3 Questions You Need to Ask to Build Your Email List Wisely

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I have two email accounts in Google. One is specially dedicate to Findmyblogway. Recently i just feel that my email account is too cluttered. There is a need to clean it up. Too many mails lying around which i never bother to organize or delete.

I remembered the time when i was obsessed in subscribing to numerous blogs. I am not referring to RSS here but the opt-in form you normally see at the sidebar. Because of the freebie that comes with it, i willingly fill up my email address and opt into the email list.

I got to admit i am not very organized in person. There are so many useless mails filling up in my email account and i actually never do anything about it. I finally decided to delete all the unwanted mails as well as unsubscribe with newsletter from bloggers which does not help me at all.

“Money is in the list”, That’s the advice most of us know because a lot of A-list bloggers tell us that. I have no argument with that. It’s a great way to build relationship and interact with people inside the email list. It’s simple to have an opt-in form displaying on your blog but it’s really not as simple as that.

Sometimes they really sound so easy. “Money is in the list” “You need to build your list from day 1″. It makes me wonder whether their real motive is just to promote the autoresponders and buy from their affiliate links.

Before you set up your email list, you need to really ask yourself some questions.

Do you have a plan for your email list

People may surrender their email address easily because of your lead magnet. What now when you have people in your list? Do you prepare your newsletter in a form where it can send consistently at the dates you have set and provide value which people can’t find in your blog?

If the things you have said can be find everywhere else, what make it so special to opt into your email list?

Have you plan how often you want to send a newsletter to your subscribers and what content you want to send? All these need some planning beforehand.

Are You Focusing on your blog credibility

Why do you have to build your list from day 1? If you start late then more money will be lost. How true is that? I sincerely believe building a email list is the same as building your blog. If you start building your list from day 1, does it means you can see your first paycheck in 6 months time.

Why don’t you spend the time to focus on building your credibility for your blog. Your blog is new and you are a newbie, are you able to provide the value to people who subscribe? Do you have a valuable lead magnet that can attract people to subscribe?

Unless you are Tristan Higbee who has been blogging for seven years and once he started BloggingBookshelf.com, he created a storm.

Are You Brushing up your skills and knowledge

You need to brush up your knowledge and experience in your niche. Till then you understand the market well and have the capability to write an ebook which is helpful to your readers. Make it your lead magnet then and start building your list.

Knowledge is an important aspect in blogging. As you understand deeper on a subject, you will know what is the things people need and look for.

Mistake By Me

If you don’t have a valuable lead magnet and a plan, do you think you can attract a high number of subscribers? I am actually speaking from experience as a blogger and a subscriber.

As you can see, i took down my opt-in as i feel guilty of not sending my subscribers anything valuable. This is an example of bad mistake and bad planning. I listen to the A-list bloggers, start building the list from day 1. I look for some PLR articles and use them as lead magnet. Bad move.

I use Aweber(not affiliate link) and paid $19/month which i never fully utilize. I have since cancelled my account with them. The above three questions that i listed is what i will be focusing on from now. You will only see my opt-in form once i think i am ready for it. Money lost, so be it. It’s totally fine with me. Anyway it’s never too late to earn some money back.

I know some of you may disagree with me. My only advice is go start with Mailchimp(not affiliate link) if you want to build your list from day 1. First of all it’s free as long your subscribers count is below 500 and your sent out mails is below 6000/month.

You don’t have to worry about monthly subscription fees every month and it provide the features of what an autoresponders do.

Subscribers Point of View

As i have mentioned above,  i opt-in to the email list in several blogs but i ended deleted most of them. I don’t like to receive mails that promote products. I hate it more when i keep receiving reminders when the date due is reaching.

Even though i have unsubscribe most of the blogs, i still keep a few. But i just want to recommend one blogger you need to have in your email account.

Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome

I never hesitate to admit that i hold high regards to Pat for what he has done. He is a well established and famous blogger and i don’t have to promote his blog. But i really hoped you can opt-in to his list and emulate his model. I kept every of his mail so far. There are some advice which he never publish in his blog.

In total, i received 20+ mails from him and not even one is a mail he sent to promote any of his affiliates. I can see his planning and he emphasize strongly on readers benefits. This is a fine example of how an email list should be done.

Are you seeing success with your opt ins?

What lesson can we learn from you?

Please leave a comment to share with us. Thanks.

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