Ezine Article Publishing

Online Article Submission Websites And Format Changes In Secure Writer Member Area

2009-03-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

The online article submission website venue on the Internet is a fast charging and highly competitive sector of the ever-changing Internet. One way for an owner of an online article submission website to attract the highest volume and most competent writers is to provide additional tracking tools. This can be done by offering a secure writer membership only area where each author can monitor their individual and over all article performance, thus allowing them the information to get more out of what they write by adjusting the types of articles they write and the way in which they write them.

Of course once an online article submission site is up and running and gaining market share they must also realize that any format change takes getting use to, I suppose. Indeed any change requires risk, so as long as authors have no risk of data loss, they will eventually adapt and with new features or more humanly thought out navigation in the end it will be good.

It would take getting use to of course. But it will become second nature rather quickly for those authors posting 5-10 or more articles per week. New authors will never know the difference having not been acclimated to the old way you see? Change is good on the back end as long as it works. Now then the important concentration should also be increasing traffic counts to the site. If you own an online article submission site, then you should be considering all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Publish An Ezine Your Website Depends On It

2009-03-02T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Merle Stinnett

So you've done all the research, built your website and you're ready to show it off to the world and make your Internet fortune. "Whoa," not so fast there, Mister. If you haven't included an ezine, your site is missing out on a major online marketing tool. Here's why the decision to include one or not can lead to your website's success or ultimate failure.

1st Time Visitors. Let's face it: the first time someone comes to your website, the odds are they're going to be leary and not buy from you right away. By giving them the chance to subscribe to your newsletter you're actually giving yourself another chance to sell to them down the road. Your ezine will give them multiple incentives to visit your site and make a purchase.

Build an Opt In List. There's a reason why off-line marketers have done direct mailings for years: they work. Collecting email addresses of visitors to your website allows you to compile a list of people who want to hear from you. By signing up for your newsletter, you're given permission to market to these people on a regular basis. Your list will become your most precious marketing commodity.

Establishes Trust. The truth is, your site visitors have no idea if you're an upright business person or some mad hacker in a dark basement out to grab their credit card number. By giving them the opportunity to subscribe to your ezine you'll be able to establish a "relationship" where your subscribers will come to trust and rely upon you. By providing them with helpful information on a consistent basis you'll become someone they turn to when in need of the types of products/services you sell.

Establish Yourself as an Expert. Let's say you're an accountant and I'm considering using your services. How do I know you're any good? Well, if you had been publishing a newsletter with helpful accounting tips and tax saving information all along, you would have established yourself as an expert in my mind.

By sharing your knowledge with others, you'll establish yourself as an expert in your field. An ezine helps you to establish credibility in your chosen subject and distinguishes you from others online who may be working in a similar vein. Be the one people turn to, become the EXPERT.

Sell Back End Products. As long as your ezine supplies helpful information, you can actually pitch your sales talk softly between the lines. As long as your ezine is not 99% ads, you can use it to plug any product or service you sell. If you don't have your own products/services, you can plug affiliate programs you may be involved with as well. Just try to keep everything you promote related to the theme of your newsletter. If your ezine is health related you should only include health related products to keep it on topic for your target market. As you run sales or specials you'll also want to make your subscribers aware of them. Remember, your ezine is a marketing tool; use it as such.

Drives Traffic. There are millions of websites out there, so what's going to bring me back to yours? An ezine, of course! By emailing your subscribers a newsletter which always includes a link back to your site, you're reminding them to come back again and again -- driving traffic on a consistent basis. How many times have you gone to a website and signed up for their ezine and forgotten about the site? I know I have, but when their ezine shows up in my mailbox it reminds me of how much I enjoyed their site and usually results in my re-visiting. This is POWERFUL STUFF.

These are just some of the reasons why you need to be publishing an ezine. A website needs a newsletter and a newsletter needs a website. They just go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. One without the other is a weak link in the online marketing chain. Don't underestimate the importance of your very own ezine. As your list grows you'll have a very powerful marketing tool on your hands, one you can sell to again and again!

Merle has been "working" the Net for over 8 years and has a Special Gift just for you. Download my FREE E-book "50 Easy Ways to Promote Your Website". Get your copy now at http://www.WebSiteTrafficPlan.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included.

A Blog 5 Minutes A Week And These 5 Simple Steps Equals Your Own Online Ezine

2009-03-01T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mike Makler

One of the fastest ways to gain "Guru" Status online is to publish an EZine. Notice I said Publish. A Publisher is often responsible for finding and using the works of others. By using these 5 simple Step you will be able to publish an EZine with 5 Minutes worth of Effort Weekly.

A Blog is probably the easiest way to get your EZine online. Besides being the fastest and Easiest way to get your EZine Online, a Blog has the Added Advantage of allowing you to publish an RSS feed.

The First 2 Steps you would only be done once

1 - Find a Theme for Your Ezine

You of course need to decide on a Topic or theme for your EZine, If you are Promoting Financial Services the Theme of your EZine would be Financial Services, If you have no Idea what so ever what your theme should be you may try using the Below Theme Joggers to help you find one.

What are you good at?
What do people seek your ideas, Opinion or Advice on?
What is Your Hobby?
What is Your Passion?
What do you do at Your Job?
What are your Favorite Sports?
Health and Fitness
Self Improvement
Politics
Current Events
How-To's

2 - Get a Free Blog

Go to Blogger.com and set-up a Free Blog. Try to name your blog so it matches your Ezine theme. If your Ezine Theme is on Why a Vegetarian Diet is best for dog, you wouldn't want to name your blog man-eating-plants

3 - Find Content

Go to an Online Article Directory and do a keyword Search for an Article that matches your theme. (http://ewguru.com/article-submit)

4 - Post Your Content

(If you would like to have more then 1 Article in your EZine Just Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each article)

5 - Ping Your Blog

Go to pingomatic.com and Ping your blog

If you are using your Blog for promotion you may want to have a Top Sponsor Ad above the Article and a Bottom Sponsor Ad Below the Article. The Ads can either be 3rd party Ads that you sell or Ads that Promote your own Product or Service. If You have more then one Article you can also place Ads Between the Articles.

It is also Ok to use content you create yourself in your E-Zine

About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built an Organization of over 100,000 Members

Get Mike's Newsletter:
http://ewguru.com/newsletter

More Articles by Mike:
http://ewguru.com/tips

Permission Based E_Mail Marketing Methods
http://ewguru.com/hbiz/amazingoffer.html

Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe

Definitional Conflicts With The Word Ezine

2009-02-28T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

Many folks who send out or publish Ezines believe that Ezines must be sent out by email otherwise they are not an Ezine. Others say that an Ezine is an Electronic Magazine. In discussing this recently with several of the leading industry professionals in the Ezine Publishing sub-sector it became apparent to me that there are some definitional conflicts regarding what exactly Ezines are and what would constitute an Ezine.

Personally, I am under the belief that Ezines and Electronic Magazines or Electronic Newsletters and that they are Ezines no matter how they are distributed and they do not necessarily have to be emailed. For instance GM may have 110 locations in 22 countries and if they send an Electronic Newsletter to all their Vendors, Employees and Biggest Customers who are all using a similar computer network, then they would not be using email to send it, yet it is still an Electronic Magazine either way. So, if they use their computer network to send it out then it is an Ezine.

If one of these new online libraries posts an Electronic Magazine in its system, it is an Ezine, having never appeared in print yet displayed on the site. It would still be an Ezine. If someone on a Moon Colony sent a Newsletter to the ground base, they would not be using email perhaps, but the ground base would then send it out by email. So when does it become an Ezine; When it is was created, not when it was distributed you see? So you could say the creation with the intent to email means your creation is an Ezine, but if your never send it is it or is it not an Ezine. Perhaps you might consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Revenue Profits From Your Ezine

2009-02-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Donesia Muhammad

One of the main reasons why publishers start their own ezine is to profit from their publications. This is normally in the form of paid advertisements. Paid advertisements are a great way to generate revenue for your ezine, but there are some things you must know first before you plunge ahead.

Generally once your subscriber list reaches around 1,000 readers then you can start charging for your ad space. Can you start charging at an earlier stage?

Yes, but you may not get the same response as if your list was larger. Unless you have a highly targeted list, for instance if every subscriber has been approved first and all the readers all have an area of expertise in common.

For instance the list can consist of only publishers, or only entrepreneurs of the same type of business. Any type of highly targeted list will offer paid advertisements at an early stage.

There is no need to become greedy and start charging when you have 50 subscribers. Patience is something you have to learn with ezine publishing so you can the benefits later.

WHAT TYPE OF ADS CAN READERS PAY FOR?

Generally you have classified ads, and sponsorship ads.

Classified ads are generally free or very low cost due to the fact that most of these ads are at the bottom and are usually anywhere from 5-15 classified ads in each publication. Classified ads are generally 2-6 lines long. Since the exposure for your ad is very small the price, if any is very cheap.

Publishers often offer bulk deals on classified ads since repeat exposure is what works in ezine advertising.

Most people who don't like to see a lot of these type of ads clustered together, since it doesn't distinguish your ad from the others so they make skip that section. A better exposure for your ads are what is known as sponsorship ads.

Sponsorship ads are longer than classified ads usually up to 8-10 lines in length and has a better position in your ezine. These type of ads are placed in the top position as these are the most expensive because of the readers see these ads first with plenty of white space around so you are getting more for your advertising dollar.

Solo Ads are even more specialized since these ads are the only thing that your reader sees. You can get your point across more with a solo ad than a regular sponsorship but it depends on how often the publisher sends out solo ads. Three or four solo ads per day do not have the same advertising power as sending out a solo ad a few times a week. So publishers take note since most of your unsubscribes happen as a result of too many solo mailings.

One of the most common problems which charging for your paid ads is not knowing what to charge for your ad space.

WHAT TO CHARGE?

This can be a difficult question to ask in the beginning without looking at other publications of your size. You generally see lists with a size of 1,000 charge anywhere from $4-8 for a top sponsor ad, and maybe $3-5 for a middle sponsor ad.

Bottom sponsor ads and classified ads are cheapest due to the position of those type of ads which are generally at the bottom. It also depends on how highly targeted your list is. A specialized list charges almost twice as much as a normal opt in list due to it's targeted specialization.

Now I have seen some very greedy publishers charging ridiculous prices which are not worth the price. I have seen one publisher charge $20.00 for a top sponsor ad with a list of 250 subscribers.

This was not a targeted list and I actually laughed when I wondered how many people would actually pay that high price for such a small list. Just because you see other publishers charge $50 or more for an ad check to see how many subscribers they have and how original their content is.

Once you reach over 5,000 subscribers you no longer have a newbie list and you can charge $20 ( for example) for a middle sponsor ad and more. But remember people need more confidence in your ezine before they decide to pull out their credit card.

HOW CAN MY READERS PAY ME?: PAYMENT CHOICES

Online checks, Third party payment processors, or snail mail are some of your options. Your readers will pay you the same way they pay for your products and services. You do have a way for your visitors to purchase your products right?

Most publishers offer paypal as an easy way to accept paid ads https://www.paypal.com It is fast, quick and very convenient.

There are other payment processors that you can use:

Clickbank.com
http://clickbank.com

E-Gold
http://e-gold.com

2 Checkout.com
http://2checkout.com

IBill.com http://ibill.com

You can also provide a mailing address for your readers to mail their payment in the form of a check or a money order. Keep in mind that this is a slower way of accepting payments since you must wait for the payment to arrive in the mail then wait for the check to clear. But this method also makes sense in the long run.

As you grow your list you may end up charging hundreds of dollars for an advertisement. Most people may not have this available funds on their credit cards or they may have a daily spending limit so when you are accepting large payments, this may be one of your popular payment choices.

A Cheaper Free Alternative: Ad Swaps

You can also swap your ezine ad with another publisher in exchange for their ad for no charge. This is a great way to meet other publishers in your niche and to have targeted ads in your ezine. Since this is no cost to you, you have nothing to lose by swapping ads with others.

Overextending Yourself

If you offer $15 for a top sponsor ad in your ezine, then you might figure to go ahead and sell 4 top sponsor ads in each issue. Hey that's $60 an issue, great huh? Not really. When people pay for prime ad space they don't want to see other ads crowding around them. It diminishes the status of their ad and pretty soon your advertisers may want a refund or another alternative. It doesn't pay to be greedy with your profits.

Your advertisers will thank you for that.

WHAT DO I LOOK FOR WHEN I BUY AN EZINE AD?

There are a couple of things I look for and a few questions you may want to ask a publisher concerning purchasing advertising.

When I look to buy an ad, I first look at the ezine.

1. How many subscribers do they have?

Some would prefer lists of at least 2,000 subscribers depending on your ad budget.

2. Are they telling the truth in their actual subscriber count?

It doesn't pay to lie about your list size. Just like those fake hit counters on website, it just makes you look so unprofessional.

3. How many ads do they place in each issue?

How often do you publish? If all I see are ads, then the other readers are not even bothering to look at your ad.

4. What type of payment options do you offer?

How hard are you going to make it for me to pull out my credit card or check to send it to you.

5. What are your ad guidelines?

Are they easy to find or do I have to go on a scavenger hunt to find your ad rates?

6. What does your website look like?

Many publishers neglect their website in favor of their ezine only and I hate to break it to you, but if advertisers see that you are hosted on a free host, they won't want to buy ads from you on a professional level. They will think that you are obviously not spending your ad revenue on a web host or a domain name so why bother??

7. Where are you getting your subscribers? Why are people subscribing to your ezine?

Did you just buy your entire list? There is nothing wrong with buying targeted subscribers but you may also not have a good communication with your readers if you just bought them and threw them in your list.

Are all your subscribers from an ad coop?

Ad coops are a great way to get subscribers ( I may be bias on this issue since I own an ad coop) but getting subscribers and keeping subscribers is another story altogether.

Why Some Publishers Don't Like Paid Ads

A lot of publishers don't offer paid ads in their ezine. What, do you think they are crazy, that they are missing out on some very lucrative income.

Well Yes and No.

Yes paid advertisements can offer you a steady income stream for your publication efforts. But think about it, if you didn't offer ads, then what ads, if any, would you place in your issues? Your ads, your affiliate products, your services.

Get it..

Good now go sell your ads or put your own ads, but do it the right way for the best results.

"Never compromise your quality for quantity. Don't get greedy with your profits or you will end up with nothing."

Donesia Muhammad has been doing business online since 2001. Sign up For her Newsletter My IBiz Weekly ==>http://myibizweekly.com The Business Ezine For All Netpreneurs. Learn how to start and maintain your internet business and ezine, and stay sane while doing it. Read Our Archives and Learn with Valuable Resources. Helping Readers Online Since 2001... And Counting.

http://EzineAdHelper.com
http://KDMPublishing.com

Making The Most Of Low Cost Ezine Ads

2009-02-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Craig Dawber

Did you know that it is possible to reach more than 1000 people with just an investment of £5? That's right, the Internet is the medium where even low cost advertising can get you the eyeballs that you want.

What are the reasons that one should choose the path of ezine advertising. The reasons are fairly logical.

If you have developed a product or a website, then you would definitely need ezine advertising. Ezine advertising can range from the very simple to the most fancy ones. Ezine are small newsletters that are published on specific topics, (the range is prolific and these ezine cover the most basic to the most intriguing topics). These are then mailed to the subscribers.

There are medical journal ezine and those meant for children and well there are several which are even dedicated to porn on the net. So the entire range is vast. The subscribers might range from a few hundred to a few thousand, dependent upon the subject, its use and its versatility.

Most of these ezine are not spam. Their intentions are very genuine and are sent to those subscribers who have opted to receive these subscriptions. Therefore, they include options to opt out of receiving the ezine too.

The ezine are meant to reach the subscribers in a fast, convenient and an affordable way. To meet their financial requirements, they also lease out space on their ezine to potential advertisers who need to reach such a target audience. The revenue generation helps the ezine to offer the subscribers more at a lesser subscription rate. They operate in much the same way as newspaper business does.

The advantages of advertising in the ezine are a plenty.

1. Specifically they can reach a desired target audience. For example, if you have developed a specific accounting tool, then its best to advertise in ezine dedicated to accounting. This will instantly reach the target market of chartered accountants, stock market operators etc. therefore, you would be bang on target.
2. Its instantaneous ezine are published on the Internet. For this very specific reason, the ezine reaches the target market as soon as it is ready to be published. The subscribers can also download it immediately as soon as it 's published on the net. Therefore, your advertisement reaches its intended place without further delay.
3. Like newspapers, ezine ads make the ezine more affordable to subscribe. Ezine ads are also very cost effective. For as little as £5 one can reach 1000 customers/ subscribers.
4. Its possible to also test a small target market, before targeting the entire group. Therefore, ezine ads give much leeway and flexibility to the advertisers.

All good things do have some drawbacks and this is true even of ezine ads. They are few but at times, they can overwhelm you.

1. They are literally thousands of ezine to choose from, as well as hundreds of ezine, which are dedicated to the same topic. It can become difficult for the advertiser to choose which ezine to place the ad, such that they can get maximum mileage out of placing the ad.
2. Negotiation of rates and for how long the advertisement should run can also be a tedious affair.
3. How effective the ad has been in reaching its target customers via the ezine can be a time consuming affair.
4. Deciding whether to stay with the same ezine or changing over to another ezine. This decision can be a tough one.

One can opt for an ezine ad broker. These companies help in finding you the right ezine, in which you can place the ads. Some of these ad broker sites are:

http://www.pennmedia.com/
http://e-target.com/
http://sunmoments.com/lifestyles/ads/eb.html
http://www.topica.com/advertise/
http://www.webspinnersdesignco.com/ezine_advertising.html

The ad brokers are responsible for the following

1. Verify that the ezine are genuine, who will run the ad after taking advertisement revenue from you
2. Verify the number of subscribers as represented by the ezine
3. Verify that they genuinely pace ads on their websites and not deal in Spam

Usually the ad brokers charge a commission and this can range from £150 onwards.

Effective pointers on how the ezine ad should be

Normally all ezine ads should be 7 lines and have a maximum of 65 characters. Successful ones as shown below:

Do Away with your old cloggy sinks, visit us

FANTASTIC BUILDER SINKS
Visit us for an exciting new range, built from the latest material

For all your requirements, call 1800-365-FSINKS or
Visit us at www.fantasticbuildersinks.com

1. Successful advertisements will appeal to the target market. Know what your audience requires from you.

2. Have a catchy phrase or sentence, which will grab the attention of the audience.

3. Promote the website, the aim should be to get as many clicks as possible and furthermore these clicks should spell revenue for you at the end of the day

4. Prepare a number of ads and their sizes; this will help to put the most appropriate one that will catch the attention of the people.

5. Testing of ads is a must run the ads in a small population to gauge the reaction of the target audience. If need be, you can also change the ad to suit the requirements.

6. The other material should also be in the right format. For example the order form should have been uploaded and working.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.

Self Publishers And Content Providers Use This Single Tool To Generate All The Traffic They Need

2009-02-25T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Christopher Kyalo

Smart self publishers and content providers use a single free tool to generate more traffic than they can possibly handle at their sites and blogs.

The amazing thing is that every unsuccessful self publisher you will find, hardly gives this tool a second glance. This is because some have tried to use it haphazardly and have ended up with haphazard results. However in the hands of a skillful self publisher or content provider, this tool becomes so potent, that I can honestly say here, that it is the only tool I use to generate all my traffic and the substantial profits I enjoy online.

The tool I am referring to is a promotional article. This tool will work best when it is used in four different and distinct ways. Read my article that discusses these four distinct ways in great detail.

Before writing a single promotional article or any content at any of my blogs, I usually take the time to carefully research appropriate keyword phrases. It is absolutely amazing how the right keyword phrase in a self publisher's blog can easily guarantee free traffic of 2000 hits (or even more) on a daily basis.

It is equally amazing how 15 keyword phrases used in a few pages of a blog and generating only 70 hits a day can add up quickly to give a beaming self publisher 1050 hits per day. You cannot begin to imagine what is happening at a blog where the blogger has consistently been using the right keyword phrases for just six short months!!

All this happens quietly as other self publishers, webmasters and bloggers are struggling to pay through their cute noses for traffic. Who said the world was fair?

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online self publisher. Visit his Self Publisher blog to read the other parts of this article and for other amazing success tips. Subscribe to his free email newsletter to discover all the secrets of an amazing online publishing company that generates 100 million dollars a year. Send a blank email now to InternetinfoPublishsecrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

3 Steps To Creating Your Own Ezine To Increase Web Site Traffic

2009-02-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mark Williams

What if I showed you a simple way to increase web site traffic that could sky-rocket your sales and make you an internet expert.

Would you be interested?

I sure hope so

First, you have to remember the primary reason people get on to the internet. In case you have forgotten, it is to get INFORMATION. If this is the only thing you take from this article I will be pleased, because it is that important!

Articles provide a great way to get your message out and increase web site traffic. However, publishing an ezine is much more effective because you have a captive audience that is interested in getting your information. The reason they are interested is because they have given you permission to send them your publication by subscribing to it.

A subscriber is a much greater asset than a web site visitor, in the sense that you will be able to communicate to them for as long as you produce your ezine, or until they decide to opt-out.

So remember, when it comes down to which you would rather haveA hit on your site or a subscriber? The subscriber should win every time.

Now that we have determined that the internet is an information platform that CAN be utilized to make transactions and the importance of subscribers to your ebusiness. Let's begin laying out the 3 steps to create your own ezine and increase web site traffic.

Step 1 - Decide on the Topic of Your Ezine Based on Your Niche.

The theme of your ezine needs to be built around your niche. Therefore, if your site is about quilting then you would need to publish an ezine about how to quilt. It could include topics and articles that would be of interest to quilters and possibly even collectors of quilts.

Make sure you stay niche driven! Don't get away from the theme of your web site.

Most of all do not try to be everything to everybody. If quilting is a broad topic you might want to focus on certain aspects of quilting.

