Lisa Angelettie

Bestselling Amazon Author

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#1 Tip To Increase Your Optin Email Subscriber List

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How To Add More Optin Email Subscribers To Your List Using This One Super Simple Strategy…

grow your optin email subscribers

It’s amazing how we entrepreneurs can fret over a million things when it comes to building our businesses. Did we pick the right name? Will people like what we write? What will we say during our next speaking engagement? How do we find a good virtual assistant. The list is endless. But the major issue that comes up over and over when I talk to entrepreneurs is the one we all know and love — “How can I get more people on my list?”.

I hear you loud and clear! And guess what, I have a super ninja strategy to help you do just that that will change your optin email subscriber statistics overnight. But right now I want to quickly tell you about a few facts that you need to understand when it comes to building your list…

1. You must drive traffic to your site in order to capture names for your list. The more traffic you attract, the higher your optin email subscriber rate will be. This is a numbers game. That’s why companies with lots of traffic have bigger subscriber lists.

2. In order to create this stream of traffic, let’s get real. You have to create content that is interesting, informative, engaging or entertaining that the reader wants. Content that’s worth them “following the trail” back to your site. Do you have ninja tips to share with your readers? Share some!

3. Once you start getting all this traffic, there must be a working optin form somewhere to capture the names of the readers. I like using Aweber to make this all happen, but whatever company you use it’s more important that you have an optin in place and that you’ve tested it to make sure it’s working.

Yet This Is Where A Lot Of Entrepreneurs Drop The Ball!

I bet many of you have an optin box in your site’s sidebar right? Maybe you even have one at the end of your posts. Perhaps you’ve created a cute little landing, squeeze, or entry page like the one I have over at LisaAngelettie.com, but statistically I bet that your landing page is not even your highest trafficked page. Have you checked your stats lately? Do you even know?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have your optin email subscriber form on your #1 traffic page?

And if statistically that’s your home page, then what about your #2 page? Or #3? I bet it’s not that landing page you’ve been relying on. It’s another single page on your website, and for many people it’s their ABOUT page.

But I Don’t Want To Jump To Any Conclusions, So We’re Going To Check Your Stats And Make Sure…

1. I use Google Analytics and WordPress Stats to track all of my sites, but regardless of what tool you use to measure your site’s statistics, let’s open them up.

If you have never purposely tracked your statistics, don’t worry, your webhost probably does it for you. So for example, if I go the cpanel section of my account with Hostgator and scroll down, I can see an icon called awstats, which I can click on to see the latest stats for my site.

2. Take a look at the top 5 pages on your site and the clicks they are getting.

3. More than likely your home page is getting the most clicks. That is pretty typical.

4. Take another look to see what pages deeper in your site are “hot”.

5. Is it a single post that gets a lot of attention? Or is it your About or Start Here page?

It’s Ninja Time!

Now that you know what the top 3-5 pages are getting the most traffic on your site, it’s time to strategically place an optin form on those pages. This is what is know as getting “in front” of traffic instead of having to chase it down.

Notice how my About page has several optin email subscriber forms. That’s because based on my stats, I know that it is one of my more frequented pages. There are a few others that I identified as high traffic pages as well, and so I’m going to place an optin email subscriber form on those as well because it is a prime opportunity for me to connect with more people who are interested in what I do and be able to build a relationship with them by adding them to my list.

My Ninja Tip Super Simplified

Okay, so here is everything I just said summarized really simply:

1. Don’t just rely on the optin box on your home page. You can do better!

2. Identify your highest traffic pages using any basic statistic tool available to you.

3. Add optin email subscriber forms to those pages. Don’t be afraid to initiate the relationship:)

I guarantee you, that you will begin to see a rise in your optin email subscriber rate!

Do you have any other ninja tips on adding more subscribers to your list? Please share them with us in the comment section below or on Facebook.

Don’t Panic When Someone Unsubscribes!

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Don’t Panic When Someone Unsubscribes From Your List

One of my coaches told me a long time ago that not everyone was going to like me and I remember saying “Oh of course I realize that”, but that wasn’t really the truth. The reality was that every time someone unsubscribed from my list – it made me feel a little sad – like “aww they don’t like me”. I didn’t like to read the reasons why they unsubscribed, but when I did most people were polite and kind and said basically that they were on too many lists and had to clean house. Yet I didn’t believe them:)

Then I had another discussion about a year later with another coach who basically told me the same thing, and this time I was ready to hear what she had to say. So I hope that I am that coach for some of you today. If you’re ready to hear it, here it is…

First Of All, You’re Doing Great!

