Is your current ezine not pulling in profits like "The Experts"
promised it would? Still haven't started an ezine and about to
give into the hype? Don't. At least not yet. Starting an ezine
ISN'T the only solution for maximum online profits.
In this article, we'll take a look at the pros and cons of
publishing an ezine, how to build the most profitable list
possible, and other options, in case you decide not to start
(or continue) your ezine after all.
* PROS *
What's the fastest, most profitable way to give your income an
instant boost, guaranteed? Your subscriber list! It gives you:
1. A near effortless way to consistently sell YOUR products.
Your subscribers become used to your writing style and the
quality of information you provide, and by staying on your list,
they're establishing themselves as qualified prospects. As a
result, you automatically have a loyal list that will look
forward to your future products.
With my own readership, I've had as high as a 9.68% hits-to-
sales ratio for product announcements, and a 27.42% signup ratio
to my product follow-up lists! So, believe me when I say that
selling products to an existing readership is nearly effortless
and VERY rewarding.
2. Positioning as a knowledgeable expert in your field, as
your recommendations will almost ALWAYS sell.
I've had people contact me on several occasions to see if an ad
run in my ezine was a personal recommendation, or e-mail me to
confirm a recommendation, saying that if *I* say a product is
good, they'll definitely buy it. How's THAT for the power of
endorsements?
Just be sure to NEVER recommend a less than excellent product.
Telling a product author that their work isn't good enough to be
endorsed to your readers can be painful for both you AND the
author, but it's much better than losing the trust of your
readership for recommending shoddy products.
3. A free money-machine at your immediate disposal.
After you build up a list of 5,000 or so, you'll never have to
want for money again if you use it right. Whenever you launch a
new product, announce it to your list. Whenever you find an
exceptional product that's helped make you more money, increase
your success, or boost your website traffic, announce it to your
list -- and reap the rewards in just a few hours.
If you're ever experiencing a "bad patch" where your income has
slowed to a crawl, run an exclusive offer on one of your
products. If you don't have products just yet, offer a free add-
on for buying one of the *affiliate* products you promote. (For
instance, offer a free 30-minute consulting session to everyone
who buys XYZ Product from you by a certain date.)
Just be sure not to abuse this awesome privilege by offering more
ads than content. Some publishers take it overboard with as many
as 3-5 solo mailings a week, but readers respond to each offer
better if you don't bombard them with announcements. I normally
send no more than 12 mailings per year, if that.
TIP: Unless you really need money, DON'T sell solo ads in your
ezine. Only send out product *recommendations*, and you'll be
sure your readers really listen up when a special announcement
does come their way. (If you do need to sell solos for a quick
income boost, make it a temporary option.)
* 3 QUICK TIPS FOR BUILDING A PROFITABLE LIST *
I'm sure you now realize the value of building your own opt-in
ezine. Here are a few tips for maximizing the profit generated
from your ezine, should you decide to start (or continue) one:
1. Sell ads in your ezine UNTIL you create your own products.
If you haven't created your own products yet, that's a SMALL
problem. Simply sell ad space in your ezine until you do. Just
be sure to offer a top-notch resource for advertisers.
It's HARD to find a responsive list to advertise in nowadays,
so read the article, "5-Point Checklist for Getting Advertisers
to Your Ezine," for help in this area:
http://ExpertOnEbiz.com/articles/checklist.html.
Your advertisers (and pocketbook!) will thank you for it. (Heh-
heh ... sorry guys. :-P )
If your readership is still too small to sell ad space, create
a service that's easy to set up, like consulting, to offer your
readers until then. And after you've created your own products,
you may then want to STOP selling ad space, and use that space
to push the new products.
2. ALWAYS use empty ad space.
If you're selling ads in your ezine and happen to have unused
space before an issue is due to go out, never let it go to waste!
Instead of deleting the slot for that issue, or filling it with
"advertise in XYZ ezine!" notices, advertise one of your OWN
offers or affiliate products for a few extra dollars.
On a similar note, remember that your ezine is designed to be a
profit generation tool -- and nothing else. For a few quick tips,
read "7 Unique Ways to Make a CONSISTENT Profit from Your Ezine"
at: http://ExpertOnEbiz.com/articles/7ways.html.
3. Only build your list with TARGETED prospects.
But isn't EVERY subscriber to your ezine a targeted prospect?
Nope -- not at all. Subscribers generated from free lotteries and
*untargeted* traffic generation services, (like the ones that
send traffic from generalized contests and sweepstakes), are NOT
going to be easily converted into targeted prospects.
Instead, build your list from pop-up subscribe forms when
visitors are leaving your sales letter page, or from prominent
subscribe forms on your own (RELEVANT) website. Or, perhaps every
new customer of yours is immediately subscribed (with consent) to
your ezine.
Readers generated from any aspect of the sales process are the
best prospects, as they hold the strongest interest in buying
your products.
Now, let's look at why you may NOT want to publish an ezine...
_________________________________________________________________
* CONS *
Publishing an ezine isn't all peaches and cream. It takes hard
work and dedication to build a list that people are going to sit
up and take notice of, subscribe to, and enjoy. Here are several
reasons you may NOT want to publish, (or continue to publish),
your ezine:
1. It takes forever to build a loyal list.
Realistically, it can now take a couple of years to build a
responsive list of 5,000 or more subscribers, now that simply
submitting your list to New-List won't generate an avalanche of
new readers. Now you have to work your butt off to promote the
list every week to see a substantial, steady increase in
subscribers.
