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The Best Place for Your Email Subscriber Box

Are you actively seeking email subscribers? Did you know that where you place your email opt in box matters?

Increase your email subscribers instantly by putting an opt in box in THIS spot, the place where more visitors are converted to email subscribers than any other.

It TOTALLY does!

If you want to locate the BEST place on your website for an email subscriber box, the location that will see more conversions than any other… you might not like what I recommend.

Where to put an email subscriber box

So where should you place the opt in box? Anywhere it will fit! But if you need more specific ideas, check out this list:

Sidebar – Probably the default location for an email opt in box on most websites but even in the sidebar, the location matters. Bump that box to the TOP of the sidebar to see the biggest benefit.

After the Post – When placed at the bottom of a blog post, the email subscriber box appeals to anyone who reads the entire article. This placement works even better if the box is a contrasting color to the background of your website.

Middle of the Post – Since most blog visitors never make it to the bottom of a post, placing the blog opt in box in the middle of a post will catch more attention. However, frame the box instead of using a solid color as many readers will think a solid box marks the end of the post.

Entry Welcome – Just like a welcome mat on your front porch, the entry welcome scrolls down from the top of the page upon new visits and prompts readers to subscribe. This is one of the most obtrusive types of email opt in box but it is also very effective.

Related: 4 Mistakes Destroying Your Email Marketing Strategy

Entrance Bar – You might have seen the “Hello Bar” or another entry bar across some websites. While these are easy to overlook, they work best when the bar is a contrasting color to the website’s background color. You should also have the opt in form in the bar instead of having readers click to view a different page.

Homepage Feature – Similar to an entrance bar in style, a homepage featured email opt in box is placed to reach across the page in the middle of other featured content.

Sliding Box – Scroll triggered boxes work well for email opt ins as most can be customized to scroll from the bottom, side, or top and can be adjusted based on the amount of time a visitor is on your website or the amount of the page a visitor has viewed.

But the BEST place for an email opt in

Despite the public outrage over them, pop up boxes remain the undisputed champion for converting visitors to subscribers. However, pop up boxes can be tricky because if they interfere with user experience, Google will notice and ding your search engine optimization.

The best use of pop ups includes:

  • A clear way to close the box with a visible X.
  • Mobile-optimized sizing that does not block the entire content nor hides the X to close.
  • Only presenting upon the visitor’s exit intent or upon viewing 40% or more of the page.

Why are email subscribers important?

Why does any of this matter? Because email is the only means of communicating with your readers that you CONTROL.

Related: Why Bloggers Need an Email Marketing Strategy (and where to find email subscribers)

You can’t control the ever-changing social media algorithms. You can’t determine who will see your Facebook posts. You can’t even know that your Pinterest strategy will work.

But, you can control when an email is sent… which means…

If you want page views, you send an email.

If you want product or affiliate sales, you send an email.

Ready to know more about email marketing? You need INBOX: Email Marketing for Bloggers – the newest course by Inspired Bloggers University.

Learn More

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Why Bloggers Need an Email Marketing Strategy (and where to find email subscribers)

When you want to grow your blog’s traffic, where do you look first? Facebook? Pinterest? Video?

Yes, social media is awesome! It helps you attract an audience in a very broad way. However, the most important element to marketing your blog and gaining pageviews is… email marketing.

You need email subscribers, but do you know why? Be honest with me (and yourself). When was the last time you put your energy into creating a detailed email marketing strategy for your blog?

Since you are reading this post, I’m offering KUDOS to you because you are researching email subscribers now.

But, do you spend as much time working your email marketing strategy as you do on social media?

Maybe? Maybe not?

This makes me wonder… if email marketing is so important, why is it the most neglected tool for blog growth?

4 Reasons Why You Need an Email Marketing Strategy

Perhaps you are reading this an thinking, “But could email be THAT important? I mean… it’s just email. And I delete more than half what I receive each day without ever reading it.”

Obviously, those emails you delete are sent by brands who need to improve their strategy. You are smarter than they are and can do it better!