Now that you have determined the theme or topic of your ezine here are a few things to consider before you put it all together:

- Determine how often you will publish your ezine. (i.e. monthly, weekly, etc.)

- Will you sell advertising space in your ezine? Most do, but you do not have to. You need to think about your readers, if you think they will be offended by a few ads then you might not want to. I have found that most people do not mind a few ads, just keep it to no more than 3 per issue.

- Are you going to allow other people to submit articles to your ezine? You will get tired of writing all of the content yourself, but make sure that you use quality articles that do not have a bunch of typos and grammatical errors.

Those are a few things to consider before you start to distribute your ezine.

Let's move on to the 2nd step.

Step 2 - Build a List.

It's not the size of your list that matters, it's how good it converts!

You need to focus on techniques to build your list. It is important to have a big list, but not as important as having a quality list. That is why I do not recommend buying subscribers. It is best to build the list yourself!

Below are some ideas to help you grow your list:

- Use pop-ups on your site to encourage visitors to sign up for your ezine.

- Make sure you have a subscribers box on every page of your web site.

- Give away a free e-book or mini-course to encourage people to subscribe. People like free stuff!

- Write articles on topics that are relevant to your ezine. Distribute them to article directories, announcement lists, and to other ezine publishers promoting your ezine. Make sure to put a link in the resource box to your auto-responder.

- Utilize Joint Ventures with other ezine publishers to grow your list. You could do Adswaps with them or even ad their ezine to your subscriber's thank you page in return for adding yours to their thank you page.

- Use Pay per Click advertising to urge people to subscribe.

These are some basic, but very powerful ideas to rapidly grow your subscriber's list. I can guarantee you that if you implement these tactics you will see your subscribers grow by leaps and bounds.

Let's go to the last step.

Step 3 - Promote Your Ezine.

In order to have an ezine that is an effective marketing tool you need to promote it. People have to know that the ezine exists! Follow these tips and they will not only know that it exists, but you will have a monster on your hands.

- Submit your ezine to ezine directories and announcement lists. I have listed a few below for you to utilize:

- Ezine Directories:

1. Directory of Ezines:
http://www.directoryofezines.com

2. Ezine-Universe:
http://www.new-list.com

3. The Ezine Directory:
http://www.ezine-dir.com

- Ezine Announcement Lists:

1. 100 Sightings:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/100sightings/

2. 1_List_Advertising:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1_List_Advertising/

3. A Announcer:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aannouncer/

- Create a web site specifically to host your ezine. Use this web site to promote your ezine, store your archived copies of previous issues, and to gain new subscribers.

- Write articles promoting your ezine and submit them across the internet. Send them to other ezine publishers for submission into their ezine. Make sure you have a link to your auto-responder in your resource box.

- Pursue Joint Ventures with other ezine publishers that will be of benefit to you and your ezine.

By using these 3 steps you can and will develop and distribute a successful ezine. Most ezines never gain the popularity that their publisher hopes for. The reason for this is that they lack quality content in their ezine and never fully promote it.

Keep these 3 key factors in mind and you will have a prosperous and profitable ezine:

1. Stay Niche driven.
2. Grow your list with high quality subscribers.
3. Promote, promote, promote.

Thanks for reading and good luck in your ezine publishing endeavors.

Mark Williams can help you Increase Web Site Traffic by subscribing to The Cash Cow-Zine. Get your free 5 Action-Steps to Online Profits Course.

3 Strategies To Promote Product Through Ezine

2009-02-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Erny Setyawati

Many Internet marketers have known about Ezine. Ezine or Electronic Magazine usually publish daily, weekly or monthly. Much information could be taken from Electronic Magazine like business article, health, technology, motivation or humor. Many Electronic Magazines could build many members and so electronic magazine was potential place to promote program and product.

Now a question will come to us? Does electronic magazine the best place for promotion? As matter of fact, there are a few ezine offer highest price for promotion. Although there are a few ezine offer low price, like at Vector Central magazine or Bali Global Market ezine. People that have just joined affiliate program, perhaps they never know what is the Ezine mean? As new internet marketer could take information as much as possible from there. We could take marketing strategies, tactic and others breakthroughs. Ezine that have just published usually offer free ad, but according to me, it was not effective because you would competitor with others.

Directory of Ezine is place for electronic magazine assemble around the world. You can see many ezine there and could join free and place free ad for few ezine. You only pay one time for one year, but you can have a chance to promote your product and program as free as possible. There are many ways to promote your program through ezine, let's see strategies below:

1. Trying to write an article.

For new comer on home business on line is very confusing to write article, because this fields is so strange and difficult. The obstacles could be covered by learning and much read about internet marketing. Try to write about the knowledge that you have known after much learning and reading. Try to write with simple words and being understood by some one else. Writing article just same with telling story to others. Submit your article to many ezine. By reading your bibliography, could build good image. People would think that you are professional on that field. You can place your URL link; make every one want to know more about your program and product. Do every Ezine receive article from others authors? Sure, many ezine will receive that idea. Just search submit article on yahoo search, you will find more. Except on www.ezinearticles.com, this ezine is more selective to receive article, but you can much learn from them.

2. Trying to write testimony.

Many ezine give a chance to their subscribers to give comment and testimony about them. Like on Vector central ezine and Bali global market ezine would place the best subscriber testimony on their publication. This is the best chance for your promotion. Guarantee that many subscribers would see you and trying to click your URL.

3. Trying to create an ezine or Newsletter. This idea is difficult one. You should create your own website, but for trial and error could create simple Newsletter and send to your subscribers by email. By sending the newsletter, you could place advertisement on it. How do article come from? Just think so simple. Take from others ezine. Consider what do your subscribers like? Affiliate program or about blogging, technology or the others. The best one, if you could write by yourself.

The others problem, where do the subscribers come from? Trying to build list is not easy. If you have joined affiliate program, we are sure you had have down line, make down line as your subscribers. Give them information about the strategies and tactic to make their success on affiliate program. By sending newsletter to your down line, you could communicate with them regularly. Plan the publication, daily, weekly or monthly. Being punctual publication and keep the subscribers love the Newsletter.

Erny Setyawati is the Web Master of http://www.baliglobalmarket.com and the Publisher / Editor of Bali Global Market Ezine. The Newsletter is full freebies, articles and free advertisement for member. You are tired of spending money for advertisement and need responsive subscribers. Join us today and let's me spread your product and services to our subscribers. Let's visit free at: http://www.baliglobalmarket.com

How To Make Money Online With A Newsletter

2009-02-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Joel Teo

Many online internet marketers tell us "its all in the list" and many people lap up stories of guru's emailing thousands in their online list and making a huge profit in the process. Actually you too can start your own email list and make money from it as well. This article will highlight six tips on how you can make more money from your own email list.

1.Have a paragraph to disclose something personal so as to create trust between yourself and your newsletter reader

Most people fail to realize that the reader of a newsletter is very much a person like you and me and they have emotions and feelings and are not reading your newsletter purely for the topic at hand but they need to trust you before they can purchase stuff you recommend. A good way to create trust in your newsletters is to add a personal touch to your emails with some personal revelation that can connect you with your readers. The greater your readers trust you, the more likely they will purchase the stuff that you recommend thus earning you a commission in the process.

2.Spend time keeping up with your area of interest To be able to capture and keep your newsletter audience, it is important that you remain on top of your area of interest. Spending some time daily keeping up to date with your area of interest by reading online news websites and online magazines is a good way to keep up to date. When your tips are current and effective, your readers will thank you and this increases the chances of them telling their friends about your newsletter.

You might want to write some good articles on trends and developments in your area as well and publish them in article directories and then refer to your own articles in your newsletter so as to establish your credibility and authority in your area of interest. The greater influence that you hold over your newsletter readers would mean greater profits for you when you should choose to email them a special offer.

3.Answer your newsletter subscribers Many newsletter publishers are very happy when their newsletter subscribers actually take the time to email them and ask them questions. This helps create trust and you can always grab a free testimonial for your newsletter after you have successfully helped your newsletter reader.

On the other hand, ignoring your subscribers questions is detrimental as you could see and increase in newsletter subscription opt out. So the simple solution is to take the time replying to emails and questions posed to you.

4.Ensure your email newsletter gets delivered

Today with the proliferation of spam filters there are many emails that are not getting through to their intended readers. There are a couple of solutions to this problem:

One of them involves putting your newsletter on your website and emailing your readers with just your link to your website to reduce your chances of your email getting caught by the span filters.

Another method involves ditching the whole idea of email and using direct to desktop readers. Your subscriber downloads a desktop reader and when your newsletter is ready for collection, your desktop readers will then inform you.

With a greater delivery rate, you can see your profits increase exponentially.

5.Use attention grabbing headers

The really advanced affiliate marketers test everything and one of the things they do involves testing their headlines. The use of attention emotion stirring words tend to increase the chances of your newsletter reader opening your email. An example would be in order here. "Secrets of wealth generation revealed in this issue of your Widget newsletter".

Your header therefore should invoke curiosity in the reader so that they open up your newsletter email and click to view it. Obviously the more eyeballs you have reading your email the higher your profits are going to be.

6.Choose applicable affiliate programs

One simple way to make money from your email list is to recommend affiliate products that fit in with the theme of your list. So if your list deals with children education for instance, you could recommend children education toys to your list as a possible choice for a Christmas present. Always choose products that you have personally seen and consider good. Treat your email list like gold and your readers will be very loyal and thank you for the recommendation.

In conclusion, making money with an email list is not that difficult but it takes effort and each step you take today will pay off richly in the future. By treating your newsletter readers as your friends, they will be able to trust you and your recommendations and help you earn commissions when they do purchase what you tell them. The world of online internet marketing is ever expanding and you can make some money with your email list today if you make the effort to try.

http://www.MakeThousandsToday.info

Joel Teo is a work at home business owner, the owner of several highly successful money making websites.

Make Money online with our Money Making Directory

Work at home Business Opportunity Website

http://www.GlobalProsperity.info

Free Ezine Advertising That Works

2009-02-21T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Neil Moran

When I say free ezine advertising, I'm not talking about the free ezine ads that some publishers offer, this technique is FAR more powerful than that.

One of the best ways to get free traffic to your site, is to write articles for ezines.

Now before you shudder and click away, it isn't that hard to write a good article.

If you've got a bout of writers block, just search for info related to the subject you want to write about, then re-write it in YOUR OWN words and style, do not copy.

Your article needs to be around 500 - 700 words, with short paragraphs, 5 or 6 sentences.

DON'T try and disguise an advert as an article and forget about putting in your affiliate links, publishers will delete it straight away, if you want to use this approach to promote an affiliate program, you should really get your own domain as it looks more professional.

Once you have put your masterpiece together, leave it a day, then come back to it and re-read it, you'll be surprised what other nuggets of info pop out after a nights sleep, and how many errors seem to jump out at you.

When you're sure your article is ready, run it through a spell checker and format it to 55 - 60 characters per line so the publisher can just cut-n-paste into their ezine.

Don't forget to put your resource box at the bottom of the article! This is what's going to get you a ton of free traffic to your site after all.

Believe me folks, just one half decent article can get you alot of free traffic, I remember one article I wrote was published in a ezine that had a circulation of 500,000, if I wanted to pay for advertising in this particular ezine it would have cost me over $400!

Not only does this technique save you money, it also gives you credability, and alot of ezines turn your articles into web pages that will remain there for years to come.

Get published, get credibility, get free traffic for years to come! I think that's worth a little effort don't you?

About The Author

For an extensive list of places to submit your articles for free get on over to: http://www.forfreedom.ws/ezine_article_submission.htm

How To Create Amp Manage A Successful Article Site

2009-02-20T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mark Machaalani

The internet is flooded with an unlimited amount of websites, fresh ideas and free content and even now as we speak is growing at an unbelievable rate. Knowing all this, do you still wish to build a successful article website? The chances of success sound slim, right?

Well it shouldn't because it actually isn't that hard. I'll get straight into it and tell you step by step the main paths I took to accomplishing my popular article website.

First things first, choose a niche topic or market, in my case it was 'Self Help'. It is vital that you try to remain unique and focus your site on one single topic. Make certain that you do not get carried away and begin adding non-relevant content to your site.

When it comes to choosing a topic, it requires two important steps. Firstly, choose a topic that you are interested in so that you are motivated to build the site. Secondly, choose the topic keywords based on words that are searched for regularly online. Now, in order to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords I wanted to optimize my site for, I used the Overture search suggestion tool. It's not exact, and doesn't measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.

Now it is time to start building the site! I was lucky that my brother is one of the developers of an Online Content Management system called ArticleLive. It's created by Interspire and is so easy to use. I pretty much had an Instant Web Site that gave a feel and look of great quality. I was able to build and manage my own content site from scratch and this was back when I had absolutely no technical experience!

One of the most vital factors in order to have a successful article site is differentiating your site from the rest and provoking visitors to always come back. How to do this is basic. Simply make sure that all you provide is quality information. And that was exactly what I did and still do.

There are literally millions of articles for me to upload onto my site from other article websites and from authors submitting their articles to me. Note that you are allowed to copy articles off other websites, so long as you keep the original author's bio intact.

It is indeed tempting to quickly upload and add as many articles as you can to grow your site quickly and increase traffic. However, this will only be beneficial in the short term. For the long term, you wish for your visitors to come back to your site over and also continually attract new visitors. Quality articles will help make this happen. I made sure that every single article on my website was proof read at least once as well as be interesting and helpful. All articles trying to sell or advertise a service or product were not accepted. Articles with links in the body were also not accepted. Although this process does take more time and effort, the return on your investment can be huge.

One great form of promoting your article site is to do what I am doing right now. Write an article that relates to the topic of your article site with your bio and link intact and submit it to well known article sites around the web. This way your link is displayed all over the web, which as a result will help build your Google Page Rank (if you are unfamiliar with the term 'Page Rank' I highly suggest you begin researching and understanding the importance of it). In addition to this, your article can be read by millions of people all over the world who are highly likely to click on your link and visit your site, just like you are going to do after reading this article :)

There are off course other important factors that affect an article site such as:

SEO Search Engine Optimization

Google Page Rank

Customer / Visitor feedback and friendly support

Website look and feel

ROI Return on Investment techniques

However, these factors would require an article all to themselves!

Nevertheless, I can not stress enough the importance of quality. Out of every factor mentioned, quality is the one thing that will guarantee your website success in the long run. An article site that offers free and high quality articles is surely guaranteed to attract new visits and sustain loyal visitors. By simply going through the easy steps I went through before, you could easily have one of the best article sites for your choice of topic.

Remember, quality content results in a quality website.

Mark Machaalani is the co-founder of the best online self help website http://www.accomplishlife.com. He is also the co-founder of the internet's favourite Health and Weight Loss website http://www.shredweight.com. Mark has an ardent interest in Self Help and Personal Development and aids people all over the globe through personal and private self help coaching at no cost at all.

Mark can be contacted via email at mark@accomplishlife.com.

A Bird In The Hand

2009-02-19T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Theresa Cahill

Today I was on the phone for over an hour with one of our newest advertisers discussing his solo ad. Though by no means a newbie to marketing, it was apparent that he was missing the key PURPOSE to effectively using ezine publications.

When placing your free or paid-for ad, sure you hope for sales. Will you get them? Who knows. Is it worth advertising? You bet!

All ads are good ads. Yes some are written better than others, some pull better than others. But, do you know what the PURPOSE is to ezine advertising?

Longevity and name branding!

Allow me to digress for a moment...

If you use any startpage programs, you know your site is being loaded in front of someone's face somewhere in the world, hopefully on a consistent basis. Do they buy every time they see your website? No, they do not.

So, why do you bother, what's the point?

By ensuring your website is seen over and over, you are BRANDING that website over and over in the minds of the viewer. Repetition, or longevity, increases the awareness of the viewer that your product is "here to stay." You get the orders, mostly over time (of course a good website and top-notch product is crucial, too).

I've seen programs, products, banners, and ads literally hundreds of times before I've spent my money, and I bet you have, too.

Your ezine or solo ad is no different.

To place free or paid advertising EXPECTING orders is a wonderful thing. Is it realistic? Probably not.

Does it serve a PURPOSE? It most certainly does!

Take the time, either free or paid, to get your ad sent out over and over, day after day, week after week. Make persistence and determination in making sure that your ad is seen by hundreds of thousands of opt-in subscribers your goal. Go for LONGEVITY!

If you expect miracles, stop! If you WANT or DEMAND only miracles, give up now. If you think marketing online is "easy," you are in for a rude awakening. It is not easy, it requires commitment, determination, and persistence. It requires WORK.

Make up your mind today to use that "bird in the hand" marketing tool delivered to you daily. It can be the "pot of gold" resource that makes your business a true winner!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of http://www.mywizardads.com and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at http://www.mywizardads.com/sitemap.html

Top 7 Techniques For Generating Subscribers To A Newsletter

2009-02-18T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Adam Davis

Imagine you are sitting at home relaxing reading a book and sipping on ice cold lemonade, your friend calls you up to tell you about a new product on the market.You can't help but get excited because you know your subscribers will be interested!

After signing up for the products affiliate program you send a recommendation of that product to your subscribers and instantly net yourself some cash just by pressing the SEND button! Not only that but your customers actually say 'Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!' Does this sound like fun to you?

If it does then read below, as this is the Number 1 marketing strategy you need to implement to be continuously successful online.

Start collecting email addresses today.

Even if you don't have a website up and running I want you to call everyone you can think of who would be interested in your niche and write down there email address (This doesn't mean calling up people in the Yellow Pages and asking them, unless you enjoy having people scream in your ear of course).

Below are my Top 7 Techniques to boosting your opt-in rate starting with the most obvious.

1. Place a 'Subscribe To My Newsletter' at the top, side and bottom of your webpage, even your articles and copy should have a mention of your newsletter in them somewhere. This may seem obvious but it is surprising how many people have newsletters but only promote them on their home page.

2. Include the 'Benefits of Subscribing' to the newsletter, rarely do people sign up to a newsletter without knowing what is in it for them. For example you could write 'Sign up to my free newsletter to learn all the latest cutting edge secrets and techniques for building a castle out of cards'.

3. Give your visitors an 'Incentive to Sign Up' like a free ebook or a discount on products. Nothing works better than an incentive, give your subscribers something free only after they have confirmed their email address with you. Make sure your incentive is related to your niche (There is no point giving someone a discount on cars if you sell dog shampoo as there is a good chance they are just signing up for the discounted cars and have no interest in dog shampoo).

4. Place a 'Privacy Statement' next to the sign up box for the security-conscious visitors who come to your site. This reassures them of your intentions with there contact details and will also show that you respect your subscribers privacy.

5. Use 'Viral Marketing' strategies to turn one subscriber into five. This is simple, give the subscriber something for free or a further discount on a product or service if they refer four of there friends who may be interested in the newsletter as well. Suddenly you have turned one subscriber into five!

'Why Five?' you ask?

Well I have tested this and have found that people often have more than one email address and they (thinking that they are smart) type them in instead of there friends. Trouble is the average person only has one or two email addresses. So after they type in there own they are then forced to think about there friends for the last two.

6. 'Co-Registration Partners' are a fantastic way to build a subscriber list! All you need to do is search on Google for web pages that are on similar topic to you and email the owner about setting up a co-registration with that person. When someone fills in their details to subscribe to your newsletter you add a checkbox underneath that asks if they wish to sign up to your partner's newsletter also. Remember there is no such thing as a competitor on the web just potential joint venture partners!

7. Pay a 'Co-Registration Service' to generate you subscribers in exchange for cash, my personal recommendation is Nitro List Builder - www.nitrolistbuilder.com, the only problem is the subscribers aren't that quality and you have to be prepared to spend some cash. There are ways of making this list warm up to you, but i'll dive into that next time.

After implementing these techniques I can guarantee you plenty more subscribers, I can not stress to you how important building a list is on your website. I want you to implement one of the above today and contact me after a week to see if your subscribers have increased.

Have a great day!

Adam Davis is an Internet Marketer based in Australia, he has been selling online for 2 years.

At only 17, he sold his successful e-commerce business to focus on helping other people to effectively market their products and services on the internet.

Check out http://www.1st-for-internet-marketing.com for more Tips, Tools and Information to boost your traffic, sales and maximize your profit.

The Mighty Marketing Newsletter

2009-02-17T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Neil Sagebiel

For many companies and organizations, it's a powerful marketing tool that attracts and retains customers. I'm referring to the dependable, hard-working newsletter.

On the subject of newsletters, guerilla marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson says, "It's a way of staying in touch, proving your expertise, giving beneficial information and gaining confidence."

Newsletters can be used for marketing, public relations, sales support, associations, or many other purposes.

But how do you publish a successful newsletter?

Following are some simple strategies that have worked well for my clients and me.

Content and Style

Consistently providing editorial value is the key to a successful newsletter. Measuring content against a set of objectives is one way to accomplish this.

What is the purpose of your newsletter? What are you trying to deliver to your readers?

Another way is simply to remember what you're publishing -- a "news" letter. After all, "newsletter" is the marriage of two common words: "news" and "letter." If you make your newsletter newsy, providing readers the latest information on subjects they care about, you can't go wrong.

Does all content have to be cutting-edge news? No. Editorial content can be a new slant on an old subject. It can be time-tested tips that are good reminders to an interested audience. Or sometimes it's information that isn't new but useful to people in a new stage of life -- parenting, for instance.

Whatever the content, it should be relevant to readers. If unsure, just ask yourself: How can readers use this information? Is there take-away value?

The second word, "letter," helps to establish a writing style and tone. I like to write articles and newsletters as if I'm writing to one person in a friendly, conversational tone.

Newsletters are often a dialogue with customers -- the lifeblood of your business -- so the tone, while friendly, needs to be respectful. Just avoid writing newsletters that are stiff, formal and self-important.

