Paul Omogie's Free Blogging Mentoring and Topnotch Business Tips

Thursday, July 2, 2020

How to raise yourself financially from zero to thousands

Admin July 02, 2020

In a Tie? Need some cash quick? We're talking about small capital bursts here, not millions of dollars — enough to fulfill your monthly obligations or get that nagging creditor to stop calling you out.

A lot of that is about attitude. When you are lacking money, the thought of scarcity sets in. The mindset of scarcity is negative and thinks there is never enough of anything to go around. If you think this way, do whatever you can to step towards an abundant mentality.

What are the best ways to make money right away? While a search online when you're in need of some quick cash will yield millions of results, not all will be legitimate. It's up to you to filter through the so-called noise. These strategies will help you put yourself in the black, even if it's in a very small way.

1. Cash strategy: Fly to Uber or Lyft

Companies like Uber and Lyft offer a great opportunity to make some quick cash. You'll need a clean driving record, a fairly new car, and permission to work wherever you live. If you have all of those things, you can work when it's feasible for you, whether it's during rush hours in the middle of the day, or at weekends in the wee hours of the night.

2. Currency strategy: Become a participant in market research

I engaged in tons of market research at college. It's pretty fast money for not a lot of effort. Companies looking for the views of customers on a range of goods and services put you in a room to get your opinion. That's it.

This also means writing or expressing your opinion, answering polls or surveys, or breaking up in a discussion group. It doesn't matter much about the details. The idea is you should rely on it from time to time.

3. Plan to make money: Sell old books and games on Amazon

Amazon makes it fairly easy to list and sell old books, games, and gadgets on its website. If you have precious college textbooks, you will make more than just a few bucks. Make sure the books are in good condition. If you try to sell defective books or unfinished games, you will get negative reviews.

4. Strategy to make money: sell or resell software used on Craigslist

The demand for used electronics is huge. You can use Craigslist to split ways with your old iPhone or MacBook. For these types of electronics, you can catch a premium. Some people also flip things by purchasing them and reselling them.

You could also use a company like Gazelle to sell your old phones, no matter what kind of phone you have. Companies like that have made a whole business model out of buying and refurbishing used phones. If you have these things lying around your home, you can expect to get a fair bit of money relatively quickly.

5. Money strategy: Perform tasks with TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit allows you to tap into an existing marketplace of locally seeking help with chores. The tasks aren't always small. This site (along with others) also provides bigger tasks, such as home renovation.

Amazon is joining the job market with Amazon Home Services. The listed services range from very small maintenance to larger and more complex activities, which would require considerably more time.

6. Strategy to make money: Flip real estate contracts

You can exchange real estate contracts without ever taking possession of the property. It's not a fixer-upper endeavor, just to obtain a contract and to sell it to an interested party, that's it.

In most cases, you can do this with just a few hundred dollars to open up escrow. Organizations are committed to teaching how to do this like REWW. It's nice to make some money, but it's also potentially something longer-term.

7. Strategy to make money: Sell on CafePress or Etsy

If you can design digital items, you can sell them on a site like CafePress for a share of the profits. You can do this with just a few design software, including custom logos, inspirational statements and other topical or trending designs that appeal to the masses.

You might be able to hire a designer to assist you with this, but you still need to come up with the ideas. This works best if you understand your own concept but need no overhead. Products are designed and distributed on-demand. You just get a share of the proceeds. Likewise, you could also sell items on Etsy.

8. Plan for making money: Take gigs at Fivver

Any type of service you have, you will probably offer it to Fivver. This is ideal for digital services like graphic design, web design, short audio or video clip production, editing services, writing, and so on.

Fivver has expanded beyond just the $5-per-gig model. The best talent on its platform is pooled by Fiverr Pro. Depending on your skills, you could do quite well here.

9. Plan to make money: Sell your pictures

Do you have an eye for photography? Of course, to earn any the money you need to be good at this, but you can sell photos on ShutterStock or iStockPhoto (along with many others) to generate a passive income from something you might be very passionate about.

For a quick way to earn by taking photos, ask people who are looking for photographers to cover their wedding, marriage, the birthday of the child or any other event in life. You'll need a good camera and some experience, but you can certainly earn the money that you need, no matter where you live.

10. Currency strategy: Become a personal training course

You might be a personal trainer if you appreciate fitness. People pay good money to personal trainers if only to have someone keep them on track with their goals. You can add value while also supporting yourself financially.