Here’s why you should care:

1) Email takes the relationship you have with your readers to a one-on-one level.

Immediately, email is a more intimate form of communicating with your audience than social media because you are not writing a message to the masses as you do on Facebook. Your letter is addresses to ONE reader, personalized with their name if you use a shortcode.

When you approach email marketing with relationships as your focus, you create raving lunatic fans. (That’s a GOOD thing.) These are the people who will read your blog, click your links, and share your content with their friends.

2) Email marketing doesn’t require mastery of complicated algorithms.

In the online world, social media is constantly in flux. Algorithms change on a daily basis and once you have beat the system, the algorithm changes again.

Related: Is Facebook worth the effort?

Emailing your readers takes very little understanding of how it works. There are subtle issues to make sure your email is delivered but for most people, you send an email and it is received. Done.

3) Creating an email marketing strategy is cost effective.

If you want to be seen on Facebook. you have to pay to play. If you want to grow a successful Pinterest account, you need to spend your valuable hours pinning organically.

Email is simple: Write. Send. Done.

And the cost is very affordable because the expense grows with you as your email list grows. And if you are working your email list correctly, your income is growing too. Therefore, any expenses you incur s a result of emailing your readers will pay for themselves.

Add 100+ Email Subscribers in 1 Week

Join Subscriber Surge List Building Challenge and master strategies that will grow your email list fast. It’s FREE!

4) Email is the only communication that will instantly and significantly change your pageviews and profits.

Social media has to simmer before it is seen by your audience. Most algorithms wait to see if a small segment of your audience will engage with the content before showing it to other followers.

With email, you have the control over when it is seen by choosing when you send a broadcast. This creates a powerful opportunity:

  • If you need page views, you send an email with links to click.
  • If you need profits, you send an email with a product to sell.

This only difficult part in this scenario is that your success depends greatly on the number of subscribers you have on your list.

6+ Places Where You Can Find Email Subscribers

Email subscribers are literally everywhere because almost everyone has an email address. Therefore, almost everyone is a potential subscriber.

Opt in Forms

If you want people to subscribe, you must make it possible for them to find a way to join your list.

That means you first have to join an email service provider like ConvertKit or Mailerlite and create the capture forms.

Then, install the forms in several locations on each page. Try to place forms where the eye naturally falls: inside the content, in the sidebar, as a slide in form, or within a pop up.

Related: How to Get Email Subscribers with Freebies

Social Media

Whether your audience is on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn… where ever… you can attract them to sign up as email subscribers by creating an opt in form and directing followers to the page where the form is installed.

Facebook – Encourage your followers to subscriber by asking them to join your list. Post the link/s to your list at least once a week. Pin the best post (with the most engagement) to the top of your page. Also, place a link to an opt in form in your profile (personal and page). Take advantage of every space and opportunity Facebook gives you to mention your email list.

A successful email marketing strategy has less to do with where you find subscribers and more to do with how you invite them to join your list.

Pinterest – Actively save the pages where you host email opt in forms. Place these links in a rotation using Tailwind or another schedule service so they are being saved to multiple boards regularly.

Instagram – Place the link to your email opt in form (not your homepage) in your profile and invite followers to join your list by “subscribing at the link in my profile.”

Twitter – Pin a tweet containing the link to your email opt in to the top of your Twitter profile feed. Also, add the link to the email subscriber form in your profile instead of using the link to your homepage.

Where ever you are – Regardless of the social media platform you use, direct followers to subscriber by placing a link to an email opt in within your profile and each time a link is allowed.

Email Signature

How often do you reply to readers or send messages to people who are potential readers? Add a note to subscribe in your email signature.

Each time you send an email, you will automatically send the invitation to subscribe.

Business Card (Networking)

Networking with others in real life offers a tremendous benefit but you need something to give people so that they will remember you.

Business cards might feel old fashioned but they are still a very useful tool for generating social media followers and email subscribers.

Related: 4 Mistakes Destroying Your Email Marketing Strategy

More than once, I have handed a business card to someone in line at the grocery store. On the back on my card is an invitation to join my email list. While I cannot track the success, I would assume that at least a few have visited my website. And all I need is one raving lunatic fan to find me. He or she will then help my email list grow.

