Those that have read this blog for more than a couple of months will remember the password post frenzy I whipped up on here a couple of months ago… the strategy added around 300+ subscribers in less than a week for probably the least amount of work I’ve ever had to do on this blog. Since then, a few have replicated this and seen various levels of success… but I thought I’d put out a short guide with the details for all those that haven’t done it yet.
Here’s what you need to create a post that will spread virally, and entice people to do things that will benefit your blog – be it increase links, subscribers and ultimately exposure.
Have something to promote.
I had a technique that I had been using myself, so know it was successful, to make myself a steady, guaranteed income without doing any work whatsoever once it was setup. The method still works but it’s harder to do now because of networks tightening down – however, at the time it was solid.
I had made around $7,500 in two months using this, and had not personally seen it discussed on any other blog. Two immediate things that would almost guarantee people wanting to hear about it (just for info, the method was about CPM arbitrage). I knew that this information was worth a lot of money to anyone that used it, and could have packaged it up and sold it… but at the time I was disillusioned with IM-related products so decided to do the next best thing.
Have a reputation.
If you do something like this on a brand new blog when no one’s heard of you before, it’s unlikely it’s going to work out at all (unless you do the next part well). People need to know who you are, whether you’ve achieved anything, how worthy your word actually is.
On this blog, people had about a 100 of past posts to gauge what I was capable of and whether the upcoming information would be any good… most decided it was worth the free risk.
Build Hype.
Hype makes the world go ’round. Well it doesn’t, but it’s largely important for almost ANY kind of marketing you do. Don’t go overboard, but remember that since your post is password protected, people have no way to gauge what’s in it unless you notify them before hand. While you’re doing this, you can hype it up a little bit. Read my hype post here. Almost 200 comments in a few days which is not bad at all.
Make it easy.
It really depends what you want, and what you’re offering. If you ARE offering high quality, don’t be afraid to make your readers do a little work… remember, you are giving them something at no monetary cost whatsoever. However, don’t make them do too much work as you’ll find that most people simply can’t be arsed. 
In this case, I gave people a choice – refer three people to subscribe (can you see how that would spread?), write a review on your blog (more reviews = more exposure, again more chance of it spreading) or build links to this blog. I eventually cut down on the link building thing after being warned that it could be bad for SEO, but anyways – all three options benefited me and people could choose on which one they thought was easiest for them. It’s always good to give people a choice. 
Promote
It was my first time doing this kind of thing, so I kind of just wrote up the post and let it sit there… I didn’t do any promotion on it and sat on my backside (it promoted itself fairly well though!). If I were to do it again, I’d promote on forums, other blogs etc, make sure that I got it in front of many eyeballs as possible. Don’t make my mistake. 
Deliver!
Once you’ve got people waiting, it’s only fair that you deliver. It doesn’t matter if only one person signed up and followed through, you should try and deliver as best as you can. If what you promised is indeed quality, you’ll have people recommending your blog even after the hype is over.
Last but not least, don’t do this too often. Once a week will probably grow your blog quick for a month or two, but unless you keep up sensational quality people are going to get tired and stop listening to you (or worse, to stick your post somewhere you don’t want it to go… ). This can be worked for any niche – you can see a lesser done example of this with the popups on numerous blogs asking for your email in exchange for a product.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, my results were around 300 more subscribers than I would have had otherwise, in less than a week. That’s quite a chunk of my RSS count, and the best thing is that once you have people subscribe as long as you don’t piss them off most of them will stay subscribed.
This idea is only limited by your creativity. Feel free to test, tweak it and let me know how it goes!
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I’m actually planning on trying this very soon… stay tuned.
Make Money Online’s last blog post..The Web’s Top Internet Marketing Blogs – Where Do You Rank?
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Tom - Entrepreneur Interview (3 comments) Reply:
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I have seen a couple of bloggers doing this recently! 300 new subscribers in a week is a great results….congrats!
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November 22nd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Hey I am new to this blog and I looked around, what was this big promotion that went down?
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November 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Again Great Tips!
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November 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Great post Jason. I think that you could even be MORE successful if you just keep a static “members only” post section on your blog and demand that people gain entry by “buying” a membership by doing one of the three steps you have recommended (or multiple).
