Increase Profts with Extra Incentives

Over the past couple of years “blogging for money” has really taken off, but not everybody really knows how to be successful at it. For the most part, unless your site is bringing in millions of views a month, then you probably won’t be able to live off that income alone.

Just like any market, you need diversify. This does not necessarily mean creating multiple niche sites and running them, but, rather, offer more to your readers than just a blog.

More can come to mean anything, but one of the easiest and best solutions is a newsletter. Think of it like premium content for subscribers. While you may not be requiring people to pay for the subscription, at least you are grabbing their attention to hopefully profit off them in the long run.

But how do I get people to sign up for a newsletter?

1. Content – What they see is what they get. If you are not sharing something interesting, then there is a good chance the reader won’t bother subscribing.

2. Professionalism – Although email addresses can be created for free in a matter of seconds, many people are very protective when it comes to sharing theirs. After all, who wants spam? If your site does not look organized or there is no clarification who is behind it, then how can a reader really trust you with their email address? Keeping a tidy site layout and solid about page should keep your professionalism high enough.

3. Offer new subscribers something – Out of the years I have been doing this, I don’t think I have ever seen anybody offering nothing for your sign up. Most of the time people are willing to share some free eBook or other type of download with new subscribers. Lets face it. We all love free stuff.

4. Contest - Pretty self explanatory. Offer a prize, but make the rule to enter that you must subscribe to the newsletter. If you are producing a solid email then they probably won’t unsubscribe after the contest is over.

Once you are able to build a decent list, then be sure to actively drive out quality newsletters. Throw in some special tricks or secrets that only subscribers can see. Then talk about it on your site. For example, on my financial site I could send out an email with my top stocks for March, then create a post on the site saying what I just did, but do not tell them what the stocks were. Instead entice them to sign up to find out more and keep in the loop.

If you have a good email software, then you should be able to create autoresponders especially for the people that sign up off that page. There are many options out there, but the one I use is Aweber. Basically gives you customization freedom. You can try it no risk for 30 days.

If you want, eventually you can sprinkle some ads and/or affiliate links in there, but remember how easy it is for people to unsubscribe. If they think you are just sending them spam, then they will indeed drop you.

Create an extra service that makes readers come back for more

There are really several other ways to create extra incentives, such as: creating a membership program, produce an online workshop, draft up weekly niche market reports. You can learn it a little bit more about different incentives and about a program I am in the process of creating by signing up to Online Business Mastermind newsletter (Use the subscription box in the right sidebar).

Remember there is no right way to make money online. Be creative yet resourceful, and remember to think of each reader has a potential customer.