I was in the right place at the right time.

It was November 2002, and I received an email from a friend that changed my life in ways I could never have imagined.

Without receiving, reading, and taking action on that email, I would never have started blogging or built the business I have built.

I often reflect on this serendipitous usa ceo start to the current chapter of my life – what would have happened if I’d not opened that email?

I feel lucky that I did… but was it just ‘luck’?

Earlier this year I was asked to travel to Boston to deliver a 12-minute ‘Bold Talk’ at Hubspot’s Inbound conference.

I loved the challenge of doing a shorter form presentation – particularly because I was invited to speak on something other than my normal topic (that of blogging).

I decided that the focus of my talk would be ‘luck’ in entrepreneurship. It definitely seems to play a part for many successful entrepreneurs but what is behind that luck?

In this short talk, I identify 7 habits of lucky entrepreneurs and challenge us all to make time to fit them into the way we live our lives.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this talk. Please let me know what habits you’d add to my 7 (I had another three that I would have included if I had had more time).

I’d also appreciate if you would consider sharing this presentation if you find it helpful!

How to Get Readers Excited to Join and Stay on Your Email List

Today’s episode is part 4 of the new ‘Today, Not Someday’ podcast series. The focus is actioning your ‘someday’ list, the things you’ve always wanted to do to improve your blog but have struggled to make happen. For details about how the series works, check out episode one here. Part 2 was about why you should sell a product on your blog (and how to dot it). Part 3 was about how to get people to sign up onto your email list.

The focus of today’s episode is about how to create the most effective ‘opt-in’, or ‘lead magnet’ for your blog, or if you already have one, how to make it even more powerful. An opt-in is a free special offer that you can give to people who join your email list. Having an opt-in is one of the most significant things you can to do to increase your subscriber numbers and grow your business.

In This Episode

You can listen to today’s episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we’d also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In today’s episode:

• Why having an opt-in or lead magnet for your email list is so powerful
• How to create an opt-in for your email list
• What format your opt-in should use
• More than 20 ideas of what you can offer as your opt-in gift
• How to decide what your opt-in gift should be about
• How I created an opt-in for my Digital Photography School blog this year
• Why you should update your opt-in
• Why you should have more than one opt-in
• How you can give people something that will still make them want to stay on your list, even after they have their gift
• What your opt-in should look like
• Tools you can use to help you deliver and promote your opt-in
• Where you should mention your opt-in

Further Reading and Resources for How to Get Readers Excited to Join and Stay on Your Email List

Tools you can use to deliver and promote your opt-in

These tools are great and I use them for my blogs:

• SumoMe is the tool I use on dPS to make our new Opt-in Offer. They are offering a special offer for ProBlogger readers, a free month of ‘Welcome Mat Pro’, which is pretty amazing! Access the special offer here. 
• LeadPages is another tool you can use to make your Optin Offers by creating great landing pages for your offer.
• Here’s a post where we make our latest opt-in offer for a Photographing the Holidays Guide over at Digital Photography School.

Meet my new friend, Edgar

I’d like to welcome a new sponsor to the ProBlogger podcast for the duration of this 10 part series, my friend ‘Edgar‘.

Edgar is a tool I’ve been using since January updated 2024 mobile phone number data of this year that does exactly what this series is about. It enables you to make the work you do on social media keep paying off for the long term.

You put a little work into Edgar today by adding social media updates highlighting the great content in your blog’s archives and Edgar goes to work to share them to your followers not just once but by queuing your updates to keep delivering to into the future.

The team at Edgar have put together ავტომატური მარკეტინგი: რა არის ეს, რატომ და როგორ გამოვიყენოთ იგი! a special deal for ProBlogger readers which gives you a free one month trial. Sign up for it at meetedgar.com/problogger.

Other episodes in the Today, Not Someday Series:

• Part 1: Introducing New ‘Today, Not Someday’ Series
• Part 2: Why You Should Create a Product to Sell On Your Blog (and Tips on How to Do It
• Part 3: How to Increase the Subscriber Numbers to Your Email List