Guest Posting

This could easily go on the list of most neglected ways to market your blog.

I often hear bloggers complain that guest posting doesn’t work for them. Cough… pardon me… but you might be doing it wrong.

If you are posting on someone’s blog, make sure you are talking to the right audience. If no one within that blog’s followers matches your target, you are in the wrong place.

Next, create a special offer just for that blog’s readers and link to the email opt in. This makes the readers feel special from the very beginning because you created something just for them.

Podcast or Video Interviews

If you have friends who podcast or do live video interviews, get on their shows! Just like guest posting, being a featured guest helps spread awareness. Make sure you create something special just for listeners and encourage them to subscribe.

One last surprise about email marketing

Now that we have walked through why email marketing is important and where you can find subscribers, I want you to focus on one important fact:

A successful email marketing strategy has less to do with where you find subscribers and more to do with how you invite them to join your list.

After collecting an email subscriber list with 100,000+ names, I am sharing my growth strategies with you for FREE through a 6-day email training, Subscriber Surge.

Sign up today and start learning how to grow your email list with purpose. You will see more subscribers and that results in more page views and profits. Guaranteed.
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4 Mistakes Destroying Your Email Marketing Strategy

This post contains affiliate links. Opinions are my own.


When you have worked to build an email subscriber list and finally feel you have enough readers joining you for newsletters and other promotions, the journey has only begun.

In every email marketing strategy, there are hurdles along the path. Some obstacles you can avoid. Others require a change in your methods.

Are you making these email marketing strategy mistakes?

Your email isn’t delivered.

When you are spending a chunk of your valuable time each week writing emails, you expect the emails to be delivered. But if your emails land in your subscriber’s spam folder, you have ZERO chance of making a sale or building a relationship.

But how can you be certain your email will survive and make it to your subscribers’ inboxes?

Use a great email service.

I know… you could get email hosting for FREE with THIS service or THAT service, but at what cost?

Using a reputable email service is the single best thing you can do to improve your chances of avoiding spam folders. Companies like ConvertKit, Mail Chimp, and Get Response work hard at making sure they are white listed with the big Internet Service Providers and email providers like Gmail.

I personally use ConvertKit. Have you tried it?

These services understand that if you are not happy with the deliverability of your emails that you will move your business to another company. So, when email marketing rules change, they guide you through making the adjustments necessary to keep your email out of the spam folder.

Most email hosting companies list their delivery stats to keep you informed. They also check your account frequently to make sure your emails are compliant, keeping you out of hot water.

Set expectations and be consistent.

Your chances of staying in the main inbox are high when your subscribers regularly open your email. The best way to insure that – outside of providing great content that your subscribers are looking for – is to set expectations from the beginning. Let your subscribers know early on when and how often they can expect an email from you.

You can even use “foreshadowing” in your messages. For example, toward the end of your current broadcast email, mention that they can look for another email from you next Tuesday.

RELATED: Why and How to Build Your Email Subscriber List

Once you’ve set those expectations do what you can to meet them. Yes, things happen every once in a while. In general though, do your best to keep your promise and email when your readers expect it.

Doing this regularly will improve your open rates and thus your overall deliverability.

Clean up your list regularly.

Another good habit is to clean up your list regularly.

I had a list of over 100,000 email addresses, but the vast majority were useless to me because they never opened an email. So, I worked over several months to cut my list to under 20,000.

If subscribers haven’t been opening your emails for the past six months, chances are good they are no longer interested in what you have to offer.

Check your autoresponder services knowledge desk or help files to see how you can go about deleting anyone who hasn’t opened an email from you in the past six months. If that freaks you out, or you have a seasonal business, start by deleting anyone that hasn’t looked at your emails in the past year.

Following these tips and keeping an eye on email deliverability in general will make sure your emails are being read by your subscribers and that’s the point of email marketing, isn’t it?

Your subject lines lack pizzazz.

