How To Start Your Own NewsletterYour Road Plan To Email Marketing Success |
13. Always Look for Opt in EzinesAlways look for Opt-in Ezines Ezines gain popularity if they are credible. The most important aspect of credibility is the process of subscription. We discussed earlier the difference between opt-in and opt-out and how important it is for your ezine to be an opt-in list. Other ezines that you look for should also be 100% opt-in. An Opt-out strategy would suggest that the ezine is published on an unsolicited basis. Readers are subscribed without their knowledge. This can very well result in a spam claim later. If you advertise in such an ezine, you would become a part of spam as well. Your ISP could shut down your account, your website could be terminated, and it is likely that you could even see yourself in the middle of a legal battle. Avoid Opt-out ezines at all costs. Seek ezines that target a related audience We discussed this in the earlier section. Let me say it again – all your advertising efforts would be negated if you advertise in ezines that are completely unrelated to yours. There have been many publishers who advertise in all kinds of ezines only to have their time, money and efforts absolutely wasted! Look for ezines that have fewer ads You should avoid ezines that have a cluster of ads. This would reduce the impact of your ad vastly. Always look for ezines that only have a few ads. Besides, ensure that other advertisers are professional and have a credible image. Look for ezines that deliver good content Content is probably the most important ingredient of your ezine. Similar is the case for all ezines. Thus, you should look for ezines that have great content. Unique and quality content will only attract more people, generating a higher response rate for your ad. In fact, it may be a better idea to advertise in a quality ezine that has only a couple thousand subscribers as compared to an ezine that has common content with more than 20,000 subscribers. The key is to look out for similar qualities in other ezines that you would want in yours. You may check out if the ezine has a website, if the host and domain name is free or paid, is the mail list provider free? How good is the layout and formatting of the ezine? And so on. Apart from these, there are a few pitfalls to watch out for. These are some of the cheap tactics ezine publishers follow to get a higher subscriber base. However, you would be much better off avoiding ezines with questionable tactics such as these: Many publishers collect email addresses of various readers from sources such as FFA (Free-for-all) lists. These may not be termed as spam or Opt-out but they are certainly not 100% Opt-in. Chances are that many of the readers who are listed in such lists would not want to be subscribed to the ezine. Avoid all ezines that seek subscribers using such strategies. Like I said earlier, avoid ads that have a cluster of ads. Some publishers try to incorporate as many ads as possible with the sole aim of earning more money. Avoid such ezines. Avoid ezines that advertise your competitor’s ad as well. Besides, if the publisher himself has a very similar ad it wouldn’t make sense to advertise in that ezine. These guidelines should help you in selecting great ezines for your advertising campaign. Follow your instincts; if you find something suspicious stay away from the ezine. The basic purpose of any Ad is not to sell your product but to attract potential subscribers. Your ezine and website are responsible for making sales of the product you may be promoting. The key is to have an eye-catching Ad. This is where the Ad headline is so crucial. Most people only look at the headline of the Ad. Your headline should be attractive enough to make a potential subscriber read through the ad and eventually click on the link provided to go on and subscribe to your ezine. List out all unique features of your product or service. Think how these would benefit your subscribers. Examine each of the benefits and figure out which ones would be most effective. The potential subscriber should know what he/she will gain from your ezine. A very good strategy for doing this exercise is to write the Ad in a paragraph form. Keep on reading the ad numerous times, gradually reducing and refining the content. Eventually, you will get a one line heading that is both eye-catching and highlights the uniqueness of your ezine very well. You may also provide an incentive to encourage readers to sign up for your ezine. Make sure you mention your incentive within your ad. Another important aspect is the size of the description. Every publisher or directory would have their own specifications. Some may allow a 10 to 15 word description, some 30 – 40 and some even 80 to 100. The best thing to do is have different versions of your ad with different lengths of description. Save each of these to a file for later use. A few other tips: Study ads from your competitors. Look for unique features in these ads and employ them in your ad. Space is at a premium. Do not waste characters by using duplicates or other words that may be unnecessary. Some words that should be avoided are “the”, “a”, and “an”. Use very common abbreviations where possible. Do not ridicule your competitor. Depict how your ezine is superior from others. Your aim is to have a maximum conversion ratio of successful subscribers. After all, you wouldn’t want to pay for visitors who are unwilling to subscribe to your ezine. A very specific ad would target