This is a pretty detailed answer for that!

15 List Building & List Engagement Ideas:

List Building Ideas:

1. Guest Blog – You’ve heard it before but it needs to be here. It works. Start approaching people you’ve bought from or are fans of and offer them valuable content. See what happens!
   
2. Giveaway Events – Historically one of my absolute favorite ways to build my list. I have grown by dozens to hundreds at a time this way.
   
3. Free Signup – Offer something super valuable to your people on your website, ideally front and center like my Digital Marketer’s Planner, to build your list as you build your traffic.
   
4. Blog – While I’ve not seen much results with a form in the sidebar of my blog, it doesn’t hurt to add it and it’s super easy. You may want to get a great plugin or use the features of your email provider (like ConvertKit which has a plugin to add forms to your blog) to get the forms throughout your blog and not just in the sidebar.
   
5. In Content – Add links to your forms EVERYWHERE you write content! I’m talking in blog posts, in personal emails, on social media and in your freebie reports, checklists, templates, etc, etc, etc.
   
6. Facebook – Are you utilizing your Facebook Pages & Groups to link to your free offer? The description of your group is a great place to link to your free offer to build your list. Also, add a link in the description of your COVER images as people could very well click on those and read… especially if you put “click here for something awesome” or some better call to action.
   
7. Free Challenges – I detailed how to do this in this post. It’s something you can do through your own email autoresponder or through a Facebook group. I’ve added dozens to hundreds of new people at a time to my list with this method.
   
8. Joint Bundle Offers – Occasionally you will find an offer to give one of your products away as a participant of a group bundle (sometimes called a “fire sale”). When you do this, you won’t make much or any money because the person hosting the bundle collects the profits. What you can get are email sign-ups. I recommend you set it up so that you have people opt-in to get their product, if possible. If that’s not possible, put an opt-in offer for something important immediately inside the product. See my course on this here – Build your list with bundle sales
   
9. Give a Product to a Related Business – Another fun and interesting way I built my list was to offer a valuable product for free to a friend. I did this for my friend who owned a membership site. She added my free product to her member’s area and sent people regularly to me. This can be as simple as offering a blurb, a graphic and a coupon code for a free product to someone you trust.
   
10. Giveaway a Product on Your Own Blog – Something that also worked really well for me was to give a product away on my blog. I would create a post telling people they would need to READ my salespage for the product and then post why they wanted that product. I’d get about 100 entries every time I did this and I promoted it throughout my social media as well as asked affiliates to promote it. The key to building my list was that when people commented, they were added to my list. There was a little check box next to the comment button that they could uncheck to not subscribe, but most people wanted on my list to find out if they won!
    
11. Participate on Podcasts – If you go to podcasts with a core message and a free offer to match, you can easily ask your podcast host to link to that freebie. To add value for them, you can even give them an affiliate link to your freebie. Quick and easy list-builder!
    
12. Host a Webinar – Hosting webinars, by it’s very nature, is a list-builder. Set up an opt-in, use a program like Zoom to get your webinar link, set a date and off you go!
    
13. Host a Giveaway – Instead of joining one, you can be the host! You’ll get way more people on your list if everyone is joining you to do a group giveaway over you being one person joining a giveaway hosted by someone else. I’ve never done this but it’s on my list to do this year.
    
14. Host a Bundle Offer – Similar to a giveaway but it’s one where people submit their products, not just freebie offers. You host it, you get the leads and the sales. Of course you’ll pay the people who promote a handsome affiliate commission for sending their people to the bundle!
    
15. Maximize Your Profile – Are you linking to your free offer in the link allowed in most profiles on social media? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, all allow you to link… don’t just link to your website. Link to your free offer to get more leads.
    
16. Do An Exchange With a Friend – Do you know someone in a similar industry? Do an exchange to build lists mutually. Either you email for them and they email for you or you can blog for them (with a direct form embedded in YOUR blog post) and they blog for you (same deal). This can work great because you are using the trust that person has earned with their market.
    
17. Add a Link in Your Email Signature – You regularly are emailing people who are probably not on your email list. This could be friends, colleagues, potential customers. These are people you’ve been establishing a relationship with… make sure they see your opt-in offer!
    
18. Blog Comments – No matter what you’ve heard, blogging is not dead. There are some VERY active blogs out there and you can go, contribute great value in the comments and link to your related, free offer. Be strategic about this by looking up relevant blogs to comment on that also reach your target market.
    
19. Have LOTS of free offers – A big mistake people can make is to think you need just ONE freebie that you do a one-time effort to promote. This is so far from a good way to build your list. You want to have lots and lots of offers, and be constantly reinventing, adding and then removing outdated stuff. You need to shop yourself around to many places and see what kind of results you can get and where. This gives you variety and creates more interest!
    
    See my courses on list-building here: Lifestyle Freedom & Email Courses
    
    
    List Engagement Ideas:
    
20. Free Offers to Your List – Some of the absolute most opens and clicks I get are when I give my list subscribers MORE free value. So it’s like I’m inviting them to join my list, again, almost. By re-engaging them in this way I can share more offers, get them on board and knowing what I have of value and keep building the relationship with them.
    
21. Share Something Personal – I know when people here this and they’re resistant they say something like “but I’m a private person”. It’s totally OK if you’re a private person… you can actually get personal without getting “personal”. You can say how you feel about Spring and new beginnings, or you can talk about your dog and why you love him to be around and how having a pet is great for work at home people. I have LOTS more examples and I believe you absolutely can master this skill, even as an introvert. I share all the details in my program, ​Email for a Living​ << check there for more on this.
    
22. Remind Them WHY You’re Emailing – People become disengaged when they don’t really get the point, or what you’re saying isn’t resonating with them. When you share your why and why it should be, or could be, important to them you can remind them why you’re doing what you do and why they signed up with you in the first place.
    
23. Encourage Them to Email YOU – You can send many emails that invite your subscriber to respond to you. Ask them what their business is about, ask them what they need help with, ask them what they think of the email you just sent. Tell them you LEGIT want to hear from them. Start getting responses and you start building much more solid relationships with your subscribers!