Story Ideas

In the abstract, thinking "news" is great. However, a few concrete ideas can help kick start a newsletter. Here is a partial list:

* News
* Product and service stories
* Product and service tips
* Special offers, promotions and sales
* Explanatory articles (how it works)
* Case histories
* Industry updates
* Do's and don'ts
* Appropriate humor
* Quotes and testimonials
* Checklists
* Interviews
* Profiles
* Letters
* Community involvement

Want some more good ideas? Collect and read newsletters. What do you like? What can you apply?

Create a newsletter file and fill it with company and industry news items. Keep a list of ideas, talk to customers, attend trade shows and seminars, and read as much as you can.

By keeping yourself well informed, your newsletter will stay current and interesting to your readers. Finally, publish your newsletter on a regular basis and your sales are sure to increase.

Neil Sagebiel is a veteran copywriter who has served clients such as Microsoft, The Seattle Times, Lucent Technologies, March of Dimes, Airborne Express and Unisys. To sign up for his FREE expert tips to help you write better and sell more, visit http://www.neilsagebiel.com

Why Selfpublish Your Book

2009-02-16T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ceci Miller

When I meet an author with a great book concept, one who's definitely the right person to write that book, right away I'll often encourage him or her to self-publish. This is because I know that, if an author is thoroughly invested in what they have to say, and if they're determined to create a buzz about their message, they'll discover ...

5 Fantastic Benefits of Self-publishing

1. Control. When you enter into a contract with a major publishing house, you're signing an exclusive agreement that prevents your having input into most of the important decisions that will affect your book's perception by the public, and its sales. You'll have very little say about the look and feel of your book cover, the endorsements that appear on the back of your book, or the wording of your press release, for example. And since all of the above elements are critical to giving your book its best chance for bestseller status, such loss of control can pose significant problems. "But don't publishers know better than I what to do to sell a book?" you may ask. Not necessarily. Authors usually know more about their book's subjectand hence, about their target audience (market)than anyone else. Hey, they wrote the book!

More food for thought about signing with a major publishing house: If for some reason your book doesn't sell quickly and the publisher lets it go out of print, there's often a "waiting period" before the author is allowed to self-publish the book to get it back on the shelves. In the meantime, the reading public sees that your book is "out of print" and a great deal of word-of-mouth damage is done. Self-publishing means that you are at the helm of your book project. Of course, it also means that the responsibility for its success rests in your hands. But when you believe in your message and know that you're going to do everything in your power to get that message out to your target audience, isn't it a good feeling to know that you're the one driving its success in the marketplace?

I suggest a balance of control and delegation. The right publishing ally can coach you through the process of writing and editing your book, and will also advise you to design and market your message in a way that gets optimum results. Your publishing ally may be a book editor, a publishing consultant, a published author, or all three. If she's worth her salt, though, she'll know what it will take to get your book published, and she'll know how to help you make it happen.

2. Money. Why does it make good business sense to self-publish? Consider the following: a contract with the book publisher doesn't give you an ironclad guarantee that your book will ever and upon the shelves. If you're a new author, your publisher will allocate zero marketing dollars to promote your book. It's sink or swim! If your book does sell well, it will be due to your own hard work and ingenuityand your reward will be a tiny fraction of the book's total profits. Self-publishing admittedly involves more capital risk, but it also means that the extensive footwork you do to market your book will go to producing income for the person who most deserves it. After all, you're the one who's doing all the work to ignite word-of-mouth about your book. Not only that, you wrote it! Don't you deserve to reap 100% of the profit?

3. No Waiting, No Rejection. The Cinderella story of the little book that gets discovered by a publisher and becomes an overnight bestseller is mostly just thata fairytale. Yes , it happens. But it hasn't been happening a whole lot lately. In the current publishing climate, with major houses paying gigantic advances to celebrity authorstheir "cash cows"not much is left to spend on developing new talent. Let's be honest: a publisher isn't going to spend a dime marketing a book by an as yet unknown author. To get your book considered for publication in the first place, you'll need to have an extremely convincing marketing strategy in place which you intend to implement on your own, at your own expense! Such as the case in every genre from children's books to alternative health to historical novels. First-time authors are being turned away en masse. And since many nonfiction book projects are time-sensitivewell-placed offerings intended to respond to a specific market trend their authors often while way their precious window of opportunity waiting for agents or publishers to respond to a proposal. It isn't impossible to get a major publishing house interested in a book by a first-time author, but it's getting more difficult all the time. Self-publishing removes the wait (and the accompanying weight from your shoulders) and the discomfort of rejection from the process of getting your book into print.

4. Independence. Self-published authors are usually people with confidence in their message. Many have already developed a following by giving talks and seminars in areas where they live and work. Experts know when they have a powerful personal messagethey don't need a publisher's approval to pump themselves up. Such authors, many of whom are already seasoned professionals, self-publish their books because they love being in the driver's seat of their book project. Rather than gamble that a big corporation will treat their book with the respect it deserves, such an author takes the publishing reins to ensure that her message reaches the widest possible audience. No one cares more about your book than you do.

5. Power of Belief. The power of belief in our words is what makes promises good and turns dreams into reality. Authors who self-publish their books believe deeply that others will benefit from reading what they have to say. They have unshakable conviction. Such authors often tell me, "I had to write this book. I just have to get it out there!" Deep belief is the selfless power that drives all true service and makes a difference in the world. Authors with a strong sense of purpose know that they can make their books succeed. They don't want to wait around for a publishing house to "accept" their work. Aware that time is precious, such authors create their own publishing opportunities. They get behind their own message. They launch a campaign fueled with belief in the creative power of intention.

Every good editor or publishing consultant knows that the best way to make your book a true success is to create and market a message that you will both be proud of for years to come. Creating uplifting books is a passion. Make it yours, and every one of your books sold will be a vote of confidence in yourself and the rest of humanity!

About The Author

Ceci Miller, MFA, President of CeciBooks Editorial & Publishing Consultation, has been writing and editing books with bestselling authors since 1988. A graduate of the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, Ceci Miller has written, co-authored and edited numerous published books, and worked as staff editor for an international magazine. For a free initial consultation, or more information, go to www.CeciBooks.com.

5 Good Reasons For Using Yahoogroups To Start Your Own Ezine

2009-02-15T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Silvia Hartmann

List servers and list serving software can be a TOTAL NIGHTMARE. Trust me, I know ...

If you are new to Internet Marketing, or just new to the way of web business, and there's all these other things to learn and think about, there are five VERY good reasons to leave commercial list serving software systems alone for now and simply use a Yahoogroup to do all the work for you.

1. EVERYBODY Knows ...

... what a Yahoogroup is, and even if they don't, they'll soon pick it up. By using Yahoogroups, you are tapping into a long, long established institution that is globally known and trusted; this will make it much easier to get people who don't really know you yet to subscribe to your ezine or newsletter.

2. Yahoogroups are very easy.

Even for absolute beginners, Yahoogroups are easy to set up and easy to manage. You don't have to worry about the vagaries of AOL emails, double opt in procedures, anti-spam declarations, unsubscription features or any of it, it's all taken care of for you. They also come with little sign up boxes and buttons, and the admin interface, although not exactly intuitive, can soon be worked out by trial and error.

3. Yahoogroups messages don't get caught in spam filters.

Spam filters are the SCOURGE of ezines and email delivery. When you send your messages via the Yahoogroups delivery system, this is not a problem; as Yahoo is such a mega beast, it has its own exceptions in mostly all spam filters known to mankind and your messages WILL at least reach their intended recipients.

4. Yahoogroups have useful extra features.

You can do a lot with a Yahoogroup if you are willing to spent some time on it. Weblinks, an attractive group page, bookmarks, file downloads and more are all available for the beginner web entrepreneur to optimise and use, easily at that.

5. Yahoogroups are FREE.

Alright, so the group messages carry third party advertising, but that is a very small price to pay for access to a system that can easily and very elegantly serve hundreds of thousands of messages, that is reliable and steady and so well known. Other than that, there are no set up fees, no ongoing charges, and it's there for you whenever you want it.

Once you are ready to do so, you can export your list and put it on your own personal commercial list server systems, complete with technicians who take care of everything behind the scenes - until then, and if you haven't done this before, to simply use Yahoogroups for ezine delivery is a really good way to get started with your ezine and to build up your subscriber base.

About The Author
Silvia Hartmann is the author of MindMillion. You can get a GREAT free wealth booster course written by Silvia at http://mindmillion.com/60/

Should You Use A Magazine Publisher

2009-02-14T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Cathy Seiler

Thinking of starting your own magazine or newsletter? If you do have a good idea that you want to market, be sure to do your homework so that you can be well prepared for a magazine launch. To help you succeed, you may want to enlist the services of a magazine publisher who can help you with many of the details of publishing a magazine.

A magazine publisher can help with many of the startup, marketing, production, and distribution tasks that need to be taken care of for a magazine's launch and longevity. They can provide sound advice based on years of experience, and help you avoid pitfalls along the way.

Before you decide to look for a magazine publisher, it's important to have a well thought out business plan in place that clearly outlines your product and audience, marketing strategy, financial plan and analysis, your management team, industry analysis, and competition. Once you have your business plan, you can determine what startup capital you have available to work with, and you also have a clearly stated plan that you can use as a basis for future discussions with various magazine publishers.

Do some research on various magazine publisher options to come up with a short list of those you might want to talk to, and what services they offer. Each publishing company will have their own strengths and weaknesses, and their own mix of services and features. Magazine publishing companies can offer a range of services; launching and startup advice, design and development, editorial expertise, printing and production, advertising campaigns, telemarketing, web site development and design. You need to determine what services you want to utilize, and which ones you may want to do yourself.

Meet with each publishing company, present your business plan, and see what they can offer you in terms of service and price. While many services may sound great, they often are not cheap, so you need to select those services that will leverage the publishing company's strengths and augment your weaknesses, so that you can get the most value for your money. Talk to them about how they might be able to help you gain circulation and advertising dollars, which is the key component to sustaining any magazine. Ask them how they have helped other clients succeed, and have them provide specific examples of their magazine publisher expertise.

A key component of your new magazine will be a website, and in fact, many magazines are now starting out as e-zines, purely electronic magazines, to reduce initial costs. While magazine owners report that they don't typically get the bulk of advertising dollars directly from a website, it is necessary to host content, generate ads, increase readership and circulation, get feedback, and advertise. A well developed and interesting website can definitely complement and boost your print magazine with the aid of a magazine publisher.

For anyone considering starting a new magazine, expert advice and good ideas are critical to magazine success. A good magazine publisher can provide these missing components to the inexperienced, deliver services, and take care of details that allow you to focus on the most critical aspects of your magazine.

Cathy Seiler writes Magazine Publisher articles for her http://www.magazinepublisher.info website.

Ezine Advertising

2009-02-13T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lata Tokhi

Ezines provide advertisers with highly targeted markets. Ezines are usually narrowed-down to a particular target market. All you need to do is identify ezines that cater to your target market and place ads in those ezines.

Benefits of Ezine Advertising

. Ezine Ads are highly targeted.

. Ezine Ads are very cost effective. An Ezine that goes out to 3000 - 4000 subscribers will charge you only $10-$30 for an ad.

. Ezines use 'opt-in' method of subscription. People who read ezines have subscribed to that particular ezine because they are genuinely interested in its content. Therefore, it is likely that most of them will read your ad and click-through rate (CTR) will be higher.

. Most ezines are archived online and many people read the archived ezine issues through search engines, browsing etc. So, your ad is read by many more people than just the subscribers.

. Many subscribers forward the ezines to their friends and relatives if they find something useful in it. Your ad is likely to be read by more people in such a case.

Types of Ezine Ads

1. Top Sponsor Ads - These ads are generally placed on the top of the Ezine and has a very good response from the subscribers. It is also priced higher than the other ads. There is usually only one Top Sponsor ad.

2. Other Sponsor Ads - There might be other ads like Middle Sponsor or Bottom Sponsor Ads in the Ezine placed at conspicuous spots within the ezine.

3. Classified Ads - Placed usually at the end of the ezines, they are more affordably priced and lesser read.

4. Solo Ads - An exclusive mailing containing only of a single advertisement is sent out to all ezine subscribers. Solo Ads are most expensive as your ad is the only content of that entire mailing.

Finding the Right Ezines to Advertise in

. Targeting is most important. Find ezines that cater to your target market.

. Check the number of subscribers/circulation. Place ads in ezines with at least 500+ subscribers.

. Check the methods of payment acceptable to the editor.

. See the publication frequency. If you do not want to wait a month before your ad appears, advertise in ezines published weekly.

. How many ads does the ezine publish in one issue? Check this beforehand. If there are too many ads, your ad might get lost in the crowd and seen by very few people.

. Last but not the least, see the ad rates. Compare rates, number of subscribers and number of ads in an issue of various ezines and choose the best ones to advertise.

Effective Ezine Ad

An effective and compelling ad is essential for successful ezine advertising. Write or get written a compelling ad with a catchy title and brief, yet rich description within the guidelines of that ezine. Read carefully the terms and conditions, guidelines, maximum text length etc. and prepare an ad accordingly.

Experiment with different text ads by varying the titles, descriptions etc. Track your ads to see which title/description worked best and place future ads accordingly.

Hire the services of a copywriter and get your ads written professionally if you are not good at writing ads. A few dollars spent here will be worthwhile.

About the Author:

Lata Tokhi is a successful website publisher with a network of popular websites. She shares her internet success secrets with you at http://www.MomTycoons.com

Visit some of her other popular websites at http://www.DotComWomen.com, a Home & Lifestyle website and an online community and http://www.Celebrating-Christmas.com, a complete Holiday portal.

10 Must Haves For A Successful Enewsletter

2009-02-12T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Annette Elton

E-Newsletters, commonly called 'E-Zines', are a must have for any business in today's aggressive economy. E-Newsletters, done correctly, are a creative, non-aggressive method of reaching your current clients and building your prospect base at little or no cost. They not only provide useful information to subscribers on a consistent basis but they are a valuable marketing tool that allows you to enter their lives regularly, to get your name, and products or services, in front of them without the heavy sell.

The following pages contain a list of 'must haves' from the beginning to the end of your newsletter, and everything in between.

First and foremost, your E-Newsletter must have a:

1. SUBJECT LINE

Your newsletter's headline, otherwise known as the subject of the e-mail, is responsible for 50-75% of its success. Other than whom the e-mail is from, it is what your reader sees first. Without a successful headline, your e-mail is destined for the trash can and you've missed a golden opportunity to reach clients and prospects with your message.

Writing a good headline is tricky and something people spend years learning and practicing. That being said, there are a few keys to a successful headline that I'd like to share with you.

● Appeal to your reader's self interest. Provide a benefit to your reader and make it personal to your audience of clients and prospects. Example: "10 Ways To Increase Your Portfolio Earnings Overnight." This type of headline might work for a financial investment firm, or an accountant. A headline can be tailored to any industry and what your readers are interested in.

● Make it Newsworthy Headlines using the words 'new', 'now', 'finally', 'announcing', and 'latest' give the reader a sense of newsworthiness. "New Soil Conditioner Increases Plant Life By 10%." This headline is both newsworthy and it appeals to the reader's self interest-assuming that the newsletter is going to clients of a nursery, florist and the like and not to an automotive repair shop!

● Appeal to the reader's emotions. Fear, Pride, Insecurity, Curiosity, Love, Happiness, Boredom, Laziness, and Altruism are among many of the emotions that you can use to motivate your reader to open your newsletter. "How To Ask Your Boss For A Raise," would be good headline for a staffing company. It appeals to the reader's curiosity. Another curiosity driven headline might be "10 Questions You Should Never Ask A Prospective Client."

One last thing to remember about Headlines: make them believable. Nothing gets deleted faster than an outrageous and unbelievable headline.

2. VOLUME NUMBER AND A DATE.

It may seem obvious, but one thing that is consistently overlooked in E-Newsletter publication is the volume number and date. Every newsletter that you send should have a volume number and a date to be consistent. Consistency is key to establishing yourself and your company as a reliable and credible source of information and the kind of company that your customers will return to time and again.

Additionally, by providing a consistent publication date, and volume, you give your readers a method to archive and/or search when they're hunting through old issues for the amazing content that you've supplied them.

By organizing your newsletters by volume and date, you also make it easier to track each issue's effectiveness.

3. THEME

Each newsletter that you put out to the world should have a consistent theme running throughout. Regardless if you have one article or ten, they should be linked with your theme-and your theme should be referenced in the headline.

A doctor's office might run an issue with the theme of fighting the flu just before flu season. The newsletter might contain articles pertaining to it like diet, supplementation, and inoculations etc. Similarly, they could offer a theme on allergies in early spring.

A restaurant might highlight specific ingredients, time saving tips in the kitchen, or upcoming seasons and holidays. The articles could reference menu items or recipes that they use as a marketing tie in.

An Auto repair shop might address tune ups in one issue and preparing for summer vacations in the next. They could talk about braking-how to brake, different types of brakes, when to replace brakes, common problems with brakes etc

You're getting the picture. CPA firms, printers, transportation companies, every industry has a specific client population with specific needs and interests. If you have a new product, how that product integrates into your customer's lives could be a theme-say a commercial construction company provides installation of a new type of roofing--there's the theme for the newsletter. Themes are easy to come by; the trick is sticking to them.

4. INFORMATION

Your newsletter must contain useful information. Content Is Key! Even if your newsletter contains an editorial piece, you need to give your readers something valuable.

We're a nation hungry for information. Non-fiction consistently outsells fiction in the bookstores and ease of information is in high demand. As far as information goesNothing Is Better Than Free, Helpful Information Delivered To You On A Consistent Basis!

According to an article recently published by the Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association www.newsletters.org "Publishers need high-value content to reach readers and advertisers. editorial quality is just as important for a free newsletter as it is for a subscription newsletter. advises publishers to talk with their user base at all times, survey readers and know their needs.

This quotation ties in to the next E-Newsletter necessity:

5. An Option for Reader Feedback

An option for reader feedback in a newsletter is a good way to build your community and to add content to the publication. It not only lets you know what the readers are responding to in your newsletter but it encourages reader participation and people, whether they admit it or not, like to see their name in print.

A simple feedback form occasionally included in the newsletter or a more consistent 'Dear Abby' type column where readers ask questions and you (as the expert) answer them, is the easiest way to include this feature into your publication.

6. AN OFFER

Besides endearing your clients and prospects to you and your company, the main purpose of an E-Newsletter is to build your business or in other words, SELL.

Don't let a single issue go by without some kind of offer; a click through to your web site, a coupon, a new product for sale in your store or on your website, an inside sale.

Tie the offer in to your theme and with a good headline, you have a sure hit! Let's go back to our very first headline "10 Ways To Increase Your Portfolio Overnight." Let's assume that the newsletter is from a team of financial advisors.

The broad theme is increasing your portfolio; let's assume that one of the methods of increasing it is to invest in pharmaceuticals. The offer might be a seminar/webinar/teleseminar on investing in pharmaceuticals. The options are endless to present this product.

Basic clicks through to your website for more information, a 'click here to register' type of option, or a registration form right in the newsletter are just some of the possibilities.

7. LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE

Again, the reason for your newsletter is to sell your product or service. If you don't have at least one link to your website then you're not giving the newsletter the chance to do its job.

If you don't have a website-GET ONE!

No matter what your business, a web presence is a necessity for your business to grow and a courtesy to your clients. From basic business information like hours and staff information to newsletter archives and products, a website gives your customers a place to go when they're not with you. To put it simply, a web presence expands and embraces your customer community and it provides one more way to build your current client base.

Links to your website in your newsletter provide not only a tool to sell but they're also great tools for realizing the effectiveness of your website. They're measurable.

8. VIRAL MARKETING

Viral marketing is a term used by marketing specialists which simply means encouraging current customers and prospects to share your message with their colleagues and friends.

Viral Marketing is FREE FOR YOU. A simple message consistently included in each and every newsletter, preferably in the same place each time, that encourages recipients to forward your newsletter to friends, family, and colleagues is all you need. The bonus is that there is an implied endorsement of your services to recipients of your forwarded newsletter.

9. AN OPT-OUT

While an E-Newsletter is a great source for building your opt-in database, you MUST provide your recipients an option to opt-out. No one likes to be trapped into receiving an unwanted e-mail.

A simple "Click here to unsubscribe" will suffice.

Be sure to make good on all opt-out requests to avoid angering and alienating clients and prospects.

10. SIGNATURE

An E-Newsletter signature isn't your signed name at the bottom of each publication, though it can be. In direct mail, a signature is your company information and a possible disclaimer listed at the bottom of the page. Think 'footer', if you're familiar with word processing. A signature could look something like this:

All material on this site is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. www.healthline.org 1800-555-1212 or e-mail us at info@healthline.org

Or for a more personal touch

Sincerely,
Joe Dingo
Joe@JD.com
www.JD.com
866-555-1212

It is important to have a signature for several reasons:

1. Consistency
2. Ease of use. If the reader prints out the newsletter then your contact information is readily available.
3. Professional appearance.
4. Another opportunity for your client/prospect to contact you by clicking on your web link or e-mail link.
5. Possible legal protection.

There are an abundance of tips to improve the effectiveness of your E-Newsletter but the 10 basics I've highlighted are vital to produce an effective, quality, marketing E-Newsletter that your readers will value and enjoy and your business will prosper from.

Happy Writing and Selling!

Annette Elton is a freelance copywriter who specializes in E-Newsletters and Direct Mail. She has been creating newsletters and marketing materials for businesses and non-profits for 17 years. Please visit http://www.AMBCreative.net for more information and articles on E-Newsletter writing and publication.

The 60 Minute Ezine

2009-02-11T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Genesis Davies

Nowadays, everyone knows that an e-zine or email newsletter is one of the best ways to build your opt-in list. But do you have time to put together your own e-zine? After all, if you are a typical e-business person, you already design and maintain your own website, market and promote your product or service and do all your own research. That doesn't leave a lot of spare time to spend writing valuable content for your e-zine!

