What is considered a good opt in rate for a content driven site (not squeeze page)

This is all subjective, but ... if I can get a 20% opt-in rate from new visitors to a content-rich site, I'm very pleased with that, and consider it really good, even for well-targeted, article marketing traffic.

I often don't manage that, though.

If my opt-ins get down to 10%, I instinctively feel that "something's wrong" (e.g. not-so-good traffic).

Of course, these figures also vary enormously according to traffic-sources and demographics. (Personally, I find SEO traffic to be the very worst. I can't say this confidently but I don't think my opt-in rates on a blog opt-in have ever reached even 10% with SEO traffic).

(For what it's worth - if anything - in all the separate niches in which I've split-tested "content-rich site opt-ins" against "squeeze pages" over a 6-month period, I've always made more income from the smaller lists built via content-rich sites and less income from the always-bigger lists built from squeeze pages. I think one of the great attractions of content-rich-site opt-ins rather than squeeze pages is that many of the smaller group who are going to become "best customers" have a good look round before opting in, and some of them go away and come back later (as long as you don't frighten them off with a pop-up!) and opt in at their second/third visits, which they certainly won't do with a squeeze page. There aren't many of these people, perhaps, out of the total demographics, but I think they're the best subscribers, overall.)

I know some guys who have an opt in rate to their very content rich (and quite frankly high quality) blogs of around just 0.02% and yet are making a full time living from it. They don't offer visitors ANY incentive to opt in just opt in if you like what I'm doing and want to see more of it / be notified when I update. It ensures only the most interested and responsive people end up on your list. Your list will be smaller but having a big list that's full of people who only signed up because there was something free isn't ideal anyway. The people on these smaller lists end up being really responsive.

On a content rich blog with an incentive to opt in most people I've asked (I ask a lot of people I know to get an idea of averages to measure my own success on) around 2-10% is the figure. My newest blog gets around 7%.

I'm slowly but surely abandoning the traditional squeeze page route and going for things like 'content funnels' instead where after 3-5 pages of content that follows on from each other I ask them if they'd like the full report sent to their email address.

I would consider 10% a high optin rate in this case and I would be very satisfied with it. I have to agree totally with Alexa here. I noticed that when I opted in to a squeeze page (which I don't do anymore) I never went back to the site and unsubscribed later. However, if I find an interesting site with lots of content I can become a recurrent visitor and am way more likely to purchase from it.

I think whatever the figure (as there are so many influencing factors and variables) it's important that you are constantly working towards improving on it, via continual testing and measuring.

Changing up your offer, changing up your CTA, changing the positioning of the form, adding separate forms etc.

There's no fixed amount, but generally, if people came to your content page via search engines, the chances of them subscribing is much higher; versus people who landed on your page by chance.

I would consider around 12%. Don't think 20% is suitable for content driven websites.