Everyone talks about how important it is to grow your email list, whether you run a blog or a small business. But how do you do that without being spammy? One easy way is through content upgrades. When you design worksheets, ebooks, and printables in Adobe InDesign, you can give them away to your audience in exchange for their email address.

At the March 2016 Cincinnati Blogging Meetup, Caitlin Cheevers, creator of the blog And Possibly Dinosaurs, shared her top tips to grow your email list, including:

• The basics of working in InDesign (and how easy it actually is)
• How to make your content upgrades interactive, so your audience doesn’t have to print them out to work on them
• How to make these content upgrades available on your website without having to pay for an upgrade email service provider or Leadpages.

In case you missed the Meetup, watch this video recording of the presentation portion:

About our speaker

Caitlin Cheevers is a 20-something blogger who focuses on blogging, design, and feminism. Her goal is to make the intimidating aspects of growing your own blog or business approachable by making the technical side of blogging and design easy to digest. She recently moved to the Cincinnati area from America’s High Five, Michigan.

Shoutout to attendees

Thanks to all the fabulous Cincinnati bloggers who made it to the Meetup. As usual, I enjoyed seeing a lively mix of first-timers and returning members, including: Sharon West, Herschel Chalk, Lydia Jenkins, Julia (Hooked on Houses), Margaret (The Brooch & Bangle), Marcelina, Stephanie Kloos Moore (A Little Moore), Nedra McDaniel (Adventure Mom), Gina Weathersby, Shawn Mummert, Debba Haupert (Girlfriendology), Michael Morris (Plant Cincinnati), and Justin Rains.

Ready to take the next step?

If you want more in-depth advice on using InDesign to grow your email list, check out Caitlin’s new online course, the InDesign Adventure Guide. She’ll teach you how to use InDesign from the very beginning, and start quickly and easily creating worksheets and ebooks for your blog. (Caitlin kindly offered a $50 discount code exclusively for members of the Cincinnati Blogging Meetup—I’ll send it to you if you’re on the official list!)