So there you have it. As I said this is going to be my reference for those who want to know what to do for their email marketing efforts.

If you don’t have a software program to add your emails to, I recommend you use ​Kit​. It’s the email system I use and that will allow you to collect emails through a form when you set up your freebie list-builder. Plus, there are so many other features that help you do effective marketing, that you may want to use as your business grows.

You should NOT do all of these at once and you should NOT just pick the easy ones. Pick what you can do now, plan what you can do later and work away at the ones that produce you results. Not all methods work for all people in all situations so you’ll need to experiment and find the best ones for you. This list, however, should give you plenty to start with a great number of ideas on what direction to go in!

Hope that helps!

Angela

The post 23 List Building & List Engagement Strategy Ideas appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

• I don’t know what to say
• I haven’t emailed in so long they will be upset
• They’re going to unsubscribe if it’s not good enough
• I don’t have anything to offer

These are not reasons to not email your list and you’re giving yourself excuses.

It’s time to Just Hit Send on that email marketing email.

You can send VALUE and tell people about what you sell all in one email.

You have something to say. You wouldn’t be running a business if you didn’t. And if you truly, truly can’t find anything to say then it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re offering and why.

After that little motivational talk if you’re still feeling unsure about hitting send then maybe you need some help in these areas:

Set Up Your Email List

Is your list properly set up so you know the right people are getting your emails?

I send most emails to both my customers and non-customers but I do have tags for both so I can make sure the right people see the right messages when needed.

For the technical part of it I send one broadcast. Easy.

Make Email Marketing Simple

There are a LOT of complicated email marketing processes being taught out there.

I’ve seen funnels that would make a grown man cry, lol!

Seriously. As an ADHD mom who wants to LIVE LIFE “aint’ nobody got time for that”.

I send ONE EMAIL A DAY to most of the 2500+ people on my email list.

That email is meant to appeal to MOST of the people on the list!

And it’s meant to appeal to the brand new subscriber and the long-time subscriber.

This is highly do-able and much more simple than crazy segmenting, massive funnels and a list of to-dos that mean you NEVER hit send on anything.

Talk About What You Know

Most of my customers already have a business where they know their stuff.

Start creating a list of topics that come up with clients or that you’ve done to help people. Start thinking about the problems you solve, the things you teach and start talking about those things.

Don’t tell me you don’t know what to say to an email list. Say something useful. ANYTHING useful. Then say something else the next day.

I KNOW you can do that!

Speak from Your Core Values

I teach how to build your email list and connect with your readers through core values. When you know what’s important to you at a values level and you speak from that then you’ll draw in the most engaged readers ever!

Learn more about that here: Core Message Marketing

Whatever you do … Just. Hit. Send.

You got this!

The post Just Hit Send on Your Email Marketing Emails appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

Beyond that you’ll learn the following:

• How to choose a good business bundle to participate in – what to look for in bundle sale hosts, too!
• Making sure you follow up with the email list that you build through the bundle so that you create community and get sales. These are your people – you need to know how to connect with them!
• Unexpected benefits of participating in a business bundle sale.
• What is included in my BC Stack Bonus – and there’s a lot!

Building your list with bundles is a great way to find so many benefits. Not only do you collaborate with other smart and successful business owners but you also get to see a sneak peek at their businesses.

This is a big learning experience for a low-cost of just buying the bundle. I did this many times over as I was growing my own email list and found that I learned so much just by participating in the process of joining the bundle. Being part of this kind of team effort is a powerful thing. It gets your name out there in bigger ways than you could do alone. It showcases you as an expert.

My biggest tip, though, is NEVER try to learn from all the offers in a bundle this big. Pick a few people or a few products you can learn from and leave the rest!

Inside BC Stack is my training ThriveCart Kickstart. You will also get a bonus of $100 coupon code to use on any of my products here.

The post BC Stack Business Bundle – My Bonuses & How to List-Build appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

This once a year online business courses collaboration runs from June 8th to 14th – seven days only. It’s only $59 for 50 FULL PRODUCTS. My product alone sells for $75.

What is BC Stack?

We call it a collaboration. That means as business owners we work together to deliver a “stack” of products. BC stands for Blogging Concentrated which is the name of the company hosting the “stack”.

Over 50 business owners get together to contribute their high quality product to the bundle. I usually create a brand new product for this collaboration because it’s special. Rachel and Dan Miller are the amazing hosts who are successful business owners in their own right.

The create the stack sales page, they host it on their site, they give us affiliate links and they run an incredible affiliate contest.

BC Stack 2026 – My Bonuses

Many affiliates offer bonuses for business BC Stack through their link. I have a stack of bonuses for you!

Here are my bonuses:

1. Get $100 Course Credit to use on ANY products – buy one, get a $100 off or buy as many as you want that add up to $100.
2. BC Stack 2025 AND 2026 Behind the Scenes – How I promote as an affiliate (in 2025 I earned over $1k in affiliate commissions).
3. FREE Build Your List with Bundles class ($45 value)
4. FREE Unbreakable Mindset course ($125 value), because you’re gonna need a great mindset to business build!

Here’s a video about BC Stack and bundles:

Why Buy BC Stack 2026?

There’s always something new to learn! BC Stack has a focus on online business building this year – the things we need to grow a solid foundation. Whether it’s through AI, automation, efficiency or something else… you’re going to find some incredible training on building your business, I have no doubt.

Is BC Stack Reputable?

This is NOT a bunch of crappy content. This is high quality and the BC Stack community contains top online business owners with top reputations.

BC Stack is now in it’s 12th year. I’ve participated in many of these collaborations including the first year.

This collaboration draws some very impressive participants who are helping make the online world a better place. People creating real products that help real people. I’ve always been proud to be part of this online list-building collaboration!

How BC Stack Works:

If you’re not familiar with how online collaborations like this work here’s how it goes:

• A bunch of business owners join a bundle sale. In this case there are at least 65 of us.
  
• A host gathers up all the product information and creates a bundle sales page. This is where you can pay to access ALL products. You pay one price (in this case, $59) and you can sign up for ANY of the products you like.
  
