How many times have you heard from people it’s about time that you start growing your email list? How many hours have you spent wondering: “who am I, and why would someone subscribe to my list”?

Like, you’re not a superstar or a famous blogger. So, do people actually want to hear from you? Do they need your advice? For sure – yes! There are many good reasons why people with the right strategies have the chance to become successful and make a full-time income blogging.

The greatest of all: bloggers are real people. Real people want to hear from real people. No spicing things up, just honesty, a natural tone for a specified audience. That is why the strategy.

• How to start a money-making blog in 2022?
• How to brand your blog to be successful? (free worksheets included)

This should be your goal if your list is still anywhere from 0-10 people. Let’s not count family members and friends! So obviously, if your list has been less than 10 people for a while now, you’re not going anywhere.

Let it be your goal to gain 100 subscribers in 1 month. Keep the number with you all the time, take it everywhere, that glorious number, let it manifest.

Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.

Ken Poirot

Oh, hello there. I wonder… Have you constantly been hitting the same wall? Are you going nowhere, but you’ve been working hard for a lifetime? If yes, then you need a plan.

Apart from the obvious first step, to pick an email service provider, such as Mailchimp or Convertkit, start with a plan.

You don’t want to procrastinate because you’re not feeling motivated. But you also don’t want to overwhelm yourself with too much and give up because you’re suddenly too tired to think. To exist.

Be sure to make an exact plan on which days you will be focusing on which projects. And don’t put too much on your to-do list. Start small because you want to be able to discover your potential and abilities first.

We all like free stuff so bring yours to the table! Bribing people to sign up for your newsletter may sound odd, but you have a lot to offer, right? Make an irresistible freebie they need!

With all the craziness pouring at us, people don’t want just another spammer loading their emails.

By offering something valuable for free, you make their life easier, which they will appreciate. To be sure it’s valuable, do the research. Go through your Google Analytics and Pinterest analytics to find out which content of yours performed well.

You might also want to check for the popular keywords in your Pinterest search bar. Here’s an example of what I got. When I wrote “free”, Pinterest offered me “printables”. Then I searched for “free printables”, and it offered “weekly planner” and “kindergarten worksheets”.

Pinterest is amazing. According to your interests, it shows you what’s the most popular in your niche. Apparently, my next freebie should be a weekly planner for moms or kindergarten readiness worksheets.

Then I gave it another try. Since my blog overall is for entrepreneurs moms/entrepreneurs moms-to-be, I decided to look for something blogging related. So I typed in “blogging schedule” and got some more freebie ideas: blogging templates (the most popular), editorial calendar, printable planner etc.

Based on your audience preferences, search for what’s popular in your niche and create three to five beautiful freebies for them. Make sure they are catchy and easy on the eye. Don’t worry if you’re not skilled with graphic design.

Many bloggers create their freebies in Canva (a free tool filled with beautiful templates for anything). If not secured with that either, check out these at Creative Market or put “email templates” in a Creative Market search bar.

Since opt-in forms are the ones to get you those subscribers, the only way to achieve that is by optimizing your website for readers to sign up for your newsletter.

Make sure to promote your freebie all over the place! Here are simple examples that work wonders!

1 Header or the ad bar above the header.

Your header (with a photo of you) is a great place for a call-to-action for your readers. It should be a sunny, friendly and unique invite to your GOODIES (which no one else can offer except for you, obviously)! What I’d suggest:

“Want access to the library of over 900 valuable resources delivered to you weekly? Aaamazing! Sign up here”. OR: “We enjoy making new friends over here at yourblogname! Come be friends, and we’ll inspire your inbox with tips, motivation and self-growth! Join the friendship zone here.”

The ad bar above the header is great for placing one of your freebies there. It’s one of the first things people will see on your blog, so put that one that performed the best. If you still haven’t got an audience, put the one that’s most popular (use the research strategies previously mentioned).

2 Footer area.

It probably won’t sound logical that I put the footer area secondly, but people are way too busy to stay somewhere if it doesn’t catch their attention enough. Many times, they’d scroll the new blog all the way down, to visually test it.

That’s why your footer should be catchy, simple and beautifully designed. If you’re using a responsive theme then you probably can set it up the right way. Anyways, an opt-in form there collects like crazy!

3 Sidebar area.

Both my sidebar area and header area are a work-in-progress currently. After consulting with some great experts for email marketing strategies at our Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (this is the course that has taught me everything about affiliate marketing) Facebook community, I’ve finally come up with a plan.

