My Partnership to Success Journey – Day Eight

With Day Eight of my Partnership to Success program now upon me, I can’t believe it’s been more than a week since I started!

And today is a busy day too: learning how to add a lead magnet to my site.

In case you don’t know, a lead magnet is a free product – an eBook or checklist, say – you can offer to a visitor in exchange for adding them to your mailing list. Once on your list, you can send them updates and information about your products and ideas.

Owing to his unfailing generosity, John offers you, at no extra cost, a free eBook he has produced himself to serve as our lead magnet. Not only does he proceed to show you how to add this eBook to your site (together with an opt-in form), he supplies a whole series of follow-up emails for you to send to your subscribers once they have signed up.

Fortunately, the AWeber autoresponder we invested in on Day Six handles the whole email sequence automatically.

However…

Having achieved all of this, I must confess that I ended up removing the lead magnet from my site.

Now why did I do this, you might ask?

First off, my decision was nothing to do with the quality of John’s training. Knowing how to do what he has taught today is a valuable skill that I am certain to make use of in the future.

My problem is that this particular offer isn’t unique.

Remember yesterday when I mentioned personalizing your blog?

Well, everyone else in the Partnership to Success program is following the same set of instructions as I am. So, sure enough, what do I see when I visit some of the blogs belonging to my fellow students? The same free report on offer in exactly the same place on every single site!

As I indicated yesterday, my blog should not become a carbon copy of everyone else’s site. Offering this report seemed, to me, a major setback in achieving that objective.

Additionally, I have to admit that I’m not too keen on John’s suggested position for the opt-in form, which would have placed it just below the title bar of this page you are reading right now.

The purpose of my blog is to provide high quality advice and information for all of you, my loyal visitors. I have no wish to bombard you with a billboard of adverts. The opt-in form seemed, to me, like an intrusive and unnecessary stripe straight across the top of the page.

So while I am grateful for John’s magnanimity in offering his own work as a lead magnet, I will prefer to add a product I have created myself at some point in the future. I suggest that you do the same with your blog.

After such a packed day I’m ready for some rest! Be sure to check back soon for my latest update!

*   *   *   *   *

Go to Day Nine

*   *   *   *   *