Why Building an Email List Is Essential for Pro-Bloggers

Building an email list is essential for any blogger who wants to monetize the blog and for a number of key reasons. So, in this post, let me explain to you exactly why you need a list, how to build your list, and what else you need to know!

I cannot emphasize enough, how important setting up an email list is from the start if you want to monetize your blog.

1. Why You Need an Email List

So why exactly are email lists so important, I hear you ask?! Well – let me explain.

• Imagine if you rely very heavily on a 3rd party such as a social media site, for your business. What would happen if that social media site went out of business? I bet you are thinking that that would not happen right?!
• There have in fact been some big social media sites to go out of business including Digg, Friendster, Mylife, Friendsreunited and several others.
• Furthermore, imagine if a search engine changes their algorithm (they do this regularly) and this sends your blog site pages much lower in that social media sites search results. The risk is that you could find all of your followers and business wiped out overnight.

Here is the power of mailing lists!

They provide you with a direct connection with your followers. And no matter what happens to a 3rd party social media site or search engine, you yourself will be in control of your followers.

You will be able to directly email your followers at any time and take them with you, no matter what social media you are using.

Having and building a mail list is essential as a blogger if you want to build your blog business

2. When Should I Start Building My Email List?

From the very start! Get your email list set-up and running from the very beginning and take control of your list!

3. Building Your Email List

Choosing a Mail list provider – There are 2 main options that I would recommend. If budget is absolutely key, then Mailchimp can be a good starting place.

The absolute best option if you are serious about really trying to build some kind of business or income from your blog, is ConvertKit, Convertkit is designed especially for bloggers and makes building everything you need incredibly easy.

Aiming for Quality

For your list you will want:

• Leads that genuinely match the end product that you are selling (relevant and quality sign-ups)
• A large list (as sales come in part from selling to a percentage of your followers, i.e. you will never be successful in selling to 100% of your followers)

In order to get the number and quality of sign-ups onto your email, you need to offer high-quality and FREE products for your readers! You need to build their TRUST!

TRUST is everything in building a relationship with your followers

The value of your email list is that it gives you the opportunity to build trust and trust is everything.

The truth is that very few people will ever buy directly from your site without this trust being first built between you and potential customers.

Whether it is your eBook, products you sell on your online store, or a training course you offer, building trust is central to building a strong sales-to-conversion rate!

Attracting Sign-Ups through Downloadables

One of the best ways to incite sign-up behavior for your mailing list is to offer something of quality and for free. Consider creating or offering a free:

• checklist or cheat sheet
• ebook
• guide
• 3, 5 or 7 d7-day email course

You are looking to build a sequence that looks like this:

4. Why Convertkit Is the Best Software for Building Your List

Developing a form such as the one below is extremely easy in Convertkit. Convertkit is, in our opinion and experience, unrivaled when it comes to mailing list software for bloggers.

Convertkit is a product that will ultimately save you so much time compared to some other programs and time is money when blogging! Writing good posts takes time and finding ways to cut time, I am sure you agree, is invaluable.

5. Summary of Why Mail Lists Matter

Let us summarize some of the key points made in this post.

• An email list is something you should start building at the very beginning when you create your blog.
• Offer a free quality product of some kind, in exchange for the person giving their email address.
• Use the emails that you build on your list to send targeted emails to show your expertise and knowledge in your niche and to build trust with your followers.
• After this trust has been developed is a great time to try and monetize any products that you offer for sale.
• To build a mail list, we recommend Convertkit if you want a product that will ultimately save you time. You can also try Mailchimp but if you use MailChimp do be aware of their policies with regards to affiliate links.