The first thing you need to get right when it comes to email marketing is the subject line. If you can’t get your subscribers to open your emails, it really doesn’t matter how good the actual email is.

It’s easy to spend a lot of time crafting a great message and then just slap a subject line on it at the end. Spend some time writing them and see what type of headline gets you good open rates. Here are five tips to get you started.

Keep the email subject line short.

You want your readers to see the entire subject line before they click it. You also want to make it easy for people to scan through their emails. Try to get your point across in 50 characters or less.

Also, pay attention to how your subject lines look on your own devices.

Another great idea is to keep a swipe file of subject lines that grabbed your attention. Even if the emails are on a very different topic, you can adapt them for your own needs.

Avoid “spammy” words.

Stay away from using any words we all associate with spam emails. Words like “sale”, “discount”, “coupon”, “free”, “limited time offer” and even “reminder” are over used and even if they don’t trigger a spam filter and actually make it to your reader’s inbox, chances are high they’ll get ignored.

Instead, start by using the emails you’re saving in your swipe file and then go back and see what subject lines got the best open rates. Try to analyze why they worked well for your market. Not everything will work well in every niche. Find the types of subject lines that get your readers to open your emails and tweak from there.

Personalize the subject line.

While personalizing emails with someone’s first name has been overused in some markets, it still works well for many of us. Give it try and see if it works for you. Don’t overdo it, but use it when you really need them to open the email.

Depending on what data you collect when your readers sign up, you can personalize other things like their location for example. Seeing the name of your state or even city in an email subject line is sure to get your attention.

Pique their curiosity.

We are all nosy and it’s hard to ignore email subject lines that sound intriguing or only tell part of the story. Using “…” at the end of your subject line will also work.

The idea here is simple: You want them to click and open the email to find out what you’re talking about or how the story ends.

Frankly the best tip when it comes to crafting compelling subject lines is to keep a swipe file of examples that got you to open the email.

You don’t email enough (or you email too much).

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a number or a schedule you could follow? While it would be great if there was research that suggested that mailing exactly every 5 days gets you the best results every time, there is no such thing. And there’s a very good reason for it.

Every market, every niche, every audience and every person is different. While you’ll never make everyone on your list happy, there is a lot you can do to make just about any email frequency work.

Set your email schedule.

Let’s lay the ground work first. You don’t want to have too much time in between emails, or your readers will forget you. Anything less than once a month is not a good idea. In most markets and for most business models you don’t even want to mail less than twice a month.

RELATED: Step-By-Step Guide to Get Email Subscribers with Freebies (Video)

On the other end of the spectrum, you don’t want to go any higher than one email per day on average. Yes, you may have days when you have a good reason to send multiple emails, but on a weekly or bi-weekly average, you don’t want to email more than once a day.

Start by looking at what you’re doing now. Then figure out how often you want to mail:

  • Do you grow a closer connection with your market by emailing more often?
  • Do you want to drive more traffic back to your site by emailing them links frequently?
  • Do you want to grow your income by making more frequent email offers?

Once you know where you’re at and where you want to be, you can start to make a plan for getting from point A to point B.

Transition to your new routine slowly.

What you don’t want to do is to go straight from emailing once every few months to daily emails. It’ll get your readers clicking the spam button like crazy. Instead, start with monthly emails for a couple of months, then let your readers know you have more to share with them and start mailing weekly. Then a few months later, ramp it up to daily emails.

Are you making these email marketing strategy mistakes? Or find a good reason why you’re mailing them daily. For example, while you usually publish a weekly newsletter with the occasional promotional email in between, running a 15 or 30 day challenge for your readers is a great excuse to hit their inbox daily without seeming pushy or spammy.

Adjust as needed.

Listen to your audience when you get feedback on email frequency but also realize that there will always be someone complaining. Look at data like open rates to get a better feel for what frequency is working best for you and your audience.

You don’t give them what they want.

Effective marketing boils down to this: Find an audience, figure out what they need or want and then deliver it.

Email is one of the best mediums to help you do just that. And it isn’t always about selling them on a product. In fact, that isn’t at all where you want to start.