The answer is yes, you just need to know how to go about it. The first thing to decide is the focus of your e-zine. It should closely follow the theme of your website, but if you cover many topics on your site, you can narrow it down to the most popular topic. Check your page hits to find out what your visitors are most interested in.

Once you have your topic, you are ready to begin. Here are the steps to take to get your ozone done in just one hour!

- Look up relevant articles on free content sites such as www.ezinearticles.com. Save two or three articles to your computer. If you don't care about having the same exact content as possibly thousands of other people, you can just use the articles as is, keeping the author information and resource box intact. Time required: 10 minutes

- Find more information. Do a quick search on Google on the article topics to pick up a few more tidbits to add to the articles. Time required: 10 minutes

- You can hire a professional writer to write articles for your ezine for a small fee. Post an ad on www.freelancewriting.com or www.elance.com. Or, if you feel confident in your writing abilities, do some quick research and put together a couple of list articles (the fastest type). Time required: 35 minutes (if you do it yourself), 10 minutes (hire a freelancer).

- Add a personal note. Type a quick note to head your newsletter, letting your readers know what's going on with you. This adds a personal touch and will make your readers feel like they know you. Time required: 5 minutes

That's it, you have your e-zine ready to go! The only thing you need to do now is find a good auto-responder. You will want one that offers the option of producing multiple ezines in case you want to expand later on. A service that provides personalization is also great, it's just another detail that you don't have to worry about.

Genesis Davies is a freelance writer who currently runs 2 websites and an ezine. Check out her business site. Sign up for her free Create a Sizzling Ezine course

Making Money Online With Web Publishing

2009-02-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by R.G. Srinivasan

Who doesn't want to make money online? Internet is here to dominate our lives and spreading its tentacles very fast. Every month millions of pages are added to the web space and more and more people are getting online for almost everything from shopping to e-learning. Would you believe there are even online beggars with payment gateways where you can donate through your credit card if you are feeling charitable. If you do not exploit the internet for marketing your services or products you may as well be living in prehistoric times.

While there are many ways to make money, web publishing is one of the most popular online businesses due to its suitability to internet as a least expensive online publication medium. E-publishing is tailor made for internet.

Content is the key to web publishing. If you specialize in anything at all, and I think everyone does specialize in something, you could start your web publishing business and be up and running in hours. Web publishing could include:

E-courses

You can start a multi part e-mail course which your subscribers can pay for if you are in a highly specialized area. These courses could be offered either as stand alone subscriber only lessons through your website or offered free to promote your other e-publishing products which I have described here. You can write these courses of 200 to 300 words each lesson.

Creating Special Reports

While special reports are generally offered free to promote your services, you can sell your special reports if you are in exclusive niches. The special reports can be marketed for as low as $1. You only write it once and they can be downloaded from your site for long periods if you keep updating them. Just imagine if they are downloaded by 100 persons every week you pull in $4800 dollars a year for a few hours of work.

Create CD's

Your content can be transferred to CD's and marketed through offline as well as online channels. Your website could be the your shop taking orders and you can ship your orders as many people are still comfortable buying a tangible physical good rather than e-product.

Start an e-zine

This is still a very popular online business with multiple ways to generate income. You may offer a free e-zine within your niche and promote all other content based products. However it may take some time to create a large subscriber base and establish yourself. The key again is good content. Once your ezine becomes popular you can bring out paid subscription based editions.

Write an e-book

This is similar to the special reports. E-books would have more pages with extensive coverage of the chosen subject. Just look at amazon.com to find out how popular e-Books are.

Web publishing is a huge area of online marketing with an immense potential in the future. I have already written about the future of web publishing in my article featured here. Half dozen e-books could be written on the subject. However it is best to get started and keep learning as you go along.

Srinivasan is a Management professional, Writer and Author. You can view his home-business resources blog at http://www.home-businessresources.blogspot.com for online marketing tips, resources, opportunities and online promotional strategies.

Email Newsletter Format Html Or Text

2009-02-09T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Mario Sanchez

An email newsletter is probably the most effective way to communicate with your target audience. One of the main considerations before you create and deliver an email newsletter is what format to use: HTML or Text.

Until a few years ago, some email programs couldn't handle HTML. Nowadays that is not an issue, since most email programs are HTML compatible: AOL versions 6 and higher, Internet Explorer versions 4 and higher, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Eudora, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail all support HTML. HTML email newsletters can easily be managed and sent using services like Constant Contact or Vertical Response.

Using HTML for your newsletter can be a plus from a usability perspective. Studies conducted by usability guru Jakob Nielsen show that most people prefer HTML newsletters because their enhanced layout makes articles easier to read (provided that the design of the HTML newsletter is clean and simple). The same design guidelines recommended for web pages also apply to HTML email newsletters.

However, HTML newsletters are often confused with unwanted advertising, since HTML is the format of choice for marketers trying to sell their wares and services through email messages. For this reason, text email newsletters are still popular, since their plain, no frills look helps differentiate them from advertising.

Text is also the format of choice for those who use a free service (like Topica or Yahoo! Groups) to administer their mailing lists and deliver their email newsletters, since these free services usually don't support HTML. If you use text, remember that you won't be able to use formatting tags, such as bold or underline, and that you must create hyperlinks by adding the prefix http:// before the URL (or the prefix mailto: before the email address, if you want to create an email link).

The approach I prefer is a hybrid between HTML and text. I compose my email messages in HTML, but using only text. HTML allows me to use simple formatting tags like bold, underline and italics, and a nice, screen-friendly font. I use a lot of white space to facilitate scanning, and include only a summary of each article, with a link to the full article (which is hosted on my website), since most users don't like to read long articles in the body of email messages.

My email newsletters, therefore, are similar to the table of contents of a magazine, in the sense that they give readers a broad overview of the current edition's content, and tell them where to find it if they are inclined to read further.

This hybrid format is never mistaken for advertising, is easy to read and scan, and loads fast. Furthermore, by offering links to the full articles, your users will be encouraged to visit your website, where they can have access to more information and learn about your products and services.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez is a Miami based freelance writer who focuses on Internet marketing and web design topics. He publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), a growing collection of web design and Internet marketing articles, tips and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, or ebook.

Internet Marketing Tools Part Nine Ezine Basics

2009-02-08T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Shelley Lowery

One of the most powerful marketing tools used on the Internet is the ezine. An ezine, also known as an email magazine, online publication or electronic newsletter is simply a newsletter available via email and/or online. There are hundreds of thousands of ezines on various subjects available on the Internet free of charge.

Publishing an ezine is a great way to build an opt-in list of potential customers. Not only will it enable you to share your expertise, but it will also build your credibility. Developing a trusting relationship with your subscribers is the key to your ezine's success. You must have a sincere desire to assist your subscribers to the best of your ability. Provide them with helpful information that will teach and inform in regard to the subject matter.

Although offering your ezine to your subscribers free of charge may seem to be a waste of time, you have to look at the entire picture. This publication will enable you to have a direct line of communication with your subscribers. Your subscribers are not just subscribers -- they're actually targeted potential customers. When they subscribed to your publication, they were letting you know they have an interest in your ezine's focus. This provides you with the opportunity to advertise your products or services, and provide them with recommendations.

Once you've developed a trusting relationship, your recommendations will be very effective. However, you must only recommend a product or service that you truly believe in, as your professional reputation is on the line.

If you've been marketing on the Internet, then you know it may take several contacts with a prospective customer before closing a sale. What better way to make those contacts. In addition, you can eventually make a nice income selling sponsor advertising and classified ads.

If you're not publishing an ezine, you really should be. The Internet offers a wealth of quality information and resources to assist you.

Tutorials:

Learn everything you'll need to know in order to begin publishing your ezine.

How to Publish an Ezine
http://www.thewritemarket.com/ezine.shtml

The Handbook of Ezine Publishing
http://www.e-zinez.com/handbook/index.html

A Beginner's Guide to Ezine Publishing
http://www.epdigest.com/beginner/

Ezine Tips
http://ezine-tips.com/

If you'd like a head start in writing your ezine, the following sites will provide you with some ezine templates:

How to Use A Template to Create Your E-Zine
http://www.e-zinez.com/handbook/template.html

Ezine Success
http://www.websuccesscentral.com/ezinesuccess/part1.html

You can publish your ezine completely free. Free list hosts will provide complete email list subscription management including list hosting, subscribes, unsubscribes, mailings and more. They will place a small ad within each message sent to your group. This is a small price to pay and well worth the great service they provide.

Free List Hosts:

Yahoo! Groups - http://groups.yahoo.com/

Topica - http://www.topica.com/

Smart Groups - http://www.smartgroups.com/

Fee based mailing list hosts provide complete email list subscription management including list hosting, subscribes, unsubscribes, mailings and more for a fee.

Fee Based Mailing List Hosts:

SparkList - http://sparklist.com/

Email Factory - http://www.emailfactory.com/

Lyris - http://www.lyris.com/

L-Soft - http://www.lsoft.com/

If you'd rather take care of your own list, there are a couple of different options:

Use a software program that resides on your computer

Use a script that resides on your server

Mailing List Software:

Mailloop
This outstanding program will enable you to have complete control over your lists including:

Automatically filters your email

Completely run your newsletters

Import your leads or orders into a database

Automatically email your personalized customer database

Send out an unlimited amount of autoresponses

and more.

Group Mail
Another outstanding software that will enable you to send highly professional formatted messages that are personalized for each of your recipients. You can manage an unlimited number of lists with an unlimited number of recipients in each and much more.

If you're using a software program like Group Mail, you'll also need a good form processing script to enable your visitors to subscribe:

Master Form
This form will enable you to have the results of your form emailed to you or to a specified address. It can write your information to a database file and you can even have a personalized thank you page. In addition, you can even have multi-page forms with no limit on the number of pages. Cost - $35.00

Alien Form
This powerful script will enable you to have the results of your form emailed to you and any additional addresses you specify. It can write directly to files, allowing you to log every time the form is submitted, or to store order or subscription details securely on your server.

Mailing list scripts will enable you to run your mailing list completely online via your web browser.

Mailing List Scripts:

1-2-All Broadcast
http://www.12all.com
A complete list management system including HTML or plain text newsletters, MySQL database, personalization features, automatic removal links and more.

AutoResponse Plus:
Complete list management including unlimited lists, HTML or plain text mailings, MySQL database, customizable auto-personalization of messages, automatic removal links, unlimited follow-up autoresponses and more.

Although a quality ezine should contain some original content, it is completely acceptable to use articles written by other authors.

Free Content:

Article Announce Groups - Articles that may be freely published delivered to your email each day.
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm

Ezine Articles - Article Directory
http://ezinearticles.com/

Marketing Seek - Article and Ezine Directory
http://www.marketing-seek.com/

Idea Marketers - Article Directory
http://www.ideamarketers.com/

Author Connection - Article Directory
http://www.authorconnection.com/

Internet Wire - Offers broad, real-time dissemination of company press releases and material news.
http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/home

If you're not collecting your visitor's email addresses, don't wait another day to start. Opt-in lists are one of the most powerful marketing tools on the Internet.

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Understanding Ezine Publishing

2009-02-07T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jon Kogan

I can remember my first reaction to word "ezine". What is it? The word "ezine", (pronounced ee-zeen), is a shortened version of "electronic zine", which is a word used to describe short self-published "electronic magazines".

Ezines can be email-based, Web-based, or presented in some other electronic format. However, for the most part, when publishers speak of their "ezines", they're usually referring to an email publication.

"Ezine publishing" has grown in popularity over the last several years to the point where there are thousands of "ezines" covering virtually every topic under the sun.

Some "ezine" gurus have spent years of tedious, zombie Internet surfing and late night fact finding through manual work to compile their personal arsenal of "ezine" marketing tools and resource list.

Email publishers produce their "ezines" for a variety of reasons and the following are among the most common goals:

Generating Revenue - Generating a profit is one of the most common "ezine" publishing goals. The sources of "ezine" revenue include advertising, sales of products or services affiliate revenue, and so on. The "ezine" serves as a support mechanism for the product or service and adds value to it, which encourages more sales.

Generating Leads - Publishing an "ezine" is a great way to generate leads with the same pursuits and interests. Important personal and business contacts are made every day between "ezine" publishers and their subscribers.

Supporting a Website - An "ezine" creates an excellent means of driving repeat traffic.

Once you've determined your goals, for starters, you should plan a publishing strategy that will best enable you to reach those goals. You need to decide on "ezine" topic, determine the frequency, issue size and the most importantly, develop the content.

One of the most popular types of "ezine" content is the "article". "Articles" might be of the news, how-to, entertaining, or other variety. As an example, since I am in home business, my article content is focused on marketing ideas, useful business building resources, time saving tools, website development and training.

It is highly recommended that you produce at least some of the content yourself. As a publisher, you are in the unique position to be able to create your "ezine" unique "personality". Your subscribers will learn to identify it over time and may come to appreciate your "ezine" for precisely that reason. Other popular sources of content include staff or freelance writers, syndicated content, or reprints of articles from other "ezine" publishers.

On the other hand, if all of your content is un-original and your "ezine" offers nothing unique to your subscribers, they will not have much of incentive to read each issue or stay subscribed.

About The Author

Jon Kogan is Founder of ZivoMarketing and Editor of Home Business Breakthroughs Ezine!

mailto: subscribe@zivomarketing.com

Would you like to make money online, but don't know where to start?...You are not alone and this could be just a solution for you: http://www.zivomarketing.com/mega.html

Jon Kogan was born, raised and educated in Ukraine.

Arriving to the USA in 1975 has been able to focus on the area of his expertise in marketing, sales and management in the corporate world.

In 2002, Jon has made a decision to apply real world marketing concepts to the Internet. His goals are to provide training, education and to show that it's simple and easy to join the ranks of success-minded people by choosing to start a home business.

editor@zivomarketing.com

Ezine Articles Dot Com The Quick Amp Easy Cure For Writers Block

2009-02-06T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

I'm the umpteenth writer to praise the web site, Ezinearticles.com.

But I want you to know it's more than a great place to feature your articles. It's more than an ego boost, seeing as many of your articles in print, as you wish.

It may very well be the cure to that age-old affliction, writer's block.

If you're a creative type, that's probably more significant than a cure for the common cold!

Writer's block, which is when you just can't summon the gumption to put words on a page, seems to afflict many of us when we suddenly stop believing in the quality of our output.

Perhaps we received yet another rejection notice from a brick and mortar publishing house, or we made the fatal mistake of sharing our passionate poetry with Aunt Minnie. No matter, our creative well has dried up, and we feel as if we're about to wither away with it.

The cure, of course, is to start writing again, but that's easier said than done. If we're cursed with the perception that our stuff is junk, we don't put anything out there that can be rejected.

Enter the magical world of Ezinearticles.com. When you KNOW that your articles will appear, that you'll garner an audience for your brilliance, suddenly, you can relax. It doesn't matter that you're not paid a nickel in conventional currency; the spigot has been opened!

You're creating again! In fact, it's a form of therapy that lots of writers would pay good money to obtain. And it's ours, for free.

This is the 120th article of mine that will appear at Ezinearticles.com, and I promise you, it won't be the last.

Perhaps in future postings, I'll share more benefits of using this site as a creative outlet.

In fact, come to think of it, I can't wait!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

5 Surefire Ways To Annoy People With Your Email Newsletter

2009-02-05T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Linda P. Dessau

I read a lot of newsletters. Some are great and some are not so great. I put together this article to highlight the five mistakes I see most often in people's first newsletter.

1. When you're composing your newsletter in your email browser, put everyone's email address in the "To" field so that when someone receives your mailing they can see everyone else's address.

Why You Might Not Want To Do This: With the high prevalence of spam (unwanted email) these days, people are very sensitive about their email addresses getting "out there". Also, depending on the topic of your newsletter, your readers may not be comfortable being identified.

What To Do Instead: Put your own email address in the "To" field and use the Bcc. (blind carbon copy) field for everyone else's addresses. A much cleaner look and you're not compromising anyone's privacy.

2. Don't give your reader a way to unsubscribe, or ignore them when they ask that you stop contacting them.

Why You Might Not Want To Do This: With people using more and more time these days to delete unwanted email from their Inbox, their patience is really getting thin when they get email they didn't ask for. And not responding to an unsubscribe request, well, that's just bad customer service. Have you ever heard that people will tell more people about a bad customer service experience than they will a good one? Don't have them talking about you!

What To Do Instead: You can use an email distribution service that will automatically place an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every mailing you send out, plus the system will immediately take the person off your list as soon as they request it. If you're managing your list yourself, then include specific unsubscribe instructions yourself (i.e. to be removed from this mailing list, please send an email to this address insert your address - with the subject line "Unsubscribe"). And most importantly, promptly honor these requests!

3. When you meet someone new and chat with them about your business (or the weather), or if they contact you about something unrelated to your business, be sure and immediately add them to your mailing list (don't get explicit permission or let them know you've done it).

Why You Might Not Want To Do This: People don't like it! Just as I mentioned above, people don't want email they're not expecting or haven't asked for. This is especially true if the email is labeled as something that will be sent more than once (like a newsletter).

What To Do Instead: Send your new contact (and your old ones, while you're at it) a complimentary or sample copy of your newsletter and invite them to subscribe if they liked it. Assure them that they haven't been added to your list (you'd NEVER add anyone without their explicit permission).

4. Be sure not to check your links in your newsletter that way people will be annoyed AND frustrated when they click and wind up at an error page.

Why You Might Not Want To Do This: You include links in your newsletter because you either want to share valuable information with your readers that you have scoured the Internet for (so they wouldn't have to), or so that your readers can find out more about your products and services and purchase them and/or recommend them to others. When your links are incomplete, incorrect, or unclickable, it's frustrating to that person who wanted to find out more. It might even send them away forever.

What To Do Instead: Use full URL addresses (including the "http://" at the beginning), check your links to make sure they're correct and still active (if it's not your own website), and avoid putting a "." period directly after a link (some web browsers can't distinguish between the end of the link and the "." character and so the link won't work). An email distribution service will give you lots more options for using links in your newsletter (HTML, etc.).

5. Dress up your promotion as a newsletter

Why You Might Not Want To Do This: People will see through your attempts to hide your promotion, and then they'll resent that you tried to sneak it past them. People are getting weary of being sold to, especially when they've let their guard down because they thought they were going to read an innocent newsletter.

What To Do Instead: You could simply call it a promotion (and let your readers know when they sign-up that they'll hear from you about products and services). Or you could add value to a promotion by writing or providing an informative article or collection of tips that will be useful to your target audience. Then include your promotional information as a bonus. It's not to say you can't promote yourself within your newsletter, it's just that people want to feel that you care enough about them to offer them something valuable before asking them to buy something!

It's great that you're sending out a newsletter. It's a fantastic way to maintain repeated contact with your customers, prospects and referral sources, increase your visibility and establish your credibility as an expert in your field. So why risk all that with any of the annoying habits I've listed here?

Maybe you're not annoying ALL of your readers when you do these things. But do you really want to take that chance?

Linda Dessau is a writer and coach. Through her "You Talk It, I'll Write It" writing services, she helps coaches and other service professionals promote their business and create passive revenue streams with written information products. Find out more at: http://www.youtalk-iwrite.com

Dont Distract Readers From What They Are Doing

2009-02-04T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Nick Usborne

I'm working on a report for a company that puts out a newsletter on a monthly basis.

Their open rate and clickthrough rate are somewhat above industry averages. But I still wonder if they could do better.

Here's what's happening. Their newsletters have a purpose. Each issue promotes various services and provides links to more information on their site. And the writing is excellent. The tone is both personal and informative. The text is engaging, respectful and does a great job of building interest and then providing a clear, descriptive link forward.

So what's the problem?

The problem is that I think a great deal of their clickthrough is derived not from these links to the services they are selling. I think much of the clickthrough comes from other links on the page.

Let me explain. All this great copy is surrounded by dozens of other links and clickable images to other parts of the site, few of which are directly related to the services being promoted.

The layout of the newsletter is a little like a web page. At the top and to the left of the first screen of the newsletter, about ten different links shout out for your attention.

In other words, the central content of the newsletter is great, but the surrounding elements are hugely distracting.

If the purpose of the newsletter is simply to generate as many clickthroughs to the site as possible, regardless of the landing page, then there's no problem. But I don't think this is the case. I think the purpose is to maximize the number of people who click through the links that are within the central content of the newsletter.

If I'm right, then they need to do a little redesigning and remove most of the elements that might distract people from the content they want to read.

And this is not found only within newsletters. The same problem can be found on many web site pages. You'll be on a second or third-level page, well on your way towards achieving the task you have in mind, and suddenly you'll find your attention being distracted by links, ads and offers unrelated to that task.

In short, be clear about your purpose and about what you want your visitors to do at any one point on your site.

And ask yourself, if people are just one click away from completing their task, do you really want to distract them by surrounding the central content with other, unrelated links?

And if you are publishing a newsletter, do you just want clickthroughs? Or do you want people to click through on the products or services you are highlighting in that particular issue?

Be clear about your purpose, and don't allow unrelated elements to create distractions.

Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You'll find more articles and resources on how to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.

Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed16 Tips To Boost Your Profit

2009-02-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Greg Root

In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.

The reason: Ezine Advertising (EA) matches your product or idea to people with similar interests.

Example: who better to sell your health product to than a large group of people subscribed to a health newsletter? Or, you could pitch a business opportunity to a group already subscribed to another ezine about MLM and Biz Ops!

The idea of EA is fairly simple - but to make yours a success, you have to first determine which ezines or newsletters produce results, and which ones to avoid.

After a year and a half of EA, I've created a formula that produces increasing profit because I've learned how to avoid poor performing ezines and rip offs, while revealing the gems.

Strategy for Profit

I used to get ripped off about once for every 2 or 3 ezines I advertised in. They either took my money without running my ad (and ignored my subsequent emails), or my proven ads did too poorly for the money I paid.

