Most of you will know I haven’t been in touch for a few weeks due to an onslaught of final year university exams.
Three down now with just one to go, so I’m having a little break from studying and producing this blog post instead.
In this post I’ll be sharing a strategy I’ve used to passively add new subscribers while barely lifting a finger.
It’s not added thousands of subscribers (yet) but it will continue to add hundreds of subscribers at an increasing rate for many weeks, months and years into the future.
Let’s get into it…
While I’ve not been able to get into any hard core marketing during this exam period such as recruting JV partners, producing content etc, I have been able to perform “maintenance” tasks in one of the niche markets I operate in – the health market.
For those of you who aren’t aware, I own a health blog.
I’ve had it for about 3 years but never put a great deal of effort into it. I’ve never actively built backlinks, I’ve just published a few articles to EzineArticles and sporadically published new content when I could be bothered.
About two months ago I decided to take it a bit more seriously.
I found a writer who could produce quality content for me and I researched a few keyphrases that I could get to rank well.
I’ve never focussed on picking keywords before. I just write about what I think my readers would be interested in.
Anyway, I found a few interesting keywords that related to specific oils for growing hair.
I decided there was enough search volume to warrant me commissioning my new writer to produce a 1,000 word article which shared the top 10 of those oils with a brief overview of each specific oil.
I also hired her to produce a 400-500 word article for each specific hair growth oil.
The total cost was $120.
From the main “Top 10″ article I would link to each specific article and from each specific article I would link back to the “Top 10″ article.
I’m no SEO genius, but I assumed that would help with increasing my ranking.
Anyway, I published the “Top 10″ article on April 6th and finished publishing each specific article by April 13th.
In fact, let me share the articles with you… (How many marketers do that?)
Here’s the Top 10 article…
The Top 10 Best Oils For Hair Growth
And here’s one of the specific articles…
Olive Oil For Hair Growth
You can see the rest of the individual articles from the Top 10 one.
After a few days I started to notice some considerable traffic arriving from the search engines for some of the keywords I was targeting. (I’ve got a screenshot in a minute.)
On April 13th (the day all of the articles were published) I received 136 pageviews in 24 hours for those 11 articles and that rose to 402 page views in a 24 hour period on the 19th.
That was the peak, but I’m still getting approximately 180-200 unique pageviews for those articles every single day.
I’ve made a couple of new “Hair Growth” posts that aren’t linked from the main article, but have included in the number of pageviews.
Take a look at the screenshot below for proof. Not all of the pages have been included in the below image because I couldn’t fit them all on the screen. Click the image to see a larger view.
Once I noticed the significant traffic I was getting I wanted a better way to monetize the content aside from Amazon affiliate links.
So I decided to build a list…
I set up a new list in my Aweber account, created a super simple webform encouraging visitors to enter their email address for updates and placed it at the bottom of each of the articles. It took about 20 minutes.
That was 33 days ago now, and while the number of subscribers hasn’t been flooding in – I am experiencing a constant trickle that all adds up.
And it will continue to grow as my traffic increases (which it will do) and as I optimize the opt-in form and make it more prominent on the page.
My Aweber account suggests that my webform has been displayed 4,832 times and that I have a sign up rate of 6.1%.
That gives me a total of 295 subscribers, but because a proportion haven’t confirmed their email address I actually have 212 subscribers in my Aweber account.
That’s 212 subscribers completely passively in just over a month. And that’s going to happen every month. In fact it’s going to increase every month.
It will increase because I will…
1. Actively generate new backlinks. (Using John Rhodes’ Iron Fist Backlinks)
2. Pubish new articles to do with hair growth, hair loss and hair care. Here’s an example of one I’ve already added that wasn’t included in the Top 10:
Argan Oil For Hair Growth
3. Tweak and optimize the opt-in form to raise the current 6.1% opt-in rate.
I identified 30 target keywords to try and hit number one in Google with this hair growth series. I’m currently only on top spot for one of the keywords.
Most are hovering around 6/7 position and a fair few are yet to reach page one.
Just imagine how much traffic and how many subscribers I can generate with a few boosts in search engine ranking.
And I’ll be using John Rhodes’ Iron Fist Backlinks guide to help me get new backlinks and rocket up the search engines.
Click Here To Check It Out
This might seem like a lot of effort. After all, you could just create a 100 word squeeze page, upload it and convert 50% of visitors rather than 6.1% – but you’ll NEVER be able to get the amount of passive, free traffic from the search engines as this strategy produces.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this content. I’ve enjoyed writing it. It’s certainly better than studying for an exam on Social Cognition!
I’ll be back with more good stuff in a week or so hopefully.
Before you go, if you’ve found value in this post, please share it with your friends and associates using the sharing buttons below.
Thanks,
James Penn
Leave a Reply
05/21/2011
Fantastic Article James!
Very detailed as always, nice work. Glad to hear that you’re soon finished with all the school work and I wish you the best of luck in your final exam!:)
Looking forward to your next post.
Rock On!
Joachim
Great stuff, James. It’s because of content like this that I’m not sending you to my “marketers” folder but, instead, to my inbox. Thanks.
Awesome post James! You are one of the few marketers that I read constantly because you provide real value, and you also practice what you preach.
Thanks,
Jack
Hi James,
Awesome post!! I have looked for an explanation like this for ages, it tells you litterally everything there is to know to start with.
Good luck with your exams and I hope you will succeed with that too.
Thanks
Rudolphus
I always look forward to your emails. They’re like Easter, July 4 (in the US) and Christmas rolled into one.
gary
You’ve really outdone yourself, James, with this great practical post. I always look forward to opening your emails and hope to share my successes with you. Thanks so much!
Very cool! I also have been playing with such strategies. I love seeing your results, as I know that I too could implement what you have done. Thanks for sharing! -Norene
Hey James,
Good tip! I like how you have manipulated the search engines to send you more subscribers! That’s good stuff! It gives me a good idea to apply this to my own blog and other niches I’m in…
Cheers,
Coby Wright
Hi Coby
It’s important to note that I’m not “manipulating” the search engines. I know you probably don’t mean it in that way – but manipulating the search engines will NEVER work. At least not for long anyway.
Good content has always, and will always, come first.
James
I want to make sure I understand what you are doing. You are interlinking the pages on your blog correct? You did the main post top 10 hair oils, and then wrote numerous other articles and as they are published on your blog you linked back from the newly published article to your top ten hair oil article. Which I am guessing is your money page?
I could just be having a blond moment, I just want to make sure I understood.
I also have a Psychology degree, and a Masters in Psychology. So you know how we are, we are so busy trying to figure out the behavior, we can’t see the for the trees.
Great information, If I understand it correctly.
All the Best,
Peggy
James,
I have been a subscriber for well over a year,having a file of most of the info you have released.
You are up there with Marlon Sanders, Jason Fladlien, and Lee McIntyre who go out of their way to help people.
You guys are a credit to the business!
Thank’s
Ray
Glad I read your post – I did some keyword research in this very subject a few weeks ago when looking at ideas for niche sites, and now you’ve reminded me, I might get back to it. GW.
Hi James
Another incredible post! How you many to get subscribers-passively as well-and complete university studies is amazing and inspiring… Can’t wait to see what you can achieve when university work is out of the way!
Owen
Hi James,
Great content as always! It’s always a pleasure to be on your list. Keep the good stuff coming!
AWESOME!!
Thanks for everything you send and recommend.
Thanks, this has given me a bit of a kick to get some more articles written and put an opt-in form on my new blog.
Hey James,
Very good! I learned a lot from this article. You have a good idea. Thank you and good luck further!