You are competing with a lot of clutter out on the web. You are dealing with your competitors. The newbies. Social media. Celebrity gossip. Regular news. Reality television and much, much more. It’s a struggle everyday for the online soloprofessional (as many of you are) to cut through the clutter and get noticed. So first of all I want to say bravo to you for even getting the person to sign up for your list in the first place! BRAVO!

Why Someone Is Unsubscribing From Your List

With that in mind you have to understand that not everyone is going to stay and that’s okay. It really is fine. Because this is the reality:

1. That person was not ready to invest in you now or maybe even ever.

2. That person was not the ideal client for your product or service.  They realized it and jumped ship.

3. That subscriber really was on too many lists and probably wasn’t reading anything you were sending them.

4. That reader didn’t make a connection with your content which is fine. The only people that will buy from you are people that “get” you and trust you.

5. They joined your list just to get the freebie, not to stick around. In that case, hope you enjoyed it but good bye!

Other Possible Reasons That They Unsubscribe Which You Could Test

1. You may not be sending enough content consistently. So when people receive content from you, they don’t remember who you are or why they signed up in the first place and they unsubscribe. Sometimes they even list your emails as spam – ugh! You must communicate with your readers consistently. At the least – once a month. At the most – weekly. Test this by sending content more regularly.

2. You may be sending emails, etc. too often. It’s important that you know your niche as the “how often” part of this rule can fluctuate between niches. But for the average non-internet marketing niche – sending out something weekly is quite enough. Any more than once a week will probably get an unsubscribe. Test this by slowing down your publishing schedule for 60 days and see if you recognize a difference in the subscribe/unsubscribe rate.

3. People may be changing the way they read your information, so they might unsubscribe, but may want to follow you another way. Make sure readers know how to find you via Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed, etc.

Conclusion

Like article marketing and any other marketing technique, list building is a numbers game. People are going to unsubscribe, and don’t worry — you are not a failure because people unsubscribe. People unsubscribe from EVERYONE’S list. Just understand that the more people who subscribe – the higher your subscription stats as well as your unsubscribe stats. As long as one is balancing out the other — you’re fine.

If you stats are off kilter and your unsubscribe rate is higher than your subscribe statistic – contact me and we’ll discuss how to change that around.

 

Hello Bar Vs. Viper Bar

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Hello Bar Vs. Viper Bar

Several of the big online marketers have been using this cool bar across the top of their websites where you can either add some copy and a link or you can add an optin box for your list. The buzz for some time has been that when executed correctly, the bar has an amazing conversion rate. While there have been various versions of this type of thing online for a few years, which was typically done with code that a 3rd person needed to create for site owners, the great thing about the Hello Bar and the Viper Bar is that you simply copy and paste code into a WordPress plugin and like magic your bar appears, wide width, at the top of your website.

I’ve been testing both bars so I’m not sure which one you are seeing at the time that you are reading this article, but many owners are boasting 150 to 200% conversion rates, so I thought it would be wise if I tested both options. In the meantime, I’m going to tell you a little about each bar and how to install them so you can do a little testing for yourself…

The Hello Bar

Hello Bar List BuildingThis is the first of the two bars to be released and it made a lot of buzz online when it did. I’m kind of a late adopter, because I spend most of my time writing and not working on my site, but after reading a review of the use of The Hello Bar over at DIYThemes, I thought it was worth the effort of trying it out. So here’s the deal:

1. The Hello Bar is free, which is always nice. You need to go their site and sign up for a free account. When you do, they will say that in order to get your copy of the bar, you need a key. In order to get the key, they recommend twittering a request for one. (Once a person signs up they typically receive 5 invitations to invite others with this key.) This is really all done as a very smart viral marketing strategy, because if no one on Twitter sends you a key (which no one sent me one), Hello Bar eventually will send you one via email.

2. So once you receive your key and finalize signing up with Hello Bar, you then are led to a page where you can create a bar. You can play around with the color of your bar, the text font, text color and a few other options. You will at this time include your copy and your link text. After you’ve saved all of this, code will be generated for you to copy and paste within the <body> section of your template.

3. If you rather not be bothered with screwing around with your code, then you can download The Hello Bar WordPress Plugin, and paste the code into the box that the plugin provides. Save and your bar is up.

