All New CommentMILK Version 1.0Planning Our Subscriber Traffic Strategy - Part 3 of An Aud Life Dot Com
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In the previous post in this series “Understanding the How and Where” we broke down the sources of traffic we are going to target. Now I want to dig a little deeper into that because we need to make sure we really get a clear picture in our mind of what this looks like and a plan for each source.
For example, it is easy to say “Subscribers” but do I really have a solid understanding of what this means and a plan as to how to gain subscribers?
The four sources of traffic that we mentioned in the previous post that we are focusing on to achieve our “traffic goals” are…
- 1 - Subscribers (repeat visitors)
- 2 - Search Engines (Mainly Google)
- 3 - Forums & Social Networks
- 4 - Word of Mouth / Recommendations
Today we are going to start with…
Subscribers (repeat visitors):
Having subscribers is wonderful for repeat traffic, plus you have an asset of readers that you know are targeted to the market of your blog. It is the same as repeat customers, if you ask any profitable company they will tell you that it is much less expensive to sell to a current satisfied customer then it is to a new customer that has never heard of you.
The funny thing about subscribers is the message of “you need a list” is always being preached and yet one of the first things I notice on any new blog or website that I am asked to review is they have either a very weak incentive for people to subscribe or there is nothing at all.
I am a huge believer that if you want to grow your company for the long term, you NEED to create a list of subscribers. This has been a major influence in the growth of my entire business but the challenge that most people have is they think that if they simply put the little rss icon on their site or say “subscribe to my blog” they will build a huge profitable list of subscribers… BUT this simply does not work effectively for the average blog.
Here is how I look at it, there are currently 6 “make money online” blogs that I subscribe to. I have no reason to want to subscribe to any other blogs, especially just for the the sake of doing so because they say so. I might (if i remember) come back and visit other blogs, but unless it gives me a special reason (benefit) for why I should subscribe, well it just is not going to happen. I already have enough information coming my way.
You need to clearly understand that just because a subscription to your blog is free, that is not a compelling enough reason for people to want to make a commitment to your blog by subscribing. You need to create a USP (Unique Selling Position) that sets your offer apart from what everyone else is offering. Give Them a Reason!!!
“But would they not subscribe because of good content like at problogger?”
Yes but lets look at that example:
Problogger.net does not offer an incentive to readers to sign up and has a huge list but it is one of the original make money online industry blogs, it is highly referred to by other high authority sites, it is mentioned in books and loads of other places PLUS it has lots of history of reliable good content.
Now ask your self the question –> Does your new blog fit that mold?
Chances are it does not and the bottom line comes down to this, it has been proven over and over and over again that if you want to dramatically increase your subscriber rate, make an enticing offer with a high perceived value. The high perceived value means that the reward for subscribing outweighs any potential negatives.
OK, so hopefully I have drilled into your heads the power of not only a list but that you need to offer a good enticing offer that encourages readers to subscribe, so now we need to lay out how we plan to do this with http://www.anaudlife.com
- 1. The first thing is to decide on how we are going to manage subscribers. Our preference is using a combination of Feedburner with Aweber as they work extremely well together tracking your email subscribers together with your direct RSS subscribers. The power of this is with Aweber you can also email your list private offerings and send them occaissional free gifts that encourage them to stick around. You are creating an asset that you own and can use over and over again.
2 . Our target market is those looking for help dealing with “Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms” and the number one symptom is “PAIN”, so we want to make sure we offer something of value that directly benefits them in this area. For this blog we decided on putting together a free ebook called “Leaving Arthritis Pain Behind”. Make sure if you are going to do this that you put together something of value and create a professional looking ebook cover.- 3. Another powerful incentive that works very well for us, is contests. This has been very effective at growing our lists but you must do it right. You want to first of all make sure you offer prizes that relate to the interests of your readers. The great thing about contests, is they can not only boost your subscribers but if done right, can get you loads of backlinks and recommendations, which very effectively help with search engine and word of mouth traffic.
Summary: We are going to user Feedburner and Aweber, we are offering a valuable ebook and the last part of our initial traffic plan for “Subscribers” is we are going to create a contest.
In the next couple posts I am going to cover the “contest planning” and I am also going to get into more detail of setting up your opt in system. After that we will move on to the traffic plans for “Search Engines (Mainly Google)”, then “Forums & Social Networks” and then “Word of Mouth / Recommendations”
NOTE: I feel the need to throw this in –> If you are not going to offer an ebook or report or anything like that but just the subscription, you still want to make sure you say more then “Subscribe now” or “sign up for our newsletter”. It is so vitally important that you remember to always ask your self “what are the biggest benefits of doing this for my readers”. I will get into this in more detail in the next few lessons.
So what are your thoughts on this post?
- Part 1 - Planning Your Promotion Strategy
- Part 2 - Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
- Part 3 - Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
- Part 4 - Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
- Part 5 - Planning the Contest Criteria
- Part 6 - Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest
- Part 7 - Rule of the Contest Prize Delivery
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- Planning Your Promotion Strategy - Part One of An Aud Life dot Com | John Cow dot Com
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Great post… again. I have been planning on opening my new site for a while, and also have a great idea for an eBook that I haven’t seen anywhere else, except for one place, but it was pretty sloppy.
