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Author: Michael Southon Article source: http://www.webmasterslibrary.com/. Used with author's permission.
If you're like most people starting out on the
Internet,you've been along this well-worn path:
You try free classified ad sites and get bombarded
with spam by people trying to sell you stuff.
You try banner exchange programs and get a handful of
click-throughs.
You finally get into the top twenty results in the
Search Engines, and then a week later your site has
dropped back to number 150.
The Internet may the largest market in human history,
but how on earth do you reach those millions of
people?
Well, the answer is ezine advertising.
Its the surest way on the Web of reaching your target
audience.
Ezines (short for 'electronic magazines') are email
newsletters that are sent out regularly to
subscribers, like the one you're reading. They're
sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone who
receives an ezine has chosen to do so.
And that's why ezine advertising gets results. People
read ezines and they'll read your ad. And if you've
matched the ezine to the product you're selling,
you've reached your target audience.
Have a look at the ads in your favorite ezine - why
are they there? Because they get results.
There are currently around 90,000 ezines being
published every month. So whatever you're selling,
there's more than likely an ezine that will take your
ad straight to the audience you want to reach.
Ezine advertising is not only effective, its cheap as
well. A 5-line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people
will cost you between $5 and $20 per issue.
As a general rule, you'll always get back at least the
cost of the ad, and usually much more. So there's very
little risk.
But there are some tips for successful ezine
advertising. Here they are:
1. The first and most important rule in ezine
advertising is: "Track your Ads!". You might place
your ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundred
responses, but if you don't track your ads, you won't
know which ezines were pulling responses and which
weren't.
To advertise effectively in ezines, you must learn
from experience - its a process of trial and error.
Eventually, you'll end up with a handful of ezines
that you know are bringing you a high response rate.
After that, just keep placing your ads in those ezines
and you'll have a guaranteed stream of customers.
But how do you track your ads?
The simplest method is to place a key or a code at the
end of your email address. If your ad was in this
ezine (for example), this is the email address you'd
place with the ad:
yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=freezine
Then, when you get a reply with 'freezine' in the
subject field, you'll know which ezine it came from.
For a URL, it's the same principle:
http://www.yourdomain.com?freezine
However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll
need a sophisticated webstats program to track the
coded URLs. Here are a couple of free ones:
http://www.hitbox.com.
http://www.openwebscope.com.
Here's another way to code your URLs : for every ezine
ad, create a duplicate of your homepage and name the
page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So,
if the ad is appearing in Ezine A, this is the URL
you'd place in that ad:
http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA
Again, you'll need to use a good web stats program to
track the hits to your coded URLs.
2. The second rule is to target your audience. It may
seem obvious but some advertisers overlook this. If
you're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertise
in an ezine that deals with stock options; they
probably won't be interested.
Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to
find ezines that relate to the product you're selling.
You can find a list of 60 ezine directories in 'The
Free Directory of Ezines' at:
http://www.netmastersolutions.com/more-directories.html
3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target
your audience, subscribe to them and examine the ads
closely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue
after issue, you can be pretty sure that its getting
results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.
4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You
don't want your ad lost in an ezine farm at the bottom
of the newsletter. You probably won't get much
response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads
per issue. Readers of those ezines have become
hardened to the ads and have learnt to skip them.
5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of
never running ads for two similar products in the same
issue - your ad will be much more effective if its the
only one of its kind in that particular issue.
6. Small ezines vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always
better. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tend
to have more ads than the small ezines. Also, small
ezines with only a few hundred subscribers often have
a much more targeted audience than the big ezines.
7. Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web,
an ad has to be seen about 21 times before someone
acts on it; on the Internet its about 9 times. If your
budget allows, try and have your ad repeated at least
three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offer
discount packages for bulk advertising.
8. Email address vs. URL. Opinions are divided on
this; some people prefer to give an email address,
others prefer to give a URL. The advantage of giving
an email address is that it gives you the opportunity
to send a powerful sales letter to the person who
responded to your ad. Its also much easier to track
your ads with an email address than a URL.
9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often
tip the balance between a response and no response.
10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the
number of words you're allowed. Short ads are more
likely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; they
pack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don't
describe your product but tell the reader what your
product can do for them. ------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
------------------------------------------------------------
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