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Build a forum or collect emails ? Which is more effective?

by Egyfitness
14 replies
short question if you dont want to read details : I need to do email marketing , should I collect emails with Aweber or get users to sign up for my forum and still send them emails with Vbulletin newsletter ?

Details :
Hi all I am new here.

I own a fitness blog and I have multiple words that rank first on google search. I have 500 daily visitors in only 3 months and I wont stop there of course . I want to ultimately build an online supplements store , but I need to build relationship with visitors first.

I know this relation should grow in their mail boxes. I subscribed with Aweber and my sign up form at the end of the posts has only 0.5% submission rate.
So I need to offer them incentives like ebooks to collect their mails. So wont this be a waste of time , since I can ask them to sign up for my VB forum ?
#build #collect #effective #emails #forum
  • Profile picture of the author Egyfitness
    So a Vbulletin forum or Email marketing ? Any help plz?
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    • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
      If you have a traffic source that is quality then by far the easiest and fastest will be to set up a free offer that is valuable and highly relevant to your audience and collect emails.

      You could be up and collecting within 24 hours or less if you already have the freebie.

      Your freebie must be quality as that will be their 1st impression.

      Thanks, Patrick
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by Egyfitness View Post

    Build a forum or collect emails ? Which is more effective?
    They're both effective.

    There are people who'll join a forum and provide their email address in the process, who would never opt-in through a squeeze page (or other type of opt-in page), and there are people who'll sign up on an opt-in page who don't like joining forums.

    Each can attract some people whom the other would miss.

    There are also people who'll do both.

    I have a forum, in one of my niches, and find the membership-list a highly valuable form of email marketing.

    Sending out email through the forum admin functions is essentially a form of "broadcasts": I don't think you can do "autoresponder series emails" that way, without people opting in separately for that (not without using self-hosted sutoresponder software, anyway), so unless you do a lot of fiddling about "by hand", you're effectively limited to sending emails which all members receive on the same day. It can still be very worthwhile, but in general, you need to handle it differently from what you'd normally do, for email marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Khalil Bashir
    You could do it either way, but the most hassle free way would be to just send traffic to your capture page by giving away something of value in exchange for the subscriber giving you their email information. I would assume a forum is a bit more tedious. I could be wrong though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Ray
    Personally, I would build a email list first.

    Anyone can start a forum, but it takes allot of time and effort to get it rolling in the beginning so people will be engaged.

    Because once you get those people on your list then it will be much easier for you to send out a email and say "Check out my forum".

    That will help give the forum the jumpstart it needs to keep it active.
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  • Profile picture of the author melvinsh
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    Here's an idea: Give away a free training program with a nutrition plan, and the nutrition plan requires supplements. This way you can immediately start making sales.

    In order for people to sign up you'll need to test different positions of your opt in form. You want it to be prominent but not overdo so it becomes a distraction.
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  • Profile picture of the author Javisito
    Email list building every day of the week... Even if you start a forum too.

    Never leave the list building part out of it
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      I remember I started a Disability Blog years back and built a Forum. I did not have much luck.

      I really found no value in my efforts with a forum. Of course there many who do.

      But I can say as far a straight up List Building ( with a valuable free gift or Course) .... has been worth the effort 10 fold.


      Robert Andrew
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      • Profile picture of the author Egyfitness
        Originally Posted by discrat View Post

        I remember I started a Disability Blog years back and built a Forum. I did not have much luck.

        I really found no value in my efforts with a forum. Of course there many who do.

        But I can say as far a straight up List Building ( with a valuable free gift or Course) .... has been worth the effort 10 fold.


        Robert Andrew
        Was there an obstacle to send your forum members newsletter ? Isn't it the same thing ?
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  • Profile picture of the author jfalxr
    Why don't you do both of them???

    Sending traffic first to your opt-in page and then you provides your subscribers with forum. Only your subscribers can joins.. I guess it can be very powerful plus you'll give a much values for them. They then can interact with you and your other subscribers..

    If building a forum seems a lot works for you, you can simply change it to facebook/skype group..
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  • Profile picture of the author Samker
    I have 7 years old scForum... believe me, it's very hard with forum, so my advice is to you try on the other way.
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  • Profile picture of the author robhuw
    Hi, good question.
    There are big advantages for both:
    - Email Marketing; Getting someone to sign up to your mailing list is the ultimate sign of trust. It shows they are interested in your work and are willing to receive information from you. DON'T miss use this trust, only send them informative emails and DON'T spam them. However, its a great way to encourage return visits to your website.
    - Forum; Adding a forum to your website is a great and easy way to massively increase content creation on your site, it will be more or less on autopilot. We all know that Google loves content creation! In the long run, this will improve your standing in Google.
    Also, if you keep receiving emails from people which include the same old questions, post the question answer once in the forum, and direct people to that answer. This will save you hours in the long run.
    So all in all I would say, do both
    BUT, I would start with the email list, and then, and only then, when you have a big enough list, add a forum to your site.
    Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Build a forum or collect emails ? Which is more effective?
    If you have a forum your already collecting emails so the question doesn't make much sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    Your #1 goal should always be to build your email list if you are marketing online.

    If anything why not build a forum in order to build your list ?

    Even if you did that the actual process of building a forum can be challenging and very time consuming.

    If I was you I would instead participate in popular forums relevant to your niche, and focus on helping others out.

    In turn you save time and headaches of actually building a forum, and you build your list!
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