Yesterday we talked about creating compelling incentives to increase your mailing list sign-ups.
The biggest hurdle most people face is creating professional opt-in graphics and forms that get the visitors attention.
During Brainstorming Hour last week, Liz Jamieson of the Google+ AuthorSure WordPress Plugin (recommended!), introduced us to the FREE "Opt-in Crusher" by Daniel Watrous: http://optincrusher.com
I've installed this free WordPress Plugin here on ClickNewz so you can see it in action. You'll notice a blue newsletter subscription form loaded in the footer...
Installation takes less than a minute and everything is configurable from within WordPress, no FTP, HTML or other knowledge needed!
The Optincrusher plugin is compatible with Aweber, iContact, Constant Contact, FeedBlitz, GetResponse and MailChimp. It is VERY easy to install and set-up. You literally do not need to know code or graphics programs to get this operating on your WordPress blog in a matter of minutes!
Of course, being the technophobe that I am (I swear my home office is the twilight zone for code & hardware, lol)... I broke it. 😛
Actually, it was a code conflict with the opt-in form below my posts here. But fortunately Daniel has a nice little troubleshooter you can walk through, AND he responds super quick to support tickets! 🙂
He also includes detailed instructions for creating your own graphics for the footer form, which will come in very handy when I get my new opt-in incentive created and want to put a cover graphic of it there. He offers video tutorials for that, along with installation and customization.
Options include turning the form off for visitors who are already subscribed, remembering visitors who closed the form and not reloading it for them, not loading the form on specific pages, etc.
Honestly, Daniel went over the top with this free tool. It's very nice, very simple to set up, and there are tons of customization features. What's the catch, you ask? The free OptinCrusher WordPress plug-in is an incentive for you to opt-in to his mailing list. A perfect example of a compelling incentive in action!
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Stay tuned! In the next post we'll look at even more ways to easily create high quality subscription forms for your blogs & websites...
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Very cool - thanks for sharing!
Looks great and very attention grabbing - definitely will be testing it out soon.
Wow! Thanks Lynn for sharing this! I look forward to testing it out. I hope things are going good for you! 🙂
I've been using Opt-in Crusher for a while. Works great.
Fabulous, Lynn - thank you. I very much prefer slide-ups to pop-ups, which for some reason enrage me 😀
Hey Lynn,
Thanks for this, I've actually been looking for this and it fell off my plate of things to do. Great timing. Thanks 🙂
Just downloaded it but something is off, don't know what it could be. So I sent a tweet to Daniel to see if he can take a quick look for me.
Looks nice though, me like. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Missy
He has a support section & troubleshooter, which would probably be better to use. What problem did you have? I was missing a footer hook, then had a CSS conflict with my other form - both of which were easy fixes.
I think it's my theme, essentially the footer form doesn't display correctly. It's cut off at the bottom. Don't know a lick of CSS though.
Is it on http://g34media.com ? If so, it didn't load for me, so I assume you removed it. That's what happened to me too, so I changed the image button to a regular submit.
I changed the code in the "processed opt-in form" field at the end to: input name="submit" type="submit" alt="Submit Form"
Lynn,
Do you like the OptinCrusher more than Popup domination? Do you have sites where you've tested both to see what works?
Would you recommend using both on the same site? I tend to think that might be a little much.
I must say the OptinCrusher looks great for a free plugin. Usually this level of quality requires a purchase.
I don't use a pop-up form on any of my sites. I used Popup domination to create in-line forms (backward engineering lol): http://www.clicknewz.com/2869/calm-the-controversy/ They have new in-line forms available that make it easier to do that now, which I'll also be reviewing this week.
I would not put both on the same site, no. Usability is top priority. 😉
See my next post for a new plugin/widget from PopupDomination that ROCKS 🙂 http://www.clicknewz.com/3306/sidebar-opt-in-widget/ Super cool.