• You won’t get automatically signed up for all products. If you did then you’d be signed up for 50 email lists at once and that would be a little crazy! Instead you pick and choose the products. I NEVER recommend you try to sign up for ALL of them – you will never go through 50 products AND build a profitable business. Just pick the ones you need and get to it.

How to Beat Overwhelm from Bundle Sales

Getting so many products for such a great price is VERY exciting.

Overwhelm is a real risk after that dies off. There is so much information, decisions, opportunities and ideas that can come from a bundle like this!

The way to beat this is to PUT ON BLINDERS.

I recommend you ONLY sign up for the courses you already had interest in and anything you might get to in the next year or two. You can’t do it all. For only $49 you will get amazing value to have a few courses you take action on and get your ROI on.

Another suggestion is to pick some mentors. Pick a few people you think you can really learn from and go deep with their training and into their community. This can serve you very well.

Who is in BC Stack? Notable Past and Present Contributors…

Some prominent contributors who have participated in BC Stack include:

• John Lee Dumas – Host of the Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast
• Joel Comm – Social media strategist and author
• Rachel Miller – Facebook marketing expert
• Jenny Melrose – Influencer marketing strategist
• Jennifer Maker – Crafting and DIY blogger
• Carly Campbell – Pinterest marketing specialist
• Donna Kozik – Book publishing coach
• Becky Beach – E-commerce and SEO expert
• Jessika Phillips – Relationship marketing strategist
• Connie Ragen Green – Online marketing mentor
• Hani Mourra – Creator of Repurpose.io

Here are the contributors and products in the BC Stack 2026 offering:

1. Rachel Marie Martin & Dan R Morris — How to Build an Online Business Masterclass
2. Zalo Kabche / Digital Warriors — $5K AI Agency System
3. Bob Sparkins — Create Your First Claude Skill Workshop
4. Gabe Cox / RedHotMindset — Get It Out of Your Head: The Simple System to Run Your Business with Ease
5. Britt Spradlin — How to be Recommended by ChatGPT, Claude and Others
6. Becky Beach — Business Systems Made Easy
7. Sharon Kinnier & Melody Wigdahl — WordPress Workflow Command Center
8. Rachel Marie Martin — Own the Interview Media Masterclass
9. Corinne Schmitt — CEO Morning Brief Blueprint
10. Sue & Matt Guiher — Get Focused and More Productive
11. Monica Froese — Build a Better Newsletter
12. Jennifer Henczel — Monetize Your Message with a Membership
13. Expert Media Group — 7 Creative Ways to Repurpose Public Domain Content with AI
14. Brad Powell — Trust Signals Toolkit
15. Nicole Ray — The Custom Business Tools Builder
16. Donna Kozik — 5 Action Steps: Make Your AI Sound More Like You!
17. Crissy Heron — Emails That Show Up (and Earn Passive Income) Even When You’re Busy
18. Fernando Sustaita — How to Make Money on Amazon and Etsy
19. Frances Vidakovic — The Ultimate Biz Audit Plan
20. Angela Wills — ThriveCart Kickstart
21. Cecilie Aslaksen — PLR Product Studio
22. Tim Gillette — The High-Converting Homepage Framework
23. Lou Bortone — Impossible To Ignore Authority Assessment
24. Jay Fairbrother — Pricing 4 Profits Program
25. Ellen Finkelstein — Ebook to Course Creator
26. Rachel Marie Martin — Break Out of Business Stasis
27. Jan Small — Create Niche GPTs Launch Kit
28. Jenny Suneson — 20 Hour CEO Playbook
29. Simon Fawkes — Automate Your Most Time-Consuming Workflows
30. Faith Lee — Big Bang Marketing Strategies Course
31. Katie Hart — How to Attract Your Ideal Coaching Clients
32. Naima Sheikh — ThriveCart Fast Fixes
33. Lara Champion — Illustrated Brand Identity Kit
34. Heather Ritchie — Rapid Revenue Kit: Flash Sale System Guide
35. Andy O’Bryan — How to Create Unique, Uncopyable Content
36. Alison Wood — SEO Starter Kit for Bloggers
37. Hailey Rowe — The Sales-Generating Webinar System
38. Marcy Patterson — Social Media Growth Coach
39. Leslie Bouldin — Client Proof & Testimonial System Kit
40. Neha Srivastava — PageCraft: Build, Customize, and Launch Sales Pages Without Code
41. RJ Redden — Your First Step Into AI (Without the Overwhelm)
42. Christine Blosdale — Turn Freebies Into Paying Clients
43. D.B. Hockman — Get More Traffic! Make Your Content Findable in AI
44. Kimberly Love — The Morning Launch + The Morning Launch Co-Pilot Bot
45. Lise Cartwright — Private Podcast Funnel Builder
46. Dr. Lois Reed — Do You Want to Get Better at AI?
47. Carmen Chan — Cowork for Digital Product Sellers Course
48. Kim George — Create Puzzle Books for Your Niche to Sell on Amazon
49. Dione Grillo — Build Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with AI as Your Thinking Partner
50. Aimee Bagshaw — Affiliate Promo Pages Automated
51. Kim Galloway — 15 Minutes a Day to Write Your Book
52. Wella Zina — Manifest with AI: A Gentle Guide to Aligned Abundance
53. Podcaster’s Kit — Submit Your Podcast to 170 Directories
54. Alison Wood — The Blog Monetization Starter Kit

My Offer in BC Stack:

Let’s talk about my offer in BC Stack this year, 2026.

My offer is ThriveCart Kickstart. This is going to walk you through getting setup and connecting your products, emails and affiliate program in ThriveCart. Getting set up to SELL, which of course we love!

This training is regularly priced at $75. You can get it as part of BC Stack for only $59 (and over 50 other products)!

If you grab it reach out to me at angela@angelawills . com to claim your $100 bonus!

The post BC Stack 2026 – What you can expect appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

I’m on again off again. Love/Hate.

In 2022 I was totally OFF – close my accounts. I wrote about what it’s like living without social media here.

Now, in 2025, I am at a crossroads, again.

