In the past I have attempted to build an email list and never quite succeeded. I was unsure of what to do once I had my email list. Now that I am focusing more on building a business instead of setting up niche site after niche site just hoping to make a sale, I am once again focusing on building my email list. Yes, I know that it is something that I should have focused on before.
I know sometimes it takes some of us longer than others to realize that it is time to start building a business online.
The Money Is In The List
This is what every internet marketer will tell you, “the money is in the list”. Yet so many of us refuse to build a list right away because we feel that we do not have the experience to share anything with anyone. At least this is what I thought when I first got started with my email list building. What did I really have to share with my readers? I mean I was not making money, so how could I help someone else?
Well if you have a site online and are building a business, then many people would love to know what you are doing to grow your online business. Don’t think that you don’t have something to share, you will be amazed at how much you have to share with your readers. Especially if you are involved in any type of coaching programs or are learning how to blog.
Why You Need An Optin Box
Many sitesĀ I visit do not even have an optin box. I highly suggest that you add an optin box to your site after you are done reading this blog post. This will help you to start building that email list and building up a following, which is something that I am learning in the Blogging With John Chow program. He highly recommends that one of the first things we do is add an optin box.
Many people are using Aweber as their autoresponder, however, I have chosen to use GetResponse because it is less expensive to get started with. I did not want to pay a lot of money to start building my email list, after all it is not making me any money yet. With so many different autoresponder services available, it is best to choose the one that is best for you. What is right for me, may not be the right one for you.
Why I Chose Hybrid Connect
I was looking for an easy way to add my optin box below my posts and on my pages. Well this plugin makes it extremely easy to set up an optin box without having to be a techie. One of the things that I always look for when signing up for a product, is it easy to use. I am not that tech savy, sure I can installĀ WordPress and upload themes and plugins, but when it comes to doing a lot of other things online, I don’t know how to do it very well. Below, I will give you a quick walk through of how to setup your first optin box on your site. Don’t worry, there are plenty of tutorials that you can access when you get access to Hybrid Connect.
When you first install the plugin, you will have to activate it with the license that they send you right after you make the purchase. Next you will want to begin setting up your optin boxes. You can do this by clicking on Hybrid Connect, which will be on the left side of your site. You will then see something that looks like this:
To add a new connection, you will click on add new connector. You can name it anything that you want to, this will be for your personal information. I suggest that you give it a name that will help you know where you placed the optin box. As you can see, I named one of mine Optin sidebar, this is the optin box that I used for the sidebar. Now that you have a new connector box, it is time to get the html code from your autoresponder service. Once you have that you will want to place it where it says mailing list. Just copy and paste the code directly into that box.
Now you will want to click on short code design and this will take you to a huge selection of templates that you can use for your optin boxes.
Now you just browse through all the different templates that the plugin offers. You should be able to find something that you will want to use for your site. Once you find it, you can easily click on the edit text link and put anything on it that you want to add. The great thing is that you will see what your template will look like, because as you are writing what the words, your template will change as well.
Next click on the customize link and customize the template to look anyway that you want. If you want to change the colors you can do so. Need to change the font size of your optin box message, then you can do so right from the customize box. Don’t worry there are videos that will walk you through step by step on how to set up the box.
After you have gotten everything set up, you will have the option to save the template as a template that you can use later on. Now the optin box is ready to be installed on your site and begin driving traffic to it.
To add the box to your site, all you have to do is click on where you want it to show up. For example let’s say that you created a connector that you want to be used at the bottom of your posts, you would then will go to hybrid connect link and click on. There you will see the new connector that you have created.
You will see that the Hybrid Connect plugin gives you several options of where you want to add the optin box. If you click on the post page, you have the option of adding the box to the bottom or the top of each and every post. The best part is that it will automatically add an optin box to each and every post that you have on your site. When you publish a new post, the optin box gets automatically added to the bottom of your posts. If you have a bunch of old posts on your site, you don’t have to do anything, the optin box will automatically get added to those as well.
It is a one time set up and you don’t have to do anything else. Of course the videos talk about testing and tweaking the optin boxes to see which ones give you the best conversions. You can also split test optin boxes against each other to see which ones perform better.
I am still new to all this email list building so when it comes to testing and tweaking, I am still learning. Of course you don’t have to use Hybrid Connect, there are so many other programs that will help you add an optin box to your blog.
I recommend that you choose the right one for you. It’s time to start building your email list, after all if all the internet marketers are saying this is the most important part of your online business, they all can’t be wrong. If you are looking for an easy way to begin your email list building journey and need a plugin that is easy to install, then take the time to visit the official site of the Hybrid Connect (affiliate link) and read more about it.
Time To Share
Do you have an email list? If not then what has been holding you back from creating one? Let me know if you are building your email list and how many subscribers you have.
Journey To Full-Time Income
Susan Velez