What could be better than having a list of email addresses for people who love your blog or readers that could be potential customers – a list of people who actually want to hear from you? Not much, right?

That’s why you should be gathering emails from people who visit your website.

Why It Works

Building your email list is important for your business because the more people who are truly interested in your services that you can reach with just one email, the more site visits, downloads and money you can potentially make.

Collecting email addresses and sending out an email newsletter has some wonderful benefits. For instance, each time you send an email to your list that contains links to your website, you’re boosting the potential for more site visits. If something in your newsletter looks interesting to the reader, they’ll click over to your site and there’s a good chance they’ll click through to other posts or pages, which boosts the chances that they’ll buy from you.

Email lists and newsletters also help your business because if you’re consistently showing up in someone’s inbox (in a good way, not a spammy way), you’ll stay top of mind to them. Then when they need a service or product you provide, they’ll instantly remember your helpful or fun emails.

How to Do It

Growing your list organically can take time but there are so many ways to gather email address from your readers. The most important thing to remember is to make is as easy as possible for them to sign up.

A few common places to add an email sign up form is in the sidebar or footer on every page of your site or directly underneath your header. These places work because they’re out of the way enough to not be irritating, but they’re prominent enough that people will notice them.

The best way to get people to sign up for your list is to offer an incentive, or opt-in offer, for sharing their email. Things like mini ebooks, discounts on services or access to an exclusive list work really well because the person signing up is getting something in return. Plus, people love free stuff!

Giveaways are also a great way to capture email addresses. Hosting a simple contest on your blog where all the reader has to do is enter their email address is a great way to grow your list quickly. Or if you’re hosting a live event, you can capture email addresses from attendees by having them sign up to win a prize.

Want some ideas on creating an opt-in offer that people want? Here are three simple tactics:

• Mini Ebook: Offer a downloadable ebook that will help your readers solve a problem. Give them design tips, create some fun worksheets or compile interviews you have done into a book.
• Discount on Services: Offer a certain percentage off your services or products, throw in a service for free or offer free shipping from your shop. People love discounts.
• Access to a ‘Faves’ List: Do you have a group of people you love to work with? Or a list of your favorite service providers? Take those lists and create a document with the names and contact information for each. This helps both you and the people on your favorites list and your readers will love to get an inside look at who you love to work with.

Do you need even more advice and ideas for opt-ins? Check out this post: How I Grew My Email List by 600% by Using Content Upgrades

About the author: Mariah is a Graphic Designer/Wedding Stylist who has a passion for helping creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into profit.

Starting a blog always sounds like so much fun, right? And in the beginning, you’re so excited about posting, sharing and getting comments. But after the first few posts, you start to get a little lax – you either forget to post or feel like you’ve got nothing to write about. A month later, you’re not posting at all and you give up hope.

Sound familiar? Never again, my friend!

The key to starting a successful blog and keeping up with it is to 1) LOVE what you’re writing about and 2) have a plan of action.

Last month I shared with you why having a blog for your business is so important, and today I’m sharing with you how to come up with a ton of blog topics and a plan for how to actually get them written and scheduled – complete with a worksheet to get you started!

Coming Up with Content

First thing’s first – to blog consistently without the burnout, it’s important to love what you’re talking about. If you’re blogging for your business (and you’ve got a business that you love), you’ve already got a head start because you’ve already got lots of things to talk about.

To come up with content, start making a list on the worksheet of things you could write about when it comes to your business. If you use Pinterest often, take a look at the types of things you’re pinning and use those for inspiration. For example, if you’ve got an entire board dedicated to fonts and type, write that down as a topic you could write about. If you’re in love with layouts and have a ton of gorgeous spreads pinned, write that down too.

Another way to come up with topics is to think about the questions you get asked about your business. What questions are your customers asking? What do they need to know about your business? Turning those into blog posts creates awesome and sharable content for your readers, and it helps them get to know your business better.

Try to come up with a list of 15 to 20 topics to start with. Some of the topics may even turn into weekly features, like a weekly post about fun new fonts or a series on layout design – things like that make your topics go much further.

Actually Getting Posts Scheduled and Written

Now that you’ve got a list of topics, it’s time to get them written down on the calendar. Having a plan for your posts is so important because if you open your calendar and see what you’re going to be writing about, it’s so much easier to sit down and write than if you were going into it blindly.

It also helps with the roller coaster we go through with blogging – some days we want to post 46 times and other times we could go weeks without having anything to post.

Take out a blank calendar or open up your Google calendar. Start off by deciding how frequently you’d like to post. If you want to take your time and come up with well-researched posts or share DIYs that take some time, start with posting once every week or every few weeks. If you’re more interested in sharing shorter posts, you can choose to post a few times each week. You can always change how often you post, but this will serve as a basis for getting them scheduled on your calendar.

Start writing your post topics down on your calendar according to how often you’ve decided to post. Think about different series or columns you could do, like a Music Monday or Font Friday. You can start with just jotting down the idea or an idea for a title; don’t worry about writing the post until later.

Schedule out all of your ideas and depending on how often you’re going to post, you’ll have enough content for a few months. Repeat this process each time your editorial calendar is looking a little bare, and keep a small notebook in your bag to jot post ideas in when they come to you.

When you’re in the mood to do some writing, take out your calendar and write a few posts. If you use WordPress as your blogging platform, you can schedule them to go live on a certain day at a certain time – this comes in handy on the days you feel like blogging but don’t want to post so much in one day.  It’s also helpful when the holidays or vacation time rolls around – you can easily get your posts ready before your time off and schedule them to go live while you’re gone.

When you’re blogging about your passion, it’s much easier to stay consistent with fresh blog content and grow your blog – you’ll beat the burnout and enjoy writing and sharing what you love.

About the author: Mariah is a Graphic Designer/Wedding Stylist who has a passion for helping creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into profit.