This could also break into a diet to help people with meal plans, and so on. You may be able to apply for clients at your local gym, but depending on where you live, you may need some qualifications to do this (not to mention the permission of the gym), as well as using a platform like FitnessTrainer to promote your services.

11. Plan to make money: Tutoring students

Parents are always eager to invest in the future of their children. If you have a lot of knowledge in subjects such as mathematics, science, or computers, you could be tutoring for cash.

Indeed.com and Care.com also offer opportunities to mentor local students. You can choose either of these sites or simply find your clients through your personal or social media network.

12. Money-making strategy: ads to car-wrapping firms

Platforms such as Carvertise link brands and driver companies. The process is simple — decide to turn your car into a roaming billboard for a price. When you apply, you will receive a set monthly advertising fee for your vehicle. You won't have to pay much to do this, but you'll need a clean driving record and a fairly new car.

You'll have to drive the car enough to be worth it for companies paying for your services. If you've got all that, maybe through this venture, you might make a bit of side-hustle income.

13. A plan to make money: Hold a webinar

Sure, it sounds overwhelming but webinars are one of the best ways to earn cash quickly. You're talking to a highly engaged audience. You can make loads of money in a very short time if you place yourself and the deal correctly.

GoToWebinar is by far the largest platform. Webinar Jam is one of the most feature-rich platforms out there. Wherever you go with it comes down to how well you can sell.

Cryptocurrency - Reasons you Should Invest in Cryptocurrency

Admin July 02, 2020

If a cryptocurrency has one thing to describe, it is that it is volatile. As the currency block 's newest boy, there is simply no background to decide what's normal or not in its price plunges and market behavior. Yet exactly what is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to function just like real money, but it's completely online without any physical form. It was first implemented with the creation of Bitcoin in 2009. It is kept and maintained by cryptography, serving as its measure of security. Cryptocurrency developed an increasingly huge following over the years, but when it peaked at over $266 / coin, it wasn't until April 2013 that it attracted major investor and media attention.

Cryptocurrency, however, is without its infamy. It is highly volatile and unpredictable.

How exactly would you invest in cryptocurrencies, with all the unpredictability going around? Why trust a market where you can't figure out what the risks are and when the next price dip will happen?

Most people think they 're too late to invest in crypto, and the money's all already been made. We couldn't be more mistaken though. The cryptocurrency market is as competitive as ever, which is why so many youths are investing in that market. There is a lot of money to be made with the technologies of cryptocurrency and blockchain, so long as the investment is done correctly.

While you should know several things about crypto before investing, it shouldn't stop you from investing at all.

There are definitely a lot of reasons why you should invest in crypto right now! Let's check 5

1. Blockchain remains here.

If the fact that blockchain is here to stay is not clear to you by now, then maybe investing in crypto isn't for you. Many of the projects we see today will disappear — as they don't offer a working product, or they offer a working product that doesn't have an application in real life. However, there are many existing blockchain projects that are very much here to stay today.

Financial institutions get interested as well — which is good news! Blockchain technology has so many real-world applications where it could be extremely beneficial; however, it is important to remember that not all projects will be popular because we are at the very beginning of the blockchain being recognized as a useful technology.

2. With any investment, it is necessary to buy low and sell high.

While buying low and selling high sounds obvious, many people let their emotions get in the way when investing in crypto. For those who entered the market at the end of 2017 in the "Crypto Rush," this simple piece of reasoning is still difficult for them to consider. The prices have fallen and risen, though, so it would be much easier to invest now than it was back then.

That's still a chance, of course, but much less of one. The prices that drop even more, but they won't drop by the same amount they already have during the year — at least not the serious ventures. Take a tip from the Wall Street boys, they 're not making money from buying high and selling low!

3. Crypto 's bright future: As you need to keep focused on the long-term sustainability of any investments. When you are obsessed with short-term microanalysis, you will fear that you made the wrong investment decision for any price change. This could lead you to sell panic at a lower price than you bought it because, in fact, holding up until the price recovered, and then moving even higher, would be the more sensible move. The crypto market is unpredictable, and price fluctuations Can occur, some of them more concern than others.

