientists' mailing list a few years ago, when my best friend stood to win a nice prize by recruiting enough people. I guess that's really the only type of incentive that would convince me ... making a personal friend happy.

    I hope that reasoning and feedback is even a little bit useful?

    Forrest's last blog post..4th of July Fireworks on Lake Union
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    that may be against the 'rules', i don't know anything about it but to me it makes sense... i was not going to ask you
    “what the hell is wrong with her?!”, i'd rather say "hey nice idea, why didn' t they think of that!"
 

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