I’ll be giving it away free to subscribers. Just have to figure out how to email a subscriber with a link to the eBook once they subscribe… I hope its a feedburner option.
Ralphs last blog post..Does The World End Tomorrow?…
Thanks Ralph, sorry to say I do not believe that feedburner offers any way to email your subscribers. I use Aweber for that but feedblitz might be able to do that and I think it is free if you use the ad supported option. Now do not quote me on that because i do not use feedblitz.
Of course you could always just post on yoru blog and once feedburner grabs it, just delete the post from your blog
Ah, thats a good idea. Thanks.
I’ll also look into feedblitz.
Ralphs last blog post..Does The World End Tomorrow?…
@ Ralph : You also can put a link to the Ebook at the end of your feed posts (so it will only appear at the end of every posts in the mail and feed agregators). You must also point to the suscriber that he must right clik at the link to download the ebook.
Rodney SANKINKAs last blog post..Seo pour les commentaires sur Blogger
Another good post, thanks! As you say, the hardest part of getting subscribers is finding the right offer that is compelling to your audience. For my RafterTales.com site I have just tried a free gift card offer but so far its not working too well. Home and Garden may not be a niche that compels people to return often since the users are task driven and often simply looking for an answer to a specific problem or question today vs. having an ongoing interest in the subject matter. I look forward to your next posts on developing the aud life dot com subscriber contest!
domainpubbers last blog post..Designing a Boy’s Animal Bedroom
another great post. I have another site which about music. But maybe il leave it for a while and focus on my first blog. i need to advertise it more and get lots of backlinks. and if it will be successful and il go with the second one:)
btw about comment,why all my comments dont appear everytime i include my URL below my email.maybe traffic kahuna has involve with this.
I assume you mean commentkahuna and no it would have nothing to do with that as commentkahuna is simply a browser with extra things added to help manage the commenting. You did not even use a URL with this comment.
Make sure the enable commenluv is checked under the comment also.
Yes Mr. John Cow because everytime i put my URL my comments dont appear so i need not to put my URL so this comment will be posted..i dont know whats wrong.well,talking about Subscriber traffic Strategy, is Comment Relish a good plugin to get subscribers?
NaldzGraphicss last blog post..Top 10 Best High Quality Resources for Free Stock Textures
Most comments do go to moderation automatically, you often post multiple times and so i jsut delete a bunch of the duplicates. Just post once and I promise it will get approved, jus tgive me a little time
thanks a lot:)sorry for the trouble
NaldzGraphicss last blog post..A Tribute to Olympic Logos and Posters Since 1896-2008
I really like the gift card idea for raftertales - i went and subscribed
Maybe you just need to tell more people about it?
It’s hard to say what will motivate people - I think it really just depends on the subject of the blog & the quality of the offer. If you write an ebook that people want, then you’re in good shape - but sometimes (most times) an ebook is not enough to get me going.
Chelles last blog post..The Business of Relationships
Thanks Chelle,
I spoke too soon yesterday, forgetting that aweber needed to approve my opt in message. In 2 days i have over 200 new subscribers already! Not bad at all and the $100 a month cost will be insubstantial in comparison to the increase I will see in repeat visitors and ability to market numerous offers! A huge MOOOOoooo to the Cow for inspiring me to try this approach
domainpubbers last blog post..Designing a Boy’s Animal Bedroom
This is a very important thing for bloggers, thanks for sharing it. More than an ebook, what kind of things you consider a blogger could offer to the readers, to motivate them to subscribe??
I will get into that in the coming up posts but you can over things like software, plugins, templates, images and the list goes on.
One thing you can do is try to interview someone and offer that as your opt in (you can get it transcribed and include that too).
The list can go on and the idea is to look what the market is offering and figure out how to do something a little different or better.
Liked the post. It took me a while to realize why so many people were giving stuff away for free but then again, I was usually that person signing up for the free stuff.
Gaje Masters last blog post..One Year Goal - August
What a great sharing. For a newbie like me, it’s really valuable tips.Cant’ wait for the next post. Yup, you know gaje Master , people do like free stuff.
Thanks for sharing. This will help me plan a better strategy when looking for subscribers to my blog.
Bruno Augers last blog post..Subscribers Wipe Out The Economic Downturn
Great post. I recently realized our site didn’t make the free newsletter option obvious. I moved the link to the header and also added it to our “more information” form. It is defaulted to no, on that form. That way they have to click yes, and I know they really wanted it. At this point, I manually input that into our aweber account for the verification to go out.
This is very important and I completely agree.
Thanks,
JR
JR’s Internet Marketing Strategiess last blog post..Don’t Let Negativity Kill Your Online Business!
Feedburner and Aweber.
Why TWO lists and which is the best use of both, avoiding to overload the readers inbox with double content emails (like your latest post thru both Feedburner and Aweber).
Big Bloggers last blog post..Need a professional coder ? Pay what YOU want !
You are not actually using two lists, you use aweber in place of the feedburner email option. You would never want to double email people. Aweber has a rss bradcasting option that will use your feedburner link and track subscribers.
So is this what you meant with “Our preference is using a combination of Feedburner with Aweber as they work extremely well together tracking your email subscribers together with your direct RSS subscribers. ?
Big Bloggers last blog post..Need a professional coder ? Pay what YOU want !
Yes