Earn the subscriber’s trust.

First you want to build a relationship with your readers.

You want them to get to know you. You want to help them out so they start to like you and trust you. Only then will you be able to make an offer and have them pull out their wallet and buy it.

Pay attention to your website stats. Programs like Google Analytics can give you a lot of information of where you’re readers came from, what page the landed on and where they were on your site when they joined your list. That data along with demographical information will tell you a lot about your audience.

Pay attention to their replies.

As you start to email your readers, they will reply and get back in touch with you. Pay attention to what they’re saying. And don’t forget to read between the lines.

Let’s say you’re in the parenting niche and you noticed that some of your readers are asking for suggestions on having more patience. They complain about being short temperate and freaking out about little things. The real issue may be lack of sleep because the baby or toddler isn’t sleeping through the night.

Survey your email subscribers.

Or consider having your readers fill out a simple little survey. It’s quick and easy to do with Google forms. Having them contribute builds a sense of community even via email.

Dig deep and see what you can learn about your market. Sometimes what they tell you they want isn’t the real issue. On the flip side, it can be helpful to ask them for suggestions. Keep the questions open ended if you want a lot to work with.

Analyze your email analytics.

Last but not least go back and look at the past emails you’ve sent. Pay attention to open rates, click through rates and unsubscribes.

If a large percentage of readers opened the email, that’s a good indication they were interested in the topic. If they clicked link to additional content, that’s even better. If on the other hand you got a lot of unsubscribes, that might be an indication that either the topic was wrong or your language and overall message didn’t click with your audience.

Use all the data and information you get back to learn more about your target audience and connect with them on a deeper level. The more you know about your subscribers, the more effective your email marketing will be.

Keeping a tidy and effective email list is instrumental in using your email list to drive website traffic and product sales. Set a reminder to check the health of your email marketing strategy regularly.

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Step-By-Step Guide to Get Email Subscribers with Freebies

So you want to grow an email subscriber list. You have heard that offering a freebie is a great way to increase your email subscribers, but don’t understand what or how to give something to readers who sign up. You have come to the right place!

Number ONE priority: Get email subscribers! Step by step tutorial on what to offer as a freebie, where to store it, and how to automate it.Through this step-by-step video, you will learn:

  1. why you should build your email subscriber list
  2. what to offer for free to encourage readers to opt in
  3. where to store your freebie
  4. how to automate your freebie delivery

Video Notes:

  • Different types of products you can create as freebie for subscribers 2:25
  • Why you should not store your printables in your blog media files 6:52
  • Tour of Amazon S3 to store your digital products 8:29
  • Using a plugin for squeeze forms and selling printables 9:28
  • Why the links to your digital products should be encrypted 14:42
  • Setting up an email opt in automation 18:00

Recommended Resources:
*May include affiliate links*

Additional help getting more email subscribers:

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How to Start Building Your Email List (And Why You Should Start NOW!)

In an ideal business plan, every blogger would begin growing a list of email subscribers from the first day. Ms. Blogger publishes her first post and BOOM! Subscribers receive a lovely email notification and she sees an influx of traffic.

Unfortunately, we don’t step into the blogosphere with a ready-made list. And many more bloggers wait to start building an email list.

Big mistake.

Don't wait to start collecting email subscribers. Begin building an email list NOW with these amazing tips.

Get the Email Marketing Planner for Beginners for FREE when you subscribe:

Why You Need An Email List

Need convincing that you need to start building an email list today? Check out these reasons:

1) Email is personal.

As social as social media may be, it’s still hard to connect with readers in a personal way.

Email allows for a personal connection with your readers, giving you the opportunity to create a trustworthy relationship.

This format places your voice inside a reader’s inbox. Inside the place where they cultivate the offers and information they receive. Wow! What an amazing privilege to be given such remote access!

2) Email makes money.

Internet marketing gurus have been saying it for well over a decade now: “The money is in the list.”

What does that mean and WHY should you care?

