Carl Willis

Turning Your Blog Into A List Building Machine

list building toolsTurning Your Blog Into A List Building Machine

Even in the world of online marketing, having a prospect list is still the key to finding customers and team members.  Think of how much easier your business would run if you had a list of people who are willing to read your emails, click your links and purchase the products your recommend.   If you are operating without this type of list, you are seriously hindering your business.  This is why list building tools are so critical to your online success.

Simply putting an opt in box on your website is not enough to build a growing list.  You need to find powerful ways of encouraging your website visitors to part with the contact information in exchange for your offers.  Once they subscribe to your list, you can begin building a relationship with them.  A list-building tool helps automate this process, allowing you to perform many functions without having to personally attend to each person individually.

To add a list-building tool, you first should design an opt-in page. This page is where your contacts will “opt-in” by signing up for your offer. It can be an image, some text, Javascript, a combination of these—it’s your choice. The important thing is to include fields for a person’s name and their email address. Of course, you should make it inviting and attractive as you can.


Second, decide what kind of tool you need. The right tools depend on the kind of blog you’re using. For example, there are tools designed specifically for WordPress, while there are others that will work with all other sites like Facebook and Blogger. Be sure to check out the plugin’s homepage to find out what blogs it’s compatible with.

You may also want to decide if you want a sign up page, a footer, a sidebar, or a pop-up kind of tool. Some types of tools even incorporate all or most of these features. It depends on how you’ve designed your blog, so pick one that works well functionally as well as visually.

Next, after you’ve made your design choices, select the tool you want. You have a choice of what kind of tool you want to use. The excellent ones like Aweber, GetResponse, UFA (Ultimate Footer Ad), and Digi List Builder require that you pay for them, but there also free ones you can use, such as Optin Crusher, Codebanter, and the WordPress plug-in mentioned above. Whatever you choose, make sure to follow the directions and that it merges seamlessly with your blog’s style and autoresponder system.

Download your tool and install it. In most cases, you will download a plug-in for ease of use. Once downloaded, you can install it at the settings menu in the back end of your blog.

For example, in WordPress, open up your Dashboard, and click on the menu bar item on the right marked Plugins. Select Add New. Browse your computer for your plug-in file and select it. From there, you can click on Activate Plug-in. You will likely have to click the plug-in settings and configure it. This is important if you need to define your opt-in page, as well as its dimensions and when or how often it will show up on your blog.

The installation may be different for each tool, so be sure to read the instructions on their website to make sure you got it right. Essentially, you have to download the application, upload it to your blog, copy-paste your auto-responder details, configure your settings, then activate the plug-in.

If you’re using WordPress, you can use its very own pop-up plug-in as an alternative to third-party ones. Once downloaded, you have two choices: to have the pop-up show for all your blog pages, place the plug-in in /mu-plugins/, or to let each individual blog control it by placing it in /plugins/. After doing that, activate the plug-in and go to Settings > Pop Overs. Here you can paste in the code for your ad: size, borders, background color, position, font color, and when you want it to display.

For greater functionality, consider using a third party list building tool like Subscriber’s Magnet by Maxblogpress.  The Subscriber’s Magnet plugin increased my subscriber rate by 32%, so I highly recommend it.   

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