I have heard the same line from several bloggers recently that disturbs me. There are several variations of the idea but they all follow the same premise.
“I’ll wait to start emailing my list until I hit (insert number here that normally is HUGE) subscribers.”
My answer to this statement is always the same and will never change as this is a fundamental truth in blogging and business. The first thing I ask these bloggers is…
“Why?!”
Bloggers that are making blanket statements such as these are missing the boat completely. The most important thing you need to remember about blogging is simple.
You are always writing for an audience of one.
The interaction between blogger and reader is a personal one. It is a one on one connection regardless of how many rss or newsletter subscribers you have. Are all of your subscribers getting together in one room to read your email or article at the same time? Of course not. So why do you keep treating your readers as a group when you are actually making a personal, one on one connection?
The start of the failing thought process is typically a fear or money driven line of thinking. These bloggers either want to make a load of cash at once (they can’t see the value in making a little bit of money at a time in the beginning) or are fearful of rejection from their handful of subscribers (the fear keeps them trapped).
Let’s say you have two bloggers that you are subscribed to. One of the bloggers has a published list of around 80,000 and the other one is just getting started with around 100 but you like what he or she has to say. Does it make any difference to you when the email hits your inbox with the latest blast from a newsletter subscription or the latest article through a RSS feed? No…why? Because you are looking for that one on one connection.
I challenge you to not forget the most important part of blogging when you are making important business decisions. You need to treat your list and your readers the same whether you have 1 or 100,000 subscribers because you are still reaching each subscriber one at a time.
It is never to early to start emailing your list with quality information or products that solve their needs. Your online reputation starts with day 1 of their subscribing. Nail it down with quality, back it up with consistency and make that personal connection. The rest will be history…
Image by Hammer Museum
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