How to Build a Mailing List with WordPress
There are three ways I use a WordPress blog to build my e-mail opt-in mailing list: comments, a sidebar widget, and an opt-in popup. You can get all three of these plugins in one convenient bundle, for just 27 dollars now 47 dollars.
Question of the day: Do you have any really cool ways to build a list, that I haven't thought of?
Filed in: List Building
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Sites That Link to this Post
- Wordpress Plugins To Encourage Commenting? | March 16, 2009
- Looking For Wordpress Blog Pop-up Opt-In Form | March 18, 2009
Hi Robert,
You forgot to mention the Reverse Squeeze plugin.
I’ll let you tell the story again!
John 😉
Great video and techniques, Rob.
I had a few concerns:
What if they’re already subscribed to your list? What will they see?
One concern is that, if you have repeat visitors, such as those who come to your site every day, won’t they feel annoyed at always seeing your pop-up?
In relation to that, is there a way to make it detect that a given visitor is already on the list, or seen the blog before, so that it doesn’t show the pop-up?
Also, let’s say that someone wants to keep as informed as possible with your site, and they see the 2 ways of opting in, plus they leave a comment. How do they know that they’re subscribing to the same list?
Or, can you use the different pop-ups for different lists (just for those who want to keep up with the blog vs. those who want to get onto your e-mail newsletter list)?
PHP Question – I hope it is okay to ask an ‘off topic’ PHP question on your blog. If not, I will understand if it gets deleted.
My question – How do you scramble PHP code without using something that requires a descrambler like ioncube? Basically what I am trying to do is obfuscate my PHP code without having to install addition software on a my server.
Can anyone offer a solution? Robert, if you have a product that does this, just tell me which one it is and I will buy it.
Thanks in Advance
Charlie
I agree with DK, Robert.
It is very distracting to see that pop-up there following us as we scroll, even though we are already subscribers. Is there a solution to this?
Also, is this something new you are trying, because I didn’t see it there before? Do you have any results yet?
Hi Robert,
Lovely stuff, as always.
But question… Encouraging comments is a good thing, I know that. But is there a way to impose the html target=”_blank” thing ?
Surprised that website addresses above, take me immediately away from your blog?
All the best
Kevin
Robert,
The increrase in opt-ins you quote for Michel Fortin blog is impressive. That alone should prove your point.
John
Robert,
I appreciate the information. I have bought these tools from you but so far have not had the time to implement them. If I am correct, your tools include videos so I am looking forward to delving into them soon. Your work is great and I really cannot give you too much praise. The prices are very good esp. in light of the utility of each program you provide. We need more guys like you instead of the BSers out there. Best regards, JM
Robert, do you discourage FeedBurner?
I don’t believe your product has an email verification step afterward. I’ve had folks subscribe to my blog but never confirm.
Joe Hage
10 March 2009 02:23:23 Central Daylight Time
Robert,
I despise popups!
I use page curls and they work better, so there smarty.
They are less obnoxious to my and the publics fastidious taste. I track my visitors using phpOpentracker on my main site and you would be surprised to see my list building ability via page curls.
The old fart may be smart but don’t let it go to your head.
Kind regards,
Frank Eckdall
System Administrator
Biochemist
RN Nurse
Foreign M.D.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for that.
“One concern is that, if you have repeat visitors, such as those who come to your site every day, won’t they feel annoyed at always seeing your pop-up?”
There you go, two people feel like that and you can add me to that one too.
This is the biggest problem for any site with regular visitors such as a blog. A good chunk of my visitors are already subscribed to my mailing list, so I don’t really want them to see a pop up again and again and again.
Ideally, a link that says “I’m already subscribed thanks.” or “Don’t show me this again.” that sets a cookie so they don’t get bothered again would be ideal. People can still subscribe if they want to because I have a sign up box in the top right.
As well as Action Comments and a sign up box top right, I’m also testing a new unobtrusive pop-up called Ultimate Footer Ad. It just slides up a thin bar at the bottom of the browser with a sign up box. Very cool and far less bothersome than a floating box or an in-your-face pop-up, while *still* being unmissable.
I think that when Graham Cox officially launches it I’ll be using it on all my sites.
Thanks again for the post.