4. If you own a Thesis WordPress blog, then you don’t have to mess with your code nor download yet another plugin. You can just copy and paste the code you generate into Thesis Settings: stats and tracking box. If you have your Google Analytics code in the box, no worries, you can just copy the code for Hello Bar after that code.

5. I’m pretty sure you could also use Thesis Openhook for adding the code as well — I’d try in the header area.

6. Just a note. I was driving myself crazy with adding this bar because of my cache plugin. If you use a cache plugin and actually want to see the bar up on your site, you will need to temporarily deactivate the cache plugin, add and save your code, take a look at your bar and if you’re happy then you go back and turn your cache plugin back on.

7. There is also an arrow on the bar which you can use to close it which is nice, but of course the company needs to self promote virally, so there is a big ‘ole H on the bar as well which links back to the Hello Bar website. Nice links for them!

8. What’s cool about The Hello Bar is the fact that you can use it to promote a new product, build my list, announce something. Just a one line statement and then a link. Now like most people, I would use the Hello Bar for lead generation and list building – not pre-selling. Tell prospects that they can download a free report, ebook, or audio and add a link to the  optin page for that freebie & it’s only a matter of seconds before you acquire a new member on your list.

The Viper Bar

The creator of the Viper Bar (ViperChill) took the Hello Bar concept and took it a step further. The Viper Bar was specifically created for lead generation. In fact, while you could theoretically use the bar like a Hello Bar (with text and a link), what separates this bar from the Hello Bar is the fact that the optin box to your list will show in the bar. People can add their names and email right in the bar.

Read More About The Viper Bar…

 

Subscriber List Building: How Can I Get More Email Subscribers?

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List Building: How Can I Get More Email Subscribers?

This is the latest reader question asked by one of my Facebook pals and to tell you the truth by a lot of people — and it’s all about list building. Even the most savvy marketers are constantly tweaking and testing their systems for adding new subscribers to their lists. So there’s no shame in beginners wondering how on earth they will get more than the 10 subscribers that they already have (mom, dad, and their college roommates!) I want to help demystify the subscriber list building process…

Q: How do I get my subscriber list to grow past the 10 names I have on here (my friends and family)?

A: First, I am not a typical marketer, so I’m going to tell you the truth. There is no quick fix for list building. There is no bright and shiny marketing product or tool that will help build your list by the thousands in 30 days! It takes entrepreneurs a good deal of time to build a highly responsive list (one that actually converts and buys from you).

Second, building your subscriber list is really about finding the marketing techniques that resonate with you and then going full throttle with those babies! Stop thinking that this “next thing” is going to be the solution to all your list building prayers. Most likely it isn’t. It’s simply a distraction. If you know that you are a good writer — then article marketing and blogging may be the major way that you build your list. If you are a social butterfly, perhaps social media will be more up your alley. If you don’t mind investing in advertising, perhaps Adsense pay per click or Facebook ads are the thing for you. Use a list building strategy that you enjoy doing or you will never make it past those 10 names.

Third, make sure you have all the parts necessary for building a good subscriber list:

  • You will need a list service or autoresponder service like Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, etc.
  • You will need a list building landing page to capture subscriber names.
  • You will need an opt-in box to place on that page.
  • It’s important that you have a bit of copy on that list building page that entices the reader to opt-in — a.k.a. stress the benefits of joining your list.
  • Make sure you have something to say to your subscribers once they do opt-in. Think about an email autoresponder series. What kind of information would your subscribers like from you? Or better yet — maybe you publish a newsletter that you will send out on a regular basis. The key thing here is that you need to say something to your list to start building a relationship with them — or they will soon forget you.

Fourth, and this is what you really wanted to hear:) — use some of these list building strategies to get things rolling:

  • Submit articles to article directories (such as EzineArticles.com). Include a link to your list building page in the resource box.
  • Write articles on your own blog. Include a invitation to get more updates and/or join your list at the end of every post.
  • Write for other blogs — again include a resource box or call to action.
  • Get your list building page up on your Facebook fan page.
  • Get active in forums appropriate for your niche. Add your list building link to your forum signatures.
  • Join Twitter Chats & Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Periodically refer to your newsletter op-tin as a resource.
  • Consider adding a subscriber building pop-up to your website. I use PopUp Domination.
  • Give away something really yummy for signing up with you (a free ebook, teleclass, mini consultation, etc.) Think about what readers would love to get for free and give it to them!
  • Make sure you give folks every opportunity to join your list if they are on your blog/site. An opt-in box should always be visible on every page.

