I consider myself to be a newish blogger. Let me explain…a few years back I had a health and wellness blog where I shared healthy recipes, fitness-y products that I loved and my favorite workouts. I enjoyed blogging at first but quickly lost my passion and shut it down after only a year or so. I never put any time or effort into building an email list. I didn’t really understand the importance of it or more importantly how to start one!
My one major regret about that whole experience was never building my list. I did have the email addresses of those people who clicked “send me new posts” when they left a comment but they weren’t really mine, I didn’t own them, so when I closed that blog, the very small “list” I did have went away with it leaving me nothing to show for it…
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Now I’m back with a brand new blog, a brand new niche (that I’m super passionate about) and a brand new strategy for monetizing my blog, growing my list, increasing my traffic and trying to serve as many of you as possible!
“Service to many leads to greatness”
– Jim Rohn
Like most newish bloggers I don’t have much of a budget. After being on a seven-month journey to pay off all of our debt there wasn’t much leftover and I decided my new blog had to be [mostly] self-sustaining. Scroll through Pinterest for about 2.5 seconds and your feed will be flooded with a plethora of amazing essential blogging tools. It’s like a kid in a candy store for a new blogger!
Every established blogger has a huge arsenal of the best plugins, schedulers, and eBooks that you just have to have if you want to be successful!? It gets overwhelming….and fast! Just to clarify, I am a big believer in investing in your business, but I’m a bigger believer in not going into debt to do so!
I believe that fancy tools are a huge help and they can absolutely speed up the process, help with time management (holla) and aid in organization, but for the broke new blogger these premium tools can really add up.
Think for a moment about why you started your blog? Most blogs are born out of your passions. The things you love so much that you can’t stop talking about them so you decide to write about them too! If you’re anything like me your blog is your happy place and you don’t want it maxing out your credit cards because you’re putting out hundreds of dollars each month and haven’t yet begun to make an income from it.
You can (and should) absolutely run your business how you see fit; but for me, I decided to press pause on the majority of my blogging tool wish list and focus on a [very] few key products until my blog starts bringing in enough money to support the rest!
Which brings me back to the email list….that’s what you’re here for anyway, right? Had I focused on building an email list when I had my old blog I would have been able to retain all that information even after I shut down my blog!
I could have emailed my entire list when I started this blog and asked them to come to visit me at my new virtual home! And while all of them likely wouldn’t return, guess what? A bunch of them would have and I probably would have a ton more readers than I do now!
There are a bunch of free programs out there you can use to collect email addresses but I have read many stories about bloggers growing a large list and losing a great deal of the addresses once they finally transitioned to a premium service.
Building an email list takes work! It takes lots of time and effort to gain subscribers and nurture them! I don’t know about you, but I’m lazy! I do not want to bust my butt to grow a list only to lose half of it and have to do extra work again to gain them back?! Double the work? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
I decided almost immediately after starting this blog that the one thing I was willing to splurge on would be an Email Service Provider. I started doing some research into the usual suspects and stumbled upon a name I hadn’t heard before (remember, I’ve been out of the game for a while)…ConvertKit.
The reason I decided to go with ConvertKit is that all my research pointed to it being the easiest, most user-friendly program specifically tailored to bloggers! This was exciting for me because I am SO not-tech savvy! I was worried about having to set it up and create my own forms to capture email addresses and how to modify the program to get it to do exactly what I want.
That’s why I love ConvertKit though….it’s already set up perfectly for bloggers!
It’s very simple to use, and they have amazing customer service! One night I tried to create a landing page (which are also included in the program…score!) and had half a meltdown when I thought I had messed it up. Customer service emailed me back within an hour telling me they had tested it and it was all running perfectly!
I’m not going to put some crazy headline here about how I grew my email list by 4 trillion people overnight once I set up ConvertKit because the truth is that will probably not be the case. It’s my job to attract readers and persuade them to give me their email address; it’s the service provider’s job to house your list for you!
I’ve really only been active for around two months now so, no, my list isn’t giant. But, thanks to ConvertKit I did reach my goal of 50 subscribers in my first month and I have an aggressive goal to double that number each month!
I am planning to create some awesome freebies for you guys to help you improve your finances and help me build my list! I’ve been able to create forms to embed in my blog like this one below * why don’t you subscribe while you’re at it 🙂 * in less than 5 minutes and use them to collect email addresses and grow a list where I can serve my subscribers while also driving traffic to my site! And they have a very simple site, which I prefer as too much clutter tends to overwhelm me!
I have to say, I’ve been so focused on trying to tweak my blog, publish content and grow my list and my Pinterest that I have yet to even use my list to connect with my subscribers! I have set a goal for myself to have my first email sent out to my lovely subscribers by the end of this weekend (eek, I’m kind of nervous, what if you guys don’t like it?)
And I’m pumped because ConvertKit has a YouTube channel I’ve been stalking watching with step-by-step videos of how to do everything you need! So I know I won’t end up taking my whole weekend to set up my new welcome sequence! There are also options to sort and segment your subscribers so you are able to send different emails to different groups based on their specific interests!
