If you're like most people starting out on theInternet,you've been along this well-worn path:
You try free classified ad sites and get bombardedwith spam by people trying to sell you stuff.
You try banner exchange programs and get a handful ofclick-throughs.
You finally get into the top twenty results in theSearch Engines, and then a week later your site hasdropped back to number 150.
The Internet may the largest market in human history,but how on earth do you reach those millions ofpeople?
Well, the answer is ezine advertising.
Its the surest way on the Web of reaching your targetaudience.
Ezines (short for 'electronic magazines') are emailnewsletters that are sent out regularly tosubscribers, like the one you're reading. They'resometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone whoreceives an ezine has chosen to do so.
And that's why ezine advertising gets results. Peopleread ezines and they'll read your ad. And if you'vematched the ezine to the product you're selling,you've reached your target audience.
Have a look at the ads in your favorite ezine - whyare they there? Because they get results.
There are currently around 90,000 ezines beingpublished every month. So whatever you're selling,there's more than likely an ezine that will take yourad straight to the audience you want to reach.
Ezine advertising is not only effective, its cheap aswell. A 5-line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 peoplewill cost you between $5 and $20 per issue.
As a general rule, you'll always get back at least thecost of the ad, and usually much more. So there's verylittle risk.
But there are some tips for successful ezineadvertising. Here they are:
1. The first and most important rule in ezineadvertising is: "Track your Ads!". You might placeyour ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundredresponses, but if you don't track your ads, you won'tknow which ezines were pulling responses and whichweren't.
To advertise effectively in ezines, you must learnfrom experience - its a process of trial and error.Eventually, you'll end up with a handful of ezinesthat you know are bringing you a high response rate.After that, just keep placing your ads in those ezinesand 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 theend of your email address. If your ad was in thisezine (for example), this is the email address you'dplace with the ad:
yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=freezine
Then, when you get a reply with 'freezine' in thesubject 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'llneed a sophisticated webstats program to track thecoded 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 ezinead, create a duplicate of your homepage and name thepage after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So,if the ad is appearing in Ezine A, this is the URLyou'd place in that ad:
http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA
Again, you'll need to use a good web stats program totrack the hits to your coded URLs.
2. The second rule is to target your audience. It mayseem obvious but some advertisers overlook this. Ifyou're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertisein an ezine that deals with stock options; theyprobably won't be interested.
Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory tofind ezines that relate to the product you're selling.You can find a list of 60 ezine directories in 'TheFree Directory of Ezines' at:
http://www.netmastersolutions.com/more-directories.html
3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that targetyour audience, subscribe to them and examine the adsclosely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issueafter issue, you can be pretty sure that its gettingresults. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.
4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. Youdon't want your ad lost in an ezine farm at the bottomof the newsletter. You probably won't get muchresponse from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 adsper issue. Readers of those ezines have becomehardened to the ads and have learnt to skip them.
5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy ofnever running ads for two similar products in the sameissue - your ad will be much more effective if its theonly one of its kind in that particular issue.
6. Small ezines vs. Big ezines: bigger is not alwaysbetter. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tendto have more ads than the small ezines. Also, smallezines with only a few hundred subscribers often havea 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 someoneacts on it; on the Internet its about 9 times. If yourbudget allows, try and have your ad repeated at leastthree times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offerdiscount packages for bulk advertising.
8. Email address vs. URL. Opinions are divided onthis; some people prefer to give an email address,others prefer to give a URL. The advantage of givingan email address is that it gives you the opportunityto send a powerful sales letter to the person whoresponded to your ad. Its also much easier to trackyour ads with an email address than a URL.
9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll oftentip the balance between a response and no response.
10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using thenumber of words you're allowed. Short ads are morelikely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; theypack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don'tdescribe your product but tell the reader what yourproduct can do for them.
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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://EzineWriter.com/
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