The reasons ranged from abandoned ezines with working payment links, unethical newsletter owners, to a lot of ignorance and impatience on my part.

If you follow my proven strategy, you'll discover the best sources of ezines to advertise in - no matter who your target group is. And, you should see positive results every time.

This article outlines the steps to making your EA a successful return on investment (ROI).

Writing Your Ad

Because you can run your ad as many times as you want, your investment in a professional will more than pay for itself in the end.

Target your advertising

If you leap into EA without first researching your target group, you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money. Plus, you probably miss some of the best ezines available.

To determine who your prospect is, take the time to list the possible keywords that directly relate to your product and do keyword searches for ezines, newsletters, and ezine directories.

For example, if you sell herbs, a good keyword search would include: herbs, health, nutrition, supplements, etc.

Avoid Co-ops

While doing your ezine research, you will probably stumble upon the offer to use Co-op (bulk) advertising as the means for your EA.

To be blunt, you should never pay to use Co-ops for your EA because they are too difficult to track and usually contain untargeted ezines. Worse still, you'd find that most never run your ad.

Now that you've found your ezine target group, you'll want to know whether the ezines you found are a good option (i.e. profitable) for your EA.

I've found the best strategy for making this determination is to subscribe to the targeted ezines.

To keep the subscriptions readily available for further research, I recommend creating a separate folder to store your subscription data.

And because you'll need to subscribe to quite a few ezines, I also suggest creating separate email accounts dedicated to your ezine subscriptions.

Double Opt-In Subscriptions

In the process of subscribing, you'll quickly determine possible ezines to avoid. When you subscribe and get a notice that you must confirm your subscription, the ezine is referred to as "double opt-in".

Double opt-in ezines indicates a better quality of subscribers with a lower risk of bulk email addresses. For you and me, this means better ad responses (yeah!).

Solo Ads

Within the first week of your new ezine subscription, you should see solo ads from other advertisers. If not, the ezine may be too new, or worse, no one is advertising because of poor results. Worse yet, the ezine took the advertiser's money and failed to run the ad.

On the other hand, if you see two or more solo ads a day, their list is probably burned out due to over advertising. You're looking for no more than one ad a day, or a minimum of one ad a week. Keep watching!

Subject Line

Does the ezine put the advertiser's subject line in the subject of the email or do they just say something like "Solo ad from xyz ezine"?

Your subject line is the most important part of your ad and definitely should be in the subject of the email.No subject line equals no response.

Advertiser Response

Repeat (or regular) advertisers in an ezine is a very good sign that the subscribers are responsive. To further test responsiveness, I recommend looking through the ezine's online archives (if available).

Archives are previous email publications that the publisher has posted to their website for visitors to view. The archive search is not only quick and easy, but archives can also provide an extra trickle of visitors when your ad gets archived.

Testimonial Page

After passing the above steps, see if your prospective ezine has a testimonial page. If the ezine has gotten this far, chances are it will.

Waiting Period

Another indicator of responsive subscribers is the waiting period to run an ad in the chosen ezine. If the waiting period is a month or more, this indicates a very popular ezine with responsive readers. You've uncovered a real gem!

Web Forms

I've found that the better ezines have web forms that get your ad to the publisher's inbox and usually send auto confirmation of receipt. If there is no web form, try emailing the publisher a question first, like when the next ad run date is.

No response may indicate a poor choice in the ezine, or your email was filtered or blocked as spam. Wait at least 2 days and try emailing again using a different email account.

If your emails still don't get through, neither will your ad. (Ironically, your payment always go through). Trust me, if they fail to communicate, save your money and time and move on.

Free Classifieds

If the ezine offers free classifieds, this is another good place to run your ad. Since classifieds usually don't produce responses, any activity from your ad here would further indicate an active readership.

Ad Tracking

Never advertise without using an ad tracker. You can purchase one or better, use one of the many available online for free. Ad trackers give you a url that you use in place of your website address.

The new url gives you important information like how many visitors you had, where they came from, and some list the number of sales per visitor.

This tracking information is crucial to the direction of your ad campaign because you'll learn of the need to change your ad and/or the sales page. More importantly, you'll know for certain whether the ezine produced enough visitors for the advertising price you paid.

Run Your Ad Twice

If your ad produced a great response, wait a week or two and run the ad again in the same ezine. I've found you'll probably get as good if not better results the second time around.

I would advise against running the ad a third time in a row because most of your prospects will be found in the first two runs.

Using a Capture Page or Auto-Responder

To maximize your efforts, you want to "capture" your visitors so you can send them additional information about your product, related merchandise, and pertinent updates.

This is done with a capture page that provides a place for visitors to put their name and email address. There are different methods to accomplish this and you may want to hire someone to do it for you if you're not comfortable installing scripts on your website.

You might also want to send your visitor directly to your autoresponder, where you have a series of messages set up to "warm and inform" your prospect about your product or service.

Rotating Ads

Once your ad has been tested and you have a base of 5-10 solid, performing ezines, start rotating your ad between your ezines.

For optimal results, make sure 2-3 months have passed before running your ad in the same publication. Keep building your base and watch your profits grow!

Greg Root started using ezine advertising almost exclusively since 2003 and owns and maintains 'The Ezine Ad Tester' at http://www.maxprofitpro.com/ See the results of his ezine advertising campaigns to find the best ezine marketing resources on the internet.

Ezine Advertising The Fastest Way To Affiliate Profits

2009-02-02T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Derrick VanDyke

If you're on a tight budget or want to get started quickly without a website or a list of your own, then ezine advertising should be your number one choice.

Ezine advertising is the perfect solution for beginners who want to test a market and get into profit fast. Here's why:

It's highly targeted. People subscribe to ezines to receive information about specific topics. You just need to find ezines that cover topics related to the product your are promoting.
It's cost effective. You can find ezines that sell ads for as little as $8 - perfect for testing a new product idea.
It's a cheap way to test your ad copy. You can track several ads at the same time for next to nothing and find out which ad pulls the best.

What Is An Ezine?

An ezine is similar to a printed magazine except that it's delivered electronically via email. And instead of purchasing an ezine, people sign to receive it for free or a monthly subscription fee. Most ezines are published weekly, but some are published daily, monthly or bi-monthly.

Types of Ezine Ads

Classified Ads: the cheapest and the least effective ads you can buy. Classified ads are limited to two or three lines and placed at the end of the ezine. Some ezines even give away free classifieds as an incentive to subscribe. Unless you place a classified ad in an ezine with 30,000 subscribers or more, your chances of getting a response are very small.

Sponsor Ads: these are more expensive than classified ads, but will give you a much better response. Sponsor ads can be placed at the top, middle or bottom of an ezine issue. You can include more text in a sponsor ad so it's a good way to test your copy before going all out on a solo ad.

Solo Ads: this is the king of all ads because your offer is sent exclusively to everyone on the mailing list and gets full attention of the subscribers. No articles or other content is included. Solo ads can be expensive, but they can increase your response by as much a 100% over sponsor ads. You can usually expect a 20% - 30% response rate from a good solo ad.

In other words, if you purchase a solo ad for $100 in an ezine with 5,000 subscribers, you should expect about 1,000 highly targeted visitors.

Note: Solo ads can be purchased for as little as $10. You will get a much better response from a $10 solo ad sent to 500 subscribers than you will from a $10 classified ad sent to 5,000.

Here's your step-by-step guide to successful ezine advertising.

Step One: Subscribe to 10 or more ezines.

Subscribe to ezines that offer top sponsor and solo ads within your budget. Subscribing to ezines before you place your ads will allow you to determine the quality of the list and potential profitability of your campaign before you spend any money. You may want to set up a specific email address for your subscriptions and filter them into a specific folder in your mail program for easy access.

You can search Google for "ezine directories" and "ezine advertising to find quality ezines.

Step Two: Select three quality ezines.

Here are some guidelines for choosing a quality ezine:

1. Does the ezine have a domain name and website where you can subscribe and purchase advertising? This shows that the publisher runs a serious business and is not likely to take your money and run.

2. Is there an article archive? This shows you how long the publisher has been in business and how consistent the publication is.

3. Are subscriptions confirmed opt-in? After you subscribe, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription. This is a sign of a high-quality list. However, this should not be the only determining factor.

4. How often does the ezine owner publish? A weekly or bi-weekly publication is optimal. If you receive daily ads, that's a good sign that people may be desensitized to your message.

5. Does the publisher offer solo ads? A solo ad is one that is sent to the entire list all by itself and usually the most profitable type of advertising.

6. Do the solo ads display the advertiser's subject line? If the subject line is not personalized, results will not be as good.

7. Does the body of the message contain a lengthy disclaimer from the ezine owner that explains their SPAM policy and that they aren't associated with the advertiser and aren't responsible for the content? This is a red flag to me because it makes the reader less receptive to your ad.

8. Do you see the same advertisements multiple times? This is a good sign that the advertiser is getting a good response. One way to be sure is to contact the advertiser and simply ask.

9. Is there waiting period to run your ad in the ezine? A responsive list becomes popular fast and may have a waiting period of a month or more. If you find one, book your ads quickly and mark it on your calendar. It will be worth the wait when your ad finally runs.

10. Does the publisher respond personally to your questions? No response could mean that your mail was filtered. And if you mail doesn't get through, you can bet your ad won't either. Get a solid response before you pay.

Step Three: set up your ad trackers.

Never advertise unless you can track the response. You need to know how many visitors and sales you get for each ad you place so you can determine whether or not you want to run another ad in a particular ezine or upgrade from a sponsor ad to a solo ad.

This information is critical for determining how well each ad campaign does and how well you're converting visitors into sales. Sometimes you just need to tweak your ad copy and run the ad again for better results.

If you get good results the first time, run your ad again in a week or two. Not everyone will buy the first time around. And many who were "on the fence" the first time they saw your ad, may purchase the second time around.

You can find a good ad-tracking service on Google.

Step Four: write your ad.

There are numerous books on writing good copy that you can find by searching Google. But, the best way to come with ideas for good ads is to read the ads in other ezines.

Look for ads that catch your eye. Modify them to fit the product you are promoting and then add your own personal touch. You can include an exerpt from an ebook you are selling, a section from the sales letter, or your personal endorsement.

Step Five: place your ad.

This is the easiest part. You simply fill out a form with your ad copy and credit card information. After you process the order. You will receive a confirmation of when the ad will run. And since you are already subscribed to the ezine, you can verify it yourself. Don't rely on them to send you a "courtesy copy."

Step Six: put half your profits back into advertising.

Okay, sounds simple enough. But where do you put the extra profit?

That's why you track your ads. So you can make an informed decision and maximize your profits.

So if you were going to put half your profits back into advertising, where would you put it?

Let's say you're total profit was $400. Take two hundred and invest it back into the successful ezines and invest the other two hundred into two new ezines. And then multiply your profits from there.

The profit potential of this method is incredible. Once you tap into the strategy and see it working you'll see exactly what I mean. And until you do, you'll have a hard time understanding why I get so fired up about it.

Note: it can take up to two weeks (or longer) to get into some ezines. So it's important to get your spot as soon as possible.

Once you set this system up and find some good ezines to advertise in, you'll be making money completely on autopilot!

To learn more about this automated marketing system, download my free report "Three Steps to Affiliate Profits" at http://digitalprofits.net or check out my new site http://affiliatecashsecrets.com for tips on affiliate marketing. © Derrick VanDyke - All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link when you sign up at my Affiliate Cash Secrets website.

Hiring Professional Writers To Write For Your Ezine

2009-02-01T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ken Mathie

Well, you have set up your Ezine, even got some free content to add to it but you are thinking that you would really like to get some content a little better than what you found in the bargain basement of contents-are-us.com. Well, you know the old saying, "You get what you pay for." The truth is, if you really want some quality well written content for your Ezine, unless you are a professional writer yourself, you're going to have to pay for it. The question comes down to how much you want to pay or are willing to pay. To answer that question, we first have to answer the question of where to get professional writers to write for your Ezine.

Ironically, it isn't all that hard to do. The number of people looking to make or making money on the Internet are in the millions. Many of these people are writers, or at least think they are. Just do an Internet search engine search for "professional Ezine writers." One of the first places you're going to find in your search is Elance.com. This site has been around for a very long time. The basic concept is simple. You either go there looking for a service or you go there to promote your own service. If you're a writer, you would go there to offer your services to write articles or whatever based on your area of expertise. If you're an Ezine owner looking for writers, you'll go there to do just that. Each writer will post a bid as to how much they will charge for a writing assignment. You'll probably try to go for the ones with the lowest bids. Just remember, you get what you pay for. The lowest bids are probably the writers with the least amount of experience, not to say they don't write well. They just don't have the credentials yet. But the higher priced writers are probably your better writers, though not always.

If Elance.com seems a little too complicated for you, there's individual web sites you can search for and find that features one writer. He will probably have samples of his work on the site or will offer to send you something so you can see how well he writes. At least this way you can make an informed decision on hiring him. Most of these writers will probably charge more than what you will find at Elance and similar sites because he doesn't have to compete with other bids. On the other hand, he is probably going to give you better service because, unless his site gets a ton of traffic, he isn't as swamped with work.

Regardless of which route you take, there are things you are going to want to make sure you find out up front before you hire anyone.

For starters, you're going to want to find out exactly how much the service is going to cost. Get this in writing if you can. If you're going to request a number of articles, find out if there is a discount for getting articles in bulk or if it's a set price per article no matter how many you order.

The next thing you want to find out is how long it's going to take for delivery for each article. Most writers will have a pretty good idea of this because they know how much work they regularly get. Make sure that you are okay with the time frame. If you need any article in 3 days and the writer says it's going to be two weeks, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, find out if you need to pay in advance or if you can pay after the articles are delivered.

Also, you want to find out how he expects payment to be made and how you get delivery of the articles. If he only accepts credit card payments and you don't have a credit card, you're going to have a problem. Also, when getting your articles delivered, if by email, make sure you give him an email address without spam filters, otherwise there is a chance that you'll never get your articles.

Most professional writers will have all this spelled out on their site already so you'll have no problems. However, some don't have a site and just freelance. In those cases you're going to have to email them and ask all the above questions.

By doing so you'll be avoiding any problems coming down the road.

Learn more

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Ezines Are Effective In Advertising Your Online Business

2009-01-31T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Alan Cheng

'Ezines are the most cost effective way to advertise your business opportunity'. I'm sure you've heard that phrase many times if you've been marketing on the internet for a while. But is that a myth or a fact?

An Internet Marketer once advertised that he can guarantee $1,000 profit for the user within weeks if he used the techniques outlined in his ebook.

And the secret of the ebook - advertise in Ezines using $2,000 and you are guaranteed success unless your product is useless. Well I didn't try it at the time because I couldn't find $2,000 lying about in the house or in my bank account. However, it does show the belief people have with Ezines.

There are 3 types of ads in Ezines:

Classified Ads

These are small ads which you can find at the bottom of newsletters. There is limited space in these ads therefore your ads have to be eye-catching. Classified Ads in ezines are cheap and sometimes free due to its limited space and location which is at the end of the ezine.

Sponsor Ads

These ads are placed at the top of the newsletter and sometimes in the middle. Some ezines have more than one sponsor ads. Sponsor ads are more expensive than Classified ads and can contain more words so your ad can be more descriptive. Sponsor ads are more effective than Classified Ads as their position in the newsletter is better.

Solo Ads

Solo ads is the most effective way out of the three type of ads for generating response.

Solo ads fills up a whole email which only contains your advertisement. The newsletter is sent on your behalf to its subscribers. Thus your ad will have the biggest exposure. Solo ads are more expensive than Sponsor ads but more effective.

'Great. Super. Fantastic. So what's your advice Alan?' My advice is advertising in Ezines do work. And they work very well. Some people don't think so because after placing some ads and seeing very little or no response they think they have proven that Ezine advertising is a lie used by Ezines Publishers.

Well I can tell you now that they are getting poor responses because they have not followed the rules for advertising successfully in Ezines.

Rules in Advertising in Ezines Successfully

1. If you can, save money and advertise using Solo ads. They have the best chances of being read by the subscribers and they have no other ads distracting or competing against.

2. Work on your subject line. Even with Solo Ads, people will not open your email if the subject is of no interest to them. Subjects which promises massive fortunes in a few days will get deleted with second thoughts.

3. Work on your Content. After the subscribers open your email, your next task is to try and get them to read the content. So make damn sure your content is interesting and enticing enough for them to take some action. Believe the saying "Content is King".

4. When you're advertising other peoples' products using affiliate programs do not send the visitors to the product's website. I think people are crazy when they do this. The reason is that you are sending traffic to other peoples websites and if they won't buy you've lost that lead for good.

Therefore the aim of you ad is to capture their email address so that you can advertise to them again and again. If they don't buy product A then you can advertise Product B to them. Now don't you think that makes more sense?

5. Advertise in well known Ezines and which are related to the topic you are advertising. Advertising stock recommendations to Golf enthusiasts will surely give you a terrible response rate.

6. For Classified ads, make sure you are advertising in large numbers such as 100,000. Not many people read Classified ads and you will be listed among other ads as well. However, you might get lucky if your headline is attractive enough.

To end this article I'm going to share a secret with you on what I think is the best and cheapest way to advertise in Ezines. That is to write your own articles and ask the Ezine Publishers if they are interested in sending out your articles in an issue of their newsletter.

Now let's think about this for a moment. Your own article is published in ezines and placed on their websites. People who write articles are given more respect and are trusted more. Plus your articles will stay on some websites for years which also means that it will generate traffic for years. The traffic is generated with a resource box you can put at the bottom of your article. You can put your URL here and also write a little bit of background about yourself.

You are creating a name for yourself on the internet scene and you are also generating leads which you can email your recommendations to. There is no cost for you when Publishers decide to include your article so the only cost coming out of you is the time needed to write the article.

In my opinion, writing articles for ezines is the most effective way to advertise using ezines. Not to mention it's cheap and will generate traffic even after many months.

If you want to know which ezines to advertise in, the cost, number of subscribers and what services are available that can help you in publish your articles, please send an email to my autoresponder at mailto:ezineart@onlinemoneymachine.com

About The Author

Alan Cheng, is the owner of http://www.onlinemoneymachine.com the membership site to help beginners setup a profit generating online business. With all the right tools to setup your website and advertise effectively. You can contact Alan at mailto:alan@onlinemoneymachine.com.

5 Essential Online Tools For Writers And Publishers

2009-01-30T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jinger Jarrett

Writing a newsletter or article can be very time consuming.

First, you have to create your content. Then you have to organize it. Fortunately, there are plenty of great tools online you can use and don't require you to clog your computer with more software.

Best of all, each of these tools is absolutely free to use.

Here are five tools you can use to help you with your newsletters and articles:

1. Newsletter Template
Formatting your newsletter will probably give you more headaches than anything else.

You want to make it easy for your readers to read, and you want it to look professional when you send it out.

This site solves the problem. All you have to do is select the parts you want to include in your newsletter, cut and paste the elements, and hit submit. It will completely format your newsletter for you, and you can even get some great tips and resources to help you with your newsletter.

http://www.ossweb.com/ez-ezine-template.html

2. Email Formatting Utility
Ever gotten a really great forward in your email you wanted to use, but it was too time consuming to take all of the >> out of it?

You don't have to do that anymore. This email formatting utility will strip any unecessary tags for you. You can also use it to format your newsletters and emails to the right character count.

http://www.formatit.com

3. Article Formatter
Ok, I admit it. Before I found this utility I used to cut and paste my articles into my word processing program just so I could get a word count.

Now you don't have to do that. Not only will this online tool give you a word count, it will also format your articles in an attractive format for submission.

This site is offered by the Freelance Writing Organization Int'l a large database of information for freelance writers.

http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html

4. PDF Creator
This may seem like an odd tool to recommend to a publisher or writer, but wait a minute.

Have you ever wanted to give away copies of your articles and newsletters to site visitors? What about the $249 price tag for Adobe Acrobat?

Then you have to consider your readers computers. What if they have a MAC?

Unless you have a format that can be read by both MACs and PCs you'll exclude certain readers from downloading your documents.

Besides, giving away copies of your articles and newsletters is a form of viral marketing for your business.

This site allows you to convert documents to both HTML and PDF. http://www.gohtm.com/

This site converts text to PDF.
http://www.sanface.com/createpdf.html

5. Good Research Tools
There are tons of places you can do research on the Web. That's the beauty of the Web.

That's also what's horrible about the Web. There's just too much great material online to find it quickly and easy.

Ref Desk - http://www.refdesk.com - is like having your own book shelf at your fingertips.

You can do searches in the major search engines, find dictionaries, word of the day, quote of the day, and more. There are so many resources located here, you may even want to make this your start page.

Find Articles - http://www.findarticles.com - is a large collection of print articles archived on the Web. It boasts over 300 print publications in its database.

Writing and publishing can become a time consuming task. Not only will these tools save you time, they'll save you money too.

Jinger Jarrett is the author of "20 Websites Every Writer Needs". Get your free copy of her ebook by subscribing to her newsletter. Visit her web site: http://www.marketingforwriters.com

A Crash Course In Ezine Publishing

2009-01-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Shelley Lowery

An ezine, also know as an email magazine, online publication or electronic newsletter is simply a newsletter available via email and/or online. There are hundreds of thousands of ezines on various subjects available on the Internet free of charge.

Having your own publication will not only enable you to keep in touch with your visitors, but it will help you build a huge database of targeted customers. If you've been marketing on the Internet, then you know it may take several contacts with a prospective customer before closing a sale. What better way to make those contacts, without spamming... In addition, you can eventually make a nice income selling sponsor advertising and classified ads.

You can publish an ezine completely free. Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com will host your list (ezine) free of charge. In addition, they take care of all your subscription requests so you won't have to. To use one of these list servers, simply sign up and instantly create your list. They will provide you with a subscribe and unsubscribe email address and even a list owner email address, all completely free. The only disadvantage is that each posting will contain an ad for their service. This is really a small price to pay for such a great service. If you're just starting out, utilizing one of these free services can simplify the process.

