Hi Reader,

In this current world of brutal Google updates, unreliable traffic and rapid advancements in AI, there is one strategy that stands head and shoulders above the rest: email marketing.

Email marketing is the #1 way you can protect yourself and your business from future shocks.

Why?

Because email marketing gives you a way of ‘keeping’ the traffic you have worked so hard to attract.

Without email marketing, you start at zero every day. And every day you have to work hard to attract new traffic.

But if you can turn some of that traffic into email subscribers every day, you get to ‘keep’ a % of that traffic…

...and over time that ‘owned’ audience grows bigger and bigger, which means that over time you become less and less reliant on ‘borrowed’ Google traffic.

Better still, you never have to start a day at zero again, because your email list doesn’t disappear every night… it just keeps on growing bigger and bigger.

But there is one fundamental problem that I keep hearing again and again from bloggers and online business owners…

“My list just isn’t growing.”

In fact, in my newsletter 2 weeks ago, I asked about your biggest email marketing struggles, and the most common answer was:

“I’ve got a list, but it’s not growing – hardly anyone’s signing up.”

And that’s a big problem, because unless you can persuade a good % of you visitors to sign up to your email list, you will stay stuck – heavily reliant on borrowed traffic and resorting to crossing your fingers every time there’s a Google update.

And if the next Google update decimates your traffic… you’re cooked!

But here’s the good news.

There are 5 common reasons why email lists stay stuck.

And every single one of them is fixable…

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The 5 biggest list-building roadblocks (and how to fix them!)

As a guide, you should be looking at a website visitor to subscriber conversion rate of at least 1%.

In other words, if you get 1,000 website visitors a day you should be getting at least 10 new subscribers per day. If you are getting less than 10 subscribers per 1,000 website visitors, you definitely have a problem that needs fixing!

If your email list is not growing as fast as you would like it to, you are almost certainly falling down in one or more of these areas…

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1. You only have one lead magnet

If you only have one freebie, then your list will likely grow very slowly. (And if you don’t have one at all, then it’s unlikely to grow at all!)

These days, one lead magnet is just not enough. To accelerate your list-growth you need 3–5 freebies with different angles to appeal to different parts of your audience.

THE FIX: Create more lead magnets! But make sure each one appeals to a different sub-set of your audience. Use different formats and different angles to maximize your signups.

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2. The wrong kind of freebie…

A 40-page ebook might sound generous, but in reality it feels overwhelming, so people don’t sign up.

A free recipe book might sound like the obvious choice if you’re a food blogger – but why would someone hand over their email address, if they can already get 1,000s of free recipes with a quick Google search?

The best freebies are quick to consume and directly solve one specific pain point.

THE FIX: Take a long hard look at your current freebies… Are they quick to consume, or overwhelming? Do they offer something above and beyond what people can easily get with a Google search? Do they solve one specific pain point? If not, create new freebies that do!

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3. You’re not promoting your freebie

So often people ask me ‘Why is my list not growing?’ So I take a look at their website… and I can’t even find their freebie! If I can’t find your lead magnet – and I’m looking hard for it… what hope do your normal website visitors have?

THE FIX #1: Make sure your freebies are super obvious on your blog. Feature them prominently: on your homepage, on your about page, in your top 20 blog posts – top and bottom, in your navigation menu and in an exit intent popup. Be sure to shout about your freebies on social media too!

THE FIX #2: Ensure your sign-up forms are eye-catching, clear and attractive, with a strong hook and an enticing CTA. (See good and bad examples here!)

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4. Your tech is holding you back.

If your Email Service Provider is clunky, confusing, or hard to use, you’re potentially leaving 1,000s of signups on the table.

You want an ESP that has clear attractive opt-in forms, that makes joining your list a breeze, and that gives you powerful features on the backend to maximize deliverability, nurture and sales!

THE FIX: Use an ESP that is designed to maximize signups. Here are 26 reasons why I always recommend Kit to bloggers and online business owners who want to grow their list FAST!​

PRO TIP: Get email marketing right and it should deliver an ROI of $40+ for every $1 you spend – this means spending a bit more on your ESP to give your subscribers a better UX and to get more advanced features will likely pay for itself many times over. In a world where ad and affiliate revenues are shrinking, that’s an investment worth making!

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5. The signup process is too hard.

If people have to jump through hoops or confirm multiple times, they’ll just give up. The easier and smoother the process, the more people will sign up.

THE FIX: Use an ESP that makes the signup process easy and enjoyable for your subscribers – this will not only lead to a bigger list, you’ll also get more opens, clicks… and ultimately you’ll make more money from your list too.

READ MORE: How to fix your sign up process so you get more subscribers! ​

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SEO & Blogging News

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​What To Do When the Click Disappears: Surviving SEO In The AI-Driven SERP​

The MAJORITY of Google searches now DON’T end with a click, according to recent research. (In fact, only 41.5% searches lead to a click away from Google.)

That means your carefully crafted blog posts are more likely to be feeding AI answers than driving traffic to your site. This article gives some practical tips for coping in this new reality… but it also highlights just how important it is to convert whatever borrowed Google traffic you are getting right now into an audience you own – in other words your email list!

As this trend continues, and Google traffic dwindles, your email list is going to become increasingly more important.

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​ChatGPT, AI tools gain traction as Google Search slips: Survey​

And just to underline this point, new data reveals that Google’s role in everyday information seeking is shrinking, while AI tools, like ChatGPT, are quickly gaining ground.

For example, Google’s share of general information searches fell from 73% in February to 66.9% in August, while ChatGPT use nearly tripled over the same time period.

This new reality requires a complete rethink of strategy:

• Optimizing for AI tools. (Sometimes called GEO or AEO.)
• Converting as much traffic as possible into owned traffic. (So you become less and less reliant on borrowed traffic.)
• And monetizing in a way that is much less dependent on clicks from Google. (In other words digital products. Digital product sales don’t really depend on traffic at all – but rather the size of your email list – the bigger your list, the more digital products you will sell.)

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​8 Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Strategies For Boosting AI Visibility in 2025​

Most experts agree that the best way to optimize for AI Overviews, ChatGPT etc. is normal SEO. (There is literally at least 1 news article per week saying this at the moment. This week there were FOUR: here, here, here and here.)

However, there are a few GEO/AEO specific strategies, and this article shares 8 of them.

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​Stop Trying To Make GEO Happen​

This article made me laugh. His basic point is that Generative Engine Optimization as a concept makes sense, but GEO as an acronym is doomed.

But it speaks to a wider issue – that everyone and his dog is trying to come up with a new acronym for optimizing in this new AI enhanced world: some prefer AEO, others LLMEO or LEO, and I have even seen AIEO. (Surely it’s only a matter of time before someone starts talking about EIEIO!)

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Over to you…

I’d love to hear from you… have you been struggling to grow your list?

If so, which of the 5 list building roadblocks is holding you back?

Hit REPLY and let me know!

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Happy list-building!

Eb 😊
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​Eb Gargano
​eb@productiveblogging.com​
​www.productiveblogging.com​

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P.S. Want more tips for boosting list growth? Head this way >>> 10 reasons why people are NOT signing up to your email list​

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