Bitcoin 's recent plunge toward the $6,000 mark has left even the toughest investors a little hot under the neck, but two weeks later it's bounced up to over $9,000 a coin with expectations of more price spikes in the coming weeks. Over the medium to longer-term, you should always look at crypto-investment, so 1, 5 and 10 years, as that is where the real gains are likely to be made.

4. The exchanges are more stable.

Crypto-currency exchanges have in the past had their issues. Those who remember the incident at Mt. Gox, one of history's worst crypto-currency scams, know exactly how bad it was. Mt. Gox was a Japanese exchange that handled about 70% of all BTC transactions when it was hacked — around 6% of the Bitcoins in circulation were stolen in 2014 and had a value of about $350 million.

Most people thought that would be the end of cryptography. Of course, it was not. We have a variety of exchanges these days, and we have an ever-increasing number of decentralized exchanges that can't be hacked. Hacks have been as recent as this year; however, the extreme exchanges have still reimbursed victims financially.

5. Low Risk of Inflation

Their Governments control conventional world currencies. As such, the currency suffers heavily when a particular government messes up with its policies or faces an economic crisis. This could lead to a significant value fluctuation and the need to print more money. Cryptocurrency doesn't face this issue.

Crypto-currency is a currency worldwide. Some of its investors believe it has a lower chance of dropping relative to conventional currencies. On top of that, it's not reliant on government policy so it's vulnerable to both hyperinflation and a total currency collapse.

Conclusion

Whether you're a millionaire or only have enough money to spend, now it's a smart idea to invest in cryptography.

This has the same feeling after the bubble exploded as the dot-com buzz did. There is a lot of uncertainty, people are nervous and the economy seems to be somewhat stagnating. Remember what happened after the dot-com bubble exploded at the companies that were around this time? Just think of Google, Amazon, and Yahoo in case you don't remember.

If you can afford to invest in crypto now, because blockchain could be the technology that will change the way we look at the world.

Tags # Bitcoin # Blockchain # Cryptocurrency Continue Reading

Saturday, June 27, 2020

How To Convert Your Personal Instagram Profile Into A Business Profile

Admin June 27, 2020

So, you’re ready to get serious with your Instagram account.

You know that Instagram now has more than 2 million monthly advertisers and 25 million business profiles and you’re ready for a piece of the action.

Good for you!

Converting your personal profile to a business the profile makes a lot of sense if you’re promoting a brand through Instagram. After all, 200 million Instagrammers visit at least one business profile per day. Additionally, 70% of shoppers head to Instagram for product discovery.

The question is, how does having a business profile make it easier for you to reach your target audience? What’s the difference between having a personal account and a business account? More importantly, how do you make the switch?

By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll have the answers to all of those questions, and more.

What’s the difference between personal and professional accounts?

On the surface, a business and personal account on Instagram seem pretty similar.

They’re both free to use, anyone can apply for them, and they’re great for sharing content online.

However, there are some big differences between personal and professional options that are worth noting. For instance, you need a business account if you want to access things like Instagram Insights (for marketing intel), Instagram Ads, and more.

A business account is the only way you can place contact details on your profile too.

Before Business profiles arrived on Instagram, brands had to try and pack a tiny Insta bio full of information to capture their target audience. Now, companies can access a beefed up version of the personal profile instead.

While technically you could run your Instagram account with a personal profile, why limit yourself to fewer features?

Business profiles vs creator profiles

If you’re tuned in to all things Instagram, then you’ll know that a Business profile isn’t your only option outside of a personal account anymore.

Recently, Instagram also introduced the creator profile. Creator accounts give you access to various exclusive features and more in-depth analytics. Unfortunately, if you want to automatically publish posts from a third-party social scheduling tool, you can’t do that with a Creator account. Only business accounts offer auto-publishing and scheduling.

With a creator account, you would need to set up a reminder system where you got an email or notification when it was time to publish instead.

On the plus side, you do get exclusive access to the Instagram creator studio, follow/unfollow metrics, and engagement stats. You can also filter your direct messages inbox, to make conversations with clients easier, and tag products directly from brands in your posts.

The benefits of having a professional account on Instagram

Some people can feel a little hesitant about switching from a personal profile to a business account on Instagram. Change is scary.

However, the benefits of upgrading are difficult to ignore.

With a business profile you can:

1. Access Instagram insights

Probably the main reason that people move from a personal account to a business account, is that business accounts offer more insight into your users. If you’re using a personal account, you don’t have any data on how well your Stories and Instagram posts are doing.