All the best,
Frank Haywood
I agree with Frank et al, and would venture to go one step further.
I and my partner have bought a number of your products, and I am more than happy with them, however your recent apparent transformation from egotistical programmer (somewhat understandably) to obsessive and arrogant IM’er is a real turn off for me – so much so that I am seriously thinking of “cutting off my nose to spite my face” – not that I think for one moment that you’d give a damn even if you did happen to notice.
It seems to me from your increasingly frequent emails, your demands on your customers and readers, and your apparent disregard for their opinions (other than to milk them for all they’re worth), that the main thing you have succeeded in automating is the process of turning yourself into “one of them”.
I won’t be unsubbing yet because I really do value most of your output, though you may of course choose to do so for me (something I doubt as it might show weakness or vulnerability or your part), and I shall live in hope and eternal optimism that you will see fit to pay slightly more attention to loyal customers and slightly less to building your empire at any price.
Hi Robert,
I like the ability to use one or all of your techniques so you can up to three opportunities to get that email address.
Just one question from me – I have already purchased action popup back in August 2006. Do I get an update with the three plugins included? That would be nice.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Regards
Terry
Great list building tools Robert.
Like a few other comments above I am interested in whether this is pop up system can be adjusted to show every visit/every day/once or something similar.
All The best
Alex
I have to go along with the others that are concerned about repete visitors that have already signed up to my mailing list. I would like to see a way to stop showing the popup to list members.
Hi Robert,
I bought this and am desperate to get it going.
Doesn’t seem to be popping up on my blog though even though I’ve installed it as per the instructions.
I did notice the colour picker graphic in your WordPress back-end screen on your video – I haven’t got that for some reason, could this be anything to do with it?
I’ve installed all the files from the download and am sure I’ve got everything set up as you instructed – any ideas what’s going on?
Hi Robert
Great content, it’s something that everyone should be doing, even though there’s other plugins that do a similar job.
My question would be does it matter what autoresponder you use i.e. are these plugins integrated with aweber?
If they are then it would be best to have the redirect open a new window reminding the lead that they need to double opt-in – you need this or a substantial won’t bother to hit the link in the confirm email.
Keep up the good work
Andrew
Ignore my request to get it to work, I just got it to work like a charm!
Instead of loading the files to my server manually I noticed the new version of WordPress has an option to upload plugins as a zip file, so I just loaded the whole thing in that way and it now works.
Couldn’t be happier.
Hi Robert,
I do agree having the same pop-up constantly show up for people who visit your blog may get annoying. Maybe having some sort of cookie set that would only show the pop-up once per xx days. I use such a system on my site and I find my members appreciate my attempt to make the site more visitor friendly.
Thanks for your wise words once again.
-Kenny
Robert,
you need to respond to the blog comments…
or i’ll never, ever, ever comment on any blog post, anywhere, ever again.
You’ve been Planked!
lol… Anyone else notice….
no pop-up this time (at least, not for me!) he he
So you do actually read them, Robert.
Robert is busy partying with Jason. 😀
(I don’t blame him… 30k months make me party too!)
Hi Robert
I just finished reading Time Management on Crack. Great Report! I’m interested in your three products for comments, sidebar and optin but don’t have an autoresponder yet for my blogs which are less than two months old and with around 17 blogs each. So very little traffic at this stage.
Any advice on autoresponders appreciated. I have no tech or code knowledge, use wordpress and need something as easy as possible to implement so I don’t #### it up. So every thing needs to be dead easy or I’m dead in the water.
Thanks
Christine
PS Did I mention it was a GREAT Report?
What’s going on Robert, you can’t be bothered with your own customers and site visitors?
I just purchased your Action PopUp package for $27.00 USD. I can’t seem to get it working so I came here looking for anything that might help me figure out the problem.
So far you have 24 comments and questions in 13 days and you haven’t replied a single time. I can’t find any contact info at all on the entire site.
I thought perhaps you were on vacation or something but I see you have posted and replied on other posts in the time. I’m struggling not to judge too quickly but, WOW, I’m amazed at the lack of customer service and bad blogging etiquette.
Please don’t be one of those marketers giving our niche a bad name. I hope I’m wrong and it’s just a mistake, glitch or something.
