How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day

How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day

Reader Comments (180)

  1. Personally, I would have changed the overall subscriber count to an odd number…

    Then again, I’m an attentive Copyblogger reader.

    • Oh man, that brings back memories of the time I was an active Digger…. bitersweet times, they were. (-;

  2. This is a great post. I’ve never heard of so many subscribers, so quickly. That is truly amazing and definitely an inspiration.

    I see how many of the techniques listed above could be very useful. Feedburner’s email service, seems especially interesting to me – Thanks!

  3. Hi Michael, as I explained in the post (see #4), it was Articulate’s customer list combined with prospects who had opted-in to download a free trial of the software. I don’t know exactly the size of the list, and like I said, some of the list was a bit tenuous on the prospect side.

    I think you can work backwards with the numbers… it was a fairly sizable list. Your mileage may vary. 🙂

  4. Phenominal results in such a short period of time. Your advice about having a customer/prospect list and converting them to readers is spot on… now I need to brainstorm ways to take action on this 🙂

  5. This was a really exciting launch for us (and I can attest to the accuracy of all the numbers). Great work on your role in helping to make this so successful, Brian!

    I was involved mostly behind the scenes on the technology infrastructure side. A few other tidbits about the launch:

    * All our lead & customer data reside in our CRM, salesforce.com, which is how we capture new leads from our site and all customer details from orders.

    * For the promo mailing, we used VerticalResponse, which has great salesforce.com integration (we’ve used it for years) – from right within salesforce.com we can even track who’s received, opened, clicked on, or unsubscribed from the mailing.

    * As we watched our server buckle under pressure, I was observing more than 100 new email subscribers per minute (according to Feedburner).

    And we’re now up to a whopping 8,662 email subscribers!

    -Gabe (Articulate Director of Customer Support)

  6. Very cool. Sometimes when I get to feeling accomplished, an article like this reminds me what a small little sandbox I’m playing in. 😉

  7. Chuck, I was going to say that I love playing in your little sandbox but then I realized how wrong that would sound.

    I guess I’ve said it anyway now. 🙂

  8. Chuck, your comment makes me feel like the 3-year old looking at the first graders with envy. “Oooh, some day I’ll be a big boy and wear underpants.”

    (If only I could resist the urge to write the word “underpants,” I could be so cool . . . )

    Anyway, you do have a cool sandbox.

  9. I guess there’s always bigger and better territory to which to aspire. I bet someone could write a funny post comparing bloggers to toddlers.

  10. I guess I’m not there yet…having followed a lot of the copyblogger method of value-driven, incentive based content, I’ll admit that it floods me with insecurity when I see someone being so successful…

    I guess it makes me feel like I cannot do that same thing- but at the same time I am putting steps together to do the very same thing- to provide quality content that people need and are clamoring for. Thanks for the encouragement, I truly appreciate it Brian- you are a voice in the copy wilderness that sometimes is my life 🙂

    Sometimes the view clears though, and it’s awesome.

  11. It has been one of my to-do list to boost the traffic of my site. Thanks for your advice, and I will try that out. Most importantly, I still believe in quality content. Hopefully things will work out eventually.

    Cheers!

  12. While reading the post, i have a habit of select the text which I’m reading. But I noticed that you have prevented users from selecting the text. Is it to stop users from copying your content? If so, simple technique of Ctrl+A and Ctrl + C is allowing to copy.

  13. Bill, there are Photoshop templates that many web designers have that make those cool covers. There are also services on the net that do nothing but ebook covers, boxes, cd jewel cases, etc.

    Do a Google search for ebook cover design.

  14. Brian,

    I’m quite impressed with your results. Now, after doing the math, that was a really big list you guys had (compared to mine at least); but the results are still excellent. I think 6k subscribers in 24 hours may be a record.

    Anyhow, back to work on my cornerstone series and my e-book offer…

    – Mason

  15. The click-through and opt-in rates are more impressive than the raw total of 6,312 subscribers. With a list of just ~117,000 prospects that’s a really impressive number.

    Over 5% opt-in to a mildly-targeted list means not just copy, but everything about the campaign (design, usability, payoff value, etc.) was very well done.

  16. Well, this sure is impressive, and a great article. What I’d like to mention is that I was suspicious that this post was a paid advertisement. I’ve since read the comments and see that it wasn’t, but it sure had gotten me thinking. What a great way to promote an advertiser than to use them as a case study or in a story or something.

    Maybe this has all been done before, I’m fairly new at blogging.

    Anyways, thanks for the inspiration.

  17. Brian, are there any other examples of effective landing pages that you could give me? Thanks!

    P.S- thank you also for the hard work that you are taking to educate beginning copywriters like myself. It’s worth it to for me b/c you are teaching me about value-added and benefit-laden content- and how the customer must come first.