I got back on social but I don’t make money, I post sporadically at best, I have a few hundred followers and my heart is JUST NOT IN IT.

And why should it be. I talk a LOT about the 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Principal and that you need to CUT the things that are taking up a lot of time but giving you little results. Social media is that for me. Maybe you, too?

Why You Might Consider Not Relying on Social Media for Your Business

Here are the reasons why you might be better of NOT running your business with or on social media:

1. Mental Health – The more time I spend on social media the more of a mental health decline I notice in myself. It’s NOT good and it’s not something to ignore. I want a healthy mind and no matter how much I’ve tried to “hack” my feeds they bring me stupid, stupid, mind numbing useless stuff lol! Yes I can block my feed but then what? What am I even doing on there at that point. If everyone’s posting and blocking each other’s feeds isn’t it just an echo chamber for the benefit of the platform itself?
   
2. Unsustainable Workload – The amount of work you need to do to get traction on social media is a LOT and it feels so unsustainable to me. Do I want to post 10 stories and 1 reel a day for the rest of my life? No, not really. Plus all the photos, b-roll, UGH. It’s just not even fun to me. Maybe for someone who loves that, yes. Me, no.
   
3. Video Ready – Look I’m not trying to be a model and I looks are not my top priority but as a woman I definitely feel a pressure to “get ready” for video. That means fresh shower, taking at least 45 mins on my hair, another 15 min on makeup and finding an outfit that doesn’t make me look like the hot mess mom that I am. And YES I could show up “as I am” but we all know that’s making a statement in this beauty obsessed world and I’m not ready to evangelize like that at this point in my life.
   
4. Trolls – There’s a dark and nasty side of social media that I’ve seen too often from the big influencers. I know those with smaller followers get it to a degree, too. We’re talking about things like comments on your body and how gross you are, death threats when people don’t agree with you, character attacks and sexual aggression. In the comments, in the DMs and on Reddit threads. I KNOW this happens when you get more know no matter if you’re on social media or not but it seems especially bad and the platforms do NOTHING to stop it (yay free speech). I refuse to subject myself to that. If it came down to signing up for abuse or going to get a job I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’d pick the job!
   
5. I’m Not Your Product – Social media platforms make money off attention. This is why they allow the negative comments, they literally have been known to show negativity far more often because it spreads and gets people engaging way more than positive stuff. WHY would I want to be part of that system?
   
6. Not Looking for Attention – Now I know this sounds wrong as I am a business owner and I SHOULD be seeking attention. But – there’s a big performance aspect to social that I’m just NOT down for. I have never wanted to be the center of attention and it feels like I need to be that way to be successful on social media. I’m not your influencer that’s for sure. I’m your “by your side” person who says let’s figure this out together. Let’s be in community. Let’s connect.
   
7. It’s Not Actually Social – Social media is anything but social. People are more lonely than ever. Social media is disconnecting us! I saw a friend post this:
   It’s so true! How often do we ACTUALLY talk to people anymore yet we could talk all day long if we wanted to. Instead we’re too “busy” looking at our phones and being lonely. It’s sad and I want no part of it! I want to connect in REAL ways now more than ever.
   
8. Such a Freaking WASTE of Time! – This goes back to the 80/20 rule but even more than that let’s say I did it in my “free” time, my “fun” time… it’s still just a black hole that you come out of after a few hours and feel as EMPTY as the hole itself. I know I’m being dramatic but for reals.
   
9. You Never Win – I picture social media as an ever moving goal post. Once you get 10,000 subscribers you’re going to want more. Once you get a viral video you’ll want another. The goals will just keep bigger and bigger to what end? To always be the biggest, the best, the one who gets the sponsorships? And I see people getting bigger and bigger with their followings and getting more and more outrageous with click bait and the kind of posts they make. I have to wonder if they weren’t doing it for clout, would they? Are they now driven by the growth only? THAT is NOT a Lifestyle Freedom Business for sure!

Well holy hell! This post was written in about 15 mins and I had a LOT to say obviously! This tells me my gut feeling to get the heck out of dodge with my social media is correct.

At the very least I need to take a week and take a break!

I’m going to start with my own social media detox which is here.

So in the title of this post I also told you I’d tell you how I do business WITHOUT social media. Let’s cover that now:

How to do Business Without Social Media

We all know business existed and thrived long before social media ever did.

But now some say you just can’t do business without it. It’s a “necessary evil”.

In my experience you can do without it. I’ve made next to nothing from social media. Maybe a few thousand out of over $1.2 million. It’s certainly negligible. I also know people who do nothing for business whatsoever on social and have very, very successful businesses.

Here’s what I do instead to have a growing, thriving business:

1. Email Marketing – My emails hit inboxes and get opens and clicks. I can see what’s working and what’s not. If you use email marketing for your business you’ll OWN your email list. Now you can take that list anywhere, unlike your social media followers. It’s even an actual asset that you could sell with your business if you ever wanted to exit. Email marketing is my tried and true! It’s been working for me for about 15 YEARS and I still email daily. That is connection and profits from regular emails to my list.
   
2. Membership – I have a membership that allows me for regular, recurring income month after month.
   If you start a membership and get to a certain income per month then you are OFF the hamster wheel. You won’t have to “dance for the people” just to get paid. Now you have more freedom, more peace, more security. Subscription offers work, too. But I HIGHLY recommend seeking out recurring income for your business as often and as soon as possible!
   
3. Affiliates – My affiliates send me targeted subscribers and sales. I LOVE them! They are people with their own email lists and an understanding of my offers. If you start your own affiliate program it’s an absolutely fabulous way to get “out there” and in front of more people without needing social media.
   
4. Interviews – I’m starting to do a lot more interviews on websites, podcasts, telesummits, etc. I find
   them so easy to do and the ocassional “get pretty” requirement is A-OK with me! If you really enjoy talking with people you might love doing interviews with people who have an audience like I do.
   
5. Blogging – Contrary to what some are saying blogging isn’t dead. I’m working on getting into a routine here on this blog so that I can establish a connection with people just like you. I hope to share my insights, lead by example, inspire and motivate. If you like the blog you might like to sign up to my free course then or buy one of my offers.