I tried the optincrusher yesterday and I must say it's pretty cool. Had a few problems with the author info plugin that messed up optincrusher but solved it without problems.
I recommend the plugin !
Hi Lynn, This is great, thanks for sharing - will test it on my site.
Thanks Lynn, I have craze to work with wordpress.Introduction of this plug-in is a good increment in my professional skills.
Hi Lynn, Thanks for the cool share. I have been looking something like this for my new blog. We defiantly try this.
Hey! Great plugin tip!
A few tips for others:
1) if you are sitting there frustrated wondering why Optincrusher does not appear on your site: Make sure you have "Show When Logged In" found under General Settings set to "Yes". Drove myself crazy with that one.
2) If you have a problem with the Submit button floating underneath the email input box: add this to your optincrusher.css file
#optincrusher form input[type="submit"] {
display: block;
float: right;
margin: -22px !important; /* adjust as necessary to align correctly*/
margin-left: 5px !important;
}
#lightbox-optinform form input[type="submit"]{
margin-left: 155px !important;
}
/** This is for the lightbox button - Just remove this if lightbox button is showing correctly **/
#lightbox-optinform form input {
margin-left: 155px !important;
}
Looking forward to seeing the results...
Hey Paul I'm having that exact problem, I added the css but no change. Any other thoughts?
Thanks for a great post by the way Lynn
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for this info. I saw this on another site but did not follow thru to find out the details on it. I will be testing this out on my site too.
It seems like you always come to the rescue with something I'm needing.
Monna
Just had to say this is awesome..thanks for sharing!
It's actually more irritating than one light box pop up, because it keeps popping up and it's so bright that it just pulls attention away from your material. Obviously, that's what you want, but this blue thing at the bottom is quite irritating.
You wanted opinions, so I would suggested going to a light box pop up and only have it pop up once.
The other thing you'll have to consider is all of the A kissers who will say nice things just to get the backlink.
What I'm more interested in hearing about is how your analytics have turned out these last few days. How were you affected by the new Google changes? Did you notice an increase in traffic or decrease and by how much? Would be much interested in seeing a blog post about the results you've gotten.
It disappears completely if you subscribe. Just FYI.
Finally got around to installing this on my PLR site and it was incredibly easy.
Only thing is that now I have to create a separate thank-you page for my opt-in. Before, I was just using the standard Aweber one. The plugin says that if I want to hide the pop-up from people already subscribed, then I have to add some code to my thank-you page.
Also, even though the plug-in recommends leaving the 'show/hide stats' option to 'no', I may put it at yes. If someone keeps hiding the bar, I'd rather leave just the little 'special offer' button showing. Otherwise it gets really annoying having to hide the pop-up every time you navigate to a new page.
Now just have to figure out which pages I don't want the bar to appear on.
That's actually a good thing. Customizing the opt-in process with custom pages helps you solidify your relationship with new subscribers. 😉
Hi Lynn,
Thank you for sharing this excellent plugin. To be frank I am just starting out trying to build a list and hope this can give my site the extra kickstart it needs.
I recall that old saying by Confucius I think was the guy`s name:
"A list of a Thousand People Starts with One Optin." I`m sure someone will correct me on that if I am wrong :-).
Thnank again Lynn and please keep up the great work :-).
Best regards
Mike Spearing
Hi, Lynn,
I opted in for the OptinCrusher, but the download is password protected and there isn't any information providing a password.
I'd appreciate help,
Karen
Once you confirm the subscription, another email containing the password will be sent to you
Hi Lynn,
I just found this post on the Optin Crusher while looking for some statistics of optins for it compared to PopUp Domination as I have just installed it on my blog.
Looks like you have taken it off now as I don't see it sliding up in the footer. I am guessing that it did not produce the results you wanted. Would love to know the reason.
I also just noticed that for some reason the CommentLuv is not working for me although I have left comments on other blogs recently and it worked fine. These things are sent to try us!
Sandy