Here’s the thing…I know I’m a [very] small blogger and you don’t really have any reason to listen to my advice, but from one newb to another, trust me when I say that in this day and age the most important asset to your business is your list!
If you ask most big successful bloggers what their one mistake was, many of them will tell you that it was waiting so long to build their email list! Part of the reason I follow some of these huge bloggers like Ruth Soukup from Living Well, Spending Less and McKinzie Bean from Moms Make Cents (some of my favs) is to read their stories and learn what to do, but also what NOT to do! They have been there, done that and can help us save time and avoid major mistakes while building our businesses…..why wouldn’t we take their advice?
Once you build your list you can do anything with it!
Want to drive traffic to your site? Use your list.
Want to send a monthly newsletter to keep your subscribers up to date? Use your list.
Want to build up some hype for your not yet released product or service? Use your list.
Want to sell the crap out of that new product or service? Use your list.
Want to get some eyes on your newest affiliate partner? Use your list.
Ok, you get the point…
If you build it, they will come.
I think an email list is the single most important part of my blog and therefore warrants the small investment. Once I build this list the last thing I want to do is risk losing a major chunk of it once the time comes that I have to switch to a paid product, because eventually, you will have to upgrade once you reach a certain level.
Free providers are awesome, don’t get me wrong, I love free! But they are also limited in what they can offer because they’re free. I’m in this for the long haul and I plan on being around for a while this time so I’m focused on the big picture and trying to make the choices now that will serve me best moving forward!
If you offer value to your readers: a great printable guide, some useful Pinterest-worthy graphics, an email course, you will be giving them something useful in exchange for their email address! This allows you to build your list while helping your readers and in turn gives you the opportunity to get to know them and develop a relationship with them through your email exchanges!
Once you develop that relationship and they begin to trust you they will visit your site more often and stick around longer and longer….which is kind of the point, right?
I want to encourage you to start building your list right away, especially if you have any intention of monetizing your blog down the road. Your list will be the best way to market your future products and courses, etc. | Don’t forget to give your loyal subscribers a special discount or bonus to show how much you appreciate them being part of your community!
I’m glad I made the decision early on to sign up with ConvertKit and learn how to use the program. I feel as though it will be (and already has been) really beneficial to my business and I’m looking forward to utilizing even more of what their platform has to offer!
If you’d like to give ConvertKit a try for yourself you can use it FREE for 14-days with this link! This offer is only good until October 2nd so don’t wait! You have nothing to lose and only an amazing, engaged email following to gain!
This reminds me that I really need to bite the bullet and invest and put time into growing my list. I don’t know why it seems so daunting to me!
I know! It’s like a whole new world lol, you can do it! Little by little 🙂
I’m totally overwhelmed by email list, I just can’t get the hang of it 🙁
I hear ya! I think step-by-step is the way to go….get the hang of a weekly update or newsletter and go from there!
I signed up with Mailerlite. Just starting out & there are lots to learn. Thank you for sharing this post 😊
Awesome! Thanks, Mei!
This is incredibly helpful for a new blogger like me! I’ll have to check ConvertKit out! 🙂
Thanks, Megan! I think you’ll love it!
I’m a new blogger too and this was helpful. I am working on growing my email list but I haven’t sent out any newsletters to them yet. Right now they only get updates when I post something new. Engaging them more is my next goal.
Mine too, Lauren…good luck!
Your blog looks great girl! I really like the Header and your post is sooooo long! I can’t ever think of enough to write. Oh, yea I guess I should mention I am a New New blogger. Just started in March of this year (2017). I am hoping like all of us to make a career out of blogging. Good luck on your journey this go round, I know you’re gonna be a hit!
Thank you for the sweet comment! The writing can be difficult for sure and so time-consuming! Good luck to you as well! xx
I use mailchimp. My list is built, free printable added, now I am working on page views.
Way to go!
Great post! Convertkit has been on my to-so list for awhile. I have heard really great things about them. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thank you, I’ve been loving it!
I was so late creating my email list and I regret it! I thought it wasn’t that important till I realized that I could have more steady traffic . This is so helpful and I will implement some of these things into my blog
Thanks for the feedback Sierra, yes I really don’t want to spend the money lol but I think it will most definitely be worth it in the long run!
Creating and maintaining our email list has definitely been something we struggle with as a newish blog. Everything I read says how important it is to build that list but often times I feel like I don’t know what to say when we email them. It’s definitely a learning process.
Ha!! That’s exactly why I haven’t sent any actual emails yet! I totally understand how you feel 🙂
Great post! I’m a relatively new blogger as well, and I’ve been shying away from building a list. I know it’s important, but it all seems so overwhelming. And then I have to think about what to email my list. I’ve been thinking about using MailChimp, but I’ve also been hearing great things about ConvertKit, so I’ll have to check them out as well!
It’s totally overwhelming! But I will say the set up really was simple and I’m so grateful for that b/c I think writing the actual “content” of the emails will take forever on their own lol….check em out, try the free trial, if you’re not a fan, just stop using it!