OK, I may have exaggerated a little bit when I said a zillion, so how does 5,000 sound? Good, right? That’s why Derek Halpern’s ebook, How to Get Your First 5,000 Subscribers, caught my eye.
Derek Halpern is now on his fourth amazingly successful blog, Social Triggers. He built it to 125,000 subscribers in 2 years, so um, yeah, he knows what he’s talking about!
Here’s what I learned from Derek about greatly increasing your blog subscribers:
A successful blog is about three things
Traffic, conversion, and referrals. That’s it. You want to drive highly-targeted traffic to your blog. You want to convert that traffic into fiercely loyal subscribers. You want to get your readers to promote and refer you to friends.
You need to craft and repeat your brand’s message
As Derek says in the ebook, you need to shape what people think about you, and it has to be insanely specific. What do you want to be known for? What is unique and memorable about you? Repeat this message over and over again. And then repeat it some more, until that’s what people associate you with, and it will be easy for them to refer business your way.
That message needs to be short
Ask:
- What do your ideal subscribers want?
- What’s the main problem they have that you believe you can solve?
- What’s your method for solving that problem?
- What do you love to talk about more than anything else?
Combine that into your message. THAT’s what you repeat. Again, repeating that message makes it easy for people to refer you business.
Target the people who can benefit from your content
Not sure who they are? Collect information from the people who are subscribers. Here’s how:
- When people subscribe, ask them, “What are you struggling with?”
- Send out short surveys often.
- Encourage people to reply to your email marketing messages and share their stories with you.
Now start reaching out to them via guest blog posts, social ads, attending industry events, etc. As you gather their information, you’ll know what they care about. This will help you create content people want and convert them into loyal subscribers.
Get press to get traffic
First, you have to build relationships with bloggers and journalists by sending them helpful information. Soon, they’ll start turning to you for help with their stories.
How do you find these bloggers and journalists? They’ve covered a competitor or they’re written about the same topic you’re an expert in.
Second, you have to create a solid piece of content that’s worth attention. Then you persuade people to use that content by pointing out how it will make their life easier (bloggers and journalists are underpaid and starved for time). If you can work social, economic, or moral incentives into your pitch, you get bonus points.
As you start getting press, you’ll start seeing more and more traffic come your way.
And that’s it! Now you know how to drive traffic, conversion, and referrals! How will you use this to grow your subscribers – or client base?