I also did a whole post on marketing without social media here < with more ideas.

Well… there’s my case for doing business without social media. As I said I’m very torn! I’m willing to reconsider my opinions. I know there are lots of people who’ve made lots of money on social media so yes, it CAN be done.

There are so many more important things more important than money to me… my decisions are guided by my values, my decision to choose freedom and my love of real, true human connections.

The post Why & How to do Business Without Social Media! appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

When you’re trying to decide what kind of emails to send to your subscribers it’s so important to understand the difference between email marketing and newsletters.

A newsletter is the kind of email you see with many sections and is mostly or entirely informational.

Email marketing is for sales and is usually very focused on that agenda.

In this post, we’ll cover the differences of a newsletter vs email marketing and how to choose which one is right for your business growth, or if you need them both!

Newsletter vs Email Marketing –
What are they?

What is an Email Newsletter?

The most identifiable part of an email newsletter is that it has many sections.

This type of email content is usually focused on brining you news, curated content and updates from the company or the industry.

I get a great newsletter from WealthSimple that I believe comes out about once a week. It looks like this:

That’s just the first piece. I counted 9 sections that are broken down further into sections. Each with things like money tips, money news, money updates, etc. There’s an ad inside the newsletter but it’s not a sales email. It’s full of content and links to click and read more.

This is a good example of the typical newsletter.

The main purpose of this is good will and relationship building with your subscribers.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing has the purpose of leading subscribers towards taking an action. Usually this action is to buy something (sales) or sign up for something (free offers, etc).

Email marketing often uses a combination of different types of emails.

You’ll have emails that build the relationship with the subscriber by offering free advice, information or even gifts.

You’ll have emails that very obviously are selling something.

The emails sent via email marketing are usually with a singular focus. And because they can be read quickly they are very often sent more frequently.

In my own email marketing I’m sending emails to my subscribers every single day. I run email “campaigns” of 3-5 days of emails promoting a single offer. My emails always also contain helpful advice or information as well. So I combine the value and the sales email into one. It works quite well!

Here’s an example of a sales email from my friends at Coach Glue:

Newsletter vs Email Marketing: Key Differences

Let’s compare Newsletters vs Email Marketing for their key differences:

• Purpose and Goals
  • Newsletters: Primarily informational, designed to nurture relationships.
  • Email Marketing: Promotional, designed to convert leads or achieve specific business goals.
• Content Type
  • Newsletters: Long-form, often includes articles, company news, or tips.
  • Email Marketing: Short-form, focused on a call to action (CTA) like purchasing, subscribing.
• Frequency
  • Newsletters: Regular intervals (weekly, monthly).
  • Email Marketing: Can be sent based on behavior, events, or campaigns.

Side note: I run back to back campaigns through my email marketing. I’ve done this for over 15 years and it STILL works. This means my subscribers get a daily email from me and they love it! I regularly get thank you replies that say my emails and wonderful and I’m so real. They’re happy to open them regularly!

Benefits of Using Newsletters

Building a Connection with Subscribers

When a newsletter comes into your subscribers inbox that’s adding value to their lives they will be thankful for that.

Over time this will establish trust and build authority for the brand. It will also establish your business as the experts in the area of the newsletter topic.

Continuous Engagement and Exposure

Many companies are not doing the best job of getting into their biggest fans inboxes.

The email inbox is a more dedicated area for attention and engagement. Your subscribers may feel comfortable enough to respond.

You are also going to get more exposure via a newsletter. Rather than hoping your people see your message you know that it will land in their inbox.

Delivering Value

A newsletter is a great opportunity to show all the valuable content you have available.

It also allows you to share your experience and expertise via free, useful information.

Since the email newsletter doesn’t ask for anything in return you may generate a lot of good will with your subscribers, that may be useful when you do have an email campaign to send.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Sales and Conversions

Sending email marketing emails is all about sales.

People mistakenly think that this means you can’t provide value at the same time as selling.

This isn’t true. Your emails don’t have to only give free value to BE valuable. In fact I have often argued that your HIGHEST value you can offer are your paid offers. If they’re not the highest value then you really need to rethink what you’re asking people to pay for.

Emails Can be Very Targeted

With email marketing you can personalize and segment based on your subscribers behavior or purchase history.

A newsletter is going to be much more general considering they cover a lot of information. With an email campaign you are getting very specific with a singular focus.

With this kind of singular focus you can target your campaigns. For example let’s say you have a course on Website Design. You can target your customers of this with a campaign after purchase that teaches them about blogging – highly relevant to what they’re interested in!

Results Can be Measured

One of my favorite parts of email marketing is you can see the open rates, the click rates and the conversion rates (through the shopping cart).

This allows you to see and know what’s working. Then you keep doing what works and fix what isn’t. Creating a situation where you can consistently improve your business and grow your success.

Should You Use a Newsletter vs Email Marketing – Which is Best?

I’m biased here – I’ll tell you this.

I’ve been doing email marketing for 15 years and I believe you get the benefits of a newsletter (connection, content, value) and the benefits of selling via email marketing.

So for me the choice is email marketing every time.

I also believe that people are mostly NOT reading email newsletters like they read emails. A newsletter has so much content that it can be overwhelming, where an email is top to bottom and read in just a few minutes. This is email marketing’s superpower! It means people EXPECT to read the whole thing!

Sometimes the newsletter is also a good choice.

If you are not counting on emails to make the sales for you and you really do want to have a consistent connection with your audience then a weekly email newsletter could be the perfect option for you.

Combining Newsletters and Email Marketing

Ultimately it is entirely possible to use newsletters and email marketing in co-ordination. They can create a synergistic email strategy.

In this situation you would use email newsletters either weekly or monthly and then send email campaigns in between the emails.

There’s a lot of power in automation and segmentation for email marketing. If you are using newsletters as your main method then automated email sequences would work very well with that as well.

Newsletter vs Email Marketing Common Mistakes

The most common mistake I see is people confusing a newsletter with email marketing. If you want to make sales you can’t just send newsletters – you need to send marketing emails.

