Thought I’d share a newsletter I recently sent out to our loyal subscribers….
First of all, Happy New Year to you and your family, and may you find 2011 a happy, safe and very prosperous New Year. I also hope you were successful in realizing all the goals you set out to achieve last year.
On a personal level, I was pleased to be able to reach many of my 2010 goals. While I did fall short on a few, great strides were made and I can live with ones missed. After all, I need something to do this year!
Biggest Win for 2010
I am most proud of our tremendous traffic growth and being able to share the many wonderful photography sites you’ve submitted to the thousands of viewers that now visit our site on a daily basis. Our continuing goal is to provide the biggest spotlight possible to showcase the works of each photographer we feature. Our success is your success and we’re glad to share the wealth.
Never had your photography featured on our site or it’s been quite a while? Feel free to suggest your site. We love to hear from you!
Best Tip for 2011
As you prepare for the new year and all the expectations that come with this time of year, I want to leave you with one request. Promise to make 2011 the year to start building an email list for your business. Whether you’re currently only blogging for fun or running a full-time business online, the ability to connect and re-connect with your visitors is priceless.
Let’s face it, many of your visitors come once and never return. Don’t worry, it happens to all of us. This does not mean there is something wrong with your site, only that the visitor lost track of you. It’s a big world out there and it’s totally understandable.
Building an email list is the most important step you will ever make because it allows you the ability to stay in touch with your viewers; perhaps to give occasional updates, maybe promote new products you’ve just released, and whatever else you have to share.
Building an email list protects you against the changing winds of search engines. Like many sites, your site probably derives the bulk of it’s traffic from a few select keywords. If so, this puts your site’s fate in the hands of search engines. The next change in an algorithm could mean an increase in your traffic or a dramatic fall in visitors. I view having an email list as added protection against any sudden change in keyword rankings.
Getting started is easy. The journey to begin creating your email list starts with the selection of a quality ‘email autoresponder’. This is a fancy term to describe the application which allows you to build forms for your readers to submit their email addresses, the ability to collect these addresses and customize emails to your loyal readers.
There are many free and professional email autoresponder solutions on the market today. However, after conducting your research you will find, like I did, that Aweber is the #1 choice for serious bloggers. I am a loyal Aweber user and absolutely love it. They offer a terrific introductory offer …$1 for the first 30 days….and no obligation is you’re not completely satisfied. In addition, the technical support they provide is second to none.
Why do I care? ILovePhotoblogs.com was started in March of 2008. During this time, I read the same advice I am now passing along to you…start building an email list. It wasn’t until May 2010 that I finally took the initiative to get started with Aweber myself and was able to build my list to over 1,000 subscribers! And trust me, my numbers are not extraordinary.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did and waste valuable time. Do yourself a big favor and check out Aweber today!