- CONTENT -

A quality ezine should contain at least some original content. Don't let the fear of writing intimidate you. If your ezine's focus is on an area of your expertise you shouldn't have any problems coming up with something to write about. If you've been out of school for a while, you might want to freshen up on your writing and grammar skills. Visit any of the sites listed below for a crash course.

11 Rules of Writing -
http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/

Exploring English -
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/

Simpler Words And Phrases -
http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/tpl5.htm

Here are some additional resources for obtaining free content for your publication. Before using any articles, make sure you review the author's copyrights and make certain the article may be published. If you're not sure, contact the author and request permission to publish their article. Most articles for publication can be used in your ezine free of charge as long as the authors credits or resource box is included.

- FREE CONTENT -

Web-Source.net
http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm

GoArticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com

1st-in-articles.com
http://www.1st-in-articles.com

EzineArticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com

- FOCUS -

Your ezine should focus on a subject in which you have a great deal of knowledge. If you have a web site, you should also take into consideration the focus of your web site; i.e., If your web site's focus is on Internet Marketing, you wouldn't want to have your ezines focus to be on "Animals & Pets," you would want it to be on "Internet Marketing."

- TITLE -

The title of your ezine is one of the most important decisions you can make. Many e-zine listing sites list their ezines in alphabetical order. By selecting a title such as, "Advertising Secrets" instead of "Working Online," your publication will be listed towards the top instead of the bottom. This will give your publication an advantage over the publications listed below yours. Potential subscribers will see your ezine first and be more apt to subscribe.

Your title should sound intriguing and tell your potential subscriber exactly what your publication is all about.

- PUBLISHING SCHEDULE -

You can publish your ezine as often as you like. When you first begin you may want to only publish once a month until your subscriber base has grown. You can always increase your publication to bi-weekly or weekly whenever you'd like.

- SIZE -

There has been a great deal of controversy over the size of an ezine. In my humble opinion, size really doesn't matter. If you publish a quality e-zine with a great deal of content, I don't feel that your subscribers will care what size it is within reason. You should; however, take into consideration that your subscribers may not want to download it. If it is too large, America Online will automatically turn it into a file attachment. Consider either condensing it or separating it into "Part One" and "Part Two."

- WEB SITE -

It isn't imperative that your ezine have its own web site, however, it is HIGHLY recommended. Having your own site will enable you to give your visitors an in depths look at exactly what your publication is all about. You can include highlights of upcoming editions, polls, archives and a subscription box to allow your visitors to easily subscribe.

- ADVERTISING -

You should probably wait to begin selling advertising space until you have at least 1000 subscribers. You can sell ad space for $25 for every 1000 subscribers you have. There is a lot of advertising competition to take into consideration when selling ad space so, you may want to begin selling your ad space at a lower rate or offer special incentives; i.e., Buy two weeks of advertising for $20 get the third week free. Try to limit the number of ads per issue to ten and place them in the center of your publication. This will not only ensure adequate exposure for your advertisers, but your subscribers won't be overwhelmed with advertising as well.

- STYLE & FORMAT -

The appearance of your ezine is one of the most important factors in determining your e-zine's success. Getting subscribers is the easy part. Keeping them will entail a little work. A professionally written, well designed, content rich publication will ensure your ezines success.

When formatting your ezine, keep in mind there are many different types of email programs and they are not all created equal. As a general rule, to accommodate all of your subscribers and their different email programs, it is probably best to write your ezine in plain text. As with email programs, word processing programs are not all created equal as well. Your regular word processing programs are great for writing business letters, sales letters, etc., but not a good choice for writing your newsletter due to formatting issues.

A good program to consider using is Notepad. This program should already be on your desktop.

Another consideration of great importance is your line length. If your text lines are too long, some email programs that aren't capable of viewing long text lines will force the last few words to the next line and your text will be viewed like this:

When formatting your publication your text length is one of the most important factors in determining how professional your publication will appear.

As a rule, a generally safe line-length is 65 characters (including spaces).

As you begin typing your text, when you reach 65 characters, use a hard carriage return. (Hit Enter)

If you'd rather not have to worry about hard carriage returns, you might want to use a program called "TextPad". http://www.textpad.com/. This program can be set to automatically insert a hard carriage return when your text has reached 65 characters.

When you're ready to begin, make an outline for the contents of your e-zine to enable you to create a template.

After you've written your publication and you're ready to copy & paste it into your email program, make certain your email preferences are set to allow at least 65 characters of text per line. If your preferences are set for less, when you paste your text to be mailed it will appear to be improperly formatted.

It is highly recommended that you send a sample copy of your publication to yourself prior to sending it to your subscribers. By viewing your publication in this manner you will get an idea of what your subscribers will see and it will enable you to correct any formatting problems.

Publishing your own ezine is one of the best marketing decisions you'll ever make. Take your time, research your subject and design a publication of quality, useful content.

For further information on publishing your own ezine, you may download the free ebook entitled, "Ezines: A Complete Guide to Publishing." This free e-book received a 4-star Editors Pick from ZDNet.

About the Author:

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Subscriber Incentives Are They Effective

2009-01-28T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Azriel Winnett

Peter Boulder of Pepper and Rodgers Group tells a story of a friend of his who recently visited New York City.

His friend spotted an ad that read something like: "Buy at our grocery store and if the cashier doesn't smile at you when you check out, everything in your cart is free."

Impressed, he made a straight line for the store in question and filled up his shopping cart with everything he'd need for a week.

To his chagrin, the lady at checkout not only didn't smile, but didn't even look at him. But there was some consolation in the situation, he thought, and he triumphantly claimed his bounty of free groceries.

The cashier, however, denied any knowledge of such a special offer. Puzzled, the visiting gentleman took out his newspaper and showed her the ad.

"Ah," she said, "look at that date! That's last week's promotion!"

So what's wrong?

Now what was wrong with the grocery store's marketing approach? For a start, of course, friendly customer service, if you want to offer it, cannot be contingent upon certain time slots or seasons of the year.

Either it's part of your mission statement, your philosophy of business, or it isn't. That's pretty straightforward.

But let's say you're not really interested in the service- with-a-smile concept. (A pity - but your loss!)

You know your cashier's only there for the paycheck, and that's fine by you, as long as she's competent at her job of checking out purchases. You don't expect her to take any special interest in your customers, and you just have this "smile or don't pay" gig once in a while as a stunt to bring a few more people into the store.

The question now is: how effective can this kind of marketing tactic be?

Well, in the case under discussion, it may not be the ideal way of stimulating new business, but such a promotion could serve some purpose, up to a point. Conceivably, some new people, or those that haven't shopped for a while, will be attracted by the prospect of a winning smile.

The result: a little more money in the cash registers, as long as the promotion is running and the cashiers are cooperating. Even once the promotion is over, a few of these people might have already become habituated to doing their shopping there.

Now, instead of friendly countenances (which, sadly, it doesn't really believe in anyway), let's say that the store decided to offer, during the period of the promotion, special discounts on certain products, or a brand new product for free with purchases over a certain amount?

Which of these two promotions is likely to be more effective in the long run? Surely, the second.

Why? Simply because once the customers have been induced to sample the products on "special offer", and happily, they find them to their liking, they will probably continue to buy them at full price, once the promotion is over.

Biting the carrot

Nowadays, ambitious entrepreneurs dream up and implement all kinds of ingenious incentives to drum up business - contests, referral bonuses, points, loyalty programs, you name it. Some types of viral marketing also rely heavily on incentives to persuade people to pass the message along.

All too often, the end result is disappointment - for entrepreneur and consumer alike.

This usually happens when there's little real relation between the incentive and the product or service, and the product, in turn, falls short of the consumer's expectations. Viral marketers and their willing agents may succeed beyond expectation in whipping up mass hysteria about a new idea - which, in the end, turns out to be a damp squib.

Unfortunately, email publishers who offer incentives to prospective new subscribers, sometimes suffer the same fate. Disillusioned newsletter consumers are becoming increasingly wary about biting the carrots dangled before their eyes.

But if incentive and product are closely connected, at least you have a chance of success. The most cynical of people will bite a carrot if they're genuinely convinced that it's truly representative of a sumptuous repast ahead.

If that conviction is then vindicated and everything's according to their taste, they'll stay right to the end of the party.

It's hard enough, though, to produce scintillating content in your publication itself, without being forced to create additional "bait" or "teaser" material in the form of special reports or the like. And if your new readers are disappointed with the final product, the most tantalizing incentives won't help in the end.

You only have to look at the prominent news sites on the Internet that repeat virtually the identical stories week after week, to get an idea of the challenge of producing consistently good content on an ongoing basis.

Yet, if you really want to succeed, this is precisely the challenge which you, as publisher, must face. Good marketing strategies are essential, but marketing is the means, not the end.

A good marketer, they say, sells the sizzle, not the steak.

But without the steak, there's no sizzle!

Azriel Winnett is the creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular free website is devoted to helping you improve your communication and relationship skills on all levels in business and professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene.

Ezine Marketing Is About More Than Sending An Email Message

2009-01-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Tim Bossie

The definition of insanity has been said to be, "doing the same things and expecting different results."

Yeah, I can see that. Especially when it comes to internet marketing. If really doesn't matter if you're and affiliate marketer, service provider, infopublisher... or whatever. It doesn't matter if you sell ice cubes, llama products, homemade candles, or an ebook of poems. You need to publish an ezine. Period.

I've been in great coversations with clients about the importance of an ezine and then I've been, like just recently, involved in arguments with clients who were dead set against me writing any type of ezine for them. "I don't need one because my market doesn't call for it." Excuse me.

Any market, no matter what it is call for, no... demands, an ezine.

Insane Internet Marketing

Day after day I receive emails from people that insist they get great traffic, but just aren't making any sales. They have great search engine rankings, have decent inbound links, and have several JV partners actively promoting their site.

But, they still don't have a lot of sales. "Do you have an ezine?", I ask. "Nope", is the most recurring answer.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results. With the new blog revolution that's in full swing, a lot of people don't see room for a regularly published ezine. That's unfortunate.

An ezine can do so much more for an online business than most people realize. And it's about so much more than just sending an email message.

Ezines Build Your Business Through Repeats

Ezine publishing is all about getting people to come back to your site without having to spend more on advertising. An ezine is a built in advertiser.

When people visit your site for the first time, or maybe even for the second time, they might not come back and eventually forget about you. But, with a regularly published ezine (weekly is best) you have the opportunity to keep in contact with your web visitors for as long as they will have you.

This brings not only repeat visitors, but also repeat sales. Sales through your own products present and future products and via affiliate links.

You can't get repeat exposure to the same person, without spending more, any other way.

Ezines Build Relationships That Turn Into Dollars

One of the biggest forms of turning any visitor into a buyer is through relationships. When I'm putting together a new advertising campaign for people I'm very intentional about the relationship factor. Everything is a relationship builder... and that goes triple for an ezine.

People will buy from people they know. Not necessarily like, but know.

Relationsips will also keep people subscribing to your ezine longer than those that don't know you. I find this true of the ezines I subscribe to. The ones that make an effort each week to make it personal instead of sterile I will stay subscribed to.

The Internet is a huge place, but when you start building relationships with people through your ezine, it gets smaller. And more profitable.

Ezines Promote Your Expertise.

One of the things that had a tremendous impact on my business was the fact that the information I published in my ezine presented my "expert" status to my subscribers. I started to receive more projects as a result.

Having a way to show people what you're about and what you know, without them actually buying anything, always results in a sale.

Expecting Different Results

Don't expect different results with your marketing unless you do things differently. That means don't underestimate the power of ezines. If you do have one, keep on it... build those relationships, show your expertise, and keep the repeat visits to your site. If you don't have one... start one.

Tim Bossie is the owner of Guaranteed-Ads.com and specializes in internet advertising. He has put together thousands of successful online advertising campaigns for clients all over the world. Check out the amazing Power Ad Package at http://www.guaranteed-ads.com/adpackage.html that people are calling the most innovative service idea on the Internet.

Email Filters Catch Dolphins Along With Sharks

2009-01-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Yvette Nielsen

What's the point in spending hours preparing a newsletter, message or report if it's automatically filtered into the junk folder before the recipient even sees it?

Spam threatens to choke the communication channels promising global freedom of expression.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs), corporate server administrators and end users are increasingly using new anti-spam technology to try to stem the relentless tide of junk email flooding the Net.

The problem is: how can we prevent the dolphins from being caught along with the sharks?

The origin of 'spam'

SPAM is a pink canned luncheon meat immortalised in Monty Python's spam-loving Vikings sketch.

In an Internet context, lowercase spam refers to unsolicited commercial or bulk email (such as get-rich-quick schemes, miracle cures, weight loss, Viagra, lotteries, loans, pornography and Nigerian sob stories) and allegedly originated in a MUD/MUSH community.

Of more practical use is the origin of the actual spam mail itself.

Where does all the junk come from?

In the mid-90s, Usenet newsgroups (also called "discussion groups" or "bulletin boards") were the number one source of email addresses for spammers.

Today, the most common origin is web pages, especially if they're listed in a search engine or directory.

Some people have tried foiling address-seeking spambots by inserting the word "UNSPAM" in capitals in the middle of all email addresses on their sites. This stops auto spammers working but enables human beings to work out what to do.

Spammers also harvest addresses from headers of messages you send to friends who forward them to their friends (a good reason for using BCC -- blind carbon copy rather than simple CC which displays all recipients although some people filter out mail sent using BCC as many spammers also use it).

Other sources include open e-mail discussion lists and web pages that invite you to "insert your address here to be on a 'do not mail' list".

Spammers can simply guess addresses by generating lists of popular names and random words attached to common domains (bob@aol.com, john@hotmail.com).

Once on a spam list, the only way to get off is to change addresses.

If you reply or respond to instructions to "remove", your message will simply confirm your address is valid and you'll get even more junk.

Depending on your email client, you can try tracing junk back to its owner by contacting the server listed in the full message header information (the From address is generally fake - check your Help files to find out how to "reveal full headers").

How to stop spam

Despite legislation against unsolicited commercial email, the volume of junk is increasing alarmingly.

The simplistic oft-cited fix -- "just hit delete" -- is only a bandaid solution and fails to discourage the junk merchants.

Self-regulation and industry codes are difficult to enforce. ISPs face problems if they disconnect service to spammers under some countries' telecommunications laws.

Technical solutions have centred on filtering technology.

Types of filters

Many corporations and ISPs filter incoming mail on or after delivery.

Server-side filtering software typically looks at the headers, subject line and/or contents of the message.

Some filters -- and their users -- are smarter than others.

SpamAssassin is an open-source, collaborative, community anti-spam effort based on filtering rules to analyse email content.

The software gives each message a score based on how many rules it breaks.

Any programmer can suggest rules for new releases of the software which spots, not blocks, spam.

ISPs and server administrators then decide whether to send suspect mail to junk folders, automatically delete mail tagged as spam, or bounce it back to sender.

Unfortunately for email publishers, some of the filter rules are too broad or the threshold is set too low.

Many innocent messages are being lumped in with the guilty.

One of my newsletter readers notified me that his ISP had tagged a recent issue as spam -

SPAM: -------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ----------------------
SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered
SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future.
SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details.
SPAM:
SPAM: Content analysis details: (13.2 hits, 6 required)
SPAM: Hit! (1.5 points) BODY: Asks you to click below
SPAM: Hit! (0.2 points) BODY: No such thing as a free lunch (1)
SPAM: Hit! (2.6 points) BODY: Instant Access button
SPAM: Hit! (3.5 points) URI: URL of page called "unsubscribe"
SPAM: Hit! (4.1 points) URI: 'remove' URL contains an email address
SPAM: Hit! (2.1 points) BODY: FONT Size +2 and up or 3 and up
SPAM: Hit! (0.0 points) BODY: Includes a URL link to send an email
SPAM: Hit! (-0.8 points) BODY: Image tag with an ID code to identify you
SPAM:
SPAM: -------------------- End of SpamAssassin results ---------------------

Even if you can identify the problems that raised your score, you can do little about it.

Best practice in e-newsletter publishing -- and now law in many countries -- is to enable your readers to unsubscribe easily yet the word "unsubscribe" or similar would lead to your newsletter being blocked by filters such as SpamAssassin.

Just look at the seemingly innocuous words on the constantly changing list of tests SpamAssassin performs on mail messages to determine whether they're spam.

A growing number of email users also filter their own inboxes by setting up rules to delete messages containing certain keywords or punctuation (for instance, the phrase, "This is not spam", which is among the most commonly used phrase in junk email).

Some desktop applications, such as MailShield and MailWasher, pre-set the rules and tag or delete mail without the user having to do anything.

Some client-side filters prioritise mail into different folders.

To ensure they receive wanted mail, email users can add favourite mailing lists to a "white" or "green" list so the mail ends up in a specific folder.

The problem with email filtering

Arbitrary and unpredictable email filtering, as with web content filtering, can backfire and cost time, money and frustration -- the very things filters were designed to save.

Tracking down problems and dealing with aggravated users or administrators wastes resources that could be spent creating content, marketing and improving customer service.

Many filters can be imposed only after you have received unsolicited email from each source, meaning you have to respond manually to every single spammer.

Spammers regularly change their email addresses to bypass filters.

"Qualitative" filters can try to detect junk mail from unknown sources but legitimate mail can be inadvertently trashed in the process ("false positives") while some junk mail still gets through ("false negatives").

Filters are becoming a serious problem with many legitimate opt-in publishers being mistaken for spammers and blacklisted.

Once on a black list, the only way to be unblocked is to contact the ISP and ask to be placed on a white list.

While some e-newsletter publishing tools let you monitor how many messages are opened or bounced, you might never know which readers are being filtered unless you know which email program they're using.

Even then, the recipient might just be busy, uninterested, on leave or not receiving your message.

Some filter programs don't even notify you that your message was blocked while others bounce back mail with "sensitive" content without specifying the rejected words.

On another occasion my own free weekly e-newsletter was blocked on its way to at least two subscribers thanks to Trend SMEX Content Filter detecting "sensitive content" yet the "naughtiest" word I could find was "teenage".

Pity the poor medical publishers who often use "controversial" words such as "breast" or "penis" in their newsletters.

You might be able to track down the reason you were blocked by examining the full header information (ask your subscribers to forward the entire copy of your junked message).

The header should list filter rules that the message violated, if the ISP uses software such as SpamAssassin.

If not filtering, then what?

Some online publishers advocate web services where you submit your newsletters for screening of content or technical problems that might trigger spam filters before mailing.

Of course, spammers could also abuse such a service to get their own mail past the filters.

Others back the idea of an Internet-wide white list along the lines of web site privacy site TRUSTe.

Spam-busting campaigners believe the only effective method of addressing the problem is through simple, direct legislation to:

Ban the practice of transmitting unsolicited bulk email
Ban the sale and marketing of spamming tools
Provide a right of action and damages to the recipient
Express damages in terms of penalty units
Provide for damages to be trebled for wanton violations
Cover offshore spamming by local interests, and
Attach to the outgoing revenue stream of foreign interests, which spam locals for the benefit of the spammers' revenue stream.

Meanwhile, ashile the world waits for more countries to introduce tough anti-spam legislation, online publishers must continue to be vigilant.

How to avoid the junk folder

Choose the subject line and words in your emails carefully if you don't want to end up in the junk file.

More people are setting up their email programs to filter incoming mail automatically for classic junk mail keywords and symbols (eg "advertisement", "free", "rich", "porn", "lover,", "opt-in," "e-mail", "money-back guarantee", "teen", "sex", ! # or $, removal instructions, all capitals).

Drop all hype and advertising-speak from your subject lines and messages.

Apart from saving you from the filters, honest concise text is preferred by the impatient, overloaded online reader.

Online publishers wishing to avoid being trashed should send a welcome message to new subscribers or correspondents telling them how your messages will appear (eg "the newsletter will appear from yvette@brizcomm.com.au") and suggesting they add the address to the white or green list of their email program.

Set up test accounts with popular email providers such as AOL, Yahoo and HotMail to see if your messages are getting through.

Beware Microsoft Outlook's "junk e-mail filters" which, when turned on, colour or delete messages considered spam based on a filters.txt file.

I searched for the filters.txt file on my PC to see which words were no-gos and was surprised to see so many seemingly harmless words.

Use a professional list hosting service unless you can afford an experienced in-house support staff.

E-newsletter publishing is becoming a highly specialised and complex field don't risk your reputation to amateurs.

Ensure your list host monitors other clients to ensure they're publishing to only opt-in recipients -- if opt-out mailers, rental lists and spammers are blacklisted, you might be guilty by association.

Insist on detailed bounce reports for every issue you send out.

You should be able to see which names bounced and the exact reasons (eg "mailbox full", "address does not exist" or the frustrating "unknown").

Just because your bounce report says your mail was delivered, doesn't mean it did.

Many filters stop email after the "not-bounced" signal has been sent.

Monitor your open and clickthrough reports for unusual patterns.

Read all reader feedback, particularly if readers are having trouble subscribing or getting your mail.

Chances are they might have to ask (or scream at) their ISP or techies to add you to a white list.

(Of course, you need to publish quality content if you want your readers to jump up and down when they don't get it.)

Many permission-based publishers include their newsletter or trademark in square brackets in the subject line to avoid being filtered.

Other ethical publishers, including me, have resorted to disguising known filter trigger words by inserting unusual characters or deliberate typos -- for instance, using f^ee instead of free or sp*m instead of spam.

It's just a matter of time before the spammers work around these "tricks".

Bastardising or censoring our language to suit new communications technology would seem an extreme solution -- not to mention bitterly ironic -- but what's the alternative?

