Growing A Great Blog With An Email List

Are you using a blog yet to build your audience or authors platform. If not, now is great time to start. When blogs first started no one thought that a tool created for people to simply talk about how they feel, would become a wonderful way for one to connect with and grow their audience. It all started with one person talking about their passion (business, book, product) in a personal manner on a blog and it began spreading. It spread slowly at first but now blogging is a wildfire tool.

Authors from all over the globe are blogging and drawing more people into their community and customer cycle. Even if you are an aspiring author, now is good time to begin building relationship with people who will become your friends and customers. By providing a deeper look into your life, authors have learned how to connect to their readers on a different level. It helps a potential customer learn more about your book’s topic and you, the author. When it’s all said and done the author learns more about what the reader wants.

Through comments, social media campaigns, and word of mouth marketing, author blogs are growing in popularity day after day. This is why it is a smart idea to start, revive, or revamp your blog today. Remember, you don’t have to figure it all out today. Just begin one step at a time and soon you will have the kind of blog, you can be proud of. Start with building an email list. It’s one easy step toward growing a great blog.

After you get your blog started, you can begin building your email list. Building an email list is not difficult. It requires using a emailing list management system.

To start, you must have a sign-up form on your site where people can register to begin receiving email from you. This will give you permission to begin sending email to them on a regular basis.

Using a emailing list management system, you can send to everyone on your list, commonly called an email blast. When you put an email form on your blog, you are creating a greater opportunity to build stronger and deeper relationship with your readers. It’s potential to connect is greater than just a casual stop to your blog via an RSS feed or email feed.

Treat the people on your email list with respect. You must use your email list wisely. Avoid spamming and building a list without their permission. Additionally, you should never send information that your specific readers will not want. Do not send an email simply for the sake of sending something out. If you don’t have pertinent information to send, don’t send anything. It’s better than spamming your customers to death; if you start sending stuff just to send it, you will lose readers a lot quicker than not sending anything at all.

So, you might ask what do you send then? Information that will benefit your readers is useful to them and pertinent to your topic. Although, most writers don’t have this problem. But, if you don’t have enough information to send on a weekly basis, then start with once a month. You can build from there as your list grows and as your topic or audience grows. I say topic because you may start out with one book but as you accomplish the feat of writing one book, your writing may grow into additional areas.

As your life grows and expands, you may find your writing interests does too. So, to accommodate growth, you could divide your lists up. Perhaps you have regular readers, who are not committed customers yet. Or maybe you have customers to your business, but aren’t regular readers of your blog yet. Maybe you have a list of affiliate marketers that requires separate information from your regular readers. You may even have a list of readers who are connected to your blog on a more personal level, so you may want to send a more personal message to them.

Whatever the demographic becomes, sending information to them on a regular basis is the goal. Again, it is important that you only send  pertinent information. It keeps your readers coming back for more, which in turn helps grow your audience.

At this point, you might be wondering where to find an email management system that’s right for your new blog, here are a couple of suggestions.

1. Mad Mimi (http://www.madmimi.com) has a start up plan that allows you to send up to 100 list members for free. It’s a great if you’re just beginning to build your list. You can also upgrade to add more members for a monthly fee, starting with eight dollars for a list up to 500, at a later date when needed.
2. GetResponse (http://www.getresponse.com) also has a good jumpstart plan for new list builders. It’s my personal favorite and the one I recommend; I use it for most of my lists. Also, it has great training modules to help you get off to a good start.
3. MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com) Mail Chimp is another great way to get started. It is free with optional paid upgrades such as Pay-As-You-Go and a monthly payment option. MailChimp is considered one of the easiest in the industry to get started with. I, also, house several list with them.
4. Aweber (http://www.aweber.com) is an email management system that you can also create sign up forms for your blog or site. It does not offer a free plan, but the monthly fees are reasonable if you have a larger list.

Building your blog’s email list begins with your first subscriber. My first subscribers were family and a handful of friends, ten to be exact. Now there are thousands on many different list maintained for my books and business. If not already, it’s your turn get started today. Make sure you have a registration form that is easy to use and an email management program that fits your needs. Then begin building your list one by one, email by email and soon you will begin to see your audience grow and your efforts pay off. From your book writing coach, best wishes for your great blog!

Are you ready to discover how I wrote and published twelve books and how you can too? Visit the BookWritingCourse.com website for details.