I will definitely put my second great performing freebie in there. I also planned a few widgets in there (but still don’t feel ready to spoil the surprise for you) and my coming soon shop. So excited! Anyways, if you’re wondering what’s my best performing freebie, it’s this one:

4 Pop up.

K, I know what you’re thinking. You hate ’em, right? And it’s your right to choose NOT to put them on your blog. Personally, they’re not my style. I don’t like the feeling of being too pushy or similar.

However, many bloggers I know have collected a seriously big list of email subscribers through a pop-up form! Including me! Yes, I used to have a pop-up form on my website (front page), and it performed well (even without the big traffic).

Once I redesigned the blog, I decided to pull off the pop up. Simply because the theme I bought is well-optimized to collect the audience for me, I don’t need it. But if you’re in a rush to grow, then this is for you.

Keep in mind, tho, there are lots of ways to use them wrong and only one way to use them right.

You don’t put it on your front page, and you don’t set it to show the second people come to your blog. Choose an inside of the post and set a wider timer. Otherwise, a visitor will click away from the blog immediately.

5 Inside the post.

Either put graphics that lead to landing pages from where they can sign up to collect the freebie or join your newsletter or create a sign-up form via Convertkit. Most performing graphics and sign up forms inside the post are those at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the post.

Pinterest is for reaching a wider audience and getting traffic to your website. Along with the correct SEO techniques, you should treat Pinterest good too. Since it’s a search engine, like Google but prettier, it’s your best buddy for traffic and research of popular content.

Related: Pinterest Algorithm Changes in 2022

To grow your email list with Pinterest, you must know the algorithm – here are simple steps to follow.

1 Optimize your Pinterest account with SEO. Find keywords that target the right audience and put them in: your bio, your Pinterest name and boards name + Pinterest boards description and in pins title and description (even in the graphic itself).

2 Pin new content every day (fresh pins strategy). Unlike in previous years when the game was all about repinning, in 2022, Pinterest wants you to create more. Pin 3-5 fresh pins (and a little bit of content that’s not yours) to your relevant boards each day! That should be your formula.

3 Join relevant group boards to maximize your reach. If you type your niche + group boards into the Pinterest search bar, you’ll get an article for what you need. Go through it and summarize the best group boards to join and maximize your reach.

4 Top 10 rule. The top 10 performing pins = the top 10 performing articles on your website. Do you have them? Even if the number is smaller, update those posts with opt-in forms and offer a freebie related to the topic covered in the post. The more people see your forms, the more subscribers you’ll get.

Growing an email list takes time. Just like you can’t force your mind to quit a bad habit in a day, you can’t force your list to grow in a day too. But sure, you can speed the process by avoiding some common email marketing mistakes I’ve seen plenty of bloggers easily make!

Mistake 1: You think having a resource library is enough. NO. Not everyone will want to log in to the library daily, and it’s also not so effective as a single opt-in, which offers a precise solution for a single problem. Sure, having a resource library is a green light, but create more single opt-ins!

Mistake 2: Your opt-in freebie is in the wrong place. If you have a lifestyle and fashion related blog, then please don’t create a freebie on “best deals on cosy fall decor” just because you had a high commission affiliate offer from a brand.

Remember, you create content for your ideal audience. You can’t just change your niche once in a while. It’s not effective, and it turns people away from your blog.

Mistake 3: Your landing page doesn’t solve any problem. If there’s a landing page for a freebie you offer like this one of mine, there are three questions to ask yourself before you hit publish.

1 Who is your freebie for? Can a visitor see whether it’s for him straight away?

2 Does it make clear enough what single problem your freebie solves?

3 IS there a sneak peek of it included?

If you answered yes to all three questions, then you’re good to go – hit the publish.

I stated five proven ways to grow your email list which worked for me as well as for a bunch of other bloggers I’ve talked to. But, how about getting subscribers on autopilot? Is it possible?

Yes and no. If your website is catchy and you put your freebies in almost all well-performing evergreen (questionable) posts, then you’ll probably gain subscribers from there for forever. However, people will always want more of you.

Instead of purely relying on old content, always be creating. New blog posts, new content, new pins and new free stuff. Only by doing so, you can grow your business for the long term. Good luck and don’t forget to support my work by sharing! 🙂