only those surfers who are actually interested in your ezine. Use language that is personalized and motivational. The purpose of the ad is to elicit desire in people. Use strong call to action words and phrases. These will generate a response from potential subscribers. Examples include “Sign up today and get a free eBook”, “Register Now and Win”, and so on. Ezine Ads should include what most people refer to as “power” words. These are words that many advertisers use in order to pull subscribers. A list of some of the most useful power words is given below: Fast Simple Secrets Stop Breakthrough Sale Act Now Superior Successful Valuable Limited Wealth Latest Delivers Win Announcing Discover Free Gift Incredible Amazing Exclusive Remarkable Boosts Don’t Delay Effective Fast-Acting Affordable Bonus Increases Members-Only 100% Guaranteed Proven How to Timeless Top Ranking Exclusive Select Hurry Your work is only half done once you finalize the ad copy. Testing your ad is as vital as designing it. Experimenting with different Ads can immensely improve the success rate of your campaign. Design a set of ads containing different headlines and description. The basic message of each ad should be the same. A detailed analysis of each of these ads will ascertain which ad gets the highest response rate. This way you can pinpoint successful ads and persist with them. Ads can be tested and analyzed using ad tracking programs and scripts. These have been explained earlier. The “Resources” section at the end also contains a list of useful ad tracking tools. Ad Swap Magic Here is a little used technique you can implement to build your mailing list for no additional cost. I call it “using subscribers to make subscribers” like much in the context of “using money to make money”. This simple list building formula can be summed up in two words: ad swap. Generally, you trade advertisements with other eZine publishers, preferably of the same mailing list size or bigger. You broadcast the eZine publisher’s advertisement to your mailing list while the eZine publisher endorses your ad to his list. Yes, you are actually cross endorsing or cross promoting each others offer to each of your mailing list. Your advertisement’s goal should be to get as many subscribers possible from the other eZine publisher’s mailing list to sign up for yours. The result: you grow your mailing list. This method does not require money, which means it can be done for free. And the return of subscribers? Infinite! You only have to do this with one eZine publisher at least once, because his subscribers who are also your subscribers can now be followed up within the boundaries of your mailing list. Perform ad swaps with as many eZine publishers as possible and soon, you will have a huge mailing list of your own – built free. Swapping ads with other ezine publishers is a neat way to avoid paying for advertising. This strategy can work wonders for your ezine campaign. You could form an alliance with other ezine publishers wherein you could request them to let you advertise in their ezines for free. Of course you would then have to return the favor by letting them advertise in your ezine for free. This eliminates the cost of advertising in other ezines. However, you may also have to part with any income you would be generating by selling advertising space in your own ezine. The choice is yours. If you opt for ad swapping, ensure that you reciprocate with a publisher who is credible and professional. You wouldn’t want ill repute publishers to advertise in your ezines. Building Your List with Give Away Ventures With the awareness of the importance of list building, comes a recent Internet Marketing trend which was started just a couple of years ago for the mutual benefits of all Internet Marketers and mailing list owners. This method is more recognized as a “starting a Give Away venture”. In a real sense, a Give Away event is much like a big time version of ad swaps. In a nutshell, a group of mailing list owners partner together and pool in their individual gifts in one limited-time event. Each participating partner contributes a gift to the event. The gift can be a free product, membership pass or a product he is already selling (if he is kind enough to offer into the event). The participating partner prepares a Lead Capture Page where he gives the gift in exchange for the subscriber’s email address. In other words, in order for a visitor to download the digital gift, he must opt in and subscribe to your mailing list. When the gifts are pooled together into one event (site), every partner will then endorse the Give Away event to their own mailing lists. The result: lots of visitors to one event as a collective effort of several participating partners! With so many visitors downloading gifts from one focused event, it is a true win-win situation. This is because the visitors get to download several free gifts for their own use and every partner gets to build their own mailing list! You can easily get notified about a Give Away event in the making by communicating with other Internet Marketers often or participating in Internet Marketing discussion and Joint Venture boards. Using Free Reports to Build Your List Aside from pre-selling your products and affiliated offers, the other purpose of your free viral report should be to build your mailing list. This is because if you are unable to pre-sell, let alone sell, the products and services featured in your free report, the last ditch effort should be to collect