Useful links

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
http://www.cauce.org/

The Net Abuse FAQ
http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html#2.1

How to show full header details for your email program -
http://www.uia.net/emailabuse.htm

Put junk mail in its place (tips on using Outlook) -
http://www.microsoft.com/Office/using/column01.asp

Tips on writing hype-free online content
http://www.brizcomm.com.au/

Yvette Nielsen speaks from hands-on experience as an online content creator, publisher, coach, consultant, trainer, and award-winning writer and sub-editor.

Yvette pioneered web writing training in Australia in 1998 and has inspired thousands of people through her workshops and presentations from London to LA, Sydney to Seoul.

She has reviewed web sites professionally for print, online and radio for since 1997. Her own e-newsletter and site - www.brizcomm.com.au - won the Smart Communities category in the 2002 Asia Pacific ICT Awards.

Exploiting Ezine Articles Dot Com

2009-01-25T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ed Howes

First and foremost, Ezine Articles is an educational resource second to few. Instead of towers of books on library shelves, we find articles of bite sized information in what must be one of the most extensive categorical article indexes on the web. If you can't find something of interest, you are not looking. If the article you choose disappoints, choose another. Your reward will come soon enough. If you find an article that is especially meaningful to you, you can rate it for quality and post a comment to let both the author and subsequent readers know of your appreciation. Perhaps influence another reader to do the same. A small leadership opportunity.

The whole idea that a writer needs no confirmation or validation for the value another finds in their work is a mistaken idea. Writers value reader encouragement as much as any other artist. When a reader gains new knowledge or insight from an article, a small debt to the writer and the universe that supports her is created. It only requires a few minutes to show a little gratitude. Since so little of this is done in modern America, here we have an opportunity to start a trend. Inspire a writer, then check back and see what you have wrought. Interactive reading. A bright new idea, nearly completely ignored by readers. Participate when it costs so little. Be a proactive reader. Tell a writer what you like and what you don't. Don't be insensitive - look at the writer as a possible E friend down the road. Your reading experience will be far more rewarding if you do. Business partnerships can sprout from a casual comment. Is that bad?

The Ezine Articles Writers Blog is a rich source of information and yet another opportunity for semi extended dialog with marketing expert Christopher Knight and the authors responding to his posts. One terrific feature of this blog is Email notification of an original post and optionally all subsequent posts, so you don't have to check in five times a day to keep up. I love it and promote it when I can because it is so obviously under utilized and under appreciated. I look forward to the day when I visit an hour after the original post and find a dozen comments up, most positive and some especially thoughtful or insightful as a few always are. When I am on site, I often check it before I leave.

If you are a writer, no matter where you publish, you can easily benefit from time spent at Ezine Articles. The blog, the forums, active and inactive, and the writing and marketing categories will provide quick tips and some more extensive ones about writing and marketing your writing. If you are a writer who is not publishing on Ezine Articles are you out of your mind?

As to the publisher benefits at Ezine Articles I have not investigated and can only speak from an author's viewpoint. I have only been a member about six months. I have published 107 articles and have had those articles picked up by publishers 753 times. So I no longer concern myself much with the on site popularity of any particular article or category. What doesn't get a lot of attention here may be getting a whole lot elsewhere. It must be convenient for publishers or re publishers to shop here because it was designed with that intention and my own numbers tell me lots of publishers do. Because I am a relative publishing newbie, I'm very excited about the future possibilities of which I am now only vaguely aware. Spend an hour here every now and then and I promise you delight and surprise and it's all FREE. It's a beautiful thing.

Ed Howes sought and found, knocked and entered. Now he sees things differently. To see more of what he sees, please visit http://www.justanotherview.com or do an author search here at Ezine Articles.

Do You Want Respect As A Publisher

2009-01-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Donesia Muhammad

"Learn To Give A Little Before You Get Anything Back"

Does it seem as if no one appreciates your publication and your time and effort and hard work. Week after week you send out your issues out of the goodness of your heart and fully expect every week to enjoy the profitable reasons that you started this newsletter in the first place.

Well guess what if that is the only reason you started this, then you will be disappointed. I have seen some newsletters pull every trick in the book.

What type of tricks..

The kind that makes you wonder why you are even subscribed to them in the first place.

Publishers Who Lie

You know what I am talking about... One week they have 2000 subscribers, next week they have 5000.

Of course you can easily buy that many subscribers but wouldn't it be in your best interest to let your readers know this?

But that isn't the problem, there are those who lie big time about their subscriber count only to charge high prices for paid ads. Unethical, yes, but too common these days.

I appreciate those who are honest about what they do and how they conduct business online. And that includes your ezine list as well.

Pretending To Be Someone You Are Not

Don't invent illnesses for sympathy. Don't invent families where there are none.

So what if you are not always the "Life of the Party" That doesn't mean that you can't produce a quality ezine.

But do you know what bothers me the most.

Don't create hardships to gain money from your readers.

If you are really in need, then this has nothing to do with you. I have known many publisher who have gone through hard times and they needed help. I am not talking about these helpful publishers.

Don't lie about all these bad things that are happening in your life and because of this that is why you have to charge 50 dollars for your list of 500 subscribers.

Remember the kid you went to school with that always told tall tales. You would think that they would make a movie of the week based on his life story.

Then you found out that the kid was lying. Not intentionally, but he didn't like his own life so he wanted to make everyone think it was.

Hey I'll be the first one to tell you , my life is the same day after day. Work, family, work, family but I am not going to start making a "Better" ezine by lying.

"Oh well I just came home from spending that million dollars I made last week submitting my free ad to thousands."

Oh Give Me A Break!!

Contests and Freebies

Don't tell your readers that you are going to give them a free ebook or a free ad and don't live up to your promises.

Don't tell them that you are giving away cash if you are not going to deliver.

If you feel that running a contest or raffle is too demanding on your time and you can't live up to it, then stop, plain and simple, stop.

All The World Is One Big Ad

What is also annoying are those publishers who every week, they tell you about a different product that they are using and love it to death, when they don't even know what the product does in the first place.

Oh yes I use this list server all the time ( product #1), and I wouldn't use anything else

Next Week,

Now this is the list server that I use ( product #2) and I wouldn't use anything else.

Trust Me..

No you don't have to own every product to endorse it. It does help but if not, don't lie about it. Just be honest.

I can go on and on about the unethical things online but then again are you in the mood to read a 10 page article??

http://EzineAdHelper.com
http://KDMPublishing.com

10 Top Tips For Writing A Super Responsive Ezine

2009-01-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Martin Avis

One of the most often asked questions that I see is 'how can I write an ezine that people will want to read.' Anyone can tell you that there is 'money in the list' but how do you create a list of readers who are happy to send money in your direction? After all, if they don't want to read your newsletter, (I tend to use the words newsletter and ezine interchangeably) your 'list' is pretty worthless!

Over 650 issues of my ezine, "Kickstart Today" - have taught me a few things about what people really want from a newsletter.

Here are the ten top tips that I've learned the hard way:

1. Keep it short and sweet. Your ezine itself can be quite long, provided that each article is kept fast-paced and punchy. In my experience, any section that runs more than 500 words is probably too long. And 1500 words overall is enough. Many successful newsletters are around 500 words total.

2. Be as personal as you like. If people want serious business writing they can go to the news-stand. It seems to me that people love the personal aspect that ezines offer. Hence, the more I introduce elements from my own life and family into my newsletter, the bigger my positive (virtual) mailbag is.

3. Never sell. I write my newsletter three times a week and on average, about a third of my issues don't try to sell anything. As often as possible, I provide links to things that my readers can have for free. In the other two-thirds of issues, I almost never sell either - I make recommendations. My readers know that I will never recommend something that I haven't used myself - and have found to be excellent. So, in effect, my selling is a personal recommendation from one friend to another.

4. And on that note, only 'sell' (or recommend) one item in any issue. I have proved time and again with my own lists that whenever I mention two or more products for my readers to buy, overall sales goes right down. I know of several super-successful people who do manage to make multiple recommendations successfully, but it has never worked for me.

5. Never write to your list. You may have thousands of people on your list, but as soon as you start to write to 'the list' the tone of your words becomes impersonal. Always write to one person, who you imagine is sitting in front of you. If you learn to write as you would speak to that one person in front of you, your newsletter will almost automatically be a thousand times more readable than most others out there.

6. Be brave. So many ezine writers fall into the trap of avoiding controversy. The result is that their newsletters fast become boring. The truth is that people love to read a good rant. If you allow yourself to let yourself go once in a while - even if it is completely off topic, I guarantee that your list will become more responsive - and consequently more loyal.

7. Be responsive yourself. If one of your readers writes to you, make sure you write back - personally. People do business with people and they really like to know that you are a real person behind the keyboard.

8. Using other people's articles. This is a sticky one. Use other people's stuff too often and your own personality will not shine through. And if your readers see the same articles appearing elsewhere, they start to think that they might as well read them elsewhere. Personally, I don't run other people's stuff in my newsletter at all - but that is my choice, and as a fairly prolific writer, something that I can deal with. I would say that if you must use other people's articles, keep them to a fairly low percentage of each issue's total content.

9. Be prepared for the long haul. Successful newsletters are rarely born overnight. They take a long time to build their readership and even longer to regularly turn a good profit. Like any business you have to work at them - sometimes when you least want to. Get it right though, and they are worth it on so many levels.

10. Finally, find your own USP. Every product (and your ezine is a product that people have to 'buy in to' even if they don't pay for it) needs to have certain attributes that set it apart from all the others out there. Your USP (unique selling point) is the thing that people will talk about when they recommend you to their friends - so make it easy for them to notice and compelling enough for them to want to pass on the good news!

Of course, the fact that this article is available for ezine publishers to use does raise a conundrum. If my advice to avoid using other people's articles in your newsletters is valid, will anyone use this article? Or any other that is made freely available in article directories?

My suggested solution is two-fold:

a. Believe everything I say, and follow all of my rules except when applying them to articles that I have written. Clearly, those will be of far more interest to your readers than anything else. ;-)

b. Seriously, rather than blindly publishing other people's articles in your ezine, it is usually a better bet to put those articles onto your website and link to that page from your ezine. That way your readers can accept the 'gift' of an interesting article to read if they are interested, or ignore it if they so choose.

Also, you can put AdSense, or other ads onto the article page to monetize the article to those people who have shown a marked interest in the subject matter by clicking the link.

Ezine writing and publishing is a learned skill. The first few editions you produce will probably be rather rough around the edges, but keep practicing and listen to what your readers email to you. In a short time you will find your own voice and a style that will help you build a large and loyal following.

And then, the advice that the money is in the list will come true for you.

Martin Avis publishes the acclaimed 3x-weekly email newsletter Kickstart Today - an eclectic mix of business advice, personal development, Internet marketing and unrestrained opinion. Subscription is free.

http://www.kickstartdaily.com

When More Is Better

2009-01-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Theresa Cahill

When I first started publishing, I ran not only my newsletter, but classifieds and solos, too.

At some point it did occur to me that not everyone on my primary, or better put "sole," list fully appreciated, nor wanted, every mailing I was sending.

Just because they subscribed didn't give me full reign to send and send and send.

I opted at that time for a solo opt-out list. I contacted my existing list so all existing readers could make their choice, and included this option in my welcome letter for all newly arriving readers.

My surprise was only a handful of readers chose to take me up on it. And a handful of the handful thanked me.

I WORKED A TAD HARDER BUT IT WAS WORTH IT

The benefit...? Now I knew when I sent a solo it was because the person receiving it truly expressed their interest in reading it.

This increased the value of my offered advertising both to my readers and my paying advertisers. And, while not going overboard, I was also able to adjust the cost of advertising upward because the list had increased value for the advertiser.

Yes, it did require a tad more work - only because way back then I wasn't using autoresponders and automated mailing lists. I updated, moved, deleted, mailed, etc., manually from my desktop.

"Nowadays," automating sublists is a breeze! :)

FAST FORWARD A FEW YEARS...

I no longer offer solos directly via my newsletter website - I operate two co-ops for that purpose allowing those looking for special advertising (along with classified advertising) the opportunity to pick and choose from a wide variety of quality ezines.

My true feeling is my co-op works at its' best offering 6 line classified advertising and top sponsor ads. I believe it is much better to shop around and contact and purchase solo ads directly from publishers. Consider, if you are reading that ezine, chances are others are, too :)

"Bulk" solo purchases work, but "targeted" solo purchases work even better.

A FEW MONTHS AGO

A while back I wrote an article which, months and months later, I can frankly say was a plea to those with mailing lists to narrow them down - target their lists. My inbox runneth over :)

My aim was two-fold:

1. Increase the quality of one's mailings

2. Eliminate the "spam" aura that taints any list

when contacted too frequently (or unwantedly).

And, above and beyond all of that, if you have a list you've got a primary objective in mind to make money (or the equivalent) with that list.

PUT MY MONEY WHERE MY MOUTH IS :)

I'm one of the lucky ones who have a copy of Jimmy D. Brown's Sublist Secrets Revealed: http://www.mywizardads.com/revealed/

Whether you are a follower of Jimmy's or not isn't the point. The point is Jimmy makes money online - big money.

How? Because he has fine-tuned the art of list management and uses it to his, and his readers, advantage.

How many lists do you have? Mr. Brown manages 90 - yes 90 - separate lists. I do believe when he finds something noteworthy he knows exactly who to contact. And he makes sales.

MAKING SALES TAKES WORK

Anyone serious about earning a living online needs to start at the source - their list. If you have only one mailing list chances are that list will degrade over time - if it hasn't already.

You need people willing to open and read. Action comes when people receive what they want and need.

Yes, time and effort are required. I've yet to find any job that doesn't require both :)

In the long run (actually a much shorter run then you expect), the extra work pays off.

Having extremely tight, targeted mailing lists ups your odds to make money. It also shows you are conscientious and truly interested in providing the right thing to the right receiver.

Increase the pull of your mailings a hundred fold. More... more lists, finely tuned, are better!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

How To Turn Your Newsletter Into A Web Pagein 45 Seconds

2009-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Writen by Michael Southon

Do you place back-issues of your Newsletter on your website?

There are two good reasons why you should:

(1) It shows potential subscribers that you're serious about your Newsletter

(2) Newsletters are rich in keywords, so it's a very good idea to turn back-issues of your Newsletter into HTML documents and then submit them to the major Search Engines

Here's a little trick that will help you format your Newsletter as an HTML document:

Copy the text of your Newsletter into a text editor such as NOTEPAD.

Then copy the text from NOTEPAD into Microsoft Word. You'll notice that in your Word document, each line ends with a Paragraph Mark.

Now go to EDIT | REPLACE.

Place your cursor in the first field, where it says 'Look For'.

Now click on 'More' and then on 'Special' and select the first item in the list ('Paragraph Mark'). The symbol for a paragraph mark will now appear in the first field (a hat followed by a 'p').

Now place your cursor in the field below, where it says 'Replace With' and type
. Then click on 'Replace All'.

You'll find that every single paragraph mark in your Word document has been replaced with
.

Now copy the entire Word document into a new NOTEPAD document and save it, using the file extension .html (Note: NOTEPAD doesn't offer you the option to save as an HTML document, but don't worry; just type .html after the name you gave the file, and it will be saved as an HTML document).

Close that html document and then open it again and you'll find that your Newsletter is perfectly formatted, with the exact same line breaks that you had in the email version of your Newsletter.

------------------------------------------------------------
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/
------------------------------------------------------------

How To Advertise In Ezines

2009-01-20T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Anne Ahira

Advertising in Ezines has proven to be a very cost-effective way to market. You can reach a large audience for little investment and the exposure usually happens very quickly. Most Ezines will tell you what their requirements are for advertising. Make sure you follow the guidelines they set forth.

You usually have three different options when advertising in Ezines.

Classified Ads these are placed in different sections of the newsletter. They are the least expensive.

Top sponsoring ad this is the first ad on the newsletter, usually at the very top

Solo Ad these are ads run individually and sent out to the subscriber list. While they are the most expensive, they also have the best response rate. Many advertisers are able to produce five times their money when using these ads.

Ok, now that you know the basics, it's time to start looking for Ezines to advertise in. The best place to start is: Directory of Ezines :

As you gather information on the Ezines that look promising, begin to make a list of them for future reference. You could make a spreadsheet, for example, with all your choices listed.

Make sure you have:

The Ezine name
Editor's name
Editor's Email
Number of Subscribers
Advertising Cost
Comments

Don't forget the Ezines that you're already subscribed to! After all, you represent your target market! The ones you find the most informative are the ones you should be looking at advertising in first!

Also, remember to do the follow up work with your ads. Once it has run, you need to track your results. The key to any marketing campaign, as I mentioned earlier, is testing and tracking. Please don't forget these very important steps! Every ad should be tracked for performance or you'll have no idea what's working and what's not. Testing different ads is just as important.

You will also have the ability to see first hand the ads that I place and the conversion ratios I receive from them. I will update my site each time I run a new ad so make sure you check that section out before you start advertising!

By: Anne Ahira
Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
http://www.thebestaffiliate.com

Secrets To Successful Publishing

2009-01-19T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Geela

Have you ever wondered what would it take to compete successfully with the "big guys" like Simon & Schuster and even get to the top of the heap? If there is such thing as a magic formula for success, then the story of Geela, the author of the bestseller book THE AMERICAN DREAM can certainly make a believer out of you too. Mastering the art of the possible is at the heart of Geela's brand new book where her message is that the possible always exceeds the impossible.

It's a sobering fact that no one not even the "big guys" (the large publishing houses) are immune to the risk of failing and even going out of business and not so much because of lack of resources but rather lack of innovation, high vision and keeping up with inevitable change. In fact, too many companies take the complacent approach of "one-size-fits-all" to marketing and promotion with a worn out attitude of "business as usual" and "we're the best, you're the rest" that stifles innovative thinking (thinking outside the box) so essential for surviving and thriving in a very competitive and dynamic industry where change is the norm and maintaining success is the exception.

It's been Geela's experience as a self-supported and self-published author, that greater degrees of success can be achieved by any publishing company regardless of their size or circumstances simply by implementing the following principles for success that worked for her company GLOBAL VISION MEDIA:

It's not your aptitude but your attitude a winning attitude can mean the difference between success and failure. Success is a matter of perception and an equal opportunity employer. You are as successful as you make up your mind to be. So don't be afraid to aim high. Let the story of The Little Engine That Could and David and Goliath inspire you. While some people thought that Goliath was too big to hit, David thought he was too big to miss.
Recognize that dreams and aspirations for success have no expiration date these are self-imposed artificial deadlines that are silent killers of creativity and motivation.
What determines your level of success or level of failure is not lack of resources but rather lack of creativity (resourcefulness), high vision and faith (remember, quitters never win and winners never quit).
No matter what you were brainwashed to believe, never underestimate your own power to write your own life script and command control of your destiny by either finding a way or making a way. Also when you understand the difference between making things happen vs. letting things happen, you will generate whatever is necessary for you to reach your destination even when all the odds are against you. You no longer have to wait or be at the mercy of traditional distribution and bookstores as they hide your book between competitive titles on their shelves. Your fate is in your hands and all that your hands need to do is to take advantage of the awesome power of modern technology which is now available to the "little guy" as well in order to compete successfully and even surpass the "big guys." Any self-made successful person will tell you that indeed anything is possible especially to those who believe.
Apply the Kaleidoscope approach to your marketing and promotion efforts although there are finite number of pieces, infinite number of combinations and possibilities can be created simply by rearranging them. You are limited only by your own imagination and will.
Don't use the Christopher Columbus method of planning your business if you are serious about reaching your destination of smooth sailing into a new world of success with glory. By failing to plan properly, you plan to fail by default. The power of strategic planning backed by a solid infrastructure cannot be overstated it's what makes or breaks regardless of the quality of your product (book). A synergetic plan in place will serve as a compass to guide your actions, evaluate your performance and run your business more profitably.
A good marketing plan requires the dexterity of a circus juggler mainly because of factors such as the different life-cycle stage of each title at any given time. In Geela's particular case, as a self-contained, it was and still is a unique multi-faceted situation with multiple projects going on simultaneously, involving a brand new book, a music album and putting together an all-star benefit concert with major music producers as part of Geela's nonprofit organization, ONE SPIRIT, ONE WORLD (dedicated to promoting world peace focusing on children's issues), since Geela is an established singer/songwriter with many albums, awards and rave reviews, a visionary author and a long time peace and children's activist. She is the founder of the nonprofit organization, ONE SPIRIT, ONE WORLD, a co-founder of a successful record label, GLOBAL VISION RECORDS in addition to being a co-fonder of an up and coming independent publishing company, GLOBAL VISION BOOKS/MEDIA. To make life even more exciting, Geela is also a wife and a dedicated mom.
Capitalize on any talents you might have to make up for perceived lack of sales and/or financial resources (initially when you are starting out). Geela's situation is unique by all standards. Hers is a multi-faceted situation (music/book/nonprofit organization) which greatly enhanced the success of her efforts.
Broaden your marketing and promotional parameters and capabilities to include a multi-level marketing and promotion by reaching out to different audiences from ethnic to military and other untapped markets. In Geela's case, because of her unique background, as an immigrant from Israel who was born in Iran, with a universal appeal, she capitalized on that fact to reach broader audiences that include ethnic, minorities, women and immigrants.
Your infrastructure needs to be built on a solid foundation which includes everything from an innovative strategic marketing plan to a coordinated program which includes the following elements:
- A comprehensive marketing and promotional plan including assorted advertising mix in key places in addition to a national media campaign
- Cutting edge on-line marketing and promotion with your own user friendly website (links, pop up banner, affiliate program, ezine newsletter, direct response with a compelling sales letter, article submission, media e-mail blast to keep your name in front of the media with different press releases, sample of products, plenty of endorsements, media room, useful information, strong search engines, just to name a few)
- Sales forecast
- Financial plans
- Secure advanced endorsements for your book from world-renowned personalities, the media, book reviewers and best selling authors to establish credibility
- Distribution
- Fulfillment center with your own toll-free number. In Geela's case she chose a number that's easy to remember for her radio interviews (800) 99GEELA
- Create an outstanding press kit with useful information in addition to promotional and fun material such as posters, bookmarks, double sided glossy flyers and more
- Marketing and promotion plans also for pursuing the non-bookstore markets (special sales/premiums/incentive) as well as sub-rights and foreign rights including film rights, especially like in the case of Geela, if your book is slanted towards a movie these are most lucrative sources for substantial revenues and profitability since you bypass the middlemen, massive discounts and have reduced returns.
- Since no man is an island and likewise success is never a one-man show, it's essential to have a marketing support system, a Dream-Team if you will, which is made up of top notch like-minded people who share your vision, faith in the project and level of commitment to making it a huge success. The more harmony and camaraderie the better information and creative ideas can be generated to help move your project forward, and combat those inevitable "marketing fatigue" while keeping you motivated.
- To become a magnet of success and total prosperity live by the motto: "when I help others win - I win."
- Author personal appearances, speaking engagements and other innovative forms of promotion such as running for an office (at least for a day...) and/or trying to break the Guineas book of records (well, at least in theory you can make the attempt...). Once again, you are limited only by your imagination.
In order to get a head start on your promotional campaign consider using a direct response that can help put your title on the best seller list at least on Amazon.com by doing a massive and highly targeted e-mail blast. This alone can open many doors for you and help you reach your destination so much faster and ... in style too.
Apply the old-fashioned yet proven method of making up for lack of financial resources the size of the "big guys" with OPM but not the traditional Other People's Money, but rather Other People's Minds, by networking, sharing up to date information, developing and nurturing partnerships while conducting massive research. Remember, knowledge is power that provides you the winning edge. It's cost free and it creates additional opportunities for growth while instantly becoming a success and prosperity magnet.
Strive to provide the highest quality in product and service and always go the extra mile, remember, the seed of money is service.

