Steal This Method To Get 10 Subscribers A Day To Your Author's Blog
Jane Friedman, in her book The Business Of Being A Writer, said that email lists are the single most important tool a writer could have at their disposal.
Here’s the method I’ve used to get between 5 and 10 a day that I’d love for you to steal!
When I wrote my first novel, I was consuming and compiling a long list of editing tips, from anywhere that I could find them, that would make my novel “print ready.” This document turned into a 50+ monster list of tips, which I turned into a checklist.
At the same time, my full time job happens to be at a digital marketing agency which specializes in lead generation and Facebook ads.
I’m ashamed to admit this, but it took me nearly four years to put the knowledge I learned there towards my side hustle as a novelist.
But once I did, I created “The Self-Publisher’s 56-Point Editing Checklist” designed to capture leads on my website.
I created blogs on my website, sent traffic to my blogs, then retargeted that traffic towards the checklist. At first, I was getting a modest 10-20 leads a month, for about ~$90 a month, which worked out to about $4.5 - $9 a lead.
The Method
Being the optimistic optimizer that I am, I thought I could beat that. I created a “Lead Form” on Facebook, so that people could sign up directly on Facebook, without having to visit my site.
To do this, you go to your Facebook page, near settings there’s “Publishing Tools” and you can create a lead form there. This will be a form that’s on Facebook, which FB users can sign up to. You then connect it to an email provider like Mailchimp to send the requested document (the checklist, in my case).
Once I had that set up, I created a “Lead Generation” objective ad in Facebook’s business manager. I tested out 4 different audiences, putting $2.50 / day into each audience. I waited a week to get my test results, which had a clear winner.
With the preferred audience, which was generating a lead for around $1.25, I then tested four different types of ad copy. The winning copy was getting a lead at about 80c a lead, which is where it’s sitting right now (it hovers between 70c and $1 depending on the month).
Depending on how much money you want to spend, and what you think the value of a lead is worth to you, you’ll be able to generate a reciprocal amount of subscribers.
That first month, I was pretty excited to be getting subscribers at 80c a pop, so I ended up spending nearly $300 that month, for about 375 subscribers, or about 12.5 a day. Since then, I’ve slowed down to a more sustainable $150 / month, or about 6 a day.
Here’s the current month to date:
As an author with a growing community, email subscribers are one of the most important channels to grow. When you’re about to release a new book and you’re hungry for beta reviewers or you’re looking to hand out Advanced Review Copies (ARCs), look no further than your email list.
If you’re having a flash sale, email list. If you’re doing a book signing in a city you don’t know, email list. If you’ve just put out a new blog, or just got a short story published, you guessed it, email list.
If you’re going to spend your money on any type of advertising, and you’re trying to build a following, I’d suggest list building as a great way to start. A lot of channels have come and gone, but email lists have (so far) remained a profitable and reliable channel to reach your following.
>> Download The Self-Publisher’s 56 Point Editing Checklist: How To Go Straight To Print. <<
