Building your email list is one of the most important things you can do as a website owner. It allows you to stay connected with your visitors and let them know about new content even if they don’t visit your site on a regular basis.

A couple of months ago I installed a free email optin plugin called OptinEngine and so far have been impressed with the results. Our Email signups have more than doubled over the standard email optin form that we show on the site. I am so impressed with the results I wanted to share it with you!

Once installed setting up a new optin is as easy as choosing one of the pre-defined templates as a starting point. There are three types of optin available:

• Model: A screen takeover where the user must either enter their email or close the box
• Slider: Similar to modal but allows the user to keep reading the content while keeping the option to subscribe
• Bar: A HelloBar style info bar that stick to either the top or the bottom of the page

Using the template optin as a starting point you can then customise the text, colours, images and fonts, allowing you to match the optin to your website’s look and feel.

Various filters are available that allow you to disable the optin based on device or for certain page types like archive, pages, etc.

Storing Emails

OptinEngine can send your email leads to a third party email provider like MailChimp, Aweber or ConstantContact or it can store the emails internally in it’s own email list that you can export later.

If you own a blog or website running on WordPress I highly recommend that you take a look.

OptinEngine – Email Optins for WordPress