You have probably noticed that many bloggers are adding opt-in forms throughout their entire blog to help increase subscribers. Gaining new RSS and E-mail subscribers to your blog allows you to not have to depend on Google or other traffic sources to get your readers back to your site. Gaining your readers email address allows you to reach out to them whenever you have something newsworthy to say, want to promote other products you recommend and to gain feedback.
Where you add your opt-it forms can make a huge difference on the number of subscribers you get from them. Let’s go through the most popular areas of your blog that by adding an opt-in form, you can start to maximize your blog subscribers.
Sidebar Opt-In
One of the most popular placements for an opt-in form is adding it to your blog’s sidebar. Usually this is placed at the top of the sidebar, so it receives maximum visibility and increases the opt-in conversion rate.
Lightbox Opt-In
There has been much debate over the use of a lightbox popup for lead generation because of how obtrusive it can be for the reader. However the fact of the matter is it works! There is a reason that all of the top Internet Marketers are using it on their blog.
Personally I use it on this blog and I have to admit that it has helped increase my email subscriber count greatly. There are many lightbox popup plugins and scripts out there, but I would recommend using PopUp Domination. It is the easiest plugin to use and offers a number of well-designed, high converting opt-in forms.
After Blog Post Opt-In
Placing an opt-in form at the end of every blog post is becoming more and more popular. That’s because after a visitor is done reading your blog post, what do they do next? Most of the time they will leave your blog to do something else. Well, by having an opt-in form with a compelling offer can give the reader something else to do once they finish reading your post.
RSS Footer Graphic
This is one spot where LOTS of blogger miss the boat. You spend all of your time and effort to get visitors to become RSS subscribers, then once they do, they never come back to your site to read your content. So how do you get them coming back even after they start reading your content via RSS?
Add a call to action graphic at the end of your RSS feed that displays an image that tells them to click the graphic to do something on your blog. In order to add a promote graphic at the end of your RSS feed, you will need RSS Footer by Yoast. This WordPress plugin allows you to add a snippet of HTML code that will then be placed at the end of each post in your RSS feed.
Use Best Practices
Regardless of where you place your opt-in form, if you are not using lead generation best practices, it will hurt your conversion rates. Make sure you follow these best practice tips.
- Request Minimal Contact Information
- Have a Compelling Offer (Free Content)
- Use a Nicely Designed Opt-in Graphic
- Test Different Submit Buttons
- Have Your Subscribers Double Opt-In
Tell me what area on your blog do you place your opt-in form? How has it impacted your subscriber counts?