Another mistake is thinking that you can’t send consistent campaigns. As long as you provide value in ALL your emails, use a conversational tone and make sure to have clear calls to actions then you’re on the path to consistent sales!

Final Thoughts on Newsletter vs Email Marketing

Ok so let’s recap:

A newsletter is an informational email who’s main goal isn’t to make sales. It’s informative, helpful, advice-based and often leads to more content links.

A marketing email is intended for making sales. You can add value by teaching, giving advice and info and writing in a relationship tone.

Choose the method that works best for you!

If you haven’t signed up for an email software yet I recommend Kit.
It’s the software I use and love and have trusted for years to help me earn a full-time income from my online business.

The post Newsletter vs Email Marketing appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

As an online business owner since 2002 I have run my business before social media even existed!

How to Grow Your Business Without Social Media

Many people in this reddit thread will tell you it’s just not possible in this day and age to do marketing without social media. Not true!

As a business owner who does just that and who has made over six figures many years I know it’s entirely possible. My method of marketing is email. I send one daily email and teach others how to do the same.

That’s not the only way to do marketing without social media, however. There are many that myself and my customers have successfully used to build thriving businesses. Here are some of the most popular ways to do business without social media:

1. Advertising
2. Affiliates, Influencers or Partners
3. Social Media Manager
4. Interviews & Events
5. Search Engine Marketing
6. Referral Marketing
7. Networking & Industry Events
8. Guest Blog Posts
9. Speaking
10. Email Marketing

Picture of me in Barbie’s office trying to decide if
I should be marketing without social media .

Advertising

There are many different advertising opportunities out there. Facebook Ads, Google Ads and YouTube Ads are some of the most popular. You can also advertise on websites by connecting directly with the owner. Another ad type that can be very effective is within emails. You pay an agency or a business owner to place an ad inside an email campaign that they send to their email list.

Affiliates, Influencers or Partners

You can partner with business owners with skillsets you don’t. Of course Influencers are mainly marketing through social media and YouTube so you can let them do that for you. You focus on the product and create a partnership that’s a win-win for you and your partners.

Social Media Manager

Hiring a Social Media Manager is a bit of a cheat because you will be off social media personally but your business is still on it. This is a good way to go if you’re not morally opposed to social media and just don’t want to be doing it yourself.

Interviews, Podcasts & Events

If you can be interesting to others then getting interviewed is a great way to get your business out there. An interview is powerful because when people see you on video or even hear your voice then they feel more connected with you. This builds trust more quickly. If you’re not the kind of person who like that, though, there are plenty of other options for you!

Search Engine Marketing

I’ve recently become personally obsessed with search engine marketing. As far as choosing a method that doesn’t require your constant attention SEM is the opposite of social media. Social media requires so much of your time and attention while SEM allows you to do the work once, put it out there and benefit from it for a long, long time to come. Done right this can build your email list (for more marketing) or even make you immediate sales.

Referral Marketing

If you start out with just a trickle of customers you can turn that into a stream with referral marketing. Being really, really good to your customers is something that will get around. There are so few companies that actually treat their customers well so when you do – people will tell people. You can also encourage referrals with rewards or just by asking.

Networking & Industry Events

I’ve never attended a good industry event where I haven’t met at least one person who I’ve kept in contact with afterwards! This is a great way to build fast- relationships that can lead to cross-promotion, partnerships, affiliates and more. You go there knowing you have the same interests in growing complimentary business ventures. There’s often a way for that to be very mutually beneficial.

Guest Blog Posts

Some people who’ve got their marketing down and their communities build are willing to let you piggyback off their marketing. They do that because a guest blog post can be very valuable to them. If you first learn some basic SEO principals you’ll make yourself an even more attractive guest blogger. Guest blogging usually comes with the added bonus of getting a link back to your own website, helping your search engine marketing as well.

Speaking

Being a featured speaker at an in-person or online event can be a big boost to your credibility and draw attention. It’s an effective marketing method no doubt! You’ll also get links back to your website. You can use your speaking gig information on your website to showcase other’s trust in the value you can deliver.

Email Marketing

Regular email marketing is my favorite marketing method. You get in front of your potential customer in a very focused way, you can send direct links to offers and you can track easily to see how to improve your results. I’ve been sending one email a day for close to fifteen years and it has been my sole source of marketing. I’ve not needed anything else. It’s allowed me to raise a business while raising a family as I like to say!

If you’d like to learn more about how I have created lifestyle freedom as a busy mom who focuses on LIFE first then you might love my emails. I send daily emails where I share REAL things about running an online business, selling digital products and making money doing what you love. The emails are free and you can sign up here:

Frequently Asked Questions about Marketing Without Social Media

Q. Can you tell me how to market without social media?

A. My advice is to pick ONE thing at a time and get really good at it. Max out your results in this area and then move on. Pick the thing that feels the easiest for you and that you think you’d have the most fun with. Contrary to popular advice I think it’s so important you ENJOY the work you’re doing. You’ll do it better and be so much more creative when you do.

Q. What are the disadvantages of social media for business?

A. I think the biggest disadvantage of social media is that it’s like one big hamster wheel. You can’t get off! What if you want a break? What if you just want to switch to another method? People with huge followings on social media also feel huge pressure to post constantly, answer private messages and reply to comments. When you have a lot of followers this is a massive amount of work and becomes all-consuming. I personally prefer to choose marketing methods that are much more laid back and flexible.

Q. What is content marketing vs social media marketing?

A. Content marketing is a pretty broad term that refers to using content to attract new customers and grow your business. It generally refers to longer content such as articles or blog posts. Content marketing is a strategy where social media marketing is indicating the medium (social media). Social media marketing is of course posting content to social media. Social media marketing more often has the goal of engagement of an existing following where content marketing is more often meant use content to attract new people.

Q. Can I really run a business without social media?

Yes! Of course you can! Running a business and marketing without social media happened all the time before social media. Now some people will say that times have changed and you can’t do that anymore. Just not true. I personally know many successful small business owners running businesses without any significant social media presence.

