10 “Magical” Tricks You Can Use To Pull Email Subscribers Out Of Your Comments Section

• The Comments Section. It’s the one place on your blog where readers are going to interact heavily with you.
• This is especially true if you’re using the default WordPress commenting system.
• In addition to this area of your site being the most interactive one, it also helps you automatically segregate your readers by level of activity.
• Readers who leave comments on your site are probably your most active participants. They are more in tune with you than any other. And they perhaps have some desire to connect with you.
• Sad to say though… the Comments Section is also probably the most under-utilized place on most people’s sites. Especially when it comes to building your list.
• It’s time to say goodbye to this wasteful practice. Let’s optimize your Comments Section today!
• Here are 10 simple, yet uber powerful, tricks you can use to make your Comments Section generate new email subscribers for you by the truckload…

#10. The Checkbox Trick

• One of the easiest ways to turn your commenters into subscribers is… by allowing them an option to be automatically subscribed to your email list the moment they submit a comment.
• You can easily do this with plugins like Newsletter Sign-Up.
• You can also make the checkbox to subscribe to your email list checked by default. So commenters have to uncheck the box if they choose not to subscribe.
• Since they’re already entering their name and email to submit a comment anyway, they’re already halfway through to signing up to your list.
• You’re basically cutting out the work they need to do to get onto your list right in half…

#9.  The Redirection Trick

• A popular trick that is largely underused is automatically redirecting first time blog commenters to a special Thank You page. A very special Thank You page…
• On that page, you thank them generously for commenting. And lavish them with tons and tons of praise for the courage and audacity they had to actually leave a comment on your blog.
• And then… you sell… them on joining your email list. To prove their true worth.
• There are various plugins out there that allow you to do this. Such as the Comment Redirect plugin.

#8. The “Me First” Trick

• It’s your blog. Never forget that. You can do whatever you want with it…
• So… why not take advantage of your administrative powers by being the first one to comment on each and every new blog post you create?
• Leave that first comment. And draw your reader’s attention in like crazy.
• What do you write in your comment? Maybe something interesting. Maybe something fun.
• But always… always… include a link back to your Squeeze Page. Telling them to sign up for your magnificent and awesome free gift. They’ll love it!

#7. The Big Name Trick

• So you’re gonna participate in your Comments Section. You’re going to personally reply to questions. And comments. So they can feel the tender loving care you have in your heart for them.
• But wait! Before you do that… you want to make sure… that… the name you use for commenting is edited so that it links straight to your Squeeze Page.
• Never forget to do this. And you can do that by… editing the website url for your profile… simply by going to “yourdomain.com/wp-admin/profile.php” in WordPress.
• And yes… You need to replace yourdomain.com with your own domain.

#6. The Call To Action Trick

• But sometimes… just sometimes… names are boring. I mean Leonardo LaVito? What type of name is that?
• So let’s spice it up a little. Instead of simply having your full name under every comment you make in the comments section… you should definitely add a call to action right next to your name. And I mean definitely!
• This will get more people clicking on your name. Which, if you followed the tip in Point #5, should link directly to your Squeeze Page.
• So it’s the same thing as I told you before. You can change your name by going to “yourdomain.com/wp-admin/profile.php”.
• So now, for example, instead of having the name “Leonardo LaVito” show up each time I leave a comment (which is boring)… I can edit it to become… “Leonardo LaVito (click here…)“
• Wow! Oh my gosh! Amazing! That’s such a nice name change! And people will be clicking on my name like crazy to get onto my list. Wow!
• The caveat to doing this though… is that it can change your author name in your post meta data.
• The workaround to this caveat is to edit your post meta data and change your name manually, or create a separate user account just for commenting. A bit of trouble, but it’s worth it.

#5. The Happy Replier Trick

• Next up… something simple, and basic. But… it will without a doubt help you get your newly optimized name and call to action commenting link in front of as many people as possible.
• So this is what you do. Every time someone leaves a comment… make sure you reply to that comment.
• The more comments you reply to, the more chances you have to leave your call to action out there. For all the world to see and opt-in to your list!
• Oh… you already knew that? Just wait. Let me finish…
• So another thing you can do is… enable an option that auto-subscribes commenters to their comment.
• This way, they get notified in their email everytime they get a reply from you.
• And you can reply to them as many times as you want. Just be careful not to annoy them.
• Doing this will make sure that they see your reply. No missing out allowed here.
• It’ll get them coming back to your blog way more often too. Which further increases their chances of opt-ing in to your list by a factor of many.
• You can do this with various WordPress plugins, like the Subscribe To Comments Reloaded plugin.

#4. The Signature Trick

• Forum marketing is fun. And cool. And effective.
• When you leave comments on forums, they let you put a link back to your site in your signature. You can even link to your Squeeze Page. Even your grandma’s Squeeze Page. Too bad your blog isn’t a forum…
• But wait… what if… what if you actually could have a personal signature, just for your good old lovely self?
• So that everytime you leave a comment, it has a cool little signature thingy under your comment. And only under your comment. Just like a real forum. Wow!
• Let’s take it up a notch. What if you could also… put an attractive, eye-catching clickable picture or button in your signature that actually leads to your squeeze page. Wouldn’t that be the bees knee?
• Well, actually you can. And there are two ways you can do this:
  • One way is to just do it manually. Everytime you leave a comment on your blog, copy and paste some ready made signature text that you have available. Make sure it links to your squeeze page.
  • The second way is to take advantage of awesome Wordpress plugins that allow you to do this. Such as the Comment Signature plugin.

#3. The Photo Trick

• Ok, this little trick will blow your mind.
• But… you can only use this if… your blog lets commenters have a little profile picture next to their comments. If it doesn’t, you can’t use this.
• So you probably already know that normally, when you leave a blog comment, it includes a little square profile picture to the left of your comment. Which is cool.
• Now what you need to do is… change your personal user profile picture (the one that shows up for you when you comment) into a right-pointing arrow.
• What happens when you do this is… by changing your profile picture into a simple right-pointing arrow… it points directly to your comment name. Which is to the right of your profile image. And if you remember, your comment name links to your Squeeze Page. Well if you did Point #7 of course…
• If there’s enough space, the comment profile images on your site are square shaped, you can also have a profile photo with the arrow at the top, and have a call to action underneath. Like “Click Here”.
• Just do some image editing in Canva to get the effect you want.

#2. The Message Trick

• There’s just so much space that people aren’t taking advantage of. It’s wasteful!
• One of those areas includes the space directly above and below your comment submission form.
• Do yourself a favor… include something in these spots. Preferably, you should have a line or few of text, with a link to your Squeeze Page.
• Plugins like Advanced Comment Form let you do this, easy as pie.
• And if you want more places where you can add messages to… you can enable a “Success! You are awesome!” or “Thank You For Commenting” message that shows up on the page right after someone leaves a comment and presses the submit button.
• You’ll need to do some coding to do this though. This short article covers the how. It’s Method 1.
• I probably don’t need to tell you this. Just make it so that your cute new Success or Thank You messages include a link back to your Squeeze Page. Your blog commenters will be so shocked…

#1. The Thank You Trick

• Another super powerful, super sneaky, super smart thing you can do is… automatically sending your commenters a Thank You email when they leave a comment on your blog.
• Include a link to your Squeeze Page in this email too, of course. No questions asked.
• And link to other popular articles on your site too. Just to get them coming back for more.
• You can do this using cool Wordpress plugins like Thank Me Later. You can even choose how quickly the message is sent out after your reader leaves their comments. Whether you want it to go out in minutes, hours, days or weeks.

#0. The Approval Trick