When you switch to a business profile, you get Instagram’s special selection of analytics tools. Creator profiles can even dive deeper into things like engagement and follow/unfollow numbers. The more you know about your audience, and which content they love, the easier it is to enhance your following on Instagram.

2. Run ads on Instagram

The potential reach of advertising on Instagram is 802 Million. While posting organically on Instagram can earn you a a lot of attention, if you know your target audience, you can accomplish much more with ads.

Creating promotions with Instagram’s ad platform will help you to reach the right customers inside of the platform so that you can ramp up your sales potential. Instagram can also create audiences for you, or you can select exactly who you want to reach.

When you need a little boost to get you in the right place on Instagram, ads are a great feature – however, they’re only available for business profile users.

3. Enhance your Instagram profile

Another massive benefit of using a business an account on Instagram, rather than just a personal account, is that you can make your profile stands out. You get a few extra features to play with on a business account, including contact buttons that offer instant access to your company.

The CTA buttons at the top of your business a profile will ensure that your customers can call, email, or even find directions to your business. Additionally, Creator accounts come with the option to filter through messages so that they can respond to the right leads as quickly as possible.

4. Add links to your Instagram stories

Instagram limits users to a single bio link and doesn’t allow clickable links within image descriptions.

However, if you have a business account and over 10,000 followers, you will be able to add links to your Instagram stories.

5. Stay compliant

As regulators continue to crack down on businesses that attempt to trick their target audiences, Instagram is making it easier for companies to avoid complexities. If you’re paying publishers or influencers to sponsor an ad, then you need to disclose this in every post.

Since 78% of influencers use Instagram for brand collaboration, it’s likely that you will eventually use Instagram in this manner. Fortunately, you can use the branded content feature with your business account to ensure that you’re sticking with the rules of advertising online.

You can also use the branded content feature to get a deeper insight into the performance of promoted posts. This way, you don’t need to wait for your influencer to provide you with details from their side.

6. Potentially access new features early

While there’s no guarantee that you’ll be the first to unlock new features on Instagram if you have a business or creator account – there is a good chance. Instagram is constantly rolling out new functionality. Before the latest features go live, they’re often tested with a smaller group of expert users first.

Although you won’t always be first in the queue for new features, you should have a higher chance if you’re one of the companies that are constantly proving it’s a dedication to Instagram.

How to switch to an Instagram business profile

Now that you know how beneficial the right profile on Instagram can be, let’s explore how to switch to a business profile.

Make sure your profile is set to public before you begin the process. Private accounts cannot switch to Business profiles.

Start by heading to your Instagram settings or “Options”.

Scroll until you see “Switch to a business profile”:

Click on this option, and Instagram will ask you to connect to your Facebook page.

You’ll need Admin access to your Facebook page if you want to convert to a Business profile:

Choose the page you want to link to your Instagram account, and choose a category for your profile. Categories include things like Personal Blog, or Health/Beauty.

Set up your business profile by filling out your email address, physical address, and phone number:

Once you’ve reviewed your business contact details, double-check them, and tap the “Done” button.

That’s all there is to it!

How to switch back to a personal account

If for any reason, you change your mind and decide you no longer want a business account, you’re not stuck. You can simply log in to your Instagram account and:

· Go to your Settings

· Tap on Business Settings

· Hit Switch back to a personal account

· Confirm that you want to switch when Instagram prompts you

There’s nothing to stop you from flipping back and forth between business and personal accounts however you choose.

Ready to make the switch?

Most people start on Instagram with a personal profile.

However, as you begin to recognize how powerful Instagram can be for your marketing strategy, you might decide that it’s time to ramp up your posting game.

Changing to a business profile gives you more power on Instagram, so you can make sales and build brand loyalty like never before.

Is it time for you to make the switch?

Tags # Instagram # Social Media # Social Media Security Continue Reading

How To Get More Email List: 29 Strategies You Can Use

Admin June 27, 2020

You need to build your email list if you want to grow your blog. Don’t be the person that keeps making excuses for why they aren’t focusing on building their list. The truth is that email is far more effective at reaching your raving fans than any other tool.

In this detailed guide, you will find a step-by-step blueprint for rapid subscriber growth. You will learn what setup work to do, which tactics to use, and what you need to test to build your email list.

