So why would you want subscribers anyway? All you need is blog traffic, right?
Traffic numbers are mesmerising especially if you get them in nice values. Thousands of hits per day is something that will surely make you to be proud of!
When you look at the analytics (Google Analytics, or whatever), and when you see those numbers rise, you pat yourself on your back for the good job done.
If I were next to you, I will also pat your back for sure if you see good traffic numbers that are growing regularly. Never mind, I shall send you an e-pat via email.
But before that let’s think about a crucial thing for a while. Is getting traffic all that matters?
Let’s dissect your traffic. It comprises of:
- people who casually click a link in their Twitter or Facebook or Google+ stream
- people who were searching for something in Google, found your link and clicked through
- people who were casually browsing through a website’s comment section and found your comment to be outstanding and clicked through the link to check out who you are
- people who have heard their friends mentioning you and they come to check out you.
The list can go on and on. If you notice the list above, I can say one thing - people come across your link somehow and then they decide to click through.
Seeing your link in their social media stream or on a blog post is not a guaranteed thing (even if you did a planned promotion/marketing campaign, and the people are coming across your link somehow, and not as you planned).
For one, the person should be online while your post is promoted on social media. Given the noise in most social platforms the chances that your post will go down the stream and get lost are pretty high.
Second reaching out to your target audience via social media is a generic form of promotion as opposed to a personalized form.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that social media promotion is a waste of time. Or the links and mentions you earn are waste.
But think about this - if you land on someone’s inbox, the reach is much more personal rather than blasting in public. The guarantee that the person will see and/or click through your link is also much higher (there is no 100% guarantee in any case though).
Not just for traffic. Not just for getting people to click your links and make them come to your blog. But in order to build relationships, having their email is a crucial thing.
Now let’s see why you are able to get traffic to your website but fail at converting a good number of those people. By “converting” I mainly mean making them your subscribers; having them on your email list so you can be in touch and do in-person promotion.
You don’t provide useful content
Yes, you heard me. May be for the millionth time. I am not bored or annoyed to give this piece of advice again over and over because I want to make sure the message is clear.
If your content is not useful to them in the first place, why would they be interested in you or want to hear more from you?
Don’t publish any piece of content unless it is useful to your readers. If you do so, you will be wasting your time and efforts because nobody is going to take you serious.
So how to create useful content?
That’s a topic for a separate blog post or even an ebook. But let me briefly cover the important points here.
- You have to first know your audience. If you don’t know whom you are talking to, you can’t be useful to them.
- You have to take the guess work out of the equation and actually get to know what is “useful” to your reader.
- Every piece of content you create should provide practical, applicable tips. Even if you don’t provide a tutorial for things, helping people apply what you shared is what makes a piece of content useful.
- Get feedback often from your readers so you exactly know what people find useful and what does not appeal them very much.
I can go on adding, but you get the point.
You don’t have conversion elements in place
If you don’t use the tools or means to make people your subscribers, how are they going to provide you with their email address?
Even if people like you and if they are willing to join you, if you don’t provide them with the “facility” they are just going to bounce off.
Don’t let the word “conversion elements” scare you - those are nothing but the “means” through which your readers become your subscribers.
A simple example is this:
or this:
An optin form where people can input their name and email so it gets added to your list; and you can send emails to your list afterwards.
So where to put those conversion elements? Unfortunately there is no one size fits all solution. Every blog is different.
For some blogs, an optin form in the header performs well. For some blogs a sign up form right after the content works great.
For most blogs a sidebar optin form performs very poorly because people are so used to it that they’ve become blind to it!
So it really depends on your audience and the style you maintain at your blog. This means you have to do a lot of testing to see what works. And that is a lot of work.
But I am sure it will be totally worth it. The most common places to put a sign up form are:
- At the header
- After the header
- At the top of the sidebar
- At the end of the sidebar (preferably as a sticky widget)
- At the end of the post
- In the footer
- A popup (just make it un-annoying)
You get the idea.
Without such an option you can never expect people to join your list, because they just don’t know how.
You don’t do call to actions
Yup, call to actions. Those are nothing but bold, direct instructions to your readers. You tell them what you want them to do; and they do it (or not). If they end up doing it, you can be sure you took “confusion” off the equation for them.
Many times, people leave your website without taking any action is not because they don’t like but because they don’t know what to do next.
If you clearly tell them what to do, things will be much easier for your readers; and your conversions will skyrocket.
Clearly telling them what to do is nothing but a call to action. As an example at the end of a blog post, you could ask your readers to leave a comment on the post letting you what they think.
Or you can tell them to subscribe at the end of the post - this way they know exactly what they should do after reading your post.
These two are just examples. You can do much more with call to actions!
And call to actions are not meant to be placed only at the end of the post. You can place them at appropriate places inside the post. Here’s one example:
Remember, most people who visit your website are confused. They don’t know what to do next. Most people even don’t know what your website is about until they have visited your site at least 6 or 7 times!
Don’t let traffic slip through your fingers!
They say about 90% of the people who visit your site leave without taking any action (apart from reading the content). And they don’t come back again.
