Ways to Make E-Zines deliver Fresh Leads-Part 1

This Is Day #17 of my 30 Day Challenge and Blog Challenge. This is Part 1 of 2 part series on A resource i like to use called E-Zines for advertising, If done the right way , this is another excellent resource of Targeted Traffic.

Ezine marketing is used to promote your products, services, website and online business using the targeted subscriber lists of ezine publishers.

There are three methods of ezine marketing :

1. Ezine Advertising
2. ezine articles
3. Joint Ventures with Publishers

1. What is an Ezine?

An ezine is an “electronic magazine” which is sent to people who subscribe for it via email.

Commonly, publishers use email to deliver their newsletter, but there are many publishers that build their ezine in the form of a blog or website. In this case, publishers inform their subscribers via an email that the ezine has been posted.

Ezines are delivered to targeted groups of subscribers and these subscribers have expressed an interest in specific topics.

2. Ezine Advertising

There are many ezines in different topics, but the strategy is to find ezines which have a related topic to your products, services, website and online business. Search for ezines who are written to attract the target market you are focussing on (i.e. existing online marketers, mlm, affluent travelers, golfers, etc…). You can choose one of these four ezine adverting types: classified ads, sponsor ads, solo ads and banner ads.

Classified Ad

Classified ad is an inexpensive form of ezine advertising and many ezines offer free ads for their subscribers.

A Classified ad is usually three or five lines of text with 60-65 characters, including a headline, the ad body and a link to your URL or an email. It’s the same style as newspaper and online classified ads.

A Classified ad is published in the middle or end of the publication and it’s very cheap to buy. People without a large budget or who are testing a new advertising source can use classified ads to promote their site and see if it responds well.

To succeed with classified ads you should to:

·  Choose the most related ezines to your target market
·  Select ezines with high numbers of subscribers
·  Master short ad copy techniques.

Sponsorship Ad

Sponsor ads usually appear at the top of the ezine and are seen by readers upon opening the ezine. Response rates are higher in good quality ezines that actually provide good quality content. They cost more than classified ads but are more effective than classified ads.

Solo Ad

These are my favorites. They ROCK!

A Solo ad is an email sent by the ezine publisher to their entire mailing list offering only your ad. Solo ads are published separately from the ezine schedule. YOUR email ad will be the ONLY thing the entire database receives in that mailing.

Your Solo ad is your sales letter to target your market and it should be written to touch/agitate and provide a compelling reason for the reader to click your link. Pull at some emotional hot buttons… the desires of the ezine’s readers and encourage them to take action.

Banner Ad

Some ezines allow you to put your banner in the middle or the top of the email of the publishers.

Ezine advertising success depends on…

RESEARCH - Good research and selecting QUALITY ezines that have targeted readers that match your niche market.

COPY WRITING -  Your ad should be to the point… not “salesy” or tacky and it should agitate a frustration your niche market may be experiencing and then, offer a compelling solution or at least a compelling reason for them to click on your link to get their solution…

Think of you ezine ads as sales letters in a smaller space where you should be pre-selling your products, services and online business.

Ezine Articles

Ezine Article Marketing includes writing articles and submitting them to different ezines.

Ezine publishers need articles and valuable content related to their online business arena to educate and to resolve their subscriber’s needs and problems.

Ezine articles are a very influential marketing technique to get free advertising to your business.

They will help you to get targeted traffic to your website and build credibility as an expert in your niche market.

Writing articles of 500-1000 words and submitting them to the most related ezines to your target market can help you to attract high quality, targeted leads to your site quickly and consistently.

3. Joint Ventures With Ezine Publishers

Ezine marketing can take another form which is to use joint ventures with Ezine publishers where they send your offer to their mailing list. It’s the same form as a solo ad but the difference is in the arrangement because here you will not pay ezine publishers for the solo ad but the publisher sends your message and you share the revenue based on a split you negotiate. Some Joint Ventures are 50/50, some are 80/20. The percentage depends on the list size of the publisher and the price point of your product.

How To Choose Ezines To Advertise In?

Part I

Choose ezines to advertise your business or promote your affiliate program or invite people who read related newsletters to your website. Take your time here and think it through… don’t hop on junky ezines!

1. Related Target Audience:

Select e-zines that are published to your target audience.

Popular listing directories, forums, and discussion boards can help you find e-zines that are similar to your website topic. Select a determined number of ezines and subscribe to them to receive a few issues of the newsletter and to get access to their back issues to check out if there are some good ads running in it consistently.

Targeting your audience should help you to send your ad to the right audience and improve your ad success, advertising efforts would be negated if you advertise in ezines that are completely unrelated to your website topic. There have been many publishers who advertise in all kinds of ezines only to have their time, effort and money absolutely wasted.

2. Budget:

Determine a budget to your ezine advertising. I do not invest in anything other than solo ads and sometimes top sponsor ads to test in new ezines. I don’t like purchasing the classifieds or other really low priced stuff because the responses are just not good enough.

3. Opt-in Ezines:

Ezines gain popularity if they are credible. The most important aspect of credibility is the process of subscriptions. There are two types which are opt-in and opt-out and it’s very important to select an opt-in ezines to advertise 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 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.

4. Number Of E-zines Ads:

You should avoid ezines that have a TON 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.

5. Quality Content:

Content is probably the most important ingredient of ezine marketing . You should look for ezines that have great content. Unique, high 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 versus 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 want in yours. 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.

A Good Resource i Use to get most updated E-Zines to use that get responses is the marketing school.info/”>Directory of EZINES. I find that in doing your research on Advertising and getting message out in EZINES look for the things i mention and you will be on track to getting some great, fresh and targeted leads flowing in regularly.

Any comments on questions , feel free to post them here.