Using Aweber to Gauge Your Audience
About a month ago I had another hairbrain idea to start an email list and promptly signed up for Aweber.
This isn’t a review of Aweber, but basically it’s a very cool site that manages your email list for you. You can create sign-up forms (like the one in the sidebar), and create really nice newsletters and it’s all really simple. Highly recommend it if you’re going to start a newsletter or whatever. I think I pay $19, which is what, around ?10 per month. A bit of a bargain really.
But anyway, so, I’ve been having a lot of fun with Aweber, producing newsletters and checking my stats.
And checking my stats
Is there a blogger in the blogosphere who isn’t addicted to stats?
RSS subscription rate, email feed figures, pageviews, unique visitors, Alexa rank, Technorati Rank, Twitter followers, friends on facebook, money I made from blogging in two seconds last thursday. We’re stat junkies. And now I have an email list, oh yes, I get stats from Aweber too.
I get the percentage of people that opened my last newsletter, the amount of people subscribed, the amount of people that have unsubscribed, the links that people clicked on…
What was that? The links that people clicked on. Oh yes, it’s like Big Brother round here, I’m watching your every move 
But seriously the link clicking stat is actually quite fascinating and I think it could really shape both my newsletter and my blogging in the future.
Here’s how it works
I produce a newsletter, with five features.
Feature 1: A giveaway competition offering a bonus entry for clicking the link and leaving a comment.
Feature 2: A voucher code for an ebook, with a link to buy.
Feature 3: A link to a post about baking cookies
Feature 4: A link to join Bukisa
Feature 5: A link to a post about the future of work for mums
You send your newsletter, and get a 100% open rate (which I had for my last newsletter, yay!) Of the 100%, you get a 50% click rate. You then go into the Aweber page where you can see what has been clicked. You find the following stats;
Feature 1 (bonus entry): No clicks
Feature 2 (voucher code): No clicks
Feature 3 (baking cookies): No clicks
Feature 4 (Join Bukisa): 7 clicks
Feature 5 (future of work for mums): 5 Clicks
It’s pretty easy to identify the information that your readers or interested in and looking for.
This is powerful information, you can now tailor your newsletter toward the most interesting topics, same with blog posts. This information is as valid for bloggers as it would be for small businesses.
Erica, just wanted to drop a note that I find your recent posts all very thought provoking. One question – could you elaborate on the benefits that you hope to gain from having an email list? Do you see it different to RSS subscribers?
Hi Cartside,
I do see it as different to RSS subscribers. The benefits of having an email list seem to be (from what I’ve learned). To establish who from your audience are interested in receiving further information. You can then share some of your most valuable information with these people and ultimately monetize your email list, either direct selling or affiliate marketing.
My own aim was a simple ‘elite’ group to which I could giveaway the freebies I’m given. However, I’m extending the newsletter to include other topics, like making money online, and working from home, from a complete beginners point of view. I’ve decided to do this based on the information I’ve gathered from doing the newsletter so far.
Are you considering starting an email list?
I read up on Aweber too at problogger but your post was more concrete about what to expect. I’m going to try out their free month and see how I like it.
Hi Michelle,
Aweber also provides templates for newsletter making it easy to produce something without worrying about HTML