There is no shortage of people that have taken the head-first dive into blogging with the dreams of hitting the jackpot and walking away from their 9-5 job.
Many of these bloggers, including yours truly as that was my mindset when I first started, write outstanding content and slowly but surely build up the volume of traffic that reaches their blog on a daily basis.
Yet the windfall of cash eludes them.
Why?
Well, all you need to do is take one look across the Interweb at some of the well-known blogs that are making money and you notice one significant difference…
The List.
That’s right – the money is in the list. You’ve likely heard or read that phrase numerous times as you cut your teeth on blogging. There are few bloggers making significant money that don’t have a list while there is a near endless number of bloggers making little money that don’t have a list (yes, I am guilty of not building a list here on this blog).
Whether you have taken the steps to begin building your list or not, the next question that often comes to mind is what you do with your list – or better yet, how you connect with your list.
Think about the “lists” that you belong to yourself.
More often than not, you become – and remain – a member of these lists because you feel that you have a personal connection to the author. You value their feedback. You trust their opinion. You have a shared interest.
In order to build a successful list, you really need to approach your list from the mindset of what you can do to make a connection with the people that value you (or your killer free giveaway) enough to sign up for your list.
The light may already being going off for you, but what is one of the best ways to form this connection with people?
Social media.
Writing on a blog and having a dialog via comments is a great way to begin building the foundation of a relationship with your readers. When you take that a step further and connect with people with a variety of social media tools, you will find that the relationship takes on a new degree of trust and familiarity.
Many people do not recognize this connection and don’t maximize their efforts to integrate their social media efforts with their email marketing – or list building – efforts, and frankly this is a huge missed opportunity.
How do you learn to maximize this integration?
There is no shortage of information available on strategies that you can implement, or at least read about, but often times people learn the best from seeing (and hearing) how other people are already making this connection successfully.
Where can you see and hear from the experts?
Conferences, of course.
Not only that, but conferences really offer an outstanding opportunity to form relationships with other people in the industry that can become close friends and possibly even business partners. Some of you might remember my trip to BlogWorld but for those that don’t, I can tell you that this conference was worth the cost many times over just based on the people that I was able to meet.
When it comes to social media and email marketing integration, one conference that you should take a look at is the Social Email Marketing conference being held in San Fransisco, California.
This is a one-day event this coming September where you will be exposed to presentations, case studies, and interactive discussions focused on the process of integrating your email marketing and social media into one cohesive tool. The event includes an exhibition area featuring tools and services, handout with notes, and refreshments during the day with a networking event that evening – this is often where the real value of these events can be found!
If you’re interested in learning more about the conference, be sure to check out their official site for the full details, including information on the following speakers: Brian Solis, Kristin Hersant, Dan Martell, Chase McMichael, Jennifer Neeley Lindsay, Murray Newlands, Luke Brynley-Jones, and Marissa Louie.
Save 10% when registering by using this discount code: iem5
In honor of full disclosure, not only do you save 10% by using the discount code above but I will earn 10% commission as well.
