a website theme to make your site "GrowthHacker" approved... annoying popups for email capture and the like...
I'd much rather products that just helped people develop more interesting sites than just using marketing techniques to get them to 'convert'
I'm a big believer in if you have engaging content then you should be able to appeal to your target audience. 'Hacking' your way to get 'conversions' are rarely going to be that valuable in the long run.
Also find it weird how people don't just see through all the techniques... If I see these things on a site it makes me even less likely to want to hang around now.
Good story-telling, I'd be intrigued to spend time
@bentossell Hey Ben, thanks for your comment.
What you say is completely true, you need great, engaging, high quality content to build your audience.
There is no value in an email list of readers that only got "tricked" into following you.
It's as well the right way to go about building a real relationship with your followers.
The theme itself is not enough, as it just makes sure that your visitors don't leave your site and forget about you.
But in the end you will need both. One without the other one doesn't work. I would love if everyone would take the time to search for an opportunity to stay in contact with content producers after reading an awesome article, but the real world just doesn't work that way.
Most people just close the tab and go on with their live and forget about you. Even if they take the time to add your blog to "favorites", if you have no opportunity to build the relationship they won't come back. Popups are not the only way to get people to follow you, but its a working way. If done right they can as well be used very ethical.
This theme wasn't build for marketers or sleazy "sales man" that only try to build their email list to immediately sell something.
It's for bloggers that have been struggling to get consistent traffic and don't know how to turn visitors into subscribers.
@jaschaio yeah I get that of course... unfortunately it will be bought and used by people trying to build an email list for the sake of it and selling shitty things.
I just wonder if there is a better way to provide the knowledge/education/tools to bloggers in a different way
@bentossell You may know the infamous article that you only need 1000 true fans to live well as an artist (http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-t...)
Out of our own experience I actually think the same is true for Bloggers. Once you've reached one thousand true fans and loyal readers, everything else gets easier. Because even if you produce the most valuable content you can think of in the beginning, if there is nobody to listen it won't get noticed.
I have been wondering about the same question and build recently a free email course on the same topic (http://www.driveblogtraffic.com). The goal is to help bloggers to learn how to build an audience from scratch, in an ethical way, building real relationships with people.
@bentossell Hi Ben - thought I'd add my own 2 cents to this.
Most people don't actually know where they read interesting content anymore. I speak to people about this every day and quite often they don't know what their favourite blogs, newspapers or magazines are. They simply wait for content to be delivered to them. This could be via social news feeds but quite frequently, the easiest way to do this is via newsletter.
I appreciate this may be annoying for some users - but the way users are searching for content at the moment, there can be no other way. And if you don't let people know the option is available, then they won't ask off their own bat.
I don't know if you agree @jascaio ?
@alicelthwaite@jascaio hey! Thanks for chiming in :)
It's not that I have anything against people not knowing where to find content for them etc but just the pop ups of "Yes show more people my blog" or "No I dont want any visitors" that often comes up when you go to exit a site are now a bit annoying (personally)... there was a time where it was quite intriguing and clever but unfortunately I think marketers and 'growth hackers' have run it into the ground where it now is just too in your face and puts me off a site if I see things like that.
That being said, perhaps the blogging world is still to be tapped with techniques like this so it could convert really well! Perhaps its just the volume of sites I see that are using this and have low quality content that has pushed me to annoyance haha
Very excited to see the Growtheme on PH 😍
I've build this theme out of a massive pain for myself. In the past year I’ve build together with my spouse a Blog from zero to 10.000+ email subscribers. Without SEO. Without paid clicks. Without any previous experience and with just one post per week.
We focused on techniques used by big Bloggers like Noah Kagan, Derek Halpern or Neil Patel. What we noticed was that it's really hard to do the same if you start from zero. You either need to be a developer yourself, or use several plugins on a monthly basis that are very unflexible and make a complete mess out of your blog.
As I noticed that other bloggers were searching for a solution to the same problem, I decided to turn our custom made theme into a product anybody could use. (Making the first version in a 48h product challenge inspired by @amyhoy and @nathanbarry)
I know that some of the techniques (like popups) are sometimes questioned. But the truth is that they do work and can be used in an ethical way that provides real value to visitors.
Additionally if you are just starting out as a Blogger you don't have any time to loose and so much things to learn.
If you have something that takes away all the technical worries, you have more time to focus on the things that really matter for a successful blog: Writing great content and building real relationships with your readers.
AMA regarding the Product, Email List Building or Blog Growth in general. I had the pleasure to work with some of the big bloggers out their, so I am happy to help :)
@jaschaio@amyhoy@nathanbarry Great concept... while I agree with @bentossell's general sentinment, I also agree that there are a lot of themes out there that don't really offer basic methods for your users to get onboard.
My one comment would be that your main site and your demo site don't really operate as full sites, so it's hard to see how I might use your theme as a regular user. I can't see the "full site experience" and without that, all I'm really seeing are plugins disguised as a theme (thus preventing me from using my regular theme).
This is a fantastic theme @jaschaio. I'm not a coder, 95% of all the websites I've built have been using free & premium Wordpress themes. I'd suggest a slightly more fleshed out demo though.
I get it, you're the 'only' theme focused on "GrowthHacking", but really you still have massive competition. A simple stroll over to Themeforest will result in 1,000's of different themes - competition. All of which have a very comprehensive demo, or in many cases demos. And most are priced at a third of your theme (with the PH discount).
I thoroughly dig what you've created, but understand that the people who buy themes can't usually afford custom work & can't code their way out of a paper bag. I feel it would help your sales with the theme purchasing audience if you show them the power with a better demo.
@chaseth Hey Chase, thanks for your feedback. Its absolutely true that I have neglected the demo site in favor of developing the theme further, especially in comparison with the "competition" you mentioned. For what I've seen with my current customers, is that at the moment they are a completely different kind of audience than themeforest is targeting. For the feedback I got, it seems like the landing page already makes a pretty good point on what makes this theme completely different for them. But while growing I shouldn't neglect the features of the theme as well, including a better demo and some kind of product tour. Could I follow up with you once I start working on that to get some quick suggestions? Thanks again!
@jaschaio Thanks for that perspective. And I definitely understand that this might speak to a different audience out of the gate. There are some specific theme creators that I feel have nailed the demo, and those would be the ones I'd look to as examples. Please follow up whenever. Congrats again on a great product!
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