Try one or a few of these strategies to start building your list. Figure out which one (or two) you really love and use them consistently! That is what will move your list out of the “friend zone” and into a growing database of potential clients and customers.

 

 

How To Set Up Your Own List Building Page In WordPress

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list building pageHow To Set Up Your Own List Building Page In WordPress

Want to set up a page to capture new visitors to your list from your WordPress blog? Great idea! This is why and how you do it…

Why The List Is Crucial To The Success Of Your Business

You’ve heard it said many times I’m sure. The money is in the list — and that’s because it is true. When you are marketing your business online, your #1 goal should be to get the prospect on your list.

That’s why when I discuss writing the perfect resource box, I always mention that it’s best to create a call to action that gets the reader onto your list first, NOT to buy from you right away. Why?

Well, statistically most prospects will not buy upon their first interaction with you. They will need at least 7 exposures to you and your information. So how do you ensure that the person reads more of your articles and browses around on your site? You get them on your list and build a relationship with them through content (articles, ezines, short reports).

Even on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, ultimately you really want the people that are interested in you to get on your list. A list that you can send emails to about your upcoming launches, about what you’re working on, about your new puppies! Whatever. These are the people that you will end up buying from you, sign up as a client, and better yet — will do it repeatedly.

So of course the next question many people have is – how do you get people on the list? Very valid question and there’s a pretty easy solution…

How To Set Up List Building Page In WordPress

1. If you are trying to create an email list for your business in Outlook or Apple Mail – stop! You must build a business based on potential growth. You need to use a professional autoresponder/newsletter service such as Aweber, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, etc. These services can easily help you create and build a highly responsive list.

2. Once you sign up for one of these services, you will create your first list. I’ll call mine “Anglettielist”. Once I create this List – I will create a web form or opt-in form for people to use when they want to sign up for Angelettielist. This form will go on my WordPress blog.

list-building

I’ll make a simple form asking only for the person’s email address and name. My autoresponder company will walk me through this process. It’s quite easy. When I’m finished making the opt-in box, there will be html code and/or javascript code that I will need to copy and paste into my blog.

opt-in form

3. Now I will create a PAGE (not a post) in wordpress. This page will serve as the landing page for the link that I will place in my article’s resource box. For example one of my landing pages is: http://ArticleMarketingSuccessKit.com. This is actually a page on my site which serves as a landing page to my main list. I use this url for most of my article marketing and for guest posts as well. To do the same thing, all you need to do is to secure a simple domain name you’d like to use for your list building and forward it to the actual url of your new WordPress page.

4. Once you create your list building page, now you need to add the code to it to make sure that your new, cute opt-in box shows up. So copy and paste the code you created from your autoresponder company and paste it in your page using the html editor (not the visual editor).

aweber form

5. Of course it’s a great idea to add a headline and a bit of copy about joining your list. You need to approach list building just as you would close any other sale. So I actually stick a headline and copy on my list building pages ABOVE the web form code. Again, you’re doing all this in the html editor of WordPress – not the visual editor. Then SAVE.

6. Now it’s time to take a look. You will need to PREVIEW your page in order to see it properly. The visual editor may not show your opt-in box correctly or at all depending on what code you use, etc. Here’s the time to center things, add a few more benefits to your copy, or go back and tweak your opt-in box if you don’t like how it looks on your site. BUT don’t worry quite yet about perfecting your page, it’s more important to get it up and capturing names. Over a course of a few days you will think of tweaks to make and you can do them at that time.

7. Drive traffic to your list building page. Now that you’ve created it, you’ve got to tell people that it’s there. Drive traffic from your home page to the page. Add something at the end of every post that drives traffic to your page. Add your page’s domain friendly url to your email signatures, social media profiles, and in the resource box of all the articles you publish.

Do you have a good example of a list building page that you created on your WordPress blog? Here’s your chance to share it with the world (okay with my little corner of the world:). I don’t typically permit links in the body of comments on my site — but this time I’ll make an exception:) Please include the full url address please (http://xxxxx)

Pop Up Domination – Review

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Pop Up Domination – Moved Me To Write This!

You will notice that I do not do too many reviews on this site. That’s because I am so busy trying new things out (I’m a bit of a closet techie geek) that I completely forget to write about them after I’ve implemented them — but I’ve got to admit, this one moved me to write. Anytime you can see a dramatic difference in an aspect of internet marketing, you owe it to the rest of the web to let folks know.