1. Make it insanely easy for people to sign up to your email list

Whichever tactics you use to build your list, you need to make things extremely simple. If you turn the process of signing up to your list into a long-winded process, people won’t subscribe.

2. Make your “opt-in bribe” highly relevant

However, you decide to entice people to subscribe to your email list, you need to keep your offer hyper-relevant to your target audience.

Consider their motivations, their desires, and what they want to learn from you for example.

Preparation work to make setup simple

Before we dive into getting setup, there is some prep work that needs to be done even before you start diving into your mailing list provider.

This will make things far easier for you later on.

1 – Identify what you want to achieve

It’s not enough to just build your list, you need to know what you want to accomplish at the end of it. Your end goal should guide the decisions you make and how to prioritize the tactics you implement. For example, if you just want to use your list to build a community and get more people to check out your new posts – that’s great.

Or you may want to set up a sales funnel to help you sell products on autopilot while you send out the odd broadcasts to share awesome content with your subscribers. Being clear about what you want to achieve will help you achieve it.

2 – Put together an opt-in bribe for your subscribers

When you give your readers an incentive, they will be more likely to sign up to your list. Perceived value is the key here – the higher the perceived value is the more likely people will be to subscribe. So the question is what do you create for an opt-in bribe?

Well, you don’t have to worry about creating a long-winded eBook (unless you want to). Creating a one page PDF checklist or list of tools can often be even more effective because people love things that make their life easier.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

· Checklist

· Template

· Cheatsheet

· Resource list

· Workbook

· E-course

· Video course

· EBook/guide/report

If you offer a product/service, you could also try offering a discount or a free trial. This could be a great option to use. Also, consider how you will deliver the opt-in a bribe to your subscribers, I recommend hosting it on Google Docs because it is reliable and doesn’t impact the load times of my server.

Consider creating an unannounced bonus to grow your email list

Creating a single opt-in bribe is great, but if you give your subscribers something they weren’t expecting, you will really make them feel valued. You don’t have to do this, but it can have an incredible impact on subscriber loyalty.

3 – Prepare content for your emails

There will be some content that you will need to get ready for when you set up your email provider later on. This usually includes:

· Welcome email - makes this as engaging as possible and let your subscribers know what to expect. If you’ve got an opt-in bribe for them, you can include it here.

· Autoresponder sequence – consider your goals here; this can be a great opportunity to grow your passive income, but avoid the hard sell approach. Nobody likes to sign up for an email list only to be battered with promotional emails.

Email provider setup – getting it right

You need to get your email provider setup right to ensure you’re list building efforts get off to a great start. Let’s take a look at what you need to do.

4 – Choose an email provider

If you’re relying on something like Feedburner to deliver your emails you need to drop it and switch over to a serious email provider.

AWeber, MailChimp and GetResponse is also a solid option that is both very popular.

Mailerlite offers a fully featured free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and Drip offers a free plan for up to 100 subscribers. Mailerlite is great for simplicity and Drip is best if you need advanced automation.

5 – Create your list

Now you’ve chosen an email provider, you need to set up your email list. It’s straight forward in all platforms and each email provider has documentation to help you.

For example, in MailChimp you would head to ‘Lists’ and click the ‘Create List’ button in the top right corner. Active Campaign has a ‘Create a List’ button the account overview – I quite like the step-by-step setup process they have, which makes setup straight forward.

6 – Setup your email address and sender name

Each email provider will require this to be set up, but I wanted to mention it here because how you setup these settings is important.

Sender email address – I’ve seen a a lot of people and brands send emails using a ‘no-reply’ email address, this can make engaging with your subscribers very difficult. Use an email address where replies are monitored, it will give you a great opportunity to engage your loyal subscribers and get feedback.

Use a recognizable sender name – If your subscribers don’t recognize who is sending the email, they might not open it. Use something that is easy to recognize, this may be your name or your brand name – whatever people are more likely to recognize. For example, I use “Adam @ Blogging Wizard.”

7 – Add your welcome email and autoresponder content

It’s time to get your welcome email loaded in with your autoresponder content. With most email marketing tools, a welcome email will be part of your autoresponder, but if you are using MailChimp, you could customize the ‘Final welcome email’ which is what subscribers are sent straight after they sign up. You can add this by going to Lists > Sign up forms > General forms > Click the drop-down and select ‘Final welcome email’.

