Well, it turns out it will take one month and 3 days to reach 400 subscribers.  I am 100% pleased with the results, so let me share with you what I did to build a list that size in only 30 days.

The basics

To start off building any list, you need a hook.  And not just any general, appeals-to-all type hook, the hook you use needs to convey you and your message.  What you use for this hook, will become what you are known for to these subscribers.

For instance, if you are like Maria and Tina, aka social media experts, then you will want to make your hook a social media-focused item.  Maria and Tina are running the Ultimate Social Challenge which perfectly conveys their business and what they do.  You know when you sign up for this challenge that you will get coaching from2 social media experts on how to use Facebook, Pinterest and mobile profitably, whereby also increasing your own traffic.

Think of this hook as your message to your audience.  It is going to reel them in and make them want to learn more from you because you know your stuff.

Be specific with it.

For an example, check out my newest 99 Ways to Market Your Blog report – this is an example of a targeted hook that zeroes in on a certain audience.

Get a good autoresponder

I won’t go into this too much as it’s no lie that autoresponders are a BIG deal.  Your whole list building business will be built in an autoresponder.

It is also a big deal to learn all about it – making sure it is marketer-friendly for one.  Plus, learning how to set up broadcast messages and follow-up messages.

Setting up web forms is also another part to become familiar with.

Taking the time to learn about your message service now will save you lots of time in the future when you are in a rush trying to get messages done.

Your offer page

The next piece of the puzzle in building your subscriber list is an offer page.  Offer pages are also called landing pages and squeeze pages.  This is the place where people will come to get on your list.  Whether they are grabbing a free report or signing up for something you are offering, this is where they will transition from no one you know to a potential customer for life.

There are a few different schools of thought regarding how you capture your visitors’ information.  However, for the purpose of building a list in 30 days, I recommend using a squeeze page.

Squeeze pages are essentially just a single page with nothing more to do on it except enter an email address, and sometimes name, to  proceed further.  Maybe then they will receive a course or a report, but ultimately, there is only one thing to do on the page.

But just having the page set up is not enough.

Then a little thing called conversion rate creeps in and presents another thing to uncover.

Making sure you get conversions

As I pointed out at the beginning of this challenge – a tested, highly converting squeeze page is essential to getting subscribers.  Even if you have the greatest report or service, if the web page is not effective at generating leads, then you are basically leaving money on the table.

For this challenge, I used a tested squeeze page that was already making conversions – you can see it here.

But knowing your conversion rate (CR) on a squeeze page is just a matter of testing.  You can try one and see what the numbers are and then compare it to another page.

I was getting anywhere from a 30 – 40% conversion rate on this squeeze page, which I was pretty pleased with.

Next comes traffic

Since the only way to know how a squeeze page will do is by gauging the conversions, now you need to send traffic to the page, right?

Traffic (potential subscribers) comes in free and paid methods.

The free ways of generating traffic include article marketing, guest posting on other blogs, forum marketing, commenting on other blogs, utilizing social media, hitting up the list of free advertising sites I mentioned, basically anything you can do to market your offer to reach a wide audience.

This method is effective and works for the long term.  However, it is tough to gauge a conversion rate due to the length of time it takes to start getting the subscribers.

You may implement a campaign like this, but not see the results for weeks or even months out.

With paid traffic, the results are fast, which makes testing your squeeze page a breeze.

I set up this challenge by doing all the free methods first and then moving on to the paid methods.  Since I already had an idea of the conversion rate.

One of the best methods of advertising for a newbie in paid advertising is doing a solo ad.  A solo ad is where a buyer pays a seller for a certain amount of clicks – now they are not guaranteeing that you will get that many subscribers, but they will guarantee clicks.

This is actually why this challenge will take one month and 3 days – because my last solo ad is going out May 3.  This one will generate the rest of the subscribers.  I am sitting at 285 right now and the solo ad is for 500 clicks – because I know my conversion rate, I know I will get anywhere from 150 to 200 subscribers.

Start small with solo ads – 150 to 200 clicks will give you enough numbers to see how your page converts.  Once you know what kind of conversions you get, then move on to bigger click packages.  I use Safe-Swaps for my solo ads.

Another method, which I am using right now is PPV advertising.  PPV advertising will be covered more fully in another post, but so far it has proven to be a very effective form of advertising.

So far with PPV, I am averaging about $1.20 per subscriber.  What that means is that every new subscriber costs me $1.20 to attract.

There is a general saying that for every subscriber on your list, you can count $1/month in income.  My numbers are better than that however.  I am doing about $1.40 per subscriber.

So, with PPV advertising I am making a bit more than I am spending.  More testing and tracking is necessary to really get a feel for the numbers – getting the attraction number lower is a goal to focus on.

To do that, I will test out a few different squeeze pages – it could be that many people have seen this one before and it needs a new lift.

Final thoughts

Building a subscriber list in 30 days is a steep goal, however, with the right tools in place, it can be achieved.

In order of relevancy, the tools you need to build your list are:

• An awesome hook
• An autoresponder
• An offer page/squeeze page/landing page
• Paid traffic to test
• Knowing your CR
• Scaling up your advertising
• Free traffic methods

These steps will have your subscriber list growing by leaps and bounds in just 30 days!

Let me know what your experience has been with building your list…

Image: Jon Whiles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net