Some people on the Internet promote driving traffic to their blog and having an opt-in box on a sidebar in the blog. The rationale for this method is to build a better relationship with your clients through your blog. What do you think? Have you ever tried this blog approach?

Answer: I have never tried this blog approach. Why? There are too many options for the person that visits you blog. They may get caught up in the bells and whistles of your blog and forget to sign up for your list. Even if they join your RSS feeds, you could still lose out on opt-ins.

This blog approach might be a good method for some, but I still say drive all the traffic to your squeeze page so you can make sure to get the most opt-ins. Then after they have opted into your squeeze drive them to your blog. This approach will help you build a better relationship with your list subscribers. Why? Since they have signed up for your list you know that they are interested in your and your products specifically. You will have a more targeted, committed list of subscribers.

Would I still put an opt-in box on a sidebar on my blog, even though I try to send traffic to my squeeze page first? Yes, absolutely. This extra opt-in box on my blog may pick up some opt-ins from people that stumbled upon my blog. It doesn\'t hurt to have the extra opt-in box since you have the regular squeeze page set up in place.

Also look at it in terms of the money you have to spend to get the traffic. If I\'m going to spend money on Google AdWords traffic to my blog, am I willing to just hope that they will opt-in? No. If I\'m going to drive Google AdWords to any page, it would be my squeeze page because they are more likely to opt-in on this page.

The same things apply to article marketing. In the articles I can just hope that the readers will go to my page. I have one chance, and one chance only, to get them to my page so I want that page to be a squeeze page. If they just go to my blog then they may or may not opt-in to my list.

Once I have them at the squeeze page and they opt-in then I send them an email that drives them back to my blog. This is a great way to establish and build a relationship with them.