I wanted to mention MailChimp specifically because the welcome email setup is different from most providers. Now it’s time to add your autoresponder content but be careful about the time frame in which you schedule these to go out – nobody likes to be bombarded too often.

Optimize your blog to grow your list

Your blog is one of the most powerful assets you will have to build your email list. I’ll show you how to optimize it below:

8 – Create a custom thank you page

Creating a custom thank you page is an important step to take because it is a perfect opportunity to ensure that your subscribers get instructions on what to do next.

There are several keys components here:

· Let’s people know they have to confirm their email to get access.

· Step by step process – makes this really simple.

· Includes images so people know what to expect.

· Mentions what to do if people can’t find the confirmation email.

· Minimal distractions.

· My free resources can’t be accessed from this page – otherwise, there would be no incentive for subscribers to confirm their email address.

Once your custom thanks you page you will need to add the URL to your email provider so that subscribers are directed to the page rather than being sent an email. Ultimately, this works better than just sending a thank you email because there’s no chance of it hitting anyone’s spam folder.

9 – Create a custom confirmation page

Your confirmation page is where your subscribers will be sent after they have clicked the link in your confirmation email. There are a few reasons why it’s good to set up your confirmation page:

· It lets subscribers know the process is complete.

· You can allow subscribers to download your opt-in bribe; this makes sure they will get what you promised.

· The page can be used to set up goal tracking in Google Analytics (more on that in a moment).

You will be able to set your custom confirmation page URL in your email provider.

10 – Create a dedicated page to promote your newsletter

There are plenty of occasions where having a dedicated landing page for your newsletter will be useful. This should be a simple page with minimal distractions that focuses on the core benefits of what people will get out of signing up to your email list.

So for example, if you’re going to be educating your subscribers, think about what your training will help your subscribers achieve. Numbers work great here.

This page uses a 2 step opt-in process which has been proven to increase conversions. A button is displayed instead of a regular opt-in form, when you click on the button a popover is displayed instead. The idea behind this is that people see a button before a form and are therefore more likely to complete an action they have already started.

11 – Remove unnecessary distractions from your blog

You need to look at your blog critically and ask yourself – what really needs to be there? Think about your goals and then consider how each element you have on your blog contributes to that goal.

For example, you might want to consider removing the following:

· Twitter and Facebook widgets – these are an easy way to send people away from your site and email is far more effective at reaching people than social. I display basic follow buttons in my footer so I can keep the focus on email subscribers.

· Adverts – if you rely on these keep them but if you’re only getting a few cents/click consider removing them.

· Blog directory links – these are usually a requirement for getting into blog directories, but if they aren’t sending you much traffic you should consider removing them.

· Badges – you should only use badges if they convey social proof. They should help you appear more credible. So if you’re displaying a badge that anyone can use, it’s time to remove it.

Keep your blog as focused as possible and with a few different calls to action as possible.

The more options you give someone (e.g. click an ad, click a social link, click another ad, click a button), the more chance they will take no action at all.

12– Add a subscribe tick box to your blog comments

This list-building the tactic is much underutilized but since blog commenters are involved, it can yield high conversions. There are plugins on the market that allow you to place a tick box below your comments, giving the option for commenters to subscribe to your list.

There are a few options you can use here if you’re a WordPress user:

· AWeber Web Form Plugin– this is a free plugin but it’s limited to supporting AWeber customers.

· MC4WP – again, this is a free plugin but it’s limited to MailChimp.

13 – Set up a thank you page for blog commenters to build your list

If you’re using the native commenting system in WordPress, you can install a plugin like Comment Redirect that will redirect first-time commenters to the page of your choice.

You can use this page to thank your reader for commenting and invite them to join your email list. Although you may want to use a plugin like Thrive Comments instead – it’s a premium plugin and does replace WordPress native comments, but it’s designed to encourage engagement which can be great for social proof (more comments is better).

14 – Add opt-in forms to key locations on your blog

You need to make it easy for people to subscribe to your email list. Adding opt-in forms to key locations on your blog is an important step that will help you here. These locations are generally where people have come to expect there to be an opt-in form, so when someone wants to subscribe to your newsletter, it’s usually these places that they first look at.

SidebarAfter post

There are more opt-in form types you can use:

· Popover (yep, people hate them but they work)
· Slide-in
· Header notification bar
· Footer notification bar
· Shortcode placement

15 – Add in-line opt-in forms to key pages

There are key pages on your blog that you can optimize to get more subscribers. Pages like your about page, start page or resources pages are great opportunities to grow your email list.

