Email subscription marketing is one thing that must not be neglected by any web publisher (big or small) who really wants to suck the juicy benefits that comes with it. One common way people get traffic and increased page views to their blogs or websites is through email subscription by readers. Visitors are turned into readers when they subscribe to your site’s update using their email address and they in turn, are automatically notified via their email each time you publish a new update.
That said, the pressing question which this article holds is – would you rather stick to a free email subscription marketing service or go for a paid one? I decided to make this article interactive so that you get the chance to share your experiences and equally offer suggestions alongside other readers.
After several months of collecting email subscription requests using feedburner email subscription service, I came to an understanding that the need to throw open a discussion of this kind in an article is of high importance.
Let’s just put it this way, there are basically two blogging platforms that are highly embraced by many web publishers which you should know are Blogger and WordPress. My belief is that if you are reading this article, you are either publishing with Blogger or WordPress platform. Personally, I have been on Blogger, and one of the common free email subscription platforms readily available for all Blogger publishers is Feedburner Email Subscription Service. WordPress blogs on the other hand use it, but majority which I have seen use other services like Aweber, Mailchimp and the host of others. The differences in there services is what I am mostly concerned with.
I have subscribed to couple of blogs using free and paid email subscription services, and have seen areas where service upgrade especially that of email branding and delivery are needed. Unfortunately, for free email services, such service upgrades are never available for users. This also have to do with how subscribers are guided starting from the time they submit their email address to when they finally verify and confirm their email subscription to a site.
I will be making two instances here. First would be free email subscription services. I will be using Feedburner to drive home my point. Feedburner has limitations which to an extent causes so many web publishers their real and actual readership, visits and traffic. When a visitor submits his email to a site using feedburner, the process at first looks very nice, the person will be redirected to a page where he would be prompted to enter some codes which checks if the person is a spammer. Successful entering of these codes will confirm a successful acceptance of the person’s email subscription request. Now this is where the problem begins; most people stop at this stage thinking they have successfully been subscribed without knowing they still need to login into their email account to click on the verification link sent to them. Some on the other hand, knows about it, but they see it much stressful leaving what they are doing to sign into their email account at that moment, an exceptional case would be when the person is already signed into his email account and really want to get updates from the site he is subscribing to.
I figured the above as a major fallback which free email campaign services have. Everyday, my blog receives a good number of email subscription requests, but out of the 100% requests I receive; only about 50% gets to verify their subscription. This was the reason why I had to device a manual means of educating my visitors on how to subscribe to my blog updates by writing a step by step subscription guideline close to the email subscription form under my blog posts.
The second instance is for paid email campaign services. Now, I want you to notice that in the first instance, subscribers have nothing attached to their subscription, which means they have nothing to loose if they decide to stop half way. This is where paid email campaign services take advantage over the former. Using a paid email subscription platform, you as a blog owner have the ability to integrate your products and services which can be e-books, CDs, DVDs, etc., to your email subscription form, hence, making the subscription of your blog updates more appealing to visitors. It is no news people are easily attracted by freebies sampled on blogs and websites, such is what I call “real time opportunity”
Another appealing feature of paid email campaign services is the friendly communication they hold with subscribers starting from when they submit their email address. From the point a subscriber submits his email; he is properly guided and lured into signing in to his email account to verify his subscription link.
While the former lacks these features, the later I want to still belief have their own falls, which is why I will be needing your contributions in comments. The fact still remains that millions of blogs and websites run both free and paid email subscription marketing service, but the circumstances surrounding the one you use on your blog is what I would like to hear in comments.
Twitter: donemitex1
says:
don this post was helpful. but i think the newbies like me should cut cost by sticking to the free ones for now. your argument about feedburner is true. i have a total of about 25 subcribers, but only 12 are confirmed. its really annoying but there is little i can do for now.
Hi Emmy,
Is good hearing from you! Actually, the reason why I made this article interactive is for newbies like you and other pros to drop their opinions. You have clearly said your mind and why you would prefer the free email service.
About your subscribers, try doing a mail to them in form of a reminder to activate their subscription. You may be lucky to get them back.
Twitter: divyanshojha
says:
I saw a movie ‘Adjustment bureau’ where some angel sort of creature helps you get to your goal,
Last thing i did on saturday for my blog was to add email subscription form with feed burner, though i failed to understand how to write a message in subscriotion verification email ( pls suggest how ? ), and today you posted this… Are you the same guy with that hat ?
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Hello Divyansh,
If I may get you right, you want to learn how to write a message that will be shown to your subscribers when they receive their subscription verification email? You can do that via the “Publicize” link on your feedburner email account under email branding and delivery. If you need the step by step guide you can search doncaprio.com or search my blog http://www.naijatechblog.com
Twitter: divyanshojha
says:
Thanks…i have successfully made it… if you you have doubts…go and subscribe ( lol’ )
Divyansh recently posted..Make Free Calls To Any Mobile Using PC Internet Connection
Hello Divyansh,
If I may get you right, you want to learn how to write a message that will be shown to your subscribers when they receive their subscription verification email? You can do that via the “Publicize” link on your feedburner email account under email branding and delivery. If you need the step by step guide you can search doncaprio.com or search my blog http://www.naijatechblog.com
The guy with a hat is the don, he is the founder of doncaprio.com, I am only a contributor to doncaprio site.
Great info. I love getresponse for my niche blogs. Feedburner is also not bad.
Hi Kamal,
Thanks for your compliment. Like you said, Feedburner is not bad, it’s still most people’s choice.
Best stuff I’ve read so far today. I’ll definitely stick to a free one, people love free things and it’s a good way to boost your slea.
John recently posted..noo color
John, I am glad to learn that this post happens to be the best stuff you have read today. You are right about freebies, however in this context you are the only one that enjoys the freebies not your readers.
Thanks for this nice and informative post, but it can be difficult for starters to use a paid email marketing service, since they won’t have much subscribers and their blog is still growing… but once you have good blog with enough traffic.. it would be really a smart move to use paid email marketing.
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Hi Preetam,
You speak the truth. Newbies will do just ok with free email services until they are certain their blog has grown to an extent.
Thanks for your contribution.
Twitter: naijalearn
says:
Although both are used for subscribing, I still think they are different and serve different functions.
FeedBurner is like a RSS Aggregator while the ‘Paid Ones’ (Autoresponders) you mentioned are plainly for Email Marketing.
FeedBurner has an advantage as it update its subscribers automatically which I don’t think it’s possible with the ‘paid ones’.
You’re right and I think you clearly differentiated between the two. For now, I’m sticking to free email subscription since I’m yet to go into real internet marketing.
Twitter: naijalearn
says:
That’s right ma brother. The free FeedBurner from Google is still effective in this subject. But I’d however say, it’s not too much have a little subscription form somewhere your blog asking your readers to subscribe for a freebie. Don’t forget, money is in the list!
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Hie
Thank you for this article! i have found it very helpful. I am into affiliate marketing and i think that it is so important to have a list of clientele that you can reach even as you sleep.
I am going to try Feedburner first because it is free and from there I will see if there it is worthwhile to pay! But thank you.
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If Google feed burner can have an option managing your list and sending autoresponder messengers, U bet they will be the best. But like what John said, they process only Feed and don’t care about email marketing.
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