Should You Do Marketing Without Social Media?

To sum this all up it really is up to you to decide if you as a person and as a business want to be on social media.

Can you overcome all the personal distractions and disadvantages to use social media effectively. Or, would it be better to focus on the other methods that can provide as much advantages without the downsides.

As a prolific email marketer of many years I’ll admit I do sometimes “play” in social media marketing myself but when it’s time to make money and get serious – I ALWAYS go back to email marketing. If you’d love to learn more you can read some of my other blog posts below, you could join my paid community here or you can join my email list here.

All the best as you decide if marketing without social media is right for you!

Angela

Other posts you might like:

• How to build an email list without website traffic
• How much money I made in email marketing
• I quit social media
• How to disconnect from social media

The post Marketing without social media appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

That’s what I thought blogs were.

Little journals about your life.

These days blogging is often taken a much more impersonal, money-motivated approach.

So you really might be wondering…

Can I make money blogging about my life

The quick answer is absolutely you CAN!

In the time of ad-filled blog posts and AI-generated content people are CRAVING content that truly connects.

I personally don’t know how to write anything else.

To me writing IS a connection. It’s not about a paycheck, it’s about writing works that touch someone and help them in some way. It’s about using words to inspire, motivate and move.

The best way I’ve found to do that is to RELATE to others by sharing something in my life.

It doesn’t have to be some incredible thing. I’ve often shared my love of the beach and sometimes work from there, blogging:

How to blog about your life…

If you want to make money blogging about your life it’s important now to just spew out whatever is on your mind.

So you won’t be just journaling.

Instead you’ll want to take the following steps:

• Use a keyword research tool like Keysearch to find out what people are searching for
• Once you find a search term that you can write about that relates to your life – write it
• Monetize your blog by building an email list, adding affiliate links or creating your own digital products or membership
• Use stories from your life and take pictures, too! People love a sneak peek inside a REAL life… this makes everything so relatable.

“Live a life worth blogging about”

I will never forget this quote from my friend Lynn Terry of LowCarbTraveler.com

It was just such an inspiring idea to get out in the world and do things that are really worth talking about. That will inspire people and make them feel like it IS a life worth blogging and reading about!

Lynn at the time was sharing posts of her visiting so many amazingly beautiful waterfalls and it was truly inspiring to see her adventurous spirit, even if it was from the comfort of my home on my laptop.

How I’m blogging about my life

I’ve been earning an income online now for over 21 years and most of that time it has been through running courses, a membership and selling digital products.

Through all that time, though, I’ve pondered how to make a living blogging about my life and the things I’m interested in. Discovering this is really possible is one of my greatest recent joys!

I’ve DREAMED of being a blogger who makes money entirely off of her blog since 2005 and here’s how I’m working now to make that dream happen:

• This blog. I’ve been slowly adding new blog posts as I work to create more automated processes in my business. The more the business is managed the more time I’ll have to blog.
• I have a variety of blogs I’m starting. I have three others in VERY early stages on being vegan, crochet and being a happy mom. Mainly because I LOVE to create but also because I have a variety of interests and I want to have a number of income streams/backup income possibilities.
• Learning SEO. None of this would be happening AT ALL without a firm understanding of SEO. In order to succeed with a blog you need traffic and one of the biggest possible sources of traffic is Google. This has been my focus and I’m learning everything I know from Aisha Preece in this area. I highly recommend her SEO course here.

So in conclusion yes you can make money blogging about your life!

Be strategy. Be REAL (lord knows we need all the authenticity we can get). Always Be YOU.

I’d love to hear from you on how it goes!

All the best with your blogging!

Angela

Here are some of my other posts on blogging you might like:

• Amateur Blogging Mistakes
• How to Build an Email List without a Website

The post Blogging about my life. Can I make money doing that? appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

I personally think that’s the wrong question to ask and in this post I’ll tell you why. I’ll also recommend a platform that’s as cheap as it gets (free) for up to 300 subscribers and that’s plenty to get you started!

I’ve been sending emails for well over 15 years.

It’s my sole source of online marketing.

And I’m totally willing to PAY to make sure I have the best email marketing software and services available to me.

When to use free email marketing tools

It wasn’t always this way. When I was totally new to email marketing I signed up for a totally free email marketing tools service (one that no longer exists) and I happily sent out my free emails.

In the beginning you might not be that serious about your email marketing. Kind of “playing around” and testing things out. I think that’s really the only time to use a free email marketing software.

This is because you won’t get all the tools and features if you don’t pay.

The cheapest email marketing platform won’t get you the BEST features for your business

You know the saying “you get what you pay for”, right?

It applies to deciding if you want to go with free email marketing platforms or paid ones.

Many email software as a service companies such as the one I use, ConvertKit, have a free version.

I never recommend this version if you’re ready to get serious about your plans to make money with email marketing.

A free version almost always gives you less.

Maybe it’s less support, less features, less emails you can send… always less something.

Less support is one of the most common ones.

Another platform I was on has a pop-up chat box for customers and no box for free members. I personally think this is a mistake as it doesn’t show the potential future paying customer what the actual paid service is like. But maybe that’s not their goal… if not I’m not sure what it is.

Just know when getting free you are getting LESS and then check out what you get less of and decide if that’s a smart move for your business.

How to make money with email marketing to recoup the email software fees

There’s a lot of reliable math in online business.

If you grow your email list, email them regularly and make regular offers you can expect to earn somewhere in the range of $1 to $3 or more per subscriber per month.

This is what I posted on my Instagram stories about earning $1/subscriber/month:

As an experienced email marketer I earn about $2 – $3.50 per subscriber per month. This goes up and down because when I add new people to my list it takes about six months to a year to build the kind of relationship with them that creates a higher value list. The better my relationships get with my subscribers the more that number increases.

So many people go for the short-term wins (the immediate sales). I’m here to tell you that you can go long-game and build a list of subscribers who stick with you for YEARS on end.

I have subscribers (many) who’ve been on my list for over 10 years!

I never balk at paying for my email software. Rather I’m just so freaking GRATEFUL that I can build a business with this little of an expense that provides me with a growing monthly recurring income and (my favorite) lifestyle freedom!