All you need is to add an opt-in form within your content. This can be done by embedding a form from your email provider or you can use one of the plugins listed above which supports shortcode placement.

16 – Use your 404 pages to build your email list

When someone visits your blog and sees a page that doesn’t work, they will see a 404 page.

Most 404 pages include a message that lets the reader know something isn’t working right and usually some further information. You can use this as an opportunity to build your list. I haven’t found any other platforms that make it this easy to do this so an alternative would be to hire a developer to set this up for you.

17 – Display tailored opt-in forms for particular topics

Relevance is an important part of building your email list. The more relevant that your opt-in forms and opt-in bribes are, the better your conversions will be. The key here is to display an offer that is hyper-relevant to the topic that someone is reading on your site or provides the next logical step after the content they have read.

This is very easy when using a tool like Thrive Leads which allows category, page-level targeting and a lot more. An alternative would be to use a plugin like Dynamic widget, which would allow you to create different sidebar areas and choose which categories/posts they are displayed on.

18– Add social proof to your opt-in forms

Trust can be an important factor for your readers when deciding whether to subscribe or not. Adding a testimonial or displaying an ‘as featured on’ logo in your opt-in form can be a great way of building trust.

19 – Create targeted landing pages for your opt-in bribes

Having opt-in bribes or free stuff your readers can download is great but you need a dedicated landing page for each one that you’re giving away. Landing pages are great because they generally get VERY high conversions. Having a single page with a single goal really does work.

You can then drive traffic to these landing pages using calls to action on your blog paid traffic or even using your author bio in guest posts.

Below are 2 main tools that that you use in your business to create landing pages:

· LeadPages – This is a platform designed to help you create landing pages fast, it takes care of the hosting and integrates with WordPress while allowing you to download HTML to use with other systems.
· Thrive Architect – This is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create custom page/post layouts. It comes with plenty of landing pages templates and integrates with most popular email providers.

23 – Add targeted notification bars to your content

You’ve probably seen these. A slim call to action stretching across the top (or the bottom) of the browser. These are sometimes called notification bars, or ribbons. And you can add them easily with opt-in form plugins like Thrive Leads. This provides an easy way to get traffic to your landing pages.

This also works well because you can target specific pages to make sure your calls to action are hyper-relevant. You can also split test them to boost your conversions further.

19 – The incredible ‘content upgrade’ technique

The idea behind a content upgrade is that you offer your readers a post-specific bonus that is completely tailored to your blog post. This works best when used with a 2 step opt-in process, where a link is clicked and then a popover is displayed on the page.

Ideas to create your own content upgrade

There are plenty of types of content you can use here:

· Checklist based on your post.

· PDF version of your post.

· List of relevant resources/tools.

· 2 part blog post (2^nd part downloadable after opt-in).

There are plenty more things you could do here, but the great thing is that you have a valuable opportunity to spend slightly longer on your blog posts and repurpose them into another content type or create something 100% exclusive.

If you don’t have a content upgrade ready, you could offer your readers the option to get the next post in a series which follows on from the one they are reading

Tools to help you setup content upgrades

Needless to say, content upgrades can be tricky to offer unless you have the right tools to help you. When you have the right tools you generally avoid the technical headache that would be involved in setting something like this up with your email provider.

You can use the LeadBoxes feature from LeadPages to handle the clickable popover and also deliver the content upgrade via email in the past. It’s easy to use and you don’t have to use WordPress.

20 – Give away products to build your list

Giving away products is a great way to build your email list. The problem is that securing a big ticket product which people would love to win can be a challenge and there are hoops to jump through. I’m not saying you should put up something crazy. Think about the products in your niche that people desperately want to get their hands-on and look at putting some budget aside.

Before trying this, you should consider whether this will be worthwhile for you – a tactic like this makes most sense when your email list is monetized.

21 – Use a quiz with a twist

There are some great tools that, offer the ability to run quizzes and build an email list, such as Thrive Quiz Builder but the opt-in form is usually presented after the quiz has been completed.

Which is a good thing because you’ll likely get higher conversions when the opt-in form is presented at the end of the quiz.