leads. In short, if you cannot convert the reader into a ready buyer, you should then attempt to convert him or her into your subscriber. In that manner, you can still follow up with your reader on future offers and have a chance at converting him or her into your customer, preferably lifetime. You can do so by offering a lifetime update to your report or a unique notification list your reader will be interested in subscribing to, which leads to having him or her subscribed to your mailing list. One of the few success factors in viral marketing of your free report is quality. If your readers find your information worth sharing, and you encourage them to do so by giving them the right to give your report away for free, you will be able to have your name, status and links within the report passed around without any effort on your part – simply because others are willing to do so for you! Publishers of ezines are always on the lookout for additional informative articles for their ezines. You should always take benefit of this. Write a simple information packed article (about 500 words in length) on a subject that your are knowledgeable about and submit it to other editors with a suggestion that they might like to use it in their next edition. These articles could be about anything. Of course, they have to be related to the topic of the ezine. If your article is informative and content rich you stand a good chance of having it published in other ezines. There are some great advantages of having your articles published in other ezines. Such a strategy introduces you to a large audience, which may very well be your target audience. Good articles can build your credibility and reputation as a source of great information. This would help you market your ezine much better. It also allows you to use your signature file to advertise your business. Submitting articles to other ezines can be a great source of prospective readers for your own ezine. However, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when you write the article. While your article may not be an effort to promote your business, your 4 to 6 line resource box should be an outright ad for you and your business. You are free to advertise your web site, your products, your services, or any affiliate program that you are a member of. One of the most important ingredients of the article is the title itself. The title is what readers would look at and if that doesn’t seem appealing, most readers would not give your article a second glance. The key is to have an attention grabbing title, much like the heading of an ad. It may be a good idea to have a few titles in mind before selecting the final title. Organize your article so that it flows perfectly. Divide it into four or five main sub topics instead of having a continuous flow of text. Once you have the sub sections divide the article equally amongst them. For instance if you have 5 sub sections and decide to write an article of 500 words, allot around 100 words for each section. You may not follow this strictly but the idea is to have proportionate sections. At the end of the article do not forget to insert a resource box. This is what will fetch you subscribers for your own ezine. Include your name, website address, and ezine name. Along with this include a few benefits of your ezine. Bear in mind that your best chance of getting subscribers is when the article you write is similar to your ezine subject. There is no point in writing an article about sports when your ezine caters to the business audience. Finally, proof read your article numerous times and spruce it up as you progress. Do not forget to check for grammar and spelling. Such mistakes can cost you dearly. When you submit your article to the ezine publisher, write a short personalized cover paragraph at the top. Personalization is a major key since most ezine publishers receive hundreds of these emails every day. You need to make your emails stand out of the crowd. A Popular Auto Responder Marketing Technique Marketing through auto responder series is a popular strategy to increase repeat website visits and sales. Here is a popular strategy. EZINE EBOOK Instead of trying to publish a small daily or weekly eZines, try publishing one large monthly eZine (similar to a monthly magazine) as an e-book format delivered via auto responder, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. You could have it made up of a large number of articles per issue and insert regularly featured areas throughout like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. You could also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio / video file links and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots to sprinkle in your auto responder announcements for each issue and with an informational series to announce your monthly eZine to new prospects. In summary, by using customized marketing techniques like an eZine eBook, tailored to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and sales opportunities. Internet marketing can mean more ways to grow your business.
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Browse Site3. Invite Guest Writers to Write in Your Ezine 5. Free Resources on Writing Skills 6. Write Attractive Descriptions 8. Free Hosts – a Definite No No 10. Suggest the Change Subtly to Your Readers 11. Creating a Comprehensive Online Media Kit 13. Always Look for Opt in Ezines 14. Auto Responder Improvements |
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