I am pretty sure we all struggle (yes, I include myself here) to build a big list of newsletter subscribers. No matter how many subscribers you have, you will always want more.
Even though you offer a great incentive (I am giving away a 150 page book teaching you how to become a rockin’ affiliate), it still doesn’t mean you are going to get that e-mail.
Why is it so hard to build an e-mail list?
Because people are sick and tired of receiving all the hard selling e-mails from those old school affiliate marketers and are now guarding their e-mails better than ever.
However, as long as people are reading your blog and trust you, you can get them to subscribe. All you need to do is keep reminding them until they do! Here is one of the ways I remind people to sign up for my newsletter.
This is what you see if you scroll down, to the bottom of a post on this blog and look at the comment area:
I remind you to subscribe to my newsletter while you are commenting. I did this by using the coolest plugin I have ever seen – WP Subscribers.
List building the simple way
I know this will look way too easy, but that is exactly the point. These are the settings I had to go through to set the comment opt-in form (took me about 30 seconds):
Now every time someone comments on this blog, unless he/she unchecks the box, they will be added to my list.
Well, fortunately, not automatically (which is a good thing, because you don’t want to be marked as spammer). The commenters still have to confirm the subscription – which brings me to the most important part of this list building strategy.
You know you can not just add people to your list without them agreeing to it, right?
Here are the reasons I see this as a great list building strategy:
- The checkbox is visible, not hidden, and it tells you exactly what it does (subscribes you to my newsletter).
- Even if you miss unchecking it because you are “checkbox blind”, but you don’t want to receive my newsletter, you are still not added to my list.
- What will happen? You will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your e-mail to be added to my list.
- If you don’t confirm it – no harm done. You won’t be added to a list involuntarily.
- If you do confirm it – you are added to my list, you got the great incentive I send you and you keep receiving e-mails from me.
- The most important – I reminded you to subscribe and the strategy worked!
Why WPSubscribers and not some other list building plugin?
As far as the comment opt-in part of the plugin goes (and it has many, many more options) I know there are others that have the same stuff.
However, one of the plugins I looked at (with only comment opt-in and a pop up) costs as much as the whole WPSubscribers.
But here is what you will get with WP Subscribers:
- pop ups
- header opt-ins
- footer opt-ins (you can see it on this blog)
- sidebar opt-ins
- in post opt-ins
- exit pop ups
- Facebook integration (you can see it in the footer opt-in on this blog)
- comment opt-in
- Where-ever-you-can-imagine-one opt-in
- referral program
Note: if you are subscribed already, you can not see the footer. So here is a screenshot of what people who aren’t subscribed see (this is my styling, you can create the form to look any way you want):
I definitely recommend this plugin as the number 1 tool if you want to build a list through your WordPress blog.
As you can see, I believe in this plugin so much that it is the only ad I have in the blog header. I am that confident in guaranteeing for it.
It is good to know that this plugin integrates really easy with Aweber, my preferred list building service.
Important note: If you are using Livefyre, you will not be able to use this comment opt-in feature. At least not for now 
Are you using this plugin already? If not and you are considering purchasing it, I will not be mad if you do it through my affiliate links.
This is really a cleaver way to increase
Only few people observe this . But the plugin is 99$ 
But if we compare to other techniques this is very fast way to grab. Jut you need to bring awesome quality content which drives traffic . thus makes your list more
Actually the plugin costs $47 for 3 blogs (which is more than enough for most of my readers that run single blogs). And the version you can install on as many blogs as you want is $97.
I think you might be mistaking it for some other plugin…
Bran,
I am using it already and I agree with every word you say here. It is indeed an awesome plugin and I love the support the plugin offers (thanks to Jenni).
I think that I have made a worthy investment by putting some money on it and my subscription rate increased by 18% within 2 days of installing it
Cheers,
Jane.
I haven’t tracked it too closely, but definitely did see a nice increase since I installed it. I think, besides Thesis, that this is the best investment in my blog
Will it work for DISQUS?
beside that, you are doing it wrong, you should let me decide weather I want to get an opt in email or not. Check out smartpassiveincome.com on how its done.
I do let you decide, all you need to do is uncheck it!
I would not say I am doing it wrong, it is working for me pretty good. Just because one blogger does something, it doesn’t mean it will work for another. I think Derek showed that in the video where he analyzed Patt’s blog.
As far as Disqus goes, I would not know, I don’t use it.
You look pissed buddy
Different stuff works for different blogs and besides if we started imitating every other successful blogger out there then it is nothing short of making a clone autoblog isn’t it? What’s blogging without the experimenting part….
@Brankia- this thing looks great, though I have removed the email newsletter subscription option from my widget for a few days to tweak my design and draw attention to my own wordpress plugin which I launched recently, I will try to see whether this plugin makes sense, concept is cool!
Hey Rohan, haven’t seen you in a while, guessed you were on some cool project. I was testing Livefyre for about two weeks and could not use the plugin with it, and it is one of the reasons why I came back to the default comment system. I simply love the option to remind commenters like that.
