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Building an indie business in the center of venture capital. I am Alex Edmonds, also known as supremerumham on the internet. And this is the building an indie business podcast. Okay. Let's get started. So, today I wanted to discuss the open podcast email list, and how I've been growing it. So I'm going to give you the types of signup forms that I've been using. I'm going to be talking about. Yeah, the types of signup forms or signup methods, let's just say that the advantages of them the problems, whether each one is invasive or not, and a few other things about each one. Okay, so let's get into it. Um, the first one that I yeah the first method that I have been using to grow the email list is pop ups. So if two kinds of pop ups, I have the exit pop up. When someone click attempts to exit, like, go to the URL bar in that area. pay. don't interrupt people when they're on the site. And they're not invasive as well because they show up when someone's leaving. So they're done with the website, or if they're reading an article, it shows up at the end when they're done with the article. And this gives them an opportunity to reevaluate quickly. If they want to visit the site again, because if they join the email list, they're gonna have to come again. So yeah, the problems with pop ups. So I use MailChimp apps, pop ups on the open podcast website, and they don't always show up. I have a plugin, which lets me watch people on the website, and how they interact with everything. And sometimes the pop up, they'll hit the bottom of the page, and the pop up won't show up. Yeah, that. That's messed up. So, there's nothing I can do about this, except maybe build my own pop up and use it, which I have done on the podcast website. I'm actually. So, yeah, There it loses me subscribers, and also sometimes. Nevermind. Um, the next problem I have is that people might have JavaScript blocked. So, this prevents them from the pop ups from showing up is actually might be why sometimes. The MailChimp pop ups don't show up, actually, um, and then, um, pop ups might not be accessible because there's a change in the environment. So, a screen reader might not be able to show the screen reader user pop up. And that loses me an opportunity to get those subscribers, right. So, that sucks. Okay. Um, next thing I have is a subscription tab. So on the header. Now on the navbar, it's like home. forum podcasting book. Subscribe. And once someone clicks the subscribe tab. It's an embedded form on this doesn't disappear on me or not show up on, it's always there, it's reliable. Um, it's not invasive because the person asked you voluntarily, click on the tab to sign up so they know what to expect. problem is that it blends in with the other content, it's a very small section, in terms of how you get there. Right, so, um, and then people may be might avoid this tab, because they don't want to subscribe. So yeah, I can't like convince them to click on the subscribe tab. They have to do it themselves. Okay, so my third method is what I'm doing mark down mark down. Like when I have to use a markdown editor. I I link to the form at the very bottom of the page. So, I'll have my article or whatever my blog posts. And then, after the conclusion I'll have two dashes. Then on the next line, I say, if you enjoyed this post, sign up for the open podcast email list. And it is a link to a form for the newsletter. Right. So, I do this on Reddit. I do this on indie hackers. It gives me a chance to engage with readers, right, because I'm treacly seeing them not directly Actually, I don't have a lot of access. Um, yeah. Um, it's good, it. One benefit is that I get to have. I get to put my, my writing in front of a bunch of people through platforms that aren't mine, and I could capture those emails. So yeah, I'm problems, not my platform. I would not. If it was my choice I want to have the markdown link, because it's small, it's it blends in with the other text. Benefits of the pop ups, is that they're in your face right on because it blends in, people might not always see the link. So yeah, that sucks. Okay. Now link to the form. This is like a landing page that I created to get people to sign up. And so, this is the link I'm always sending out when I have to send out a link to people. Um, it's where most people sign up the link at the bottom of places. It can be posted anywhere so that's great problems, is I can't see where the signups are coming from or where the link was posted. So I don't know if someone read my indie hackers post, and they decided to sign up, or signup came from Reddit, because it's not my platform. I don't have that type of access. The only analytics. I'm given are my platform to there's. So, if I link it at the bottom of a link at the bottom of a blog post, and someone clicks on it I can see that. And then if they sign up. That's how I know someone use the form. That's about it. I can't see how many people click on the form when it's on indie hackers or Reddit. So, that sucks. right. Although this isn't invasive because optional to click on the form. So yeah. Um, yeah. So, another method is I use the landing page. And I put it in the podcast show notes, you may have seen it. Yeah, that's. Um, it's the link to a forum it's because it's the landing page, I figured if anyone is interested, and listening to this podcast, they might have an interest in joining an open podcast. Um, So I put it in the shownotes. The having it in the show notes, give me gives me several chances to convince someone to sign up, or catch their attention, because with every new episode. It's a chance for someone to sign up for the email list. The problem is that I use the shownotes for SEO. And I have a sea of links. And so, I'm a potential subscriber would have to navigate the sea of links. And I happen to see the email list form, and then click on it. So that might be hard to do. People might not even read the show notes at all. So, yeah, they won't see the form and then, um, and this is not invasive because it's optional, just like the subscribe tab. It's not in your face. You have to click on it. Right. Okay. So mid article link arm in the intro, right after the intro paragraph. I put a little blurb on and Shah. Shout out to show. He showed me this tactic, I guess, or this method, sort of tactic of putting like a little blurb about having people sign up for the email list right after the intro paragraph. So I think it says something like. Did you know you get more content like this, if you sign up for the email list. And it's a link to the landing page. Um, I'm not sure how effective this is, I haven't really seen anyone click on it. Someone may have clicked on it. I think it would be better to embed a form, maybe make it a little more in your face. I. Yeah. Um, this isn't invasive because people can scroll right past it. people might not click on it, because they're reading, or they sign up and don't continue reading, and the entire point is for them to be reading the content. Right. Okay, so the next method is I use Zapier. So, people purchase the book, people purchase the workflow document. Both are linked in the show notes. Um, once they sign up, or no. Once they download, each one. They get an email that sends them a link, asking them if they want to join the newsletter list, and why I do this is because I want to keep them in the loop for the next purchasable content that I create. So, if I create another book, or I create another type of workflow document. Um, I want them to know about it right away. So, um, yeah. This is slightly effective. I've seen maybe three to five people join the email list. Um, after purchase or downloaded the content. So, yeah, this is a little invasive. Because it. It's unexpected right I don't say, hey, once you've downloaded this you'll be getting this email, even though I probably should have anyways. And the next problem is also related, because it's unexpected. People might miss it. So they have a desire to sign up, but they don't, because they don't see the email, or they have a ton of emails that are unread, and this is just another one. So, yeah. Okay. The next thing I do is I offer a lead magnet, and this last one, actually. So, my lead magnet. It didn't take a lot of work for me. I have always been creating videos for people, related to podcasting. And I took all the videos and I created a private YouTube playlist. And I don't even remember where, but I offer this playlist. This private playlist somewhere to some people that I was like, get this private playlist. If you join the email list. So that's somewhere. And the reason why I created this is because I. If they want podcasts and content. I give it to them. And then I give them more podcasts and content through the community. Correct, yes, that's what I do. Yeah, the lead magnet is similar to content that they would get an email list. This is an invasive because it's voluntary. The problems with this method is that people might subscribe. And once they get the email, or Yeah, the lead magnet, I guess not email. They will unsubscribe. Right. And then another problem with the lead magnet, or lead magnets just in general, is that you have to create a product right people. It's just something extra that you do. So you have to keep creating the email list content. And then you have to create this lead magnet to convince people to join the email list. So, the next email list I have to create I have to think of something else too. Unlike another lead magnet to create to capture emails. So yeah, it's a little extra work that. Okay. That's all I have for this episode. Thank you for listening. Have a nice day. Bye.