1. Offer
a freebie
By far the best way to get people joining your email
list is to offer them something in return. The most common freebie around the
web is an ebook, but you could also come up with audio files (e.g.,
interviews), templates (e.g., a WordPress theme), or even a free course that
will be delivered via follow-up messages on the newsletter itself.
Obviously once you have the freebie ready to go you
should promote it to make sure people are aware of it.
2. Create a detailed landing page
A couple of days ago I saw
a post on John Chow’s blog titled How to Quadruple Your Email Opt In Rate.
The post highlights how the guys from Aweber performed a make-over on their
landing page, basically adding more information to encourage people to
subscribe. The result? A boost of 321% in the number of sign-ups.
Once you have your landing page up and running and you
can traffic to it from a wide range of sources, including social media sites
like Twitter and Facebook, as well as guest posts.
3. Host
a contest
First of all you need to figure out a prize. It could be
an advertising spot on your site, a review, a digital product or even a
physical one (e.g., an iPod). Once you have it announce the contest on your
blog, and explain that in order to participate on the random draw for the prize
your readers simply need to join your email newsletter.
4. Get
affiliates to promote your list
Most email marketing services allow you to track the
sources of new subscribers. By using this feature you could recruit friends and
affiliates who would be willing to promote your email list in exchange for
prizes or money. I have seen people offering a certain amount per subscriber
(e.g., $0.10) or larger prizes for the top performing affiliates, and both
methods worked pretty well.
5. Cross
promote with another newsletter
A very cost effective way to grow the size of your email
list is to find other bloggers/webmasters and propose a cross promotion deal.
That is, you plug their lists for your subscribers and they will do the same
with their subscribers. This won’t cost anything and both of you will end up
with new subscribers.
