What if the platform you are using to drive traffic to your online content shots down just of a sudden today?
What if YouTube for example shots down today, what if Instagram, Facebook or any other social platform you are using to drive traffic to your online content shots down today?
How will you contact your channel subscribers that you have build overtime or how will you be able to keep making money with the videos you have already created and published.
Well the answer to all that is building an email list
I know the idea of building an email list can be incredibly intimidating let alone the fact that it can also be expensive if you don't know what you are looking for.
In this Post I am going to walk you through what I do passively to add hundreds of subscribers to my email list monthly
Why You Should Start Thinking of Building an Email List
Now as you well know many solopreneur digital marketers rely on Google and other social media platforms for traffic to their online content be it a video or a blog posts content.
The problem with that is Google frequently changes their algorithm...they have done it before many times and they can still do it at anytime if the see it necessary.
Social networks on the other hand comes and go. Remember Myspace and Hi5 a couple of years ago where the top social platforms online? but today you can hardly hear about them. Even recently if you can still remember, there was a time around March of last year when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was shot down across the world.
To add on that most top social networks nowadays also constantly change their algorithm as the platforms grow and move into paid content.
These are just some of the reasons why as an online marketer you should start thinking of building a list.
A list is the only guaranteed way of still getting InTouch with your subscribers without depending on any third parties.
Your email list is the glue that holds your online business together. Whether you're a blogger, a video creator, podcaster, freelancer, coach, ecommerce shop owner, or a digital product creator, building an audience of true fans is the single best way to turn your online work into a sustainable income.
The main reason behind the idea of building an email list is to gather all your content visitors, or social medial followers all in one place—a place where you can share your original work and begin building relationships.
So,... no matter how many shiny marketing tactics you might think you need to get started with, the best way to stay connected with your audience is through email.
Now what are the 4 main things you will need to build and grow your email list?
For a start you will need something of value to offer your viewers, something that they will hardly refuse
Now why do you need something of value to offer your viewers for free? you may ask, well, look at it this way, If I approach you now and ask for your email address....you will probably say no thank you... right?
You will not give your address because there is nothing in it for you right?
But what if I approached you, offering you a free traffic tutorial or the actionable checklist above in-exchange for your email address,...Now there is a high chance that if you are looking for information on free traffic you will sign up right?
So you need to have something of value to offer your viewers or followers for Free in exchange for their email address
Your can package something of value to offer for free in the form of a pdf guide, checklist, or a video training... heck the are many online marketers offering just recorded audio as as a free offer to build their email list.
What's important is that you create something of value something that you know your followers will want.
The next thing you will need to build your email list is an email service.
So what is an email service and why do you need one?
An email service is a software platform that helps captures the emails your followers will be giving in exchange for the free offer. An email service organise the subscribers emails names and in some cases from what countries they are coming from.
You can also use an email service to send emails to all or a group of your subscribers at any time you want even when you are sleeping.
There are many different email marketing services online but most of them require a paid start up fee.
But since this post is based on building a list for free I am going to introduce you to a free email service called mailerlite, that is if you don't already know about it
MailerLite is one of my favorite email marketing software tools. It has helped me build a list of over 600 subscribers in just one account all for free.
Mailerlite is Completely FREE until you reach 1,000 subscribers and even after that its still Extremely affordable (plus you can save up to 30% extra if you pay annually)
The 3th thing you will need to build an email list is a web page or a landing page
Landing pages have been proven over time by top online marketers as the best ways to build a list. These are pages with the sole purpose of accomplish just one action — capture email addresses
Generally landing pages are stand alone webpages, You don't need a website with all the bells and whistles; a single landing page will do.
Landing pages in the case of list building, will include your offer some information about the offer and a capture page where the exchange starts
The problem with creating a webpage like this is that you will need a software and most of the softwares are paid offers and because they are paid offers they come with some more advance option.
Personally I use a wordpress plugin called Threive Architect which is a one time payment of about 60 something dollars.
Again since not everyone has the budget for that you can start off with the basic landing pages mailerlite is offering for free.
So basically all you really need is something of value to offer for free and the Mailerlite service.That's because you can use the mailerlite premade landing page templates to put your free valued offer and the email capturing form together
I will not go into all that here because I have already created a video on that and you can watch it here below
Now that we have a free offer and we have managed to put it together with the capture form on a landing page.
The 4th and final things you will need to build and grow your email list is to promote your newly created landing page
The truth is just because you have created a new landing page and it's open for business doesn't mean visitors will just stumble across it on their own.
