You must think I'm insane by now.
We still haven't even touched the blog stuff yet! What's going on?
Don't worry, we'll get to it soon but today we are going to talk about email opt-ins.
What are those? They are the lures you use to sucker people into signing up for your mailing list.
That's a terrible way to put it. Let's try this again.
They are valuable pieces of content that you use to get people to sign up for your mailing list.
That's a little bit better.
However, before we dive into email opt-ins I want to talk a bit about the importance of having a mailing list.

Why your mailing list is your most important asset

You're a busy person.
You also get a ton of messages thrown in your face every single day by different brands.
If you're on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter then you have 1000s of different people and brands trying to get your attention.
It's a lot.
If you meet someone you like you have the option of getting their number to talk to them again.
As a blogger you don't have that option.
So how do you ensure that people keep you in mind?
Email.
The dream is that whenever a new person comes across your blog they will love it so much that they come back to it every single day.
That doesn't happen.
Someone might love your blog but they will also forget about it tomorrow.
It's important that you stay at the front of their mind and the only logical way to do that is with email.
Email is a platform that you control. When you send an email you know it is going to that person's inbox. A place everyone checks.
Email is also important because it provides you another opportunity to continue to build a relationship with a reader. Email gives you the opportunity to be a bit more personal without worrying about SEO, content length, or sentence structure.
As you'll later find out, email can also act as your ATM. Need some money? Send out an email about a product or service.
The value of your email list can not be understated.
However, if you want to build your email list you need to provide your audience with some incentive and that is where email opt-ins come into play.
So why are they needed? Can't you just put a form on your blog asking people to sign up to receive updates?
You sure can but you probably won't get many people signing up. Unless your content is can't miss stuff most people won't care about updates. They want something of value right now and that's why everyone is using email opt-ins today.
These are sometimes also called lead magnets so if you see people using that term don't for a second think they are smarter than me because they used a different term. They're just trying to be fancy.
You and I don't have time for fancy. We only have time for results.
One of the hardest things about email opt-ins is figuring out what you want to do.
Thankfully, you have a ridiculous amount of options.
We'll cover those in a bit.
Another issue that people have is they aren't sure the quality they should aim for.
Is it okay to simply do a 1-page PDF or should you go for a 235-page ebook?
Do you do a wild and crazy 12-Day Blogging Bootcamp or do you simply send them a 3-Day email sequence talking about how much money you could've made if you didn't throw away your Beanie Baby collection?
Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer for you besides the fact that you need to consider your audience and the things they look for.
If you have a sewing blog then does it make sense to offer them an ebook or would it better to give them free patterns?
If you have a frugal living blog should you create a course on how to write ebook or offer your budget spreadsheet template?
This 12-Day Blogging Bootcamp you're enrolled in is an email opt-in.
Because I'm trying to attract people that are aware of blogging and it's potential I decided to create a full 12-day sequence helping them walk through the steps of what it takes to create a money-making blog with the intention of hopefully getting you to sign up for the Billionaire Blog Club (that sentence was way too long).
This point is important though and it's why you learned about Sale Funnels before email opt-ins.
Your opt-in is the setup for your sales funnel.
If you have a course on budgeting then it makes sense to have an opt-in for a free budget template and then a sales funnel teaching people how to live better with budgets. This sales funnel pushing them to the course on budgeting.
Email opt-in -> sales funnel -> end goal.
Now I can see it on your face. You're freaking out because you don't have an end goal or a sales funnel yet. What are you going to do?
First, you aren't going to panic. It's okay if you don't have these things. Just know that eventually you will want them.
At the beginning you can simply set up an email opt-in, send a single autoresponder, and then make sure you send a broadcast email once a week to your audience.
As time goes on you can develop a sales funnel and with most email service providers you can automatically put your old audience through it.
See, no need to panic. You just need to plan ahead and be aware that at some point you'll want your email opt-in to set up your sales funnel which in turn will set up your product or service.

Types of Email Opt-ins

As I mentioned before there are a ridiculous number of email opt-ins that you can offer:
  • eBook
  • Webinar recording
  • Live webinar viewing
  • Checklist
  • Worksheet
  • Toolkit
  • Access to resource library
  • Printables
There are more but those are usually the big ones that you see. Spend some time in your niche and take note of the different opt-ins that bloggers use.

Opt-in Location

This is very important. Where you put your opt-in will determine whether or not people are going to sign up.
The general rule is that you always want to have the right opt-in at the end of a blog post. What do I mean by right opt-in?
Well, the better the opt-in fits the context of the post, the more likely someone will sign up to receive it.
If you have a blog post on how to lose weight and then your email opt-in talks about how to run a 4-minute mile, not many people are going to sign up because the context is completely off.
Initially, you will start off with a single opt-in and try to focus all content, in some way, around that opt-in.
Over time you'll develop more opt-ins to fit the different types of blog posts that you have.
Generally, I try to create an opt-in around the major categories on my blogs.
Sometimes it is possible to create a single opt-in that applies to all blog posts and sometimes it isn't possible.
Another great location for opt-ins is right in the blog post. This is a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. The only downside to this approach is that it takes people away from your blog post.

Pop-ups, Welcome Mats, etc.

What about using pop-ups or welcome mats.
They are effective but I'm not a big fan. This is not me telling you not to use them, if you want to then go for it but because I have a design background I care deeply about the user experience.
I'm always trying to find ways that are better than a pop-up and provide a superior experience.

Make Sure Your Opt-In Is Quality

Your opt-in is often the first impression someone gets of your product. If you create a free email course (cough) and it's garbage then there is no point in the person buying the real thing.
Your opt-in is not your chance to trick someone into signing up for your mailing list. It's your first free gift of awesomeness with many more to come.
Make it awesome.
- Scrivs
PS: Whew, halfway done with the Bootcamp! This is pretty intense, right? I know it's a lot to take in but I don't want you to think that you need to master it all at once. Blogging is a long journey with many steps and all you can do is take one step at a time.