How I made $34,000 in one month from my email list.

Email Lists, why you need them.

Why is an email list vital to your business?

You have heard it all before, haven’t you? You must get an email list going for your online business/blog. But why?

Before I answer that question, let me ask you some:

• Do you work hard on your blog?
• Do you spend lots of hours either working on it or thinking about it?
• Do you want it to be successful?
• Do you take pride in what you share with the online world through your work and know it will add value?

Before I tell you my story of how I made $34,000 in one month from my email list,

Just imagine for a moment, you are a couple of years into your online business, it’s going well and you are finding your blog is coming up on page one of Google these days. You are also finding that you are getting a lot of exposure (which equals income) on Facebook and Pinterest, money is flowing in the right direction,  and you are on top of the world.

Then one day you wake up, check your stats, and all of a sudden you aren’t on page one of Google anymore.

No one is seeing those amazing craft tips, or budgeting ideas you are sharing anymore. (let’s face it, how many of us ever search page 2 or 3 of Google anymore?)

The next day, Facebook changes its algorithm and you are only getting your posts shown to 1% of that audience you spent so long developing, nurturing, and befriending.

WHAT NOW!!!

Thank goodness you have your email list. You have been cultivating this list for years, you have a really responsive audience and they love hearing from you.

Hang on, what’s that you say? You never started an email list?

Oh Well, it is never too late…..and here are 34,000 good reasons to build your list, no matter how long you’ve had a blog.

[Case Study] Yes it’s my own but, how did I manage to make $34,000 in one month?

I had been building an email list since day one. Now I was working in a very small niche, teaching people how to be Raw and Vegan Chefs. There’s not an enormous demand for that product in Australia. But we were doing well. We had developed some great products that made a difference in people’s lives. Products that I was very proud of and loved sharing with my audience. A recipe book that was featured on national TV, a Beginner’s Course that gave people a great start with their health, and our Chefs training program. We also drop-shipped a few products and had a few affiliate links.

But January in Australia is a quiet time, we take extended holidays, being our summer, and it’s not a great time for business unless you are in the Summer Vacation business. So my hubby suggested we offer a New Year Special and see if anyone would be interested. Now we didn’t have a huge list, in fact, I think we only emailed about 4000 people. (that is definitely a small list!) We thought maybe $2000 in sales would be great! We were thrilled when we got to the end of the two-week sale and had made $34,000 worth of sales. Being a digital product, there were very few expenses so we actually made $33, 900 in profit. All because we had a responsive, loyal email list that we could contact about a genuine offer!

We actually only sent out 2 emails and set a cutoff date, which created a deadline for people to make up their minds and this made a huge difference. But don’t forget we were in regular contact with our email list so they knew us and we had a great open rate on our emails.

**I will be sharing in another post the importance of having your own products and how to develop them, but for now, just keep in mind the value of your list and what it can mean to you.

So what are the real benefits of a list?

With an email list, you aren’t at the mercy of google algorithms, or Facebook whims. You aren’t that poor blogger we were talking about….You are the boss. You get to talk to your audience any time you want because no-one can take that list away from you.

I know business operators that can tell you how many people will respond to their latest email and, almost to the cent, how much they will make each time they send out an email. Now isn’t that a good stat to have!

So if you don’t have an email list how do you go about creating one?

Firstly, you need to give your visitor a reason to give you their email address. We all get far too many emails these days so we get really protective of our privacy. Why should they choose to let you into their private life? What do you have to offer that they want?

Consider what they are looking for and why they came to your site to start with. What is something unique that you can offer them as a free gift in exchange for their email address?

Perhaps it’s something you’ve learned that has made a huge difference in your business or life. My gift to my visitors is a list of 75 facebook groups that will accelerate their business rapidly. When I first discovered the power of these Facebook groups, I couldn’t stop telling everyone I knew about them. That’s when I realized what an amazing gift it is for my readers.

Make sure what you offer really is of value, no-one wants to feel conned. Have you ever signed up for something only to find out it was just rubbish designed to get your valuable email details? Make sure that isn’t you. (I know it won’t be because you actually care about your audience)

So what can you offer as a free gift? Take a while and work out what can you give that will make a difference. Is it an old family recipe that will taste amazing, save money, and get the kids to eat it? Maybe, it’s budgeting tips that have saved you hundreds of dollars each year. Maybe it’s…. you fill in the blanks with your amazing gift to your readers.

When is the best time to start building your email list?

NOW!

Don’t delay, every day there are people visiting your site and wanting to see what you have to offer.  The best time to start building your list is day one of your blog. But if not, just do it right now. Stop what else you are doing and get your gift set up, your email service in place and build that email list.

Ok so let’s get started:

It’s pretty simple these days to create an email list and there are so many choices of providers. I use AWeber and I know other people that use Convertkit. I love AWeber, they are easy to use and I’ve found them to be flexible and the support is brilliant. But they’re not the cheapest so if you want to get started for free, MailChimp is probably the best place to start.

For the first 2000 names, you can have a free service which is a pretty good place to start.

This tutorial will show you how to set up your MailChimp account

So what are you waiting for?

If you get your email list going and make sure you keep in regular touch with your supporters you will really start to see the benefits of having a list. I would never start a business, (online or bricks and mortar) without creating my email list.

I can remember sitting in a conference once and listening to a speaker saying “the money is in the list” and although I found that attitude a little vulgar (yes I am British!) I really got the message. What I took the speaker to mean was take control of your business and who hears your voice. This, in turn, means you can start to take control of your income!

I’d love to hear if you have any experiences, (good or not so good) of building an email list, so feel free to comment below and have fun getting to know your customers and audience through your email list!

FYI, this article contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through my links, I’ll receive a commission at no expense to you.