I purchased the Pop-Up Domination WordPress plugin and installed it on my site a couple of weeks ago. I can’t tell you the day because honestly I couldn’t find my receipt – but I saw immediate results. The plugin creates a customizable subscriber pop up light box on your home page or every page ,where visitors to your site can sign up to be a subscriber to your list. You probably saw mine when you visited the site today (if you are a new visitor this week).

This is a look at my stats over on Aweber (my ezine list/autoresponder company) for most of the month of December. After installation, my subscriber sign-ups began to increase per day almost instantly. People even signed up on Christmas!

pop up domination review

So what makes the Pop-Up Domination plugin so great?

1. It’s a WordPress plugin. Installation and activation is easy vs. adding code manually to the proper area on your site’s template.

2. It is customizable. The plugin comes with templates and you can easily customize the colors, text size, etc. You can add your own images (or not) and the opt-in box will still look good.

3. There is an X clearly visible on the opt-inbox for visitors to close  if they aren’t interested. (Many pop-up boxes don’t have this which annoys the heck out of visitors!)

4. It works with most of the top autoresponder companies out there. Just copy and paste their generated code.

5. You can control how often visitors see your box and you can control at what point they see it.

6. It looks good. It really gives your site a polished look.

7. Many of the pros use this plugin. I’m sure one of the leaders in your niche is using it. Don’t let them be the only one who maximizes conversion of new visitor traffic!

8. Bottom line – my subscriber rate doubled! Do I have to say more? Want to try it on your site? I think you should. Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work, then you can simply deactivate it like any other plugin.

Try: PopUp Domination (aff. link)


HelloBar Vs. ViperBar (Pt.2)

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HelloBar Vs. ViperBar (Part Two)

So in the first part of our article (Hello Bar vs. Viper Bar), we discussed a bit about why you and I should try a HelloBar or a ViperBar — and the general consensus is for list building & lead generation. I also talked a lot about The Hello Bar, so now we’re going to talk more about The Viper Bar’s, pros and cons, etc.

So think about your lead building ethical bribe. For example, are you giving away a little video training? Then say so in your Viper Bar and ask for their name and email so that they may watch or download your training video (or whatever your freebie goody is) right away.

Viper Bar Plugin

What’s great about the Viper Bar WordPress Plugin is that the website is very user friendly because you learn right on the home page what the benefits are of the plugin and how to install it in about 30 seconds. Okay, with tweaking, maybe a few minutes:)  But very easy…

1. The ViperBar is an actual WordPress Plugin and free. You cannot create code for your bar on their website like Hello Bar; you have to use the plugin. So in order to do that, you can either go the ViperBar website and download it there or you can go to your WordPress dashboard, click on plugins, click on “Add New” and search for the “ViperBar” plugin. When you spot it, then you can upload it to your plugins folder right from within the dashboard.

2. Now that you have the ViperBar plugin uploaded, it’s time to tweak the settings by going to the “Settings” tab in your dashboard, finding ViperBar, and clicking on it to edit the settings. It is here will you tweak the color of your bar, your text, your text font and color, etc.

It is also here where you add the needed information to bridge your new ViperBar to the optin list you’d like to grow or to your RSS feed. ViperBar works with leading autoresponder and list building companies such as Aweber, and all you have to add is the name of your list to make it work together.

3. You can also add type before and after your optin box for an enticing call to action. Much like the Hello Bar, except your swapping out the link for the optin box. Remember to always create an attractive offer in either bar to increase conversion.

4. Speaking of conversion, both The Hello Bar and the ViperBar have  stats available for you to review. For the Hello Bar, you’ll have to login to the site to see your stats for the last day, 7 days, or 30 days. You can also select dates you may want to see conversion results. For the ViperBar, you can see your statistics right in the plugin’s settings area. Just click on “stats”.

So far, I want to say that choosing whether to use the  Hello Bar or the Viper Bar is really a matter of which one you’d prefer. They both were pretty simple installs once I turned off my cache plugin, and so far have they have produced some additional subscribers for me. I look forward to seeing what results you achieve. Let us all know in the comment section below once your up and running.

Read Part 1 Of This HelloBar/ViperBar Review

 

Repurpose Articles For Bonus Traffic

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Top 5 Ways To Repurpose Blog Articles

The wonderful thing about writing articles is that you can use them for so many other things than just one site submission. You can use them over and over, and I wrote a guest article over on one of my favorite blogging sites (FamousBloggers.net) about how to do just that.

Top 5 Ways To Repurpose Blog Articles

Check it out: Top 5 Ways To Repurpose Blog Articles

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