You can use pay-for-subscriber services, but most of these can
charge as much as 15¢-25¢ per subscriber -- with a minimum of
*3,000 subscribers* a month. Most marketers just starting an
ezine are just getting deep into their businesses, and won't be
able to afford $450 to $750 a month to build a list using this
technique.
2. Prospects are quickly losing interest in free ezines.
The abundance of crappy ezines is shocking, and prospects are
becoming more and more wary of new ones. Why? They've lost faith
in the quality of ezines. Not EVERYONE has this outlook,
fortunately, but it's becoming much more common.
What's more, experienced marketers are beginning to equate "free"
with "horrid," and rightfully so. Although not all free marketing
information is useless, there IS an awful lot of junk and filler
to give potential subscribers second thoughts about subscribing
to new ezines. My advice? Make yours UNIQUE.
3. The older ezine marketing methods just don't work.
Like I mentioned above, a quick submission to New-List won't
bring in a flood of subscribers any more. When I started my own
ezine in beginning 1999, the New-List announcement list had
ALREADY begun to lose a lot of its power.
There are hundreds of ezine announcement lists, directories, and
other ezine marketing sites online, but most of these now achieve
results that rival molasses in January. Why? That's simple. See
#2 above.
4. Keeping up a regular schedule can be tedious.
If you're a person who hates structure and schedules (like me),
publishing an ezine can be a nightmare. This is especially true
if you try to publish more frequently than is comfortable;
especially at first.
You could always publish on an irregular schedule, or no more
than twice a month. But with irregular schedules, you can easily
forget to publish an issue of your ezine for months at a time!
Believe me -- it used to happen to me.
5. Finding and/or creating top-notch content can be a pain.
The number one concern "would-be" ezine publishers express to me
is the fear of running out of content to use. And if you're not
extremely knowledgeable about your field when you start your
'zine, this may very well be a problem. It certainly doesn't HAVE
to be, with all of the many options available to webmasters and
publishers seeking content, but it could be.
It took me about 4½ hours to write my very first article. It had
to have a certain number of sections, be a certain length, and
cover a certain number of subtopics before I was convinced that
it was informative. I laugh every time I think about that first
article!
When you're just starting an ezine, the content issue CAN be
daunting, but you'll fall right into groove of things after your
first few issues.
* 3 STRESS-FREE ALTERNATIVES TO PUBLISHING AN EZINE *
Publishing an ezine isn't the only answer. There are several
other options that can bring you the same, similar, or even
better results than self-publishing, depending on your situation.
You could:
1. Submit articles to the same database of (semi) large
ezines regularly.
By semi-large and large, I mean lists containing from 7,000
readers, to up to 100,000 or more. In doing so, you can build a
name and reputation for yourself to a wide audience without the
hassle of sending out your OWN ezine.
The more quality content you contribute, the higher readers will
begin to put you on their list of experts in your field, so
submitting to the same ezines on a regular basis will get you the
recognition you're seeking.
TIP: Ironically, ezines with readerships closer to the lower
end of the scale (5-15,000 subscribers) are usually the MOST
responsive.
2. Syndicate your articles.
Syndicate your articles on large websites, or website networks
that use syndication services. Again, the more your name (and
face) are seen around the Internet in your niche, the more
credibility you'll gain. Here are a few syndication services to
get you started:
The Syndicator
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator_submit.htm.
Womans-Net Syndicate
http://www.womans-net.com/syndicate/guidelines.html.
iSyndicate
http://www.isyndicate.com.
3. Partner with one or more existing publishers with
established, opt-in, *responsive* subscriber lists.
Instead of just submitting articles to prominent ezines like in
#1 above, contribute a regular Q&A or tip column, arrange to be
co-writer of an added guest article section, alternate writing
the feature article, etc. With this option, you may have to start
with less prominent ezines until you've built up your
credibility, but it's worth the wait.
Keep in mind that serious, profit-focused ezine publishers aren't
likely to add ANY additional features to their ezines that don't
make them a direct profit, so make them an offer they can't
refuse. If your biggest selling point is "great content," you can
forget about it -- established publishers can provide "great
content" on their own.
Be CREATIVE here. Perhaps you could poll their readers in every
issue? You'd establish credibility in the commentary following
the poll, and the publisher would gain valuable insight on the
wants and needs of their target market (and specific readership)
with no extra work.
Whatever you do, by partnering with the publisher (instead of
simply becoming an occasional contributor), you might also be
able to send special mailings to the list, write the editorial
in some issues, etc. Work this out ahead of time so it's also
rewarding for YOU.
The closer relationship you have with the publisher, the more
you benefit. Just publicizing your relationship with a well-
established publisher will give your credibility an instant
boost, and you'll also be able to share in the financial gains
made from the list if you play your cards right.
TIP: When contacting publishers with huge, well-established
lists, get off the computer, pick up the phone, and give them a
buzz. Popular publishers get TONS of offers every week -- most
of those by e-mail. If you want results, be willing to take a
few extra minutes to pitch yourself right.
IN CONCLUSION...
Should you scrap your ezine (or ezine idea) and take another,
possibly easier route? Or, should you give in and publish the
ezine you've been mulling over for months? Now that you've heard
both sides of the story, that's hopefully an easier decision for
you to make. Knock 'em dead!
_________________________________________________________________
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