Did you know there’s an easier way to manage newsletter signup forms on your blog? Read this post to discover the secret to effortless opt-ins!
How do you manage all the different opt-ins on your blog?
If you’re like most other bloggers, the answer is haphazardly. ?
Are you copying and pasting the embed code for each form individually into your posts, guessing-and-checking formatting, and crossing your fingers that you never need to update your post opt-ins because of all the work it would be?
If you’re shaking your head yes in a sheepish way…that’s pretty much the norm, so don’t feel bad. But, I’m bringing you some good news in this post: it doesn’t have to be that hard!
A better way to manage freebies on your blog
Imagine this instead of your current (lack of) system:
- Entering the embed code for an opt-in on your site just once, then being able to use it over and over without any copy-and-pasting or hacking necessary
- Not only being able to re-use the embed code, but the entire embed “block:” title, featured image, description, and “fine print”
- Being able to add those opt-ins to your blog posts with the flip of a switch
- A widget that make use of the same pool of opt-ins, so you can add them to widget areas with ease
- If you ever need to update your opt-ins in the future, all you need to do is change the code in one place and it automatically updates ALL posts and widget areas that the opt-in is applied to: no tedious hours of hunting and replacing code in old posts
- Setting up a default opt-in for your site that can be used in widget areas and blog posts for quick updates on a large number of posts (think promotions or launches!)
Sound too good to be true? With Easier Business Blogging’s Opt-ins module, it’s as easy as can be.
Here’s what my friend and fellow developer Krista of Krista Rae had to say about using EBB for her new site:
“EBB is an absolute game-changer when it comes to managing opt-ins for my website. There have been 3 times now that I’ve needed to go through my nearly 200 blog posts and swap my opt-ins. Up until now, my team and I have had to go through every. single. post. to see if it had an opt-in and then manually change out the information. It took hours. Now we can literally do it within a matter of minutes and that is SO exciting to me. I love that I can change out my opt-ins and improve my funnels within 3 minutes, rather than 3 hours. You are definitely missing out on a huge productivity boost if you’re not using EBB!” (emphasis added)
How to use Easier Business Blogging to tame your blog’s opt-ins
Important: Before you begin, make sure you have the full version of Easier Business Blogging (not just EBB Pinterest) installed and activated. If you don’t own a copy of EBB yet, you can get special presales pricing on it right here or by clicking the “get the plugin” link in the navigation above.
Step #1: add your opt-in form to EBB
Before you can use an opt-in on your blog posts or in a widget area with EBB, you have to upload the opt-in details to your WordPress dashboard. It’s quick and painless, and you only need to do it once for each opt-in you’d like to add to your site. Bye-bye, having to copy and paste the same opt-in code all over your site!
To add an opt-in to your site with EBB:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- In the lefthand menu, click EBB Opt-ins.
- Click the “Add New” button next to the “EBB Opt-ins” page title, or click the “Add New” link in the lefthand menu underneath EBB Opt-ins.
- Fill in the details for your opt-in:
- Title – This will become your opt-in title; the title should be entered in the same place where you’d normally enter a new post title.
- Opt-in content – This will become your opt-in description; the description should be entered in the same place where you’d normally put the main content of a new blog post.
- Opt-in embed code – This is the actual “opt-in” part of your opt-in; for most people, this will be an embed code from your email marketing service provider.
- Opt-in fine print – This becomes the fine print part of your opt-in. This would be a great place to put a disclosure that people who submit your opt-in form will be subscribed to your mailing list or a promise that you won’t share your users’ private information with anyone else.
- Featured image – This will become your opt-in featured image; you should set it in the same way you’d set a featured image for a new blog post.
- Publish/update your opt-in.
Step #2: add your opt-in to your desired blog post(s)
To add an opt-in to a single blog post:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Open the edit page for the post you’d like to add the opt-in to.
- Below the post content, look for a metabox titled “Opt-in – Easier Business Blogging”.
- Make sure the “Show opt-in on this post?” setting is turned on.
- Choose which opt-in you’d like to display with the dropdown menu next to the “Selected opt-in” label.
- Configure the additional opt-in settings as desired.
- Save your post.
Step #3 (optional): add your opt-in to a widget area
To add an opt-in to a widget area:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Open the widgets editing screen in the lefthand menu under “Appearance > Widgets”.
- Look for “EBB Opt-In Widget” in the list of available widgets. Either drag in into your desired opt-in area or click on it, select your desired opt-in area, and hit the “Add Widget” button.
- Configure the widget’s settings as desired.
- Save the widget.
Tip: Once you get the hang of the basics, take a look at the Opt-ins module settings and configure them as best for your blog.
If you’re ready to stop the copy-and-paste madness that comes along with strategic blogging, give adding a blogging system to your process a serious think. They can help with much more than managing opt-ins—EBB handles hidden Pinterest images and affiliate disclosures, too!—and greatly affect how quick and easy it is to get new content published.
Grab the presales version of EBB for a special price now >>
Not quite ready to take the leap into the full version of EBB, but want to dip your toes into the world of blogging systems?
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