When it comes to advertising, I've tried just about
everything. I tried free classified ad sites, I tried
FFA sites, I tried banner exchange programs.
The results? Not much.
I was tired of hearing that the Internet is the largest
market in human history. Maybe so, but how could I
reach those millions of people?
The answer, I discovered, is ezine advertising.
Ezines are 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.
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, it's 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 is:
"Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in 5 different
ezines and get a hundred responses. If you don't track
your ads, you won't know which ezines were pulling
responses and which weren't.
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:
yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=ezineA
Then, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the
subject field, you'll know which ezine it came from.
For a URL, it's the same principle:
http://www.yourdomain.com?ezineA
However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll
need a good webstats program to track the coded
URLs. These two programs are excellent and they're
both free:
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 EzineA,
this is the URL you'd place in that ad:
http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA
2. 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 56 ezine directories in 'The
Free Directory of Ezines' at:
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 it's getting
results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.
4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. 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 it's the
only one of it's 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 it's 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. 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. It's 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.
About the Author
Michael Southon is the publisher of
'The Free Directory of Ezines'
http://www.netmastersolutions.com/
He is also the Editor of 'FreeZine Express',
a twice-monthly newsletter that brings you
details of new Ezines added to the TFDE
as well as Articles and Tips on Ezine
Advertising and Ezine Publishing.
To subscribe, send a blank email to:
mailto:FreeZineExpress-subscribe@topica.com
Written by: Michael Southon
Comment by Gary Chaison