If you have a blog, chances are you’re putting a significant amount of work into it.  Why not actually PROFIT from the time and effort you put into your blog? Why not monetize it?  If you see the value of monetizing a blog (and there are hundreds of thousands of people just like you who do) then one of the most important things you can do is to capture emails.

So, how do you capture emails on your blog?  Well, you can use a simple “subscribe to a newsletter” widget on your sidebar. That might give you the beginning of an email list.  But if you want to go further, ask yourself what the type of person who chooses to read your blog would most likely be interested in besides what you’ve written.  As a general rule you can’t just say, hey, sign up for my email list without offering something of value or interest to your reader.

Using a squeeze page can be another way to capture emails.  A squeeze page specifically tailored at getting your readers to opt-in can offer, for instance, a free e-book tutorial about your particular niche.  That might be just the incentive for a reader to leave you with his or her email address.

You don’t HAVE to use a squeeze page, of course.   But odds are the opt-in percentage is going to be significantly less if you’re simply using a sidebar widget.

No matter how you choose to collect email addresses, just make sure that you do SOMETHING.  You’re practically shooting yourself in the foot by ignoring opportunities to capture email addresses.

So what are you waiting for? Are you still reading this? Go and collect emails on your blog or website now! Go, go, go!