This is a guest post by Onibalusi. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
I recently sent an email to my list of 1500 subscribers promoting a particular product not that relevant to my email list, that single email made me five sales. Since that was one of the very few serious promotions I did to my email list I figured out building a solid email list of responsive buyers could be a great source of income and I have decided to share my approach to it.
Before I get started I’d also like you to know that my approach was inspired by the CloudBlueprint System by Glen Allsopp so you should make sure to check it out if you really want to learn more about earning money online mainly by list building.
Finding a Market
The first step to building a solid email list that will be making you money is finding a market. Since most of us are bloggers this shouldn’t be difficult since you can easily create an email list based on what you blog about or based on a particular topic you’re experiencing quick success with.
Every market has a need and as a marketer it is your duty to understand what their needs are. It is also important that you know that you can’t build a general list or a list that covers every topic because you will end up pissing people off so it is always advisable to look for one topic you’re an expert at, try to narrow down the market a little bit and then create an email list for it.
Understand Your Market
Another important thing you need to do when trying to make money from your email list as a blogger is to understand your market. I have seen first hand that this is very critical to succeeding when building an email list because at a point when I was still at 150 subscribers I once made a promotion to my list that brought $50, at 1000 subscribers I made another promotion that brought in $0 and at 1500 subscribers I made a promotion that brought in over $200. What I noticed is that even though the size of your list is very important you can’t just make money by promoting any product to your list.
For example, in some niches people love buying products that are cheap (say $37 or less) and in some niches people are okay with buying products that are expensive (in fact they won’t buy low priced product because they think it is of less value) so you need to have a great understanding of your market, what they want, how they spend and why they joined your list in the first place as this will help you know how to effectively deliver your content to them and also how to ensure they buy any product you recommend.
Create a Lead Magnet
Even though some people will argue against having a lead magnet I have noticed that having one is very important and can make an impact in how much subscribers you get. For me I was able to more than double my blog’s daily subscription rate just by adding a lead magnet related to my niche.
A lead magnet is a product (it can be in the form of an eBook or e-course) that is designed as an incentive to make people join your email list. It is highly important that your lead magnet is targeted and related to your niche and in case you want an example of a perfect lead magnet you can take a look at Daniel’s eBook on How to Make Money Blogging.
It is also very important to create a lead magnet that is based on your expertise, for example, people are more likely to subscribe to Daniel’s newsletter to download his free eBook on how to make money blogging because he is an expert who already makes money blogging compared to a newbie who doesn’t.
Create an Autoresponder Series
Since you already know what your subscribers want and since you already have an incentive to draw them in the next line of action is to create an autoresponder sequence that is designed to give them value and make you money.
Your autoresponder sequence should focus on giving value first before any promotions. This means you should ensure your first few messages give people enough free information to justify them spending money with you. First, this helps you gain the trust of your subscribers and also makes it clear that you’re not just there to take their money but to offer them genuine value.
You should also make sure you don’t spoil your list with freebies because doing that will only attract freebie seekers towards you but you should be sending them promotions every once in while to prepare them to spend with you.
Create a Landing Page
Now you have your whole email list building system set up, which includes knowing your market, creating the right lead magnet and setting up an autoresponder series. The next question is, how do you get subscribers to your email list? Should you just set up opt in forms on your blog sidebar and expect subscribers to come? This is where having a landing page comes in.
Even though there is nothing bad about having a subscription form on your blog, having a landing page increases the chances of people subscribing to your email list because there will be less distractions thus making it easier for people to take action.
You also need to know that not all landing pages are equal so you should focus on making your landing page outstanding by hiring a professional designer to help you design it or by using good theme frameworks such as the Premise Framework by Copyblogger or the OptimizePress Framework (I use both and they’re awesome!).
Once you’re ready to set up your landing page you should ensure your landing page has the following qualities
- A great headline that tells your readers why they should subscribe
- Great bullet points that lists the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter
- A solid and clearly defined lead magnet to attract subscribers (in a place where visitors can see it clearly)
- Clear call to actions
Those are just a few things quality landing pages should have. If you’re interested in learning more about building great landing pages you can read the landing page tutorials on Copyblogger.
Market Your Landing Page
This is where the main action comes in. You can have a great understanding of your market, the right lead magnet and the best autoresponder sequence to establish a bond with your subscribers and make you money at the same time but you won’t get any results until you understand how to market your landing page.
There are several ways to market your landing page but I’ll be listing two of my best methods below.
Guest Blogging: Guest blogging is my #1 method for generating traffic and building my email list because it works. I get hundreds of email subscribers from every single guest post that goes live on a big blog and I have gotten as much as 400 subscribers from one guest post. All you need to do is look for the top blogs in your niche, write the best guest posts you can, send it to them and include a link to your squeeze page in your author bio with a clear call to action. This alone will result in hundreds of subscribers for you thereby adding more money to your pocket.
Article Marketing: Another great and effective technique for generating traffic to your squeeze page is article marketing. This doesn’t bring instant results like guest blogging, but if properly done, will be worth it on the long run. All you need to do is look for the 5 best article directories online write great and well optimized articles for them with a link back to your squeeze page. With time these articles will begin to rank and you will also be raking in traffic to your landing page thus leading to more subscribers.
A System?
Building a successful email list that makes you money is all about creating a system that bring results. The above are practical tips to help you start making money online from having a solid email list.
About the Author: To increase your email list subscription rate by over 300% get the Viral List Plugin Onibalusi Co-founded.
Original Post:
How to Build an Email List that Makes Money 