    Their needs and desires are the reason I am paying my bills after all…

  18. As a previous free trial user, I received the launch email. It compelled me to get the free ebook and subscribe to the blog. For me, it was the perfect validation of the content and techniques blogged here on Copyblogger.

  19. Thats very enlightening and very proven. I loved the article to bits. I’m now going to try replicating the effect on a site of my friend’s who sells online software for a really popular open source cms.

    Thanks and keep up the great blogging!

  20. Excellent Post Brian , It’s the second time I read it … as CopyBlogger is one of my top 10 resources for inspiration and I keep coming back for more …

    Quality Content is what Blogging is all about. I will develop a PDF magazine to send all my new subscribers with this Funky Sticky RSS plugin … oh and yes I also use FeedBurner. Who doens’t …

    SEO is fantastic but takes lots of time. SEM is great but takes a lot of money. But Google Adwords does the job perfectly for us although we all love to get Free Quality Traffic. That’s why I will keep reading your blog and keep working hard on SEO … with a burning desire and lots and lots of passion …

    I’ve read all the comments and they make this article even better !!!

    I wish you all a very nice day and lots of traffic …

    Yves Van den Meerssche CEO LiveTheLife.tv

  21. Yes, no doubt, the Rapid e-Learning blog is a quite interesting, unique blog in the bloggosphere world.

    I wonder if we need marketing consultants to help us create a product from scratch and launch it with social media releases…

    If you have any other suggestions
    or comments, let me know 🙂

    Cheers,
    Codrut Turcanu.
    “How To Succeed Against All Odds!” Break The Ice!

  22. Brian, this looks like a great game plan to gain blog subscribers. I’ll have to start planning and writing the e-book to use as the incentive. I’ll let you know how that goes.

    We have created blogs for several of our clients to help complement their main sites. It has been working very well, but, I think we should start doing something like the above to jump start them.

    Thanks,
    Fred

  23. Finally something that I can apply to my business. I’ve always heard that the blog “thing” was something from the past but I think that it is just a little more focused than it was in the past. Like most business strategies it is more important to have quality before quantity.

  24. What a great example of a company leveraging their marketing assets – their customer list. Many businesses never realize the value of sending an offer to past and present customers. Here there were a large group of people that had already used the software and were familiar with the company. Just let them know about the new blog and boom, there you go. Great job.

  25. This post reminds me of the fact that most brick and mortar businesses are seeing a potential gold mine walk in and out of their business premises every day.

    And they’re completely oblivious.

    Think of the number of highly targeted prospects and customers who walk into the average retail store every day…

    Your average retail business will get 200 to 1,000 people walking into their store every day.

    That’s 6,000 to 30,000 people every month. And even if half of those are repeat clients that’s still 3,000 to 15,000 new highly targeted prospects a month.

    Imagine doing some low key list building in the store…maybe by having a free prize draw.

    Visitors to the store have to enter their name, email address, mailing address and phone number so they can be notified if they win the highly targeted prize on offer.

    And imagine just 10% of those people walking into the store in a month enter the prize draw and join your list.

    That would build your list by 600 to 3,000 email subscribers every month. Or 7,200 to 36,000 email subscribers a year.

    Now you might be thinking “Wow! those retail businesses sure are dumb letting all those potential email subscribers walk out of their business every day without doing anything to capture their contact details.”

    But you know you walk past these same brick and mortar businesses every day that could be a gold mine to you.

    As a copywriter with some online marketing skills YOU have the expertise to set up a lead capture system in a store, capture a boatload of email subscribers and follow up with highly targeted offers from the store that convert to real sales.

    There is genuine gold in this combination of offline and online marketing.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh

  26. Great post about an interesting case study, but don’t underestimate the element of beautiful design. That landing page is stunning! If the content suited me as well, it would be hard for the average person NOT to want to sign up. Well done!

  27. Oh.. is this true? hehe 6,312 visitors in just a day? wow! That’s amazing. I’ve recently made a blog, actually it’s my first blog. It is entitles Online Auction Website and it is about sports and auctions.

    I hope I can be a successful blogger… having a thousands visitors a day. That’s great!

  28. I see the theme here is offering people what they want. Again market research is important before starting out to create some offer. Great tips.

  29. This is a great case study of how the execution of a thorough marketing strategy (research, method, design, content/offer) created phenomenal results.

  30. Damn if i ever get that number i would have been in the sky. Btw, that tips no. 4 – Launch Email, is the most effective ways. I recommend that tips for every novice who wants to take advantage from your feedburner

  31. I got EXACTLY 6,312 subscribers after reading that ! :D:D
    Seriously another great post and i really love watching you create those marvellous headlines that capture the eye 🙂 It’s a great practise for me to even see what headlines you select 🙂

  32. One of the biggest mistakes I have made in creating lists is trusting outsourcing companies or independent contractors with my accounts. They will rob and steal your email lsist in a heart beat. So be careful and thanks for the post, I need some new subcribers.