Brian, you purchased just this weekend and only e-mailed me 5 hours ago. I don’t handle customer support on weekends. I answer all my emails and I’ll get right to you during the week.
Brian, your comments are very premature
@Rob; Yours perhaps more so, since you appear neither to have read the entire thread, nor realised that Brian’s comment applies to the entire thread.
Furthermore neither you nor Robert appear to have noticed that he does not actually say that he expected an immediate personal reply to his support request…
It seems to me that his main point lies herein;
[quote]So far you have 24 comments and questions in 13 days and you haven’t replied a single time. I can’t find any contact info at all on the entire site.[/quote]
I would add that I am not judging the issue, merely attempting to clarify it.
there is an email at the bottom of every page: jx@jumpx.com
Cheers
Rob
I’d like to apologize to Robert for my earlier comment. Rob is correct, there is contact info at the bottom of each page. I hadn’t noticed it before.
As far as not replying to comments it’s not for me to tell someone how to run their blog and it was unprofessional for me to leave that type of message on his blog.
I have received an email from Robert and I’m sure we can work it out.
noticed a few people are worried about over hitting visitors with this popup, when i setup mine i found in the settings that you can set how many times you want it to show, and once your visitor does subscribe they no longer see your popup unless they clear their cookies
here is some code from the config:
// Show the popup X number of times — even if they don’t subscribe?
// Set to “0” to keep showing the popup until they subscribe.
// It is HIGHLY recommended you keep this at 0.
$actionLimit = “0”;
so if you set this to 3 it will only show 3 times etc, I currently have this set to 0, as it is non obtrusive and does not stop visitors leaving the site, therefore it will always popup on exit until they subscribe, but once subscribed they will not see it any longer.
Hope this helps some of you.
@Frank Eckdall
You despise popups but like your site design?
Front Page has a lot to answer for! :p
@Rob – lol, was that bitchy or have I just started being judgmental?
Or both?
no, it was bitchy i suppose, but when you see a signature such as:
Frank Eckdall
System Administrator
Biochemist
RN Nurse
Foreign M.D.
and the comments he made, i expected his site to be somewhat spectacular and found quite the opposite.
the corner peel also had no method to promote sign-ups?
Bought this to be used as a wordpress plugin, watched the cideo on youtube and thought great – exactly what i need. Howver, when i installed it on my own blog half the options were missing – I couldnt control the effects etc.
Feel Ripped Off!!!
stuff like this generally comes down to incorrect installation, or maybe you didnt upload all of the plugin
what bit do you think is missing, what option is not there?
I cant control the effects of the plugin, bounce etc. and the layout is different from the video.
Everything that is there seems to work fine.
Would like to get this working asap – if the options are there
i reinstalled it
all i get is the common settings
lightbox color
trigger
size and position reccurence delay
clickbank
thank you message and url
@Ripped Off: Did you actually e-mail me about this? This blog isn’t a support forum…
The effects were in an older version, but they didn’t work on all blogs and they didn’t increase conversions that much so I removed them.
I would rather have a functional popup that displays correctly out of the box than have one extra fancy effect.
Please, e-mail me and show me a URL where you are setting this up. My e-mail address is jx@jumpx.com which is at the bottom of all web pages including the contact form on http://www.actionpopup.com
have emailed you, robert. please lets get this sorted.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Appreciate the info guys, thanks
Robert, we love the ability to use “Disable the popup on this page?” in WordPress for each “post”, but this does not seem to be available for “pages”. We have various sites with WordPress forum plug-ins that are in protected member areas that we would prefer to “not” have the pop-up appear. Next version?
Leon McKee
Robert, my bad! I found the option to “Disable the popup on this page?” on “pages”. I’m not sure how I missed it, but it was located in a different position on our test site and I missed it. Thanks for your efforts!
Leon McKee
Can someone tell me how to set Action Comments so the default for the “subscribe” checkmark is off?
There isn’t an option to do so on the Action Comments configuration page, yet I can see the checkbox below the comment on this page isn’t checked, which is what I’m looking for.
Hi Robert,
Are you getting my emails? Still seem to be having a problem with Action Popup.
Is anyone else having a problem with this? After getting it to work really nicely it just suddenly stopped working 🙁
Neither my blog designer or support desk seem to be able to resolve the issue, despite lots of testing.
best thing to do is just install another copy of wordpress in another folder and see if it works on that one.
