Email Lists Made Easy

Easy? Email lists?

From the conversations I’ve had with people, these words do not go together. At all. If it’s not one problem, it’s another.

• What should I send?
• How can I get people to sign up?
• What if no one opens?
• How often should I send?
• Which email service provider do I use?
• Do I REALLY need an email list?

Everyone says you need an email list. Email lists are the Thing. But as much as everyone is talking about lists and telling you that you need them, there is an overabundance of conflicting advice. And sometimes really general advice. Like:

Just start today!

Put a form in your sidebar!

Create a freebie and your list will grow!

To really dig into your email list, you need more than vague answers or even answers that speak to a different industry and don’t translate to yours. Writers and bloggers struggle with this more than entrepreneurs, who do a lot of the talking when it comes to email. And they have great advice!

The disconnect often is that writers and bloggers do have goals to promote and often have goals to make money. But that may or may not be the end goal. And while the money-making goal is very clear in the business and entrepreneurial world, it often feels icky and smarmy to writers and bloggers. Who want to make a living from their words (or a side income or simply want to be read), but don’t want to feel pushy.

Writers and bloggers typically struggle more with feeling too self-promote-y when it comes to email and social media.

Have you ever felt this way?

The other disconnect with the great advice out there about email marketing is just that: the terms. “Email marketing” doesn’t feel like what writers and bloggers are doing when they send an email to their readers. Their readers are not “leads.” They don’t create “lead magnets” to attract customers. The language is different. And more than just semantics, often the goals are different.

This is why I wrote Email Lists Made Easy for Writers and Bloggers.

I wanted to help translate some of the great business-y advice that we need into terms we understand and into actions that will feel more natural to us. I do think that more often now writers and bloggers are being more entrepreneurial. Some of us feel VERY much that way.

But for many of us, the business side and the promotion side remains the hardest piece of the puzzle. We want to write. We want to do what we love. We want to reach an audience of raving fans. We would love to (and sometimes NEED to) make money while we do it!

Email Lists Made Easy for Writers and Bloggers walks you through the process of setting up an email list. We start before you even choose a provider—all the way back at your WHY. This is the piece that I’m always harping on around here and I think it’s so often skipped. Even if you have a list, thinking about your why can help you problem-solve. It can bring clarity to your content and to even choosing if you use Mailchimp or ConvertKit. (I use both. Because I have two different whys.)

I’m super excited about this book and think it will be amazingly helpful to you if you want to get started with a list, or even if you have a big list but have NO IDEA what to do with it. If your open rate stinks and you aren’t growing, this book will help. If you agonize over each email you send, the book will help.

Not sure if the book is for you? I have a guest post up on Jane Friedman’s blog where I share a whole chapter from the book! Go read and you can see for yourself.

PS- The book is only 99 cents through Friday!