What kind of plugin did you launch, I missed it
No you did not miss it. It would be an example of really bad marketing from my side if prominent bloggers missed the launch
It is a premium plugin for adding the google +1 button to your blog, with a custom options panel and stuff, it is really cool. It has just been launched and accepted yesterday accepted by the official wordpress.org team. You can check it out here…. An honest review post would be cool if you don’t mind
Cool, that is a great idea
I am actually using the code for my share buttons instead of any plugins for now, but if I change, I will do that!
I was skeptic about the same thing when I made the plugin, infact there were two main hurdles : The popularity of the Google+1 concept itself and having a USP upper hand at those who are comfortable with placing the code manually. I have covered that part in the article on how the plugin is a better option than placing the manual code. It basically loads the javascript in the site’s footer which makes the site load faster than when code is placed manually
I’ve seen this more and more on other blogs but haven’t installed it myself. I have considered it but just haven’t made that change yet.
So thanks for sharing exactly which plug-in you are using and why. Would definitely use something recommended to me over something else. Especially if it’s coming from you.
Adrienne
I have tried and tested several of those list building plugins in the previous months and all of them had one or two options. Like I said, I did have some CSS problems with them as well. But WPS has all possible opt-in options I could think of and still doesn’t cost more than any of the mentioned plugins. The price for 3 blogs is $47 and I can’t see anyone beating that
Hi Brankica,
I am using WPSubscribers as well, and I agree with you, the plugin is fantastic. I am currently only using forms inside my posts and in the sidebar. And it works great. I have tested a header form as well, but I wasn’t really comfortable with it, as it sort of destroyed the design of my blog.
When it comes to the “trick” where you add people who comment to your newsletter. I haven’t done this, because I thought that it was a little to risky, and that some might get a little upset (and consider it spam). But I see your arguments, and I agree that it’s not spam. But to me, it’s a little too aggressive approach to building a list. On the other hand, do you get a lot of sign ups this way? If you do, I might have to reconsider my approach and start testing it
Jens
You know, people can always uncheck the box if they don’t want to receive the e-mail, it is still their choice. I saw this checkbox option on a large number of successful blogs and thought “if they are using it, who am I not to agree”
I didn’t track it exactly, meaning I can’t tell you the exact number, but I am only using the checkbox and the footer and had a nice increase of subscribers (about 20 of them were Facebook subscribers from the footer, I know that for sure). I would say it works great.
That’s very interesting. I’m definitively going to test it.
I don’t have any problems with it, but I still remember when I had a pop-up at my site. I got so many angry emails about it
Hey Brankica, I loved this post!
I’ve been checking out new ways to build a list and even though I know I could probably throw in some crappy php lines somewhere to do just that, I’m starting to see that money loves speed and so do I, so this actually comes quite handy for me.
My concern is that I believe that I’m already subscribed to your blog but I’m still able to see the footer form.
I really don’t know but I do get your MailChimp newsletters in my inbox.
Gonna hit the ‘Sign me up!’ button and see what happens!
Blah never mind, the footer went away as soon as I submitted my comment so I think it’s all good!
Actually, the reason you see it is because you subscribed before I had the plugin. But for those that subscribe using these opt-ins, they should not be appearing any more, which is great when it comes to using pop ups, for example.
I am really loving this plugin!
Hi Brankica,
I subscribed to your newsletter but one thing I wish to remind you. The post title is not linked to the post and there is no other link to come back to your post from email. I wish if there was a link, it would be lot easier to come back and comment.
I probably missed it, please tell me which newsletter did you see so I can check what happened over there. Thanks for telling me
It looks like you did a serious think-through. Well done.
I always try to
Are you able to display the Subscribe to Newsletter checkbox above the comment form in Thesis theme? If yes, please let me know how. Because for me it does not appear if I select to display above the comment form.
Thanks.
I haven’t tried it, I just chose the default options. If there isn’t a default option, I am sure Jenni can fix it for you. I know there were some problems attaching Facebook comments to the comment hook before, so this might be the issue.
This is all well and good if you have WP, but what if you have Blogger?
This is a WordPress plugin. Would not work with Blogger. But this is a WP blog and I only write about WordPress tutorials anyway.
Hi Brankica,
Thanks for reviewing this plugin. I was wondering on some other day on your blog about what this plugin is about as I think it is a great plugin to boost the opt in rate within blog itself! I especially love the interfacing with facebook so that people can login to join.
Would there any update on their wall when they join with their facebook login?
Cheers,
Ming
No, and that is a great thing, the wall stays clear.
Hi Brankica,
I’m using WP Subscribers as well, and I love this plugin. I have only been using a few options, and not the footer or header, and no popups etc.. (not even the facebook integration). I’m currently thinking about all the different ways I should be using it to build my list. So your post was perfect
Jens
Brankica
I have added this info to a special document I have on resources for the future. I have Disqus… Not certain that it would be compatible with this system either?
Love your posts. you teach me a lot!
Best,
Rajka
Nope, it isn’t compatible with Disqus as far as I know. Depending on which feature you want, there are other plugins you could use. The one that works like this one as far as the check box for comment area, you can check out Subscribers Magnet, maybe it can be integrated with Disqus.
Thanks for the tip! Much appreciated!
cheers,
Rajka