22 – Launch your own product

Many bloggers and entrepreneurs will tell you that the moment when they launch their own product is the moment when their list skyrockets. You will always get the best results when you create something that solves a core problem that your audience is facing.Creating an information product is the most straight forward way to get started and there are plenty of platforms that can help you sell information products online. For example:

DPD
Gumroad
SendOwl

22 – Re-purpose your content upgrades as Slideshare presentations

You can make those content upgrades go further by re-purposing them into Slide Share Presentation and linking back to your original blog post.

Slideshare is a great way to tap into a new group of targeted readers and because the traffic you get will be highly targeted and already value what you have to say, they will be more likely to opt-in to download your content upgrade.

23 – Guest post to build your email list

Contributing to popular blogs within your niche is a great way to increase your authority and become visible. It can be a good way to get traffic if you contribute to the right sites.

The problem is that most people miss a trick when they start guest blogging. Instead of just linking to your home page, try linking to a relevant landing page within your author bio. Conversion rates are generally high because anyone clicking on your link wants more information from you.

24– Get more eye-balls on your landing pages with paid traffic

Paid traffic is one of the most sustainable ways to scale up your email list. I recommend that you have a way of monetizing your list in order for you to recoup the money spent on advertisements or turn it into a decent profit. There are plenty of platforms you can use for paid traffic which include:

Google AdWords
Bing Ads
Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
Linkedin

25 – Host a webinar to build your list

Most webinars are horrible pitch fests that offer no value. Don’t do that. Run a webinar that offers value and you will gain valuable email subscribers that will respect you more. These work well because they are time-sensitive so people are compelled to sign up because they don’t want to miss out on some valuable information.

In the past, you used to pay insane monthly subscriptions to services like GoToWebinar but thankfully you won’t have to do that anymore. This is all down to Google Hangout allows you to stream to unlimited participants. You will need another tool to help you integrate with your autoresponder and give you the regular webinar features, but they are far cheaper.

26 – Use Lead Generation Cards to grow your list with Twitter

One of the things that can sometimes stop people signing up is having to fill in their details when they sign up to your list. Using Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards, you will give the ability for people to sign up to your list with a single click.

You can attach these Twitter Cards to any of your Tweets, but the only downside is that you have to send your tweet from with the Twitter ads admin. You don’t have to spend money on ads, these are completely free and you can gain more visibility by pinning a tweet with your Twitter Card to your profile page.

27 – Use YouTube videos to build your list

If you’re into video, you can use YouTube to build your list. There are a few ways to do this, for example, Noah Kagan uses a link to a landing page in his video descriptions. The landing page is tailored specifically for people coming from YouTube. One of the best ways to get more email subscribers is to optimize your opt-in forms and landing pages.

You can also use your analytics to find which content types are performing best and which promotional channels are referring to the most subscribers. You can leverage this information to grow your list.

28 – Split test your opt-in forms

You need to split test your opt-in forms in order to figure out exactly what combination of design, copy and offer work best for your audience. Before you start split testing you should consider what you think could improve conversions and then test it out.

Often minor tweaks can result in decent conversion increases; I’ve found that just changing one the elements of the design like a button color can yield significant results. Ultimately it comes down to what you are offering your readers and how that offer is framed, the more relevant and the higher the perceived value the better.

29 – Split test your landing pages

We’ve talked a lot about landing pages. They work well because they are hyper-focused and generally speaking, most traffic generation methods result in highly targeted visitors.

They will convert well if the design, copy and offer is up to scratch but you can always optimize them further. Similar to what I mentioned for optimizing your opt-in forms, you will need to come up with an initial hypothesis of what you think could improve conversions.

Remember that best practice will give you a head start but different audiences can react in various ways to the exact same thing.

29 – Identify which traffic sources are delivering the most subscribers

In order to grow your email list (or improve your marketing in general) is to find what works and do more of it. A great way of doing this is finding which of your traffic sources are delivering the highest conversion rates.

How to do this: click on ‘acquisition’ and then click ‘channels’.

You will then be able to select your conversion goal on the right-hand side:

When you look at your referrals, you can find out exactly which sites are sending you traffic.

So, if you’ve written a guest post for a particular site and notice an influx of conversions, it’s safe to say that it’s worth contributing there again.

Similarly, you can identify which blogs aren’t sending you any traffic or subscribers – it’s a a good thing to know because you should always look to prioritize your efforts.

Tags # Digital Marketing # Digital Sales # Email Continue Reading