Here are notes I took on how to grow our email subscriber list from 900 to 12,000 (by Chad Carson). This seminar was extremely helpful in understanding the strategies Chad used himself that created spikes in his traffic and subscriber counts. In this post I’ll also reveal the numbers he revealed to us during his seminar. Disclaimer: While all attempts are made to present correct information, there is a chance I’ve written notes incorrectly!
How to Grow Your Email Subscriber List (FinCon Notes 2019)
Chad Carson started his blog in end of 2013. Here are some of his key statistics during his blogging journey.
Key Statistics in 2015
Subscribers – 951 subscribers
Page views – 51,353
January – 1,474 (beginning of the month numbers)
December – 24,972 (end of month numbers)
Key Statistics in 2016
Subscribers – 1,955
Page views: 89,179
January – 7,800
December – 9,375
Key Statistics in 2017
Subscribers – 5,943
Page views – 404,846
January – 47,255
December – around 36,000
Key Statistics in 2018
Subscribers – 6389
Page views – 586,411
January – 49,162
December – 66,326
Key Statistics in 2019 (50% of the way there)
Subscribers – 13,579
Page views – 619,050
January – 89,637
December – Not December yet!
Chad’s Journey from 2009 – 2015 (Pre-FinCon)
Practiced his craft
- Speaking & teaching locally
- Coaching
- Writing/creating a LOT
Active in his online niche
- Comments & forums
- Guest posts
- Podcast guest (biggerpockets)
Captured email:
- He was only capturing emails through two ways: clipboard / pen / paper at events
- He was also offering a free website content upgrade to subscribers.
The Journey from 1,000 – 12,000+ Email Subscribers
Strategies he used to build traffic (which led to more email sign ups):
- Guest posting on other blogs – did a lot of collaborations!
- Becoming a guest on other podcasts
- Created great content
- Google Search
- Curation sites – Content curation – instead of writing the article yourself, you can talk about the top 5 articles in the financial space that you loved that week, which you would post on your own site.
Strategies for growing his email list:
- Improved email capture – adding more and better content upgrades. Created specific giveaways per page.
- Switched from Mailchimp to ConvertKit, where he was able to give away a free course – 7 days of content through email.
- He currently has around 12 opt-ins, but his top 3 opt-ins bring in about 70-80% of his emails.
- Chad sends a newsletter every Tuesday morning to stay engaged with his audience.
- Chad has a landing page that tells you what to do after your enter your email
Monetization:
- 2009 – 2015 = coaching
- 2016-2017 = not much!
- 2018 – 2019+ = online courses
- He has 1 course that opens and closes twice per year.
Challenge for you:
- Build your email list
- Use it to do what matters
Conclusion
I really liked this seminar at FinCon because Chad was transparent about his statistics and what caused spikes in his growth. Seeing his screen shots made me realize how much guest post collaborations help. I’ve always focused more on pushing out content consistently, but I can see how collaborations can help you skyrocket your traffic to get your email subscribers (not just for the link juice)! You’re able to capture other influencers’ audiences which can bring you followers quickly.
Hope you enjoy this post on how to grow your email subscriber list. If you have feedback let me know in the comments!