I have it working on both a wordpress blog and joomla cms site without problems.
Dear Robert,
From what I have seen from this plugin is in my own opinion (obtrusive). I see this on many websites and to say without a doubt it puts a bad taste in my mouth.
And apparently some of your readers feel the same way.
In a Quote from: John Edgley,
“It seems to me from your increasingly frequent emails, your demands on your customers and readers, and your apparent disregard for their opinions (other than to milk them for all they’re worth), that the main thing you have succeeded in automating is the process of turning yourself into “one of them”.
I see this with too many marketers, especially those who try and shove every program under the sun to there subscribers.
What ever happened to catering to your customers needs? What happened to asking your customers what they want, instead of trying to force them something they don’t need?
I believe in my own opinion that we have learned to be obtrusive, arrogant, uncaring and a whole slew of other words I will not list here for the sake of offending others in this post (you guys know who you are)for the sake of the Almighty Dollar.
We have literally stepped outside of the box so much, that we lose sight of relationship building, building trust, and thriving on compassionate needs of others.
What are we turning into?
Let’s all quit bombarding our subscribers, and ask questions, get involved with them, build trust, build relationships.
If we do this, though it takes alot longer, the money will come.
Timothy Caron
Timothy,
It’s not an all or nothing situation. You can control how often the popup appears so that you’ll only popup when people are about to leave anyway, or only show up once a month.
In any case, once you opt-in, the popup stays hidden until you clear cookies. I’ve done my best to make it as unobtrusive as possible.
As far as marketing to that list, I ask questions all the time. Heck, I just sent an e-mail like that on Monday asking what people want. And every time I do a webinar, I ask my list what they want in that class, and get about 100 written responses which kills about 4 hours of my time to read through, but it allows me to pull out the juicy hooks for the sales letter that people really want.
And even when I promote affiliate offers… which is about 5 times a year tops… I always throw in a webinar or custom bonus to make it personal.
So Tim, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And if you noticed John said he didn’t unsubscribe. I always blend the content and the pitch, it’s never 100% of either but if you don’t like those e-mails you can do one of two things… eventually vote “no” by unsubscribing or eventually vote “yes” by accepting an offer.
How big is your list and how profitable is it, Timothy?
There’s always an unsubscribe button.
I personally would rather people who complain that I mail them TOO OFTEN with products I’ve spent my cold hard sweat equity creating and developing into a killer deal get off my list immediately, then change my business.
I mail a lot. I have a lot of valuable stuff to say. I promote my products to my list all the time. Because I think it would be unethical to NOT do so.
My case studies and testimonials confirm this to me. If I don’t make you an offer that could benefit you far beyond the price you have to pay me, then I’m doing you a disservice.
People are either good at being successful or whining. But never good at both. Pick one.
Dear Robert,
Timothy here again in response to your comment.
What I was mainly stating was John’s Quote on the amount of emails sent, and your use of the pop script that you have installed on this website.
Currently I am quite satisfied with my list, which is mainly via an RSS Feed which is what I encourage my viewers to do. And my current RSS Subscriber base as of this morning April 28th, 2009 is 26,283.
Even though I also encourage my readers to post there comments, they optin to use my contact form. Which to me is just as good. This way I can give personal attention to my readers.
They ask questions of me and I respond with a post that may answer that question. And I only promote affiliate offers if my readers are trying to find something they need for there business, or something that will help them solve a particular problem.
That’s just may way of doing things and it has done very well for me.
Timothy Caron
Hi
It seems not to work in IE which 80% of my visitors use?
It works fine in Firefox though…
I get this error in IE and no pop up?
Sally
Webpage error details
User Agent: Opera/9.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en; Trident/4.0; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1) )
Timestamp: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:54:33 UTC
Message: Object doesn’t support this property or method
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.robertplank.com/wp-content/plugins/action-optin/actionoptin.php
If that is your error it would seem you need to update some paths as that should not point to Robert Planks site it should be pointing at your own.
This was an error I got from this site.
I am using the lates version 8 IE maybe it’s a microsoft bug?
Sally
I love listbuilding and finding ways to bring good content to my subscribers, thanks for this post it was good.
Cheers
Tom