I recently had a member of my community discussing the costs and here was my reply:

Don’t bother with the cheapest email marketing platform… think ROI!

If you’re not familiar with how email marketing works as I said I recommend you pay for software. Don’t find the cheapest email marketing platform you can find. Look for a platform that fits your needs as a business owner.

It’s not free but the software I recommend is ConvertKit and it’s only $9/month to start on their lowest plan.

Then you start building your email list of subscribers and you start sending them emails (I like the daily email habit and find it works really, really well).

There’s no cost per subscriber or per email so in essence that part is “free” after you pay your monthly payment.

I’m writing this post as an email marketing of 15+ years with over one million dollars in sales accounted through email marketing. I LOVE sending emails and I do so in a way that people WELCOME them into their inbox.

If you’d like to learn from me I run the Email Practice Club – it’s your “Hit Send Support Club”.

If you’d like to check out a good email platform check out ConvertKit. Give yourself a year to build a list and earn a minimum of $1 per subscriber per month and watch how inconsequential that monthly email software fee really seems!

You might also like these other posts on email marketing here on the Living Lifestyle Freedom Blog:

• Conversation about email marketing
• How to build an email list without website traffic
• Convertbox Review – this is great for email marketing, pop ups and more

All the best in your email marketing!

Angela

(Updated Aug. 22, 2023)

The post Email Marketing Platforms – Free vs Paid? appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.

In this post I’ll share with you what I’ve learned with blogging on WordPress for business since 2005.

#1: Adding too many plugins

WordPress has an impressive amount of plugins available for free.

Plugins add functionality to your site but they can also bog it down, cause conflicts and create potential critical weaknesses on your site that can make it easier to attack (hack).

So best to use only the plugins you need. Keep them clean and updated. Trust only reputable plugin developers and go on your merry way!

#2: Writing like it’s a journal

When I first got to blogging in 2005 I took it to be an online journal and I just wrote out my thoughts.

I had no clear message, no direction and no goals with my blog writing.

While that might feel good and fun and help your mental health a bit it’s not going to get you to a profitable blog.

Your blog should be written for readers and what THEY need.

Be clear and to the point. Don’t have too many points, either, or you’ll likely lose your readers.

#3: Loading your blog with ads

Before we go too far please note that I write this with the highest respect for the work and art that goes into writing. This post is meant to present an opinion from the view of a reader, a blogger and a marketer.

I totally get it that you have to earn a living for your work.

My opinion really is biased because I am an email marketer. I sell digital products to email lists and I never use ads. If I did, however, I wouldn’t want those ads to interfere with the quality of my content OR the relationship that content builds with my reader.

As a reader of many blogs, especially the ones I’ve found on Pinterest, I NEVER return to the blogs loaded with so many ads that they interrupt the flow of my reading and confuse me about whether I’m looking at the content or an ad. It’s just too interruptive to my goal of finding out the info I came for.

If you are going to put ads on your site please consider the reader. That way you won’t sacrifice the immediate ad income for the long-term value of a returning reader.

#4: Not focusing on SEO

I can say this is the biggest of the amateur blogging mistakes I made.

It was more than 20 YEARS before I finally learned SEO. Unfortunately I found it boring and I thought that SEO would totally disrupt the process of writing so I wasn’t willing to do it.

Now that I AM focused on SEO I actually think it has greatly IMPROVED my writing!

I love Yoast SEO plugin and it’s little happy smiley green guy. When you use this plugin your smiley guy goes from red to green like this:

It’s such a simple thing but those happy green faces are very motivating! And these are the guys you don’t want to see:

As I said it was 20 YEARS before I took blogging seriously and I really think it was because of Aisha Preece of OutandBeyond.com. You can follow Aisha on Instagram here for some incredible tips on SEO Blogging.

I learned the SEO I’m using from Aisha’s course on SEO Blogging here.

I’m sharing these links so enthusiastically because I am so incredibly grateful that I was finally able to get SEO! I know so many others don’t even bother to try because it seems too complicated. Another reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want to play “the game” with Google.

I’ve learned, through Aisha’s teachings, that you can still be incredibly authentic to yourself, focus on simple yet effective SEO without chasing Google’s algorithm’s all over town. Now do blogs lose traffic? Yes… but also as an email marketer I intend to build an audience from that traffic and provide a safeguard to that as well.

That brings me to the next BIG mistake I see bloggers making, amateur and even experienced…

#5: No email list

I’ve seen blogs for sale with tens of thousands of visitors per month and no email list to speak of.

Traffic to your website can become subscribers to your list who in the very least can be return visitors to your site and at the most can be long-term customers. By long-term customers I mean they will buy from you for years and years!

I created a video training specifically about this topic called Turn Traffic Into Email Subscribers (use this link to get it for only $10).

Building your list from the start as a blogging is building in security. Your list can’t disappear like Google traffic could if there’s a change and your site loses ranking or has any other issues.

It’s just a great idea to start connecting with the people who’ve shown an interest in learning more about your blog, your topic and you! The relationships that can be built by reaching out and telling those people “I’m here” is powerful… and can grow your business.

#6: Poor Writing

I am sometimes a fan of the ramble-on email to a friend and sometimes I even send the occasional rambling email to my email list.

When it comes to blogging good writing is important.

That doesn’t mean you should write as if you’re a college professor. Good writing is easy to read, has a specific point or goal, engages the reader and leaves them satisfied they got what they came for.

Good blog writing also includes SEO keywords, elements to capture the “skimmers” attention and includes relevant links to other blog posts and websites to help your reader in the best possible way.

Learn and study good blog writing.

Those tips will get you started into the world of blogging. If you’re looking for more blogging help I highly recommend this course on how to make money blogging so you start off with profit in mind!

You might like these other blog posts about blogging:

Minimalistic blogging

This blog is mostly unedited

Ang

Updated Aug. 22, 2023

The post I Won’t Read Your Ad Filled Posts & Other Amateur Blogging Mistakes appeared first on Living Lifestyle Freedom.