Posted in autoresponder, aweber, email list, list building, mini-course | 19 Comments
If You Don’t Have an Autoresponder, You Are Throwing Money Away!
Yes, you read that title right. I feel very strongly about this: If you don’t have an autoresponder, you are throwing money away!
Why You Should Be Collecting Email Addresses
Have you heard the saying, “The money is in the list”?
What is meant by that, is that having an email list is the way you will make the big money.
Blogging is a good way to start out, but if you are not capturing your visitors’ information, how will you contact them again? Having an RSS feed is a good start – at least they are still reading your information (if they are checking their feed reader).
But having a real email list is a lot more flexible. You can send mailings to your list without posting it on your blog. Most importantly, you can send offers to your list – products to buy.
These can be your own products, or they can be affiliate products.
Of course, there is an art to communicating with your list, and I haven’t completely mastered it yet. But how will you learn to do it, if you don’t have a list?
My biggest regret in my internet business is the years I spent blogging without building an email list.
What I’m Doing Now
I have now set up email lists on my most popular blogs. On my dog blog, I already have 128 people on my list, which I did in just the past two months. Imagine how many subscribers I would have if I had started buiding that list 2 years ago!
And I got those 128 subscribers without even offering them a bribe. You are supposed to offer a freebie to entice people to join your email lists. Well, I haven’t gotten around to that yet (on this blog either), but even without the freebie, all those people signed up to get tips about dogs.
I’m ashamed to admit that I have not done anything with that list yet, except to gather their email addresses. That is one of the next things on my list of things to do – to actually start sending out dog tips to that list, along with some links to dog products they can purchase, of course. 
But at least I am gathering the names and email addresses. You should really start doing that on your blogs too! You will be sorry later if you don’t.
Using Aweber
I use Aweber to manage my email lists. This is called an autoresponder. They take care of making sure people double-opt-in to the list, and in general, they manage everything having to do with the list.
You set up emails to be sent out at scheduled times, or whenever you want to. If you are on the email list for this blog, you know that it can also automatically send out an email whenever you make a blog post.
You set up the “web forms” that are used to collect the email addresses. It is very easy in Aweber. You can see an example of this at the top of my sidebar – the signup list for this blog’s email list.
You can also have it show up as a “popover”, which shows up over the web page, but it does not get blocked like it would if it was a separate window.
Aweber only costs $19.95 per month for unlimited email lists. If you sign up for a year at a time, you can save $60. I already have 9 different lists going, and it’s still the same price. I highly recommend it.
What Are You Doing?
How about you? Do you have an autoresponder? Are you collecting email addresses of your blog visitors?
- Pat Doyle
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Mark, you should really get Aweber. I love it! And you don’t have to use my affiliate link, you can just go to http://www.aweber.com
David, I actually think the freebies is a good idea – I just have not had time to create the freebie yet.
Although your point about people using some junk email address is food for thought…
I don’t have to worry about the spam filters with Aweber, because they check all emails for spam, and they let you know if they think it will trigger a spam filter, so you have a chance to change it.
I like your idea of sending them back to the site to read the tips. I did that for my traffic mini-course. You’re right, that way I did not have to worry about any spam filters. I also could use more HTML features and did not have to stick to plain text.
Good points!
Fred, thanks. Yes, you do.
Mark, LOL, good for you!
I’m using phplist, it’s free but takes a headache to setup
Pat, I agree we need a list and further agree with not offering freebies. People who sign up to get a free download many times just use some junk mail email address to get the freebie and you end up with a non-responsive list.
Another problem with lists is dealing with all the junk mail filters. This is especially a problem if your doing a marketing list because you will tend to use words that can trigger spam filters.
On the dog list I would email the users a teaser inviting to come to the site to read the rest of the article or rest of the tips for the week. That way you do not have to monitize in the email at all and have a better chance of getting through the spam filters.
What do you think?
Great article Pat. I really need to get an autoresponder.
@pat – I’ve been a member of aweber before and they do have a great product/service. However for my needs I can do the same thing with phplist for free. Sometimes I’m pretty cheap
Nick, good for you!
Dave, I agree about the feed reader! I have not looked at mine in a while because it is hopelessly clogged up with posts I have not read.
I better get busy and start sending stuff out to the lists I have.
Seen a lot of information about Aweber and looked at a friend’s account/usability. As soon as I have the first few editions of the newsletter I’m going to sign-up to Aweber, but I don’t think it’ll be that long
This is agood wakeup call, Pat. Like you I have wasted years without collecting names. I _hate_ the way some folks overdo their liust … pounding subscribers with offer after offer … but mis-use by a few is no reason not to make use of a valuable resource properly.
If someone comes and reads ablog more than once, it means they have at least some interest in the blogger, and/or in what s/he has to say.
They can of course subscribe .. many of us do. But that’s not always agood solution … my Google Reader has atendency to fill up … especially at this time of year when I’m busy with family and other ‘real world” things. What typically happens is the messages just sit in the feed reader until I get frustrated by the number of “unreads’ and then I zero them all out, delete the least favorit blogs from my list and resolve to do better. ha … we know who well we all keep those sorts of resolutions.
If a reader signs up for email and the blogger uses it tastefully and intelligently … say sending out a once a week or once a month “Highlights” message … or announcing something they bought and find actually useful, then it’s a service to the reader no less than to the blogger.
I think I better get busy … and so, I submit, should the rest of you.
I am an AWeber fan as well. I increased the opt-in rate with the latest changes of my sign up form. But I also increased the rate of folks, who submit bogus addresses in an attempt to get to the reports that I offer. But of course those are after confirmation of the email address.
Bottom line is: I get more activity, more trash too, bit the net effective is positive.
Yours John
By the way: Be well and get rid of the flue.
Pat,
Your post about list building made me review an old project and I discovered I had 716 subscribers from http://www.free-recipe-books.com. (I guess the notifications from that domain were going into a spam bucket somewhere and I lost track)
Now, I need to figure out what to do with that. I guess I could get some of the next recipe books ready and brand them with some affiliate links. Or I could build a web 2.0 blog for the site. Maybe I’ll do a niche report on recipes along with a squidoo lens.
Your post has been an inspiration for sure and was the reason I found something I lost track of
Thanks Pat!
Pat, as always, great post, very informative. I have seen AWeber in use in a lot of lists I am on lately, and it seems like good service with some useful features, thanks for describing them.
@Dave, I think we can all relate to the email list owners who just have no patience or respect for their subscribers. If I see more than two a week from someone offering no more than a sales pitch, they’re gone.
I am formulating a plan for the release of my next website and accompanying products, and I will definitely consider using AWeber…after I look into phphlist of course;)
John, thanks. It makes sense that you would get more bogus email addresses with a freebie, but I’m glad to hear that the net effect is positive.
David, you’ve got some good ideas there.
One Eyed, thanks. I’ll be curious to see your next website.
@ David, good thoughts there, opened my eyes to a few things, thanks.
@ 1I, yes I wnat to see your next creation as well, keep u sin the loop
-edited-
@ Pat and Dave,
Thanks for your interest, I will definitely keep you posted;)
Domain names are purchased, the business outline is starting to take shape……..
Nice post, Pat.
I think you should a least write something for your lists at least once a week.
Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I think a list of people can go stale if you don’t keep sending information. Many people will unsubscribe if you don’t contact them for a long time and then suddenly start sending them e-mails. Of course if you had a brand like the Coca Cola Company then it wouldn’t be a problem…
Oland, thanks. You have hit on my biggest problem right now. I am collecting all these people on my lists, but I don’t mail enough out to them.
I should make it my new year’s resolution to mail to every list once a week!