At any rate, it definitely worked for you, and I know that I liked the tips I got in the password protected section as well
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Tom - Entrepreneur Interview (3 comments) Reply:
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 am
That is an excellent idea Jim! I might have to consider that for my blogs.
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Weng (14 comments) Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 4:26 am
It’s a cool idea, but you can only implement something like that when your blog is absolutely huge and highly popular already. For bloggers in the beginning stages who are still trying to get some subscribers, this is probably not effective.
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November 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I never thought about this. This is an excellent way to create hype and get people to subscribe!!!
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November 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
Now this is definitely something I will give a go!
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November 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 am
I’m planning on doing something like that soon. I also think that contests are a great way of getting more subscribers.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Great tips dude. Saw a similar post on a friends blog.
Anyway im actually working on a product for my try at this…
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November 23rd, 2008 at 6:07 am
Sounds like a good idea, people are always willing to sign up for quality stuff. You can’t beat free tips.
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November 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 am
[...] The University Kid – How to Send Your RSS Count Through The Roof [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I thing promoting and selling a product would increase our subscriber count to a crazy.I gonna try this
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November 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Original idea.
A lot of blogs use aweber to make a list of opt-in suscribers wich get awesome PLR ebooks …
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November 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
i love the idea of promoting an ebook as a way to both draw and reward subscribers, i just wasn’t sure what the book should focus on. reading this post, a lightbulb went off — thank you! i will send you a copy when it is done!
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November 24th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Nice post……300 adds is a sweet number.
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November 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thanks for the information! It will surely help me to get more subscribers.. and sooner… bigger money!
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Very inspiring from the man who got earning $7,500 in two months. Thanks for share.
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November 24th, 2008 at 11:08 am
[...] How To Send Your Subscriber Count Through The Roof – A quick post by Jason on how he was able to get a huge increase in his subscriber count. Pretty basic stuff and not all that easy to do, it is good to learn about though. It goes from promoting to how to hype it all up to everything you need to know. A decent post to checkout if you want to get your subscribers coming in fast! [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Now this is definitely the most innovative bait I’ve seen yet, I am definitely going to try this once out. I work so many hours a day that is often difficult to clear the mind to think up really new ideas that work to getting readers, this really helps! Thanks just subscribed!
JR @ Internet Marketing Do-Follow Blog’s last blog post..144 Do-Follow Forums – Categorized by Niche and PR
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November 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
It’s great, because people love to share free things anyway. 300 subscribers is awesome. Congrats to you.
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November 24th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
its awesome post i am gonna try the same thing but in different way and its really good to know that u made it in short span …
ZK
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November 24th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I never thought about create hype and get people to subscribe!!! excelent, I’ll try it
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November 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I love the hype idea. I have been missing that aspect from my work. I’m going to focus it more on http://www.bfranchise.com though.
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November 24th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
[...] I am asking this because there were two great posts on increasing subscriber numbers, the first was from Winning the Web, entitled 16 Ideas For Free Products That Will Double Your Subscribers & Leads and the second was from The University Kid entitled How To Send Your Subscriber Count Through The Roof. [...]
November 25th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Those are excellent tips, thanks for giving us the benefit of your insight as well as experience.
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November 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Thanks for all the tips Jason! I’ll def. be using them next time I set up a blog.
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November 25th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I remember this site having 20 subscribers.
How a bit of time can make a lot of difference. I dont really visit as often as i used to anymore as i have a full time job now but just wanted to say well done wit the site so far.
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November 26th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks for this tip Jason. I definitly gonna start doing the same as soon as I’ve some more readers to my blog…
Daniel
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November 26th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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November 27th, 2008 at 4:27 am
These are some great tips! What will sweeten it up even more is to “over deliver” and not just deliver.
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November 27th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
No joke!
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November 28th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Give the readers what they want…always works
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December 1st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
300+ in a week? That’s awesome!
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December 26th, 2008 at 7:17 am
To up my subscriber count, I’m running a nice holiday promo on my blog, RantBlogger.com
We’re picking one person who has either commented or subscribed via email to win $100 via PayPal. The promo ends Jan 1st. Please subscribe only if you like our content and expect to remain subscribed.
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