    Moe

  33. I guess there’s always bigger and better territory to which to aspire. I bet someone could write a funny post comparing bloggers to toddlers.

  34. Oh.. is this true? hehe 6,312 visitors in just a day? wow! That’s amazing. I’ve recently made a blog, actually it’s my first blog. It is entitles Online Auction Website and it is about sports and auctions.

    I hope I can be a successful blogger… having a thousands visitors a day. That’s great!

  35. I guess there’s always bigger and better territory to which to aspire. I bet someone could write a funny post comparing bloggers to toddlers.

  36. This is one of the best post s about effectively getting attention. One that I keep coming back to read, review and gleam something new from comments too.

  37. This is one of the best post s about effectively getting attention. One that I keep coming back to read, review and gleam something new from comments too.

  38. Thanks for all this information. I’ve accidentally gotten a book deal, that book became a major motion picture, and I’ve been a contributing writer for several books and a Boston newspaper. But damned if I can figure out how to drive people to my humorist website. Seems I’m only effective when I’m not trying.

    Your information is empowering. Thanks

  39. I just completed my first two article on my blog. This initial step in my business blog. I enjoyed reading the article here. I hope my blog can immediately jump. Thank you.

  40. Copyblogger has helped me with my writing style. I had a problem with not pulling people in right at the beginning of my posts and my posts are much more engaging now. I cant get enough of the content here.

  41. I can’t believe how much good content is on this article and site! I just stumbled across it. Thanks for the great article. This site is going to keep me busy reading for quite some time!

  42. I was just introduced to your site from a friend a couple of weeks ago and i can’t get over the FREE content and how simple the concepts are. I have already started implementing them into my mortgage broker business. Keep it up

  43. It looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. It’s one thing to create a cool blog, but this might sound dumb, what is the best way to get people to find the blog?

  44. Unfortunately I’m already well past launch – wish I had read this earlier! Still, there are good points here that I can carry over to my existing site. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll launch again.

    And to Chris Radant – how do you ACCIDENTALLY get a book deal? Most people I know work like dogs to even try to get one!

    • That book and movie are each 15 years old now, and I’ve done lots of other work since then.

      I know, it’s miraculous how it happened.. I gave some copies of HFTH out to my friends to read. One copy was on the kitchen table in the morning when his girlfriend, Caroline Knapp, Boston Phoenix Editor read it over her coffee. She asked up publish it as a feature. That happened and I’m forever very appreciative that she liked my work and got it in ink for readers to see.

      A big league screenwriter’s wife then read it in the Phoenix, perhaps over coffee, laughed out loud and showed it to her husband. Rick Richeter located me and made me an offer for an option. I had no idea what an option was, but agreed to the idea of selling something to him.

      Caroline Knapp went on to become a best-selling author and died too young. Her work is still beloved. She was a lovely person. I can’t say enough about Rick Richter and his wife either. Well beyond helping me on my way, they were just good eggs. I was just damned lucky. I never tried to even sell anything. I wish you outrageous luck too.

      Chris

  45. Great idea – I’ve looked for the WP RSS Sticky plugin on Chris Garrets page; seems to be unavailable or renamed as ‘rssinjection’. Can’t find clear instructions on how to use feedburner with this plugin in order to give the ebook away to subscribers. Followup post would be great.

  46. The true test with good content is that there are visitors who want to read it. I watched a TV program today where people pitch to investors for funding money (Dragon’s Den is the name of the Canadian show; Shark Tank is the equivalent attempt in the U.S.). One participant kept lamenting how great his site was in having garnered $30K advertising revenue in 2 years; the dragons said that is not much traffic or revenue at all! No matter how good the author thinks her content is, it is the judgment of the reader that really counts.

  47. Very great and helpful post on increasing readers. Thank you! I will be creating a free ebook soon. I love all your ideas and tips. I even book marked it so I can read it again later.

  48. Great news! I’m making notes right away on what to implement in my own situation. I run a business consulting firm and were looking to start a business blog to widen our outreach.

    Copyblogger is really loaded with information for practical use. Thanks for the post

  49. Hey Brian,
    Great article with a clear direction of launching a blog.
    I have had a many blogs over the years, but have really focused in
    on my personal blog this past few months. And I am studying
    everything I can to generate more traffic, so these are great pointers

    Thank you for your contribution,
    Jeff Faldalen

  50. I hate to bust your bubble. But I wish you can get real for new bloggers.

    It impossible to get these many subscribers in one day using the tips outlined herein which, for a newbie will take weeks to learn, master and execute.

    anything good that comes online always require the same old way, blood, sweat and tears. besides, that’s the only way to get really meaningful results; results that last and not just by a fluke of chance.

    • This post is intended for businesses with an existing customer list, of which there are millions. Not a solo “make money online” type, to which you seem to be referring. We have hundreds of other posts to help that type of aspiring blogger.

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