My Current Email List Building System - Free Minimalist Version
Hello everyone, and Happy Birthday to me! :-) 🌟 😊
A few days ago, a fellow WAer asked me about my email list building system. I finally found the time to respond today and thought that more of you may be interested in the info I shared.
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This is NOT a blog post about best practice!! This is about MY OWN practice.
Why Could You Be Interested in That?
Well, this is especially for those of us who have already allocated their budget for other things and need to use free tools for now...
If you have the budget to pay for a better system, you may still be curious (and have a good laugh!) to see how the heck I am pulling this off on a 0 budget (I'm an experienced minimalist!!! Hahaha!!)
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Here Are the Questions I Received
See if some of these correspond to what you would like to know:
"Hi Nathalie, [...]
I am at the stage of looking to be able to capture data to be able create a mailing list. I have spent the last few hours looking at the blogs and training here at WA but there are of course lots of different opinions and to be honest I still don’t fully understand the process.
My theme does have a built-in widget that supports mail chimp and see on one of the posts that you went this route. Have you carried on with them and was the process easy to set up? I guess I want the sign up form as a widget but also the option for someone to sign up before they leave the site, simlar to your site.
I'm also still using my personal email as i am having a problem setting up my domain specific email in my old version of mac mail (i need to upgraed my mac!). Anway any tips you can give me would as always be gratefully received. I wil probably pop a general question on the patform as well but want glean as much information a I can first without confusing myself!!"
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Here is My Current Free Minimalist System
Email:
I am currently using the one from my website from the WA affiliate platform. It's far from perfect (really really far!) but I could not get the energy to find something else. Any suggestions from more experienced WAers? I would happily use something else.
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Mailpoet:
I use the free plug-in to give my readers the possibility to sign up for my newsletter when they leave a comment. I really like that and I don't know how else to do it if I stop using mailpoet. Any suggestions? I am ready to ditch Mailpoet as soon as I can find an alternative to do that.
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Sumo:
I use the free plug-in and I LOVE it! It is so easy to use. I use it to make my sign up forms (they let you redirect to another url when people sign up, if that's what you want, and I do want that for my affiliate offers/links). I also use it for the pop ups (you can have various versions depending on your offers). Everything is super well explained when you set everything up. You just need to open your eyes and make sure you see everything and follow the instructions (and your intuition!). And yes, you can put your sign up form as a widget.
Sumo has an auto-responder part and they have email services integration with whatever it is you are using to send your emails/newsletter (Mailchimp in my case, see below).
Another thing I REALLY like about Sumo is that you can link it to your Google Analytics too. That's where I prefer to see my stats for now. I have not made friends with the Google Analytics site yet...
Sumo is definitely a keeper for me and I am planning to upgrade when I get the budget for it.
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Mailchimp:
I use it to compile my email list and to write my emails and newsletters. It's not as user-friendly as Sumo (Sumo is just like a big candy bar you just need to unwrap and enjoy!!). It does give you a lot of info and statistics... but I think all auto-responders do that.
I heard that GetResponse is better but they have no free version, so there again I am waiting for some of my budget to free up for the move...
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Anything else you would like to know?
I would love to do some short bite-size video tutorials about all this but I don't know how to do that yet... any suggestions?
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My Results?
Well, as of this morning, and after just a few weeks of using this system combined with great affiliate offers I used to motivate people to sign up, I have captured 48 emails (3 of which were mine, to test the system). After 6 unsubscribed, my email list of active subscribers is currently at a whooping 39!
Ok, I know, it's far (really really far! but I'm an experienced traveller!) from the 200,000 I need to qualify for my dream affiliate program, but hey! it's a start! and 39x better than 1! ;-)
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Well, that's it for now. I hope this was helpful for some and fun for others! ;-) I love you all!
Have a beautiful weekend!
To our Success,
Nathalie
Recent Comments
108
Thank you so much for sharing this information, Nathalie! Congratulations on both your above results and "Happy Birthday!"
Wishing you Many Happy Returns in both instances, respectively!
Paul
Thank you so much, Paul! :-) That's very kind of you!
Have a beautiful weekend,
Nathalie
Firstly happy birthday for today :)
As regards to email systems, there are so many now that have popped up over the last few years, you right to do some due diligence this will probably be your biggest business expense long term.
If you find a good one you will tend to stay with them for years to come. Although most allow you to extract your lists and move to another provider.
I personally have been using AWeber for about 8 years and found them really good.
Thanks for sharing your experience and enjoy your day :)
Martin
My pleasure, Dalibor! :-)
Hahaha! Add 20 years to that! Today is my 46th birthday. And loving it! :-)
Have a great weekend!
Nathalie
Great post Nathalie. What type of computer do you have? If it has any video interface like to run Skype etc then you should be able to make videos straight through the computer for free to upload. Otherwise I’d just use your phone. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just need to get into a rhythm of recording yourself for tutorials. And any way you start is better than no way. With GetResponse they have a free 1 month trial period that you can use to set everything up and familiarise yourself with the platform. If you like I can send you my affiliate link and there’s also a discount in it.
I’m interested in this Sumo program your talking about. Is it a free plugin? And what’s it for specifically? Making capture pages or optins?
If you have it send me your affiliate link so you can get the commission on my sign up.
Hey Adam,
Great name, by the way! My son is also named Adam. :-)
Yes, Sumo is a free WP plugin. I think you can do capture pages in the paid version. I don't think I'm an affiliate for it yet but let me fix that and get back to you with a link in a PM, as you so kindly asked. :-)
Yes, please do send me your affiliate link for GetResponse in a PM so I can use it when I have the budget for it. Thank you!
Have a great day!
Nathalie
I suggested the other day on a post about swapping links with each other to earn each other money, Just like we post for site comments we could post for affiliate program links we are going to join anyway. We could also do it for products we are going to buy online.
My post was deleted by Kyle for self-promoting.
I am waiting to join an affiliate program that fits with my niche, but first, I have asked a WA friend to join because if they refer me, they get 10% of all my sales. So I am just waiting for them to get approved first.
I think your idea of swapping links is great and shows entrepreneurial thoughts.
How many of you have gone down the Affiliate Bootcamp route, set up your website and done posts on different affiliate programs to join to try to earn commissions...but here we are within WA with the perfect audience of people looking to join affiliate programs,
I personally think we are missing a trick here.....
But its not allowed....? I could understand if it was to do with promoting other affiliate platforms to compete with Wa but its not.
It's about WA members helping each other out.
Thank you for this explanation, Gary. :-)
This is a good topic of discussion indeed. I shall come back to it to think more about it.
Have a beautiful Sunday,
Nathalie
See more comments
So many thoughts and ideas floating out there. Its a smorgasbord of tools, the hardest part is deciding which to use..
Just enjoy you birthday for now. Happy birthday.
Thanks a lot, Judy!! I am already enjoying my birthday! :-) And I'm going out in a few minutes with my beloved husband to make the most of the beautiful sunshine we have here today in Belgium. :-)
Have a beautiful weekend!
Nathalie