And god it feels good! It’s like I’m on some kind of frenzied writing drug that’s given me wild zombie hair and a crazed look in my eye. I’m rampaging my way through non-fiction books faster than I can sift through Bloggers Bash nominations. I’m devouring articles, publications, magazines and anything else I can lay my chubby mitts on. (book recommendations welcome  – leave them in the comments)

Before the year is out I will have to make the choice as to which path I’m to follow. At the moment I’m 60/40 indie/attempting trad. *shrugs* maybe I’ll try the hybrid thing. Either way, I still need to know everything I can about marketing. Without those skills I can kiss goodbye to anyone other than Mumsy and the Wife buying my book.

I’ve been trying different methods to boost my subscriber list and these two methods, over a two week test period, have produced a 114% increase in NEW subscribers. Yeah really. 114% increase in NEW subscribers compared to the previous two weeks.

Now’s probably a good time to *cough* demand mention that if you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, which is jam packed full of writerly resources, then you can do so here, the next one is due out next week.

So what are these whip-your-knickers-off-awesome methods I’m referring to?

ONE – STICKY POSTS

Is it just me, or does that sound rank? Sticky is in the same category of ‘cringe inducing’ as the words moist and clammy.

What is a sticky post? Let me remove that cotton wool confusion and explain.

If you go to my home page the first post you see, will always be the same: SIGN UP NOW FOR FREE, EXCLUSIVE WRITING TIPS & NEWS

Sticky means, a post, whichever one you choose, will be sellotaped in wordpress’ finest duct tape to your front page forever more (unless you remove it). No matter how many new posts you publish your sticky post will always be the first thing people see.

Why is this a good thing when you want people to see your newest blog post?

Well, because the best form of marketing (other than paid adverts) is by email. EVERYthing I have read to date uses the argument that any other form of marketing you do, can be ignored. Think about it. How often do you see posters or Facebook adds and roll your heavy eyes and scroll on? I’m betting, if you even saw the add in the first place, most of you will have scrolled on by.

But, lets say I personally send you an email, from my email address… would you delete it without opening it? I’m not sure I want the answer to that. But I am willing to bet that most of you would at least open it to see if I had anything interesting to say.

And that’s the key. Advertising, particularly paid advertising is impersonal. Sure it reaches thousands, but it isn’t a personal call to arms. There’s nothing stopping you from swatting the irritating advert off your page like a dead fly. But when someone sends you a personal email. Well now that’s 1:1 marketing. That’s me, sending you, a personal email. Think about it.

So use sticky posts to draw new readers to your most important message. If you don’t want a subscriber list, try putting a sticky post about your books up there.

TWO – POP UPs

When WordPress brought out the new feature Pop up feature, I nearly did a wee I was so excited. See originally, only website users who were self hosted through WordPress could have pop ups.

By pop up, I mean the box that ‘pops up’ in the middle of a website when you land on a home page. The box usually says, ‘buy this’ or ‘subscribe now’. It’s usually in the middle of the screen and unless you click out you can no longer move through the article.

It’s annoying. I know it is. It bugs the shit out of me having to repeatedly click off boxes when I go to my fave bloggers websites. BUT. I cannot deny the effectiveness of said boxes and so, I forgive them!

To create this magical wonder tool, you need to find the pop up widget in your widgets section.

WordPress have created a brand new ‘Mailchimp pop up’ widget especially for Mailchimp users.

To get it working, you need to fill out the ‘pop up’ form in your sign up section on Mailchimp then copy the code it gives you into the widget box back in wordpress. Hey presto! You have a pop up.

The beauty of the WordPress widget is it tracks by cookie or some other stalkerish method. Which means only new visitors will see the pop up. Repeat visitors will not, so you can rest easy knowing you won’t irritate your friends and regulars.

The benefit of using these methods is that you will most assuredly see an increase in sign ups. Some authors claim as much as a 1000% increase. I can’t claim that. In my first two weeks I had 114% increase in new sign ups which is more than amazing enough for me. It also convinces me that this method works.

Want even more FREE exclusive writing tips straight to your mailbox? Sign up for my glittery* newsletter right here. (*electronic glitter only)

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