It means that email marketing consistently converts sales. In many cases, email drives more conversions than social media marketing. If you’re selling your own product or using email for affiliate marketing and/or driving sales for sponsors, you need to be using email to your advantage.

And while everything online seems to change drastically from week to week, this cliche fact is still true!

3) Email gives you control.

When social media algorithms twitch, your subscriber list remains within your control. Facebook changes the game? Your Pinterest reach declines? No biggie. Use email marketing to generate blog traffic.

To be clear, what I’m talking about here is not an RSS-driven email list, although that is better than nothing.

What I’m talking about is creating a smart email marketing strategy. There’s so many more opportunities when you have subscribers who want to hear from you.

The email list is yours and it’s owned by you. These people have chosen to allow you into their inbox which means they must love what you do.

How to Start Building Your Email List

Starting to grow a list of email subscribers is not as complicated as it may seem. Let me walk you through the steps:

1) Choose an email service.

First, sign up with a list management service like MailChimp or Mad Mimi. These are both free to start out with, with paid options as your list grows.

(I personally use ConvertKit because it gives me more features for segmenting my list and creating sales funnels.)

RELATED: What’s the difference between MailChimp vs. Mad Mimi?

Inside your email service, you can set up different variations. For instance, you can create different email lists for those who want to subscribe daily or weekly. You can create an automatic RSS feed that is sent out each time you post, or you can write your own newsletter to feature a mix of old and new content.

But, when you are first starting, keep it simple.

2) Create an email opt-in form.

Next, install a form on your website to collect email addresses.

Most email services allow you to create custom forms. You can also use a third-party app like Hello Bar to create a sign up form that sticks to the top of your website. Or, you could do both!

Don't wait to start collecting email subscribers. Begin building an email list NOW with these amazing tips.Each option has a simple, easy-to-use “builder” that lets you customize the way your form looks and provides you with a snippet of code to add to your site wherever you want the form to appear.

But pay attention… Where you place your sign up form makes a huge difference to how many visitors you’ll convert to subscribers.

According to Derek Halpern of SocialTriggers.com, the best performing places to include your sign up form are at the top of your sidebar and in a pop up. (PopupAlly is an easy-to-use free plugin for adding one to WordPress.)

Getting More Email Subscribers

After placing an email opt-in form in the strategic places, the subscribers start rolling in! Right? Wrong.

Remember, growing your email list is about relationships. You have to woo your readers to subscriber. And what better way is there to show your readers that you are invested in a relationship than by giving them a free gift?

Offer a subscriber incentive.

When you are thinking of an email freebie, you don’t have to give away anything huge.

RELATED: Step-By-Step Guide to Get Email Subscribers with Freebies

All you need is a simple offer to use as an incentive to collect email addresses.  It gives your readers a reason to subscribe.

You could create a small report, make a list of top 10 tips for something in your niche, or create a printable checklist that your readers can use. Think about your popular posts, what made them popular and expand from there.

Just be careful. Choose an email incentive that collects your target audience. Creating a general opt-in freebie will collect more addresses but they will not be worth the fee you pay for a huge list if they do not open your emails.

Seek quality over quantity.

And other ways to grow your email list…

If you are looking to brainstorm additional ways to boost your number of subscribers, get started with these ideas:

  • Host a giveaway. Give away a prize that your target audience would love, asking visitors to sign up for your email newsletter as an entry to the giveaway. Avoid cash and gift cards as these promotions can attract contest junkies.
  • Write a class or challenge. Consider a topic your ideal readers want to learn over the course of a few emails and create an autoresponder that sends those emails lesson by lesson when they sign up. You could even create a Facebook group for those who participate.
  • Offer discounts. If you sell a product, offer a promo code to visitors when they sign up for your newsletter! Tag each subscriber based on the type of product to keep them enticed when you have sales and other product promotions related to their interest.
  • Get personal. A simple way to encourage more sign ups is to simply let visitors know that you share personal stories and insights in email that you don’t share anywhere else – of course, you have to remember to deliver on this promise in your newsletters!

Ready to get started? Be sure to grab the Email Marketing Planner for Beginners and take these tips with you.