Get subscribers by requiring an email address to access certain pieces of content
Your articles can work harder for you without much effort on your part. If you're already giving away tons of free content, get more subscribers by locking a few posts and requiring an email address to see them in full.
On Brian Dean of Backlinko's blog, he grays out the previews of some posts and adds an "Unlock Now" button. When the reader clicks the button, a popup asks for an email address in order to access the full post. It's important to keep doing all that free content but adding this occasionally has brought in 1,614 email subscribers (and counting) in a short period of time. And he's not alone. Here at IH, partially blocking access to the IH product page increased our overall signups by 4%, despite the fact that we offer unconditional access to all other content.
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but is getting an email the
goal? or is it establishing a relationship with an early community member and/or customer?the "trading email" for "content" thing doesn't work for everyone, right?
Nope, getting an email isn't the end goal, but it's a step toward it — arguably one of the most important and most difficult steps.
And you're right, this tactic isn't for everyone — growth is never one-size-fits-all, otherwise our job would be done :)
i wonder if this can be done better and more effectively. maybe not. :)