You need to get out there and tell people to come visit the page and that's where promoting your landing page comes into play.
In my case for example I promote my email landing pages in my YouTube channel as well as my channel website tubemechanicsnotes.com
In your case it might just be on any social site your visitors are hanging out on. Now before you even start promoting your landing page you will first need a link to the landing page
So after creating and saving your landing page on the mailerlite platform you will be given the option to add a link extension on the mailerlite subscriber domain.
That means mailerlite will help you host the page, Hosting any content online requires you to have a hosting account but mailerlite will take care of that for you if you decide to go for free.
You also have the option to upgrade your plan if you choose to use your own custom domain.
Now in this case you want to enter a name that is related to the page you created, so say the landing page I created is about offering free traffic video tutorials I will just use free traffic here ....you can play around with the words or add numbers to get a unique extension.
Then you want to scroll down below because all the other features require you to have an upgraded account
Enter your page title and it really doesn't matter if you fill all the rest in because you are not going to promote the page you are creating with search engines but in some cases it helps to rank the page on search engines.
On the next page you can copy the link and start promoting, You can also always come back to edit any of these sections by clicking on the respective edit buttons.(Watch the video above for the steps)
After copying the link, you want to shorten the link because some social platforms like youtube will look at it as a spam link
Now to shorten your link go to bit.ly create an account which is straightforward and past in your link here and a shorter version of the same link will be generated.
Save and copy the link ...now whenever you create a new content or a new video you can add a call to action in the video and paste the link in the description box below the video.
That way, you will be pointing your visitors or viewers to the landing page link which will lead them to your free offer and the capture form
Take for example in my case after generating my link when ever I create a traffic generation video I past the link in the description area of my video and then within the video I almost always add a call to action pointing my viewers to click on the link below the video that will lead them to my landing page.
When you start creating many videos promoting your offer you will with time start building a big list of likeminded subscribers.
The truth is Every email marketer should be familiar with how to build an email list from scratch.
To grow an email list the right way, you want to work on having 4 main steps shared in this post:
Having all four isn't necessary, but the combination does make the process of building an email quicker and more efficient.
What if YouTube for example shots down today, what if Instagram, Facebook or any other social platform you are using to drive traffic to your online content shots down today?
How will you contact your channel subscribers that you have build overtime or how will you be able to keep making money with the videos you have already created and published.
Well the answer to all that is building an email list
I know the idea of building an email list can be incredibly intimidating let alone the fact that it can also be expensive if you don't know what you are looking for.
In this Post I am going to walk you through what I do passively to add hundreds of subscribers to my email list monthly
Why You Should Start Thinking of Building an Email List
Now as you well know many solopreneur digital marketers rely on Google and other social media platforms for traffic to their online content be it a video or a blog posts content.
The problem with that is Google frequently changes their algorithm...they have done it before many times and they can still do it at anytime if the see it necessary.
Social networks on the other hand comes and go. Remember Myspace and Hi5 a couple of years ago where the top social platforms online? but today you can hardly hear about them. Even recently if you can still remember, there was a time around March of last year when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was shot down across the world.
To add on that most top social networks nowadays also constantly change their algorithm as the platforms grow and move into paid content.
These are just some of the reasons why as an online marketer you should start thinking of building a list.
A list is the only guaranteed way of still getting InTouch with your subscribers without depending on any third parties.
Your email list is the glue that holds your online business together. Whether you're a blogger, a video creator, podcaster, freelancer, coach, ecommerce shop owner, or a digital product creator, building an audience of true fans is the single best way to turn your online work into a sustainable income.
The main reason behind the idea of building an email list is to gather all your content visitors, or social medial followers all in one place—a place where you can share your original work and begin building relationships.
So,... no matter how many shiny marketing tactics you might think you need to get started with, the best way to stay connected with your audience is through email.
Now what are the 4 main things you will need to build and grow your email list?
For a start you will need something of value to offer your viewers, something that they will hardly refuse
Now why do you need something of value to offer your viewers for free? you may ask, well, look at it this way, If I approach you now and ask for your email address....you will probably say no thank you... right?
You will not give your address because there is nothing in it for you right?
But what if I approached you, offering you a free traffic tutorial or the actionable checklist above in-exchange for your email address,...Now there is a high chance that if you are looking for information on free traffic you will sign up right?
