Hey, BFFs!!!
So in my Free 5-Day Website Challenge, I kinda feel like I did a bait and switch on you… I lure you into the Free 5-Day Website Challenge with the promise of helping you to build a website. And I totally deliver on that promise… but…
At about Day 3 of the Challenge, I hop up onto my soapbox and tell you that you have to build an email list. Like, I don’t care what your business is, you have to build an email list.
The whole entire point of me even teaching you how to build your website is to give you a mechanism for building your email list. Pretty sneaky, right???
Building the actual WordPress site is the easy part.
Getting the design, look, and feel the way you want, a little bit harder, but still totally doable. Writing your content and adding it to the site – that takes time and a clear vision of who you are and who you serve.
It’s getting people to your site once it’s done that’s the hard part.
And do you know what most people do? They focus on SEO (search engine optimization). They ask things like:
- How do I get on the first page of Google?
- I heard that Google will penalized me if (insert reason here). I need to make sure I don’t do that.
- I heard that Google likes it when you do (insert SEO thing here). I need to make sure I do that all over my whole entire site.
And then they spend all of their time in a dark room with their laptop, tweaking every single word and image on every single page and post on their site, testing page speeds and file sizes and meta tags and alt tags and… I could go on and on and on.
But do you know what they aren’t doing? Intentionally driving targeted traffic to their website. Connecting with real people. Interacting. Providing value. Putting something OUT so that something can come back IN.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Is SEO important? Yes!! Absolutely it’s important. But when you’re a solopreneur who’s just starting out, it’s not important yet. It’s not the best way for you to be spending your time.
The amount of time and effort you would put into SEO when you’re a brand new online entrepreneur would far outweigh the benefits (in most cases.)
So what should you do instead?
The 30 Day List Building Challenge!!!!!
Don’t let the name fool you. Just like the Free 5 Day Website Challenge, it’s kind of a bait and switch…
The 30 Day List Building Challenge is going to show you exactly what to do, step by step over 30 days to drive traffic to your website and how to convert that traffic into subscribers.
And that’s the secret sauce to building an online business that you love.
Because once you get people on your email list, you can start to create a relationship with them through providing more valuable, actionable, relevant content and eventually offer them something for sale.
And you can track how people interact with your email. Did they open? Did they click? What did they click on? They must be interested in X, I’ll send them more content related to X. Maybe I need to create a product or service around X because so many people are interested in the topic. Or maybe I thought people would be interested and no one was, so I know that I probably shouldn’t waste my time creating a product around X.
Without an email list, you’re really just taking stabs in the dark.
The 30 Day List Building Challenge is entirely responsible for the growth of my business. I didn’t know this whole online entrepreneur thing existed. I didn’t know there were people in Facebook groups supporting each other as they build their businesses.
I built the Free 5 Day Website Challenge and had no idea what to do next to actually get it in front of people. So I did what I always do: GTS (Google That Shit). I literally typed in “how to build an email list” and voila, the Free 30 Day List Building Challenge appeared. Oh, the irony…
I signed up, followed the steps on Day 1, paid for instant access to all 30 days because I just couldn’t wait that long to get started, and after following the steps laid out for me, I instantly went from 0 subscribers and zero money to 1 subscriber and $115 in affiliate commissions.
That’s not a big, sexy number, is it? But it starts with ONE.
You add subscribers to your list one at a time. You add customers to your business one at a time. And that one subscriber confirmed for me that I created something that people need.
So I continued following the steps laid out in the 30 Day List Building Challenge, and now, 3 years later I have just over 4,100 highly targeted prospects and customers on my email list. I had my first $5,000 month, then my first $10,000 month and a few more $10,000 months after that. You can read all about that here.
So here’s why I’m telling you all of this: From June 1st to June 30th, the 30 Day List Building Challenge will be happening LIVE.
I’m going to do the Challenge, and the creator of the Challenge, Nathalie Lussier, will be list-building right along with us.
Nathalie will be sharing tons of $0 budget list-building tips (so we don’t have to waste our budget on Facebook Ads to grow our audiences!) plus a special 30-day printable schedule that we can follow day-by-day to reach our list building goals.
She’ll talk about all the different ways to build our lists, so we can pick which one to focus on in June – and how to design an amazing opt-in giveaway that gets shared like crazy!!
And I’ll be sharing with you my most effective list building strategies and trying out new ones too!
Here’s how to join us:
- Sign up for the 30 Day List Building Challenge here
- Mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 24 at 7PM PST (9PM Central, 10PM Eastern) for a LIVE interview on Facebook with Nathalie Lussier on Vicki Fitch Live to kick things off. Click here to RSVP to the event on Facebook and Like Vicki’s Facebook page here to be notified when she goes live!
- Commit to taking one small action step to grow your list each day starting June 1st.
Then at the end of the 30 days, you’ll look back and see that you’ve grown your email list with a ton of new highly targeted and super engaged fans and potential customers.
And THAT is how you build an online business you love.
Can’t wait to see you in the 30 Day List Building Challenge!!!
P.S. The 30 Day List Building Challenge works no matter what market or niche your business is in… and most of the strategies involved are totally free. What have you got to lose? Sign up here.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
