Challenge Yourself to Start an Email List
31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Ten
I know. I know. You hate the idea of marketing or promoting. You don’t even want to think about building a platform. It all makes your stomach hurt.
But here’s the thing: an email list is an author’s most powerful tool.
Book marketing guru Tim Grahl says that an email list should be the main platform for any author. (If you haven’t read his book, Your First 1000 Copies, I can’t recommend it highly enough.)
Bottom line, the best time to start building that list is five years ago. Second best time? Today.
So today, we’re going to get started with that.
Figure Out Where You’ll Keep Your List
I use ConvertKit to manage my email list. If you have a little money to invest in this part of your business, ConvertKit is amazing. Of all the things to spend writing-business funds on, a good email server is high on my list. Like number one.
ConvertKit is super simple to use, the people who run it are amazing, and it’s just got a lovely interface that even a techie-black-thumb like me can’t screw up. They just added a ton of new landing pages and when I tell you that I was able to figure out how to use them by myself, then you know they’re super user friendly.
If you don’t want to or can’t spend any money right now, you can start at Mail Chimp, which has a limited free option.
If the idea of an email server overwhelms you right now, you can also just open your notebook and start writing down a list of emails. But I would really like for you to get signed up with either ConvertKit or Mail Chimp today. Or another service, if you’d like.
It won’t take you more than a few minutes.
And then, go out and get your first email subscribers.
First, ask someone you know if they’d like to be on your list. It can be your mom. Your best friend. Just tell them that you’re building an email list and ask if they’d like to be on it.
Next, copy this:
Hey, Ninjas! My name is __________ and I’m writing a _______________ book about _____________. If that’s your thing, would you like to be on my mailing list?
Here’s what mine would look like:
Hey, Ninjas! My name is Shaunta and I’m writing a Robin Hood retelling that’s set in modern Las Vegas. If that’s your thing, would you like to be on my mailing list?
And then post it on our Facebook group. We don’t normally allow this kind of direct marketing in our group, but just for today (May 10, 2019), we’re excited to see it. A bunch of people are going to be posting something similar. When you see a Ninja writing something that peaks your interest, contact them. Trade email addresses with them.
I think that you can get your first ten email subscribers today. I know for sure you can get at least one.
Both ConvertKit and Mail Chimp have a way for you to make pages where people can go to fill out a form to get on your list. (That’s the landing page I was talking about earlier.) Do that, if you’re up for it and can figure it out. Teaching you how is beyond the scope of this post. For now, it’s okay to just collect the email address and manually input it into your brand spanking new email server.
If you want a deeper dive into email list building, you can sign up for our mini email course on how to set up and use Convertkit in conjunction with Medium to start building an email list.
ASSIGNMENT TEN:
Head over to either ConvertKit or Mail Chimp (or, somewhere else) and get set up for an email server account.
Collect your first email, but really — aim for at least ten. If you already have an email list with more than ten names on it? Get ten more!
Post your request on Facebook. Respond to some other requests. It’s going to be an email party over there! I. Can’t. Wait.
Sign up for our free mini-course about building an email list, if you want to.
We have a new Facebook Page. Come like it!
Don’t forget to read and write for ten minutes each.
Read all of the challenges in this series here:
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Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the original Ninja Writer.
