Do you want a bigger subscriber list?

Or maybe you’re on the fence …. thinking maybe it’s too hard, it might not be worth the effort to manage or it’s just… way too much to learn.

In this article I want to help squish a few of those things that might be holding you back and help you see SUPER clearly, that having a list you can not only use it to drive traffic to any offers – but if you’re doing things right – also help them find products they’re willing to pay for (things they need) and make money in the process with larger affiliate marketing payouts too.

First up though… let’s explore…

Why Building a Subscriber List is Important.

A subscriber list is a collection of contact details (emails, phone numbers, addresses…) that you can use to keep in touch with what you’re doing in your business.   Marketing online makes things a lot easier too, with different software tools that let you automate most of the processes.  Everything from collecting their information, through to sending them messages can now be automated with the right software.

The MAIN reason it’s important to always be building your subscriber list is this:

What does all of that mean? 

Finding new customers can be hard… getting new subscribers is that first connection point – and when you’re able to turn those subscribers into buyers – and then repeat customers… well, it’s GOLD!  This only happens when you’re able to regularly connect with them… keep your name, your website, your service and your links in front of them.

Using some tools I’ll get to in a moment, you’ll be able to get the best of both worlds
1) Automate lead capture, building your lists faster
2) Simplify followup to them so you can benefit from the traffic it can bring.

But… Where To Start? 

Starting out can be frustrating.   Most of the time you need to spend a lot of money on a monthly service that … when you have 10-50 subscribers can feel like a stupid waste of time and money.

I mean…  how hard is it to get motivated to write an email that’s going out to 10 people, right?

Well, there are a few options available to you.

Option #1: Use a free service

There are some autoresponders out there that let you keep an account free (for life) if you don’t exceed their low customer limits.  They are a bit limited (MailChimp for example lets you host 2000 leads free, but you can’t write automated messages to go out – only use broadcasts)

This can be a good option for you to just start building that list.  If writing emails isn’t your thing (it can take a lot of time!), then you might want to look into SMS marketing – where your messages that go out get more clicks and have to fit into 140 characters… so you’ve got no choice but to be brief!  Text Deliver is an autoresponder platform (not free) that lets you collect phone numbers and then automate followups to them and instead of high fees for storing a lot of data you just pay one fee and then pay for the subscribers you send to, whenever you want to send – so it’s a lot easier to (financially) manage – even if your list is growing slow at the start.

Option #2: Use an all-in-one service

It would be remiss of me to not mention my core service, Covert Commissions.  If you haven’t seen this, take a minute and check it out.

Covert Commissions isn’t free like the other services – but, we give our members done for you squeeze pages (with promotional tools like banners, tweets, email swipes etc) ready to start building your list.  There are no hidden hosting fees or anything, all of the pages are hosted on your site – you just tell us your affiliate ID’s in your profile and we put those in to your pages automatically for you.

Then… instead of having to go and pay extra for an autoresponder, we take care of all of it for you.

Even writing the emails… we send out content filled emails (actually, this article is one of them!) and help your subscribers with great content and then put your affiliate links into the article too.  Like this => Covert Commissions <= Actually… full disclosure, every promotional link you see on this page will redirect to the person’s affiliate link that originally invited you to the subscriber list – so if you find a great resource on this page and decide to buy it… that person will get the commission!

How Do I Actually Capture Their Info? 

To get their email/phone number/name etc you need to have an optin form of some kind on your website.

If you’ve got a blog there are some great tools you can use to automatically display optin boxes on your site really easily:

Resource #1: WP Spin Win – You might have seen me mention this before, but it’s free, it does the trick and builds your list in a really clever way – and is ready to go on your site fast.  You DO need to have your own autoresponder account (AWeber, Get Response or Covert Commissions etc) in order to add them to your own hosted list, but if you don’t have one you can still download and access them within the plugin itself.

Resource #2: Video Overplay – This is a fun plugin to add to your sites, letting you place optin forms INSIDE any youtube video on your blog that you like.  Its fully customisable, letting you choose when it displays, how it displays and more.  Again, this is very easy to use, you just choose the video you want to embed, choose the list you want to add them to and when to display the form.  There are a lot of other things you can do with it, like Calls To Action, buy buttons, social buttons etc – but the optin form feature is pretty neat.

Resource #3 :InstaGenius – With this plugin you can capture emails in exchange for running a free bargain watch service.   It’s all automated, capturing their leads, watching the items they are interested in and then sending emails for you with recommended products for items they are likely to be interested in grabbing.  You can also connect your autoresponder account and get a copy of your leads into your AR so they don’t just stay on your blog.

Resource #4: Text Deliver – This software gives you autoresponder code that you can put on your blog and collect both emails AND phone numbers and then puts them onto an autoresponder for SMS for better/more responsive subscribers

Resource #5: Commission Sumo – One last one to mention is Commission Sumo, which let’s you select keywords on your blog and then automatically adds lightboxes over those words anywhere in your posts – and then when someone hovers over those words it displays your subscriber form.  You have other options on that plugin too, like adding related Amazon products, or videos – but if you just want to use it to build your lists this is a great little tool. 

If you don’t have WordPress blogs yet, don’t let that get you down!  Bookmark this page – I’m going to share some techniques to getting started with WordPress over the next few weeks and making it the easiest way to start seeing your ideas come to life!

OK… So… You’ve Got Them On Your List.  Now What? 

Once you have a list you can contact them for all kinds of things, like:
– Send free training content, ebooks, worksheets, videos, anything that will help them in whatever area you usually share
– Website traffic to a new offer you own or want to create
– Send to social media accounts, build your online engagement
– Earn money promoting affiliate products
– Use them to test a product idea (see what subject lines get opens, links get clicks etc)
– Use it to do gift swaps with other marketers of around the same size (you send for them, they send for you)

Traffic is one of the hardest things to find online – and using your email list, when you really build that tribe and have them loving your information, the content you are creating and the tools you are sharing – you are building a solid relationship that can last years!

If you want more strategies on the exact things you should be sending, how often to send and all of that good stuff… well… this, is going to be one of those… ‘to be continued…’ moments 🙂

I’m going to keep building on this idea because there’s a lot to cover and I don’t want to overload you with too much

But if you have questions – specific to subscriber marketing, how you can use it or any of the other things we’ve covered in this article leave me a comment below!