One more way to gain more email subscribers (#)
What Would Seth Godin Do is a handy little WordPress plugin(also available for other CMSs like Drupal) that many blogs use to show an RSS feed link to get new visitors to subscribe. I have been using it for my blogs too. Blogs usually have a friendly greeting, and links to RSS and email subscriptions.
A signup form is the best way to snap up an interested reader - more so if your audience is not blog-savvy. Daniel had suggested adding an email subscription form after post content on single pages.
When showing email form to everyone causes problems…
Displaying an email form every time a visitor comes to your blog might be a good idea, but on closer inspections, you would see problems. One, the form would usually be placed after post (placing it before post would be obtrusive), and two, the form would be shown to even your loyal RSS subscribers who come by your blog.
Placing the form after post means that you loose readers with short attention span (typically from social media). Showing the subscription form to your regular readers is obviously redundant.
Add a subscription form to WWSGD plugin
Immediately after reading Daniel’s post, I realized that showing the subscription form only to new readers is better. Add an email subscription form to the WWSGD plugin, and set the number of times to show the message to 5 or lower (you don’t want to show it too often). Remember to tailor your message to your audience - using words that are easy to understand. If your blog is not technology-oriented, consider using the wordings I have on TechZilo (shown below) TechZilo.
A visually appealing message is key to getting subscribers, so it is important that your message isn’t an ugly duckling. I will probably write a short tutorial on styling the message and subscription form using CSS.
Have/will you placed an email subscription form in WWSGD plugin’s message on your blog? Leave your blog links in comments so that we can see them.
PS: I have not added email subscription form to the message shown to new visitors on this blog. This might seem like a good example of “Do as I say not as I do”. However, I chose not to use it deliberately - the audience of this blog is very blog savvy and almost all are bloggers themselves. Hence, a link to email subscription is enough.