As we proceed into day 24 of our series “Building A More Successful Blog in 30 Days“, we need to start building a list of people we can easily send information to.  A group of people that are easy to get in touch with.  A group of people that will become your market.

Your Newsletter Subscriber List

Building a newsletter subscriber list is important to building a more successful blog because it gives you something to hold onto.  It gives you real email addresses of real people reading your blog.  People who enjoy reading your blog and have done so on more than one occasion.

This group of people are the best to market to because they’ve already got the motivation to visit your blog and the desire to listen to everything you have to say and do anything you suggest.

It’s also proof to advertisers that they should pay a large sum of money to advertise on your blog.  It’s proof that you have a large audience that will see their ads.

So how do we build this newsletter subscriber list?

I’ll cover 4 simple ways to get you started, but there are literally hundreds more.  Simply put, whatever creative method you can think of, is a great way to build that list.

Create A Free Product

Creating a free product doesn’t have to be rocket science.  You don’t have to invent the next best thing.  You simply have to provide your readers with something they are interested in.  Even if it’s simply information.

Most bloggers write their own ebooks and give them away for free to newsletter subscribers.  While others offer ebooks written by someone else.

You don’t have to be the original creator of the product, but at least make sure you have the original creator’s permission to use their work.

Host A Contest or Giveaway

Another way to build your newsletter subscriber list is to host a contest or giveaway.

Let the entry into that particular contest/giveaway be by subscribing to your newsletter.

You could also tell your readers that the winner of a certain contest or giveaway will be announced in your newsletter and they can only find out who it is if they subscribe.

Yes, the entrant can unsubscribe to your newsletter once the contest is over, but by then you’ve already got their email address, and could still contact them easily should you need to.

However, if they unsubscribe, I do not recommend sending them a newsletter anyway.  Instead, reserve the email for only very important information and on a very limited basis.

Never, ever, under any circumstance, sell your list to a third party. You will lose credibility as a blogger and possibly a large majority of your readers.

Create A Newsletter Only Post

Just because you have a blog, it doesn’t mean every post you ever write should only be in your blog.

You can write posts and submit them to article directories, or to other bloggers as guest posts.  You can also write posts that are for your newsletter only.

Many of your readers will feel like they need to subscribe so they don’t miss out on any new and interesting knowledge you have to share.

Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker did an awesome job of this with a post he wrote on marketing locally.  His newsletter subscriber list skyrocketed because of his creative method of list building.

Give A Little Teaser

If you know you’re planning a post series a week or two in advance.  Then let your readers know.  Give them a heads up and offer them the opportunity to subscribe to be notified when it begins.

Darren Rowse of Problogger did this for the series he’s doing now, and it has really helped to build his subscriber list.

You can also give this specific list of people a chance to get your post series via email each day so they don’t have to visit your blog to read the new articles as they’re posted.

Think Creatively

No matter what method you choose to use, even if it’s creating your own.  The newsletter subscriber list you generate will be a major step in making your blog even more successful.

What creative ways do you use to build your newsletter subscriber list?