Looking to improve sign-up rates on your blogs? No matter how well designed your blog is, and no matter how many visitors you’re converting into subscribers, you can certainly make the process easier and more painless for them—leading to better results for you.

Here are some creative tactics that, implemented correctly, can lead to exceptional growth on your blog.

Upgrade to a Subscribe Banner

Most blogs have a Subscribe button on the sidebar that brings readers to a sign-up form. Does yours? If yes, here’s an alternative approach.

It’s possible to increase conversion rates by removing the old sidebar entirely—including the Subscribe button. Instead, you can create a new Subscribe banner.

Believe it or not, the banner is better.  It appears only if a visitor is not subscribed. This means there are fewer distractions and irritations for your loyal subscriber base. At the same time, it is displayed to new readers very prominently: They can hardly ignore the fact that it appears on the screen while they are in the middle of reading a post.

The new format is win-win:

• Readers who are already subscribed have a cleaner interface and do not have to deal with the messy distraction created by a side bar.
• Readers who are not yet subscribed encounter the opt-in form in a less-easily-ignored fashion.

Bottom line: Experiment with replacing your traditional Subscribe button with a Subscribe banner, and see whether your opt-in rates go up.

Create an In-Line CTA

Do you have a CTA (call to action) under each post? Your readers press a “Click Here” button to fill out a form and get a free giveaway, for example?

You might want to experiment with eliminating the “Click Here” button, and putting the sign-up form directly under the CTA copy. This allows readers to convert on the spot, within the post—rather than clicking off the post to fill out the form.

The new format is more user-friendly because it shortens the conversion path, and allows you to capture a greater number of leads. You strike when the iron is hot—right when your visitors finish reading your post.

Bottom line: Try the new format, and check if it increases your conversion rates.

Feature Posts from Your Readers

Here’s an approach that is simple, fun, and really leverages the power of social media: Find Facebook posts from your readers about your latest content, and feature them on your blog’s homepage.

It’s a great tactic, because if you take posts or tweets from your readership, it’s meaningful to new visitors. It provides social proof—a testimonial about the quality of your brand. Even better, it provides an incentive to readers to share your content and encourages further sharing.

Why? When you feature a post, for example, the reader who wrote the post is excited to be featured and shares your blog with friends. This leads to the reader’s network clicking through to your posts.

Bottom line: This strategy can improve your social media visibility and increase the traffic to your site.

Use More Slide-in CTAs

The advantage of pop-ups, of course, is that they get your attention by creating movement on the page.  Slide-in CTAs keep this advantage, but because they move in from the right side of the screen, they catch your attention, without being quite as invasive.

Bottom line: Implementing slide-in CTAs can improve your click-to-submission rates.

Remember: Play and Explore

These ideas have worked for other blogs, and they can help you improve your blog’s conversion rates. However, please use them merely as your starting point.

Each blog needs to go through its own process of optimization, finding the format that is most effective. When it comes to blog set-up, don’t just stick with the tried-and-true. Don’t stick to one ad type, use multiples types until you find the one (or ones) that work for you.