So you need to have something of value to offer your viewers or followers for Free in exchange for their email address
Your can package something of value to offer for free in the form of a pdf guide, checklist, or a video training... heck the are many online marketers offering just recorded audio as as a free offer to build their email list.
What's important is that you create something of value something that you know your followers will want.
The next thing you will need to build your email list is an email service.
So what is an email service and why do you need one?
An email service is a software platform that helps captures the emails your followers will be giving in exchange for the free offer. An email service organise the subscribers emails names and in some cases from what countries they are coming from.
You can also use an email service to send emails to all or a group of your subscribers at any time you want even when you are sleeping.
There are many different email marketing services online but most of them require a paid start up fee.
But since this post is based on building a list for free I am going to introduce you to a free email service called mailerlite, that is if you don't already know about it
MailerLite is one of my favorite email marketing software tools. It has helped me build a list of over 600 subscribers in just one account all for free.
Mailerlite is Completely FREE until you reach 1,000 subscribers and even after that its still Extremely affordable (plus you can save up to 30% extra if you pay annually)
The 3th thing you will need to build an email list is a web page or a landing page
Landing pages have been proven over time by top online marketers as the best ways to build a list. These are pages with the sole purpose of accomplish just one action — capture email addresses
Generally landing pages are stand alone webpages, You don't need a website with all the bells and whistles; a single landing page will do.
Landing pages in the case of list building, will include your offer some information about the offer and a capture page where the exchange starts
The problem with creating a webpage like this is that you will need a software and most of the softwares are paid offers and because they are paid offers they come with some more advance option.
Personally I use a wordpress plugin called Threive Architect which is a one time payment of about 60 something dollars.
Again since not everyone has the budget for that you can start off with the basic landing pages mailerlite is offering for free.
So basically all you really need is something of value to offer for free and the Mailerlite service.That's because you can use the mailerlite premade landing page templates to put your free valued offer and the email capturing form together
I will not go into all that here because I have already created a video on that and you can watch it here below
Now that we have a free offer and we have managed to put it together with the capture form on a landing page.
The 4th and final things you will need to build and grow your email list is to promote your newly created landing page
The truth is just because you have created a new landing page and it's open for business doesn't mean visitors will just stumble across it on their own.
You need to get out there and tell people to come visit the page and that's where promoting your landing page comes into play.
In my case for example I promote my email landing pages in my YouTube channel as well as my channel website tubemechanicsnotes.com
In your case it might just be on any social site your visitors are hanging out on. Now before you even start promoting your landing page you will first need a link to the landing page
So after creating and saving your landing page on the mailerlite platform you will be given the option to add a link extension on the mailerlite subscriber domain.
That means mailerlite will help you host the page, Hosting any content online requires you to have a hosting account but mailerlite will take care of that for you if you decide to go for free.
You also have the option to upgrade your plan if you choose to use your own custom domain.
Now in this case you want to enter a name that is related to the page you created, so say the landing page I created is about offering free traffic video tutorials I will just use free traffic here ....you can play around with the words or add numbers to get a unique extension.
Then you want to scroll down below because all the other features require you to have an upgraded account
Enter your page title and it really doesn't matter if you fill all the rest in because you are not going to promote the page you are creating with search engines but in some cases it helps to rank the page on search engines.
On the next page you can copy the link and start promoting, You can also always come back to edit any of these sections by clicking on the respective edit buttons.(Watch the video above for the steps)
After copying the link, you want to shorten the link because some social platforms like youtube will look at it as a spam link
Now to shorten your link go to bit.ly create an account which is straightforward and past in your link here and a shorter version of the same link will be generated.
Save and copy the link ...now whenever you create a new content or a new video you can add a call to action in the video and paste the link in the description box below the video.
That way, you will be pointing your visitors or viewers to the landing page link which will lead them to your free offer and the capture form
Take for example in my case after generating my link when ever I create a traffic generation video I past the link in the description area of my video and then within the video I almost always add a call to action pointing my viewers to click on the link below the video that will lead them to my landing page.
When you start creating many videos promoting your offer you will with time start building a big list of likeminded subscribers.
The truth is Every email marketer should be familiar with how to build an email list from scratch.
To grow an email list the right way, you want to work on having 4 main steps shared in this post:
- Offer Something of value for free,
- Get an account with a mailing service like mailerlite,
- create an email capture landing page and
- start promoting the page.
Having all four isn't necessary, but the combination does make the process of building an email quicker and more efficient.
