Building a List with a Blog

These days, the Internet is becoming more of a social medium. Constantly, people are finding new ways to connect with each other. Naturally, as Internet marketers, we jump into the mix.

Web 2.0 properties have been used for some time as marketing platforms. They have been used to announce product launches and special promotions. Of course, Web 2.0 properties, particularly blogs, can be used to build a list.

The best way to monetize your blog is if you set up your own with a service like Clearblogs.com or WordPress.com. You will have to set up your own website and everything, but this is where it’s worth it. You can control the design of the blog and can include an opt-in field.

Opt-in fields can typically go three ways on a blog:

1. One is that you can use a hover ad, which is a box that pops up or drops down with your opt-in information. It’s not exactly the most preferred method, since on one hand, people might mistake it for spyware. On the other, it can be just plain annoying.

2. Another is if you have an opt-in box in the sidebar. Most people use this, but it’s not really the most effective method. It’s too easy for a viewer to ignore. You will have to set up extra features, such as limited blog access, on the site to draw more attention to the fact that you want them to opt in to a mailing list.

3. The most elegant placement of an opt-in box is just below your blog. It’s less easy to ignore than the side bar, but isn’t quite so in your face as a hover ad. It takes a bit of labor to set it up, but really, the results are worth it.

This doesn’t pan out quite so directly on the blog communities like MySpace and Facebook. Honestly, if list building is your intent, you will typically have to provide a link to your opt-in page with every blog post. While it doesn’t have the immediate difficulty in setting it up, there are several problems with it.

For one thing, in the long run, it’s more labor intensive. For each post, you will have to include the link. Over time, unless you have a way to automatically include it in your post, the time spent in including the link will add up to wasted time.

There is also a problem in that it’s more tricky to really entice your readers to opt- in. You can, in many cases, limit access to the average reader, and allow opted in readers full access. However, this is too much work for the small potatoes in list members you can expect out of social blog communities.

In the end, it’s more worth your time to set up your own blog for list building. You get a target audience, so your list will be built of interested people. The labor involved is less extensive in the long run. Also, you have more control of how the whole thing is set up.