If you fail to make those casual visitors into loyal readers and subscribers, you are not creating a valuable asset to your business. Because floating population will not do business with you. Only loyal readers and fans will care.
Make sure you implement these 3 simple tips and let me know when you get the results. And don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Hey Jane,
Great post here and one thing I like to add is to make sure your opt in forms work. There have been a couple of times in my blogging career where my opt in forms wasn’t gathering any subscribers. So I had to troubleshoot to get them to work. I ended up getting another list building g plugin though lol
Thanks for sharing Jane! Have a great week!
Hey Sherman,
That’s an important point. Thanks for adding that. I’ve made that mistake too when I was in my early stages of blogging. It’s so important that we implement strategies to build an email list. But it is even more important to make sure those strategies actually work.
Thanks once again. Have a wonderful week.
Cheers,
Jane.
Jasper Oldersom says
Hey Jane!
This a very solid article on lead generation. Traffic is great, but once you get your readers to subscribe you can take the relationship to the next level.
If your content is bad and they learn nothing new, why would they come back right? So that’s a great point. Give them a reason to come back. I like your suggestion to provide practical and applicable tips in each article.
I’ve tried Welcome Mat recently, and it did work - but frankly i find it a bit annoying myself on other sites so i turned it off. There are less evasive ways to get readers to subscribe, in my opinion. Your own opt-in forms are excellent
Absolutely agree that you have to tell people what to do, and that most people are confused on what to do next. Don’t let your visitors have to think about that themselves.
I liked that book “Dont Make Me Think” by Steve Krug, and it’s a great rule for web design which also applies to websites and conversion optimization in general.
Excellent suggestions and of course i’ve signed up to your mailing list!
- Jasper
Hey Jasper,
It is so nice of you to visit my blog and leave a comment. I appreciate that!
Giving users a reason to come back and subscribe is highly crucial these days. An average free e-book is not going to cut it. Plus readers should actually like the free content that is already available on the blog (that they can see without subscribing).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jasper. And thanks a lot for subscribing too
Hope to see you around.
Have an awesome week!
Cheers,
Jane.
Hey Jane,
More solid information that’s SO helpful.
I’ve been on a journey lately to improve the quality of my posts so that I’m helping solve a problem for one person at a time and targeting more of the audience that I want to be in front of. In each post I need a clear call to action which I’ve been doing but a good bit of that time it’s not to necessarily get them on my list.
That’s why we each need to know what we want our posts to accomplish. But the one important thing I’ve learned through this process is you have to tell your readers what you want them to do. Never ever assume.
When I first started blogging I never commented because I didn’t know I was supposed to. Trust me, there are a lot of smart people online but all of this stuff is new to us so just tell us what you want us to do and if we’re interested we’ll darn sure do it. Duh!!!
You’re so right and I’m finding this more and more as I go to blogs that I’m finding their content SO boring and through what they share I have no idea what they even do or can provide to me so it’s a big fat wash. For the most part I’m not going back to those blogs anymore, they bore me too much.
Your post is spot on though so thanks for always giving us what we need.
Hope your week is going well and take care Jane. Great to see you again.
~Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
Thanks for your insights
You seem to have a very good content strategy. I’m not saying that seeing from your comment here, but I can say that by seeing your website. You do solve people’s problems strategically 
“When I first started blogging I never commented because I didn’t know I was supposed to.” - that’s so ironical given your present status lol. Look at you - you are a commenting rock star now!
Boring blogs are abundant in the blogosphere. And whenever I see one, I make it a point to not visit it again (to save my time) and as well as make double sure that my blog doesn’t end up being one.
Thanks for stopping by Adrienne
Have a nice weekend!
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane,
When it comes to turning blog readers into subscribers, you are spot on. They may read your post and find it interesting, but without a CTA, one cannot get them on an email list.
I see a blog post as part of a message, and those on my list “get the rest of the story” There is where I can give to people on my list more than just the content of my blog. Give them all you can!
Also email is a place where we engage with our subscribers. I have several lists and spend more of my time writing emails to segmented lists than I ever do on my blog lol.
Some come from products/services I offer, others come from my blog, even if they never commented … go figure?
Having a list is one thing, but emails must be focused on.
Thank you for your words of wisdom on this topic.
-Donna
Hey Donna,
Thanks for stopping by!
Well said - without a CTA, that’s surely a missed opp. Also I agree with you on giving your best and some more to subscribers because they are valuable assets.
Yes, having/getting people on the list is just the start. What really matters and takes things to the next level is the relationship we build with them via those emails.
Thanks SO much for your insights Donna. Have a wonderful weekend
Cheers,
Jane.
Sarah Arrow says
Ah Jane, lovely post. May I suggest you put your own two-step optin on your last yellow image, as I clicked it 4 times to subscribe before I realised it was an image!
I’d like to add that if you get the heat map tool (free from Sumo Me) you’ll see on the heat map where people click. You can position your optins near these areas for maximum conversion.
