I’m all about helping side hustlers create strategies that maximize their time and help them scale their income – which is why I teach people how to monetize their expertise online AND how to put together all the tech to make it happen.
What it really boils down to is building a website, building an audience online, and turning your expertise into income.
And when it comes to building an audience, a common metric that people focus on when measuring their success is pageviews – which literally means how many pages of your website have been viewed in any given time period.
There’s no end to the number of articles on Pinterest all about different tactics to “explode your blog traffic” and increase your pageviews.
But what’s more important than your number of pageviews is what you’re doing to capture that traffic so that you can continue the conversation, create engagement and build the know, like and trust factor needed to actually make money from your blog.
And that’s where your email list comes in.
I believe that the ultimate purpose of every single piece of content you create for your blog should be to build your email list. All roads should lead to your email list.
Why should you focus on building an email list?
- Your email list is the true value behind your blog.
- Your email list is algorithm-proof.
- Your email list is predictable revenue.
Your email list is where the value of your blog really lies.
It’s a list of people who have raised their hand and said, “YES, I love this content and I want to get more of it. I not only want to scroll by you in all of my social media feeds, I also want to see you in my inbox.”
I compare social media followers to going out on a group date. You like the person enough to hang out with them in a group where they aren’t getting your undivided attention. But after you hang out long enough and get to know each other better, you invite them to go out – just the two of you. And I compare that to inviting someone onto your email list. It’s just the two of you. It’s more intimate, and you’re building a deeper level of trust.
This is a list of people who are going to read your latest blog post, comment and share it on social media. They are going to be the first person to buy that product you’re recommending, or sign up for the course you’re offering. It’s your tribe, your community.
If all of your blog content went away tomorrow, you still have a relationship with the people on your email list.
Your email list is algorithm-proof.
Oh, the dreaded algorithm changes. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, Google, Facebook, and Pinterest announce sweeping changes and your traffic takes a nosedive.
That’s never going to happen to your email list. Sure, there are spam filters and open rates to contend with, but you are in control of improving your open rates through consistency, writing better copy and delivering value. You’re not in control of who sees your social media content even if you have the best copy in the world.
Your email list is predictable revenue.
If your product (or the affiliate product you’re promoting) costs under $50, you can expect between 3% and 7% of your email list to buy.
Between $50 – $200, you can expect between 2% – 3% to buy, and over $200, you can expect between 0.5% and 2% to buy.
That means you can predict exactly how much money (or affiliate commissions) you’ll make when you send out an email sharing a product or service, and you also can figure out exactly how many email list subscribers you need to make how much money you want to make from your blog.
Now that I’ve convinced you that building your email list is crucial to monetizing your blog, in Episode 142 you’ll learn a simple yet powerful email list building strategy you can implement on your blog.
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.