Hey Sarah,
Ah! Sorry that the image confused you. I added that to make the point
Oh yes, a heat map can teach you a lot about visitor activity and it can help us position the optin forms at the right places.
Cheers,
Jane.
Sangeetha Menon says
Opt in forms do help a lot in converting the readers to subscribers. But its the quality content that makes those readers loyal compelling them to visit your blog again n again. Valid pointers as always Jane.
Hey Sangeetha - very well said. Without useful content, no superior optin form can do the job
Hi Jane
So the gist of your post says that to do hell hi with people and winning their smile for a while can be quite easy but to make them remember you and contact you again is the heck of the task.
I while doing any kind of job on my blog for my blog visitors I simply ask one question to myself that: will they stop to get it and go away or stop for a little longer time to search more and then try to get updates on their inbox.
It means for converting a blog visitor into a subscriber a blogger needs to create hunger for more in each visitor and for that he must offer tempting and mouth-water products and contents to make them be again and again for more food for thought.
Problems solving could be the best product but people are not machine that they would just be trying to get solutions of their problems. Sometime they want to chill out, some time they want to know about others and sometime they want to do more despite getting so much already. So keeping this aspect in mind one can get the task of traffic conversion quite easier.
The points you mentioned are very well crafted and each one has ocean of reasoning for those who mostly believe putting a sign in form is sufficient to get more and more subscribers.
Thanks a lot for sharing such a wonderful post on one of the most important topic of earning money with a blog.
Have a great day
Hey Mi Muba,
That’s right. And that is a wonderful self analysis you do by asking yourself that question.
Yes, a mediocre freebie, or a me-too optin promise is not going to cut it at this age. We need to make people “want” our content or the solution that we offer. Which is why we need to be very well aware of our target audience, and their problems!
I appreciate your visit and the insightful comment! Have an awesome weekend
Cheers,
Jane.
Ovais Mirza says
Hi Jane! you have shared some really wonderful information here. While reading this post, I have learnt a lot and and realized how a great traffic can actually be drawn on the blog and how to eventually grow the user base for a better traffic. Great work. It will be a great pleasure to hear more from you. Cheers.
Hi Jane,
What an interesting post. The thing is that some readers are looking for who to follow in the blogoshpere. That’s why useful content is indeed important.
Every blogger should be take their readers first and create content directly to the reader and not for search engines.
Thanks for the post.
Hope you have a pleasant day.
Dare.
Aderemi Dare recently posted..5 crucial reasons new bloggers will never survive blogging
Hey Jane,
Very informative post this is and very easy to understand every sentence, but one thing I would like to add more that using proper subscribe popup plugins, we can have more subscribers. And we can also do some E-mail marketing strategies which are very effective to grow your email subscribers.
Thank you
Nowadays bloggers find it hard to convert blog readers into subscribers that can make good sales after that and achieve great conversion of your site. That is why I think you need catchy landing pages and Call-To-Action Buttons. Am I right?
Sue Anne Dunlevie says
Hi, Jane,
Great info! I especially like the “remember the call to action”. A lot of times I get guest post submissions who have forgotten the piece of advice.
Thanks for the post.
Sue
Hey Jane,
Excellent post here.
Traffic is nothing if you’re not able to convert them into subscribers.
I use to be one of those people that was always looking at my traffic numbers, until I realized that a lot of traffic doesn’t serve me well if I can’t get them to subscribe to my list. So, I’m not longer focused on getting large amount of traffic — rather, getting targeted traffic that I can convert into subscribers.
CTA is what it’s all about.
Great job here.
- Andrew
Hi Jane, another wonderful post from you yet again, love it. The two points that stands out the most for me are “having a clear message” about what you’re offering and using effective “call to actions”.
I’ve seen blog’s with mediocre content get more conversions, and whilst I 100% agree with you that having great content is the foundation of boosting conversions, I also agree with you that sending the right message, offering complete clarity and using well placed call to action options is another.
I recently worked with a client who was getting 50 times more traffic to her blog than I was, yet her conversions were almost none existent. It turned out that her message to her target audience simply wasn’t clear enough, but we’re working on it and things are improving.
Love this post will certainly share this one
Have a great rest of the week Jane.
Fabrizio
Umair Akram says
Hi Jane,
Loved your way you write your blog posts, Simple and Convincing. You are right This is one of the most common problem many bloggers are facing today. They don’t know that they have to actually convert visitors in to subscribers if they want their blog grow. I think along with those above stated tactics, giveaways or Freebies also perform best to get subscribers for your blog.
Anyways, It is a clear fact that every bloggers should have to focus on conversion rates of their blog if they want to make their blog grow!
~ Umair Akram
Umair Akram recently posted..Exclusive Step by Step Guide to Make Money with a Blog
Eyal Katz says
Hi Jane,
Great post but I think you missed the actual point to getting subscribers. For instance, I am the target audience for this post. I maintain a blog. I have trouble converting readers to subscribers and your post was helpful. However, I didn’t subscribe to your blog. Why?
Because this is my first time here and providing an email address is a big commitment. I’m considering switching from email subscriptions to requesting facebook likes to the page. A much easier sell.