In the final analysis, it's the quality of the book that will ultimately dictate the longevity and the level of success of any marketing and promotional campaign. Geela's highly praised book THE AMERICAN DREAM offers something very special that everybody wants...hope and direction. In fact, through her Principles For Successful Living, Geela is revolutionizing the conventional wisdom of achieving success, total prosperity and even global unity. And that's something that will always be in demand and never go out of style. Geela's fascinating personal story of triumph over adversity and winning against all odds best captures the true spirit of the American Dream which was based on perspiration, innovation, risk and reward. Of-course some might think her tremendous success story (which took her only twenty years to achieve) is only a result of luck or talent or ... whatever. But perhaps a better definition of luck needs to be when preparation meets opportunity. After all, if you know where you are going, chances are you will get there, and if not, then you'll end up on the road to nowhere. Now that's something to write about...

About The Author

Author of "The American Dream"

http://www.Geela.com

Geela is an award winning singer/songwriter/composer, columnist, and author of the best-selling book "THE AMERICAN DREAM," her true- life story of how she came to America as a young immigrant with nothing and overcame incredible obstacles to achieve mega-success. She founded ONE SPIRIT, ONE WORLD to help children and promote a culture of peace and harmony. Get a free sample of her music and her book at http://www.Geela.com.

Starting An Online Business Develop A Mailing List

2009-01-18T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by David Keegan

If you're like me, you're pretty skeptical of all those claims you hear about people making loads of money on the internet. Oh, I knew there were people out there making cash, but I had many excuses for why I couldn't do it. That all changed as I watched a friend become wildly successful in his internet business. I thought, if he could do it, so could I!

It all started for my friend about seven years ago as he started selling various products on e-Bay. He learned mostly through trial and error. But, after working at it for two hours a day for only nine months, he was able to quit his day job! I sat back and watched figuring he was "just lucky". I reasoned that he'd soon be going back to work at his 9 to 5 job. Well, seven years have gone by and I'm still waiting! What's more, he's recently bought a vacation home and is showing no signs of slowing down. (For more information on this friend of mine, visit my web page and look for "Little Known Minnesota Man.")

Now, while I don't necessarily expect to achieve the same success as my friend, he has given me confidence that I can achieve at least a good "hobby income" via the internet. I've learned that perhaps the most important first step in internet marketing is developing and cultivating a mailing list. This may sound counter-intuitive, but many times it makes more sense to develop your list even before you create a web-site. A good way to do this is by starting an electronic magazine (i.e., "ezine") in the subject area you want to do business in. Pick a topic that is targeted, but not too narrow. For example, instead of choosing "pets" (too broad) or "shih-tzu training" (too narrow) as topics, you may want to settle on something like "dog training" (just right).

An ezine provides quality content for your subscribers. You can either write your own content or pay someone else to write for you. I'd recommend that you publish your ezine on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis, whichever you feel you can sustain comfortably. Whatever the case, the important thing is that you give your subscribers useful information. You can place a small banner advertisement for one of your affiliate products in each issue of your ezine. Every so often, you can even send a special advertisement to your entire list. However, keep in mind people didn't sign-up for your ezine to get bombarded with advertisements. If you send too many, you'll find people unsubscribing in droves. So, use discretion in promoting to your list. Remember, the list you are building is the foundation to your internet business. You're not trying to get rich quick here. Slow and steady is the guideline.

How do you get people to sign up for your ezine? One way is to pay a "co-registration service" to get subscribers for you. For a specified fee, these services will guarantee you a certain number of subscribers, no matter how long it takes. This removes some of the risk for you. A couple of free ways to generate a subscriber base would be to participate in internet forums which allow you to post a resource box (where you can advertise your ezine) or submit articles to article directories which will also allow a small advertisement. No matter which method you choose, start building your business foundation by developing that list!

Dave Keegan works full-time as a systems analyst for a large corporation and has quality ideas to help people get started in internet marketing. For more information, visit: http://www.dkeeganonline.com

Article Submitting 90 Percent Of Your Work Is Already Done

2009-01-17T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Richard Lindo

Do you spend hours and hours on your computer doing time consuming article submission?

Article submitting can be very time consuming and even stressful as well.

The problem is that you have to manually go to each website, signup, sign in and enter in your article information and that can take hours and hours to do.

Well your luck is about to change, introducing a Brand new automated system which complete 90 percent of the work for you so that you can use that time and begin to write more and more articles. Article submitting stress will be a thing of the past once you begin to use this system.Your life will become alot more easier.

Have you being trying to get your name or your business name out there to get notice by doing article submitting and finding that it takes too much manually labour and too much of your time?

This article submitting system will help you along the way in more ways than you can even imagine, finally the solution to your problem is here.

It really save hours and hours of work by organizing your online article submissions.

This leaves you extra time for writing more articles and making more money. The features and functions of this great article submitter software are truly "professional."

The Days of Tediously Submitting Your Articles To Submission Sites One By One Are History! Stop! wasting your time and energy doing things the hard way click the link below.

Richard Lindo
Internet Marketer
Ceo,LRM
http://www.best-internet-home-business.com
http://www.lindo-internet-success-center.com

Online Article Submission Sites And Category Break Downs

2009-01-16T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

Should online article submission sites expand categories to serve all the possible web surfers coming in? Recently it has been discussed that the top articles in each category should appear on the pages along with each article, which is shown as web surfers surf into the online article submission site. This is a good strategy for a high-traffic or an online article submission site with massive amounts of articles. However for most of the little article sites out there with under 10,000 articles, it would not help them.

What about an online articles submission site with over 100,000 articles on it, would it make sense to have the most viewed articles at the bottom of those pages? Sure it would, it is a smart move and helps the surfer find what they are looking for. Similarly Amazon dot com has such artificial intelligence which does this. They sell more books this way by anticipating what the surfer or book buyer would like based on their search inquiries.

Many online article writers have been asked to give their summation from a writer's standpoint as to if this strategy makes sense. I agree with all commenters thus far, as they all have made good points and actually things I have observed myself. It is great that when we put all our minds together and discuss these things how much information we can put forth on a new innovation so quickly.

This high impact Blog discussion is like a Think Tank really, as it talks about issues never yet addressed in the history of the Internet and brings up issues with the evolving of a fast moving niche in online e-commerce. Thus wanted to make a point as I see this new strategy is being currently beta tested with the number one premier online article submission site of all time.

In reviewing this new strategy I see my articles in so many categories, when clicking thru them all. Of course it is a numbers game. I see articles I have had up for a while (advantage) and new ones too, that I would not expect. Eventually perhaps these categories may be broken down and spread out with more sub-categories to further give advantages to additional worthy articles and to other information to serve the writers and the readers.

Additionally as a number game goes. With 3838 articles and 990,000 article views total means the average article has 257 article views. The top being 17,000 and the bottom being "one" because I just posted it, you are reading it now, which makes it more than one. It all seems to be a numbers game really. Therefore those are favored who write the most articles and write them most often and stick with it the longest. This is very interesting from a case study point. Consider things like this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Internet Information Publishing And The 6year Old Company That Made 100 Million In Sales Last Year

2009-01-15T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Christopher Kyalo

The biggest problem with hype is not that some people get to believe it. NO. The biggest problem is that most people start blocking their minds from believing real mega-success stories that have figures attached to them that are too high. Take Google for example. If you hadn't heard of them you'd dismiss their high profits as hype and yet the company didn't exist 10 years ago. Luckily they are in the very public business of search engines, so everybody has heard of them.

If you believe some hype peddler and end up spending $200 on some hair-brained scheme, all that you'll lose is a mere $200. But you lose much more from genuine high earning opportunities that you are blocked from even looking at just because the net is so full of hype and lie peddlers.

Take this company that launched an Internet Information Publishing venture only 6 short years ago. This business owns a couple of online email newsletters that's all. Last year they raked in $100 million in sales. This is no hype it is a documented fact and what's more is that there are many other online publishers making millions of dollars even as you read this.

If you are a writer or are interested in going into the lucrative and rapidly growing field of Internet information publishing, there are a number of realities you need to understand. I will present them by answering 3 questions I know must be at the top of your mind right now.

Why Is There Such A High And Growing Demand For Information Online, When There Is So Much Quality Free Information Everywhere On The Web?

I have answered this question in so many articles on online writing, and I have given the same amazing example so many times now that I fear some folks out there will start getting at reading the same thing over and over again.

Still I will repeat it here because it is the truth and it is the foundation, upon which a company called Agora Publishing run by folks just like you and me, made $100 million last year.

Radio is the medium that came in before Television, it put the music industry into a great panic. Why would anybody buy music if they were able to listen to a song on the radio the whole day? No leading artist wanted his or her music played on the radio. Actually radio turned out to be the best friend the music industry ever had. The playing of songs over the radio, rather than killing demand created an almost insatiable demand for music which created mega stars who became wealthier than the wildest dreams any of them ever had put together.

Television did the same for the movie industry and now the World Wide Web is already doing the same for the information and publishing industry.

There is a huge, huge demand for information online and what's more, thanks to a host of online tools including keyword popularity tools, it is very easy to identify not only what information is in high demand, but you can even quantify it into a number. That is the number of people who searched a certain keyword over the last month.

What Kind Of Skills Are Required To Make $100 Million Online?

John Naisbitt author of Megatrends, wrote in his 1985 book Re-inventing the Corporation, that there are three major skills that are required in the information age. The skills are thinking, learning, and creating. Remember the acronym TLC if you don't want to forget them. Makes a lot of sense. Information is power but it is useless if it cannot be processed (thinking) understood (learning) and then harnessed (using the information to create something useful and hopefully profitable).

Sorry I didn't intend to go that deep, I wanted to keep this very simple.

Let me put it this way. If you have the three basic skills that Mr Naisbitt mentions (which can all be acquired and learnt online for free) then there is no limit to what you can achieve on the World Wide Web.

It is instructive that right from the beginning Agora Publishing has put a lot of emphasis on testing. They test everything, headlines, content, ideas and so on. That is how you learn.

What If I Fail?

The saddest thing in life is not failing. It is failing to try. That's why the saddest phrase known to man is "if only". It is even sadder when you don't have any excuse not to try. Before the excuse everybody used was that they didn't have the money to go into business. Now that's not valid anymore. Especially in the Internet Information Publishing business. It is the easiest venture to start small and slowly build up from there.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online writer and entrepreneur. Get his amazing home study email course on How to Build Your Own Internet Information Publishing Empire, available for only $99. Get a free sample of the same course by sending a blank email now InternetinfoPublishsecrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Article Writing Can Increase Your Traffic And Ranking

2009-01-14T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Bob Matsen

It doesn't really matter who you are; you definitely know something that's worth sharing with other. In fact if you are a webmaster chances are you have a lot of knowledge that other's could gain insight from. And that knowledge shared through articles can be a valuable asset to your website.

Interesting and informative articles are in big demand. Article directories meet this demand by making them available in one location for webmasters to use on their sites, in their newsletters, and in their Ezines. There are many article banks to choose from and you should sign up for as many as possible. So you are wondering what qualifications you need to write an article?

You simply need to have knowledge on a topic, any topic that others might benefit from. You need to ensure your content is clean, contains no profanity, and no hate literature. Article banks will accept most articles that are interesting and informative as long as they don't contain the above.

If you aren't sure? Consider this. Would you read it? Does it catch your interest? If the answer is yes then there are most likely many others that would read it.

From search engine optimization, to how to grow the most beautiful roses, to buying jewelry, to lawyers and doctors. It's all useful. From simple to technical to basic, your perspective may be anywhere from useful to universal.

Your articles should be written in proper English. If English is not your native tongue consider hiring a ghostwriter to write your article for you. Ghostwriters are also a valuable tool if you are not good at writing or simply don't have the time. There are several sites online where you can obtain the services for a reasonable fee.

When submitting your article to the article directories be sure to read their submission guidelines. Only submit your article if it fits in an appropriate category. If it does not then find a different article bank that is more suited to your article.

The exposure you get from your article is unlimited and you can submit your article to thousands of directories if you like. These articles are an excellent way to boost your one way inbound links and they are a lot less hassle then finding good link partners.

Use the resource box to provide information about your site or yourself and be sure to include the active link to your site. Use the resource box to entice visitors to visit your site.

You can get traffic to your site because of search engines and the possibility or probability of someone reading the article, then clicking your link. You get a double hit - two for one. What more could you ask for. This is virtual marketing at its' best! Exposure 24/7. Everyday, all day long, and the only effort required by you is to submit your article or articles.

So if you are looking for more exposure, improved search engine rankings, and to get your company in the lime light, you certainly should consider writing a few articles and submitting them to the article directories. In fact submitting one article each week can give you great benefits!

10 Tips On Offering A Free Ecourse

2009-01-13T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Radhika Venkata

1. Make your ecourse short like 5 - 7 days. The longer the ecourse easy for your subscriber to forget the matter of your previous emails.

2. Use double opt-in follow up autoresponders to stop accusitions of spam.

http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/arpproadv/index.shtml

3. Write one ecourse to promote only ONE product. If you keep ten product links in your ten day email course, it will look like a compiled sales letters.

4. If you are using affiliate links in your ecourse use some method to hide your affiliate links.

http://www.webmasters-central.com/t/siteprotection/affiliatelinks.shtml

5. Try to keep brief synopsis of previous emails. For example, in fourth day email keep few lines about what he received for the past three days.

6. If you have a trial product or free demo, offer it for the download. You can keep the download link on top of every email.

7. Put a link to your ecourse in your signature files on forums, articles and emails etc. It is a great way of increasing subscribers.

8. If you have affiliates you can ask them to offer it to their visitors and customers with their affiliate id. So your affiliates get commission.

9. Provide 'Unsubscribe' link at the end of all emails to make easy for your subscriber to unsubscribe if they want.

10. Track your promotional links in the emails, so to follow the results of your ecourse. (like how many people clicked on the link, who bought etc)

About The Author

Radhika Venkata

Subscribe to 'iNet Marketing Ezine' which is completely focused on Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights! http://www.webmasters-central.com/subscribe.shtml

FREE Ecourse: 30 days Solid work out to increase your online profits! http://www.ebooks-world.com/ecourse/index.shtml

The Evolving Ezines And What That Means

2009-01-11T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

An Ezine as you know is an electronic newsletter or magazine, which is sent out by email. Yet this standard definition of an electronic newsletter has changed and so too will the true definition of an Ezine in the future. How so you curiously ask?

Well, the reason I say this is because in 1995 we put our newsletters for my company online at our website, because well because not everyone was using email yet and the attachment thing was tricky on many email programs. Not all the software would be in sync.

Therefore at that time it was possible but not really feasible to send them out by email like it is today. I would say we were one of the first companies to really do this for our customers, employees and franchisees. Of course it was not an Ezine as the term was not really coined yet although some say it was being tossed around a little.

After seeing this incredible evolution and even watching the astronomical growth of online article submission sites, before RSS was popular, you can see how things have changed. And this leads me to speculate that they will change again in the future and thus the Ezine should have a definition, which allows it to evolve rather than lose out to a more advanced species in the future. That is what I am thinking.

As practitioners of the Ezine sub-sector we should not box ourselves in unless it serves the greater good and the forward progression of the article submission websites and its users and the supply chain of content. Additionally we must make sure it all fits the Ezine Publisher clients and hungry for information customers who subscribe. So, lets make Ezine the most broad definition allowing for the most possible future chess moves. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Why Ezine Advertising Still Works

2009-01-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Deanna Mascle

Lately I've been hearing a lot of rumblings around the internet marketing community that say ezine advertising is dead and gone.

I have to tell you that ezine advertising is alive and well -- and still one of the most effective and powerful forms of internet marketing available.

There are several reasons this is true but I'll simply concentrate on three main points.

Today's ezines and newsletters are permission-based which means subscribers want to receive these messages in their emailbox. Responsible publishers are proactive about giving subscribers total control over their subscription and working closely with their mailing service to ensure as close to 100 percent deliverability as possible. Ezines deliver because they have to do so or shut down.

The experts in internet marketing and search engine optimization offer wide ranging and diverse opinions about what the best marketing technique may be, but they all agree on one point -- content is king on the internet. Content is attractive to search engines and visitors alike. It is content that makes a site sticky and successful. And content is one area where ezines and newsletters reign supreme. In today's permission-driven environment they need to deliver quality information or they'll quickly be out of business. Imagine your ad placed in a prominent position beside high-quality information that your target audience wants. That is what ezine advertising can deliver.

If content is king then links are the lifeblood of the internet. Without links surfers could not navigate around the internet and without links search engines will not locate web sites and pages. Oneoften overlooked aspect of ezines and newsletters is the powerful text link benefits offered by ezine advertising. While most people are attracted by the immediate return of their message appearing before X number of subscribers, they do not realize that their ezine ad could work for them weeks, months and years after it was read via email. Almost all ezines and newsletters are archived on the web and because of the content they provide often those archives are crawled regularly and ranked high by search engines -- and provide you with valuable back links to help increase your search engine standing.

You can dismiss ezine advertising as dead and gone and concentrate on other forms of internet marketing. Yes, you can dismiss ezine advertising, and you can miss out on immediate results from a targeted audience and you can miss out on valuable back links working for you long into the future.

Deanna Mascle shares her Ezine Advertising tips in the free ebook "How To Write A Powerful Ezine Ad."

Publishers who want to reprint this article and/or give away the ebook away should visit How To Advertise With Ezines to learn how to benefit.

Win More Sales With Customer Newsletters More Small Business Power Tools

2009-01-09T09:00:00.003-08:00

Writen by Douglas Hanna

One of the most powerful ways for small businesses to increase sales and keep customers coming back for more is to mail them a newsletter periodically.

Why is this such a powerful tool? It's because if done right, a newsletter automatically separates you from the big box stores like Best Buy and Toys 'R Us, and can help you even compete successfully with the giant online retailers like Amazon.com and Overstock.com.

How does this work?

You might not be able to compete with these giants on price but you can beat them by offering great personal service. And one aspect of this service is a newsletter just chock full of helpful information geared to your customers' interests. For example, suppose you have a fishing tackle store. How about a monthly newsletter that includes information on the week's fishing "hot spots," and the lures that are just bringing lunkers in by the basketful? Do you suppose a Sports Authority or and Amazon.com could compete with that in terms of personal service?

A newsletter can be one page, printed on both sides or four, six or eight pages, depending on your customers and their interests. For example, that fishing tackle store might send out a four-page newsletter with lots of fishing tips, news about fishing hot spots and information on the newest and best lures. On the other hand, a jewelry store might mail just a single-page newsletter with pictures of interesting new necklaces and earrings, and tips for cleaning and storing jewelry.

One newsletter I get that I really like is from a store here that sells good wines. I get their newsletter quarterly and it always has information on new wines that have just arrived from France, etc., case prices and sometimes even wine country travel tips.

How do you do a newsletter? If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can use a program like Microsoft Publisher to create it. Publisher comes with a bunch of templates that totally eliminate the need for you to be any kind of a designer. Just pick a template and start filling in the blanks. You can go to the Microsoft web site and download free pictures and illustrations for your newsletter. The one downside of this is that your newsletter could end up looking just like a lot of other newsletters. If you want a truly unique newsletter that will stand out from the pack, you might try to find a high school or college student who would be willing to design your newsletters for $50 or $75 each.

What should be in your newsletter? Put yourself in the place of your customer. Who are they? What are their interests? What information would they find of value? What problems are they trying to solve? A carpet cleaning service might want to include information on do-it-yourself furniture cleaning or housekeeping hints. If most of the company's customers are women, it might want to include information on new, anti-aging medications or child care tips. By now, you should have the picture write to your customers' needs, interests and problem.

What do you do if you're not much of a writer? Again, you should be able to hire a high school or college student to write the newsletter for you. Just make sure you provide good, tight direction so that your newsletter will reflect well on you and your business.

Also, don't bite off more than you can chew. Once you tell customers you will be sending them a monthly newsletter, you will have to send them a newsletter monthly. I know of many businesses that started out with monthly newsletters and then ran out of steam (and article ideas) after three or four months. If you have any doubts about the time you can spend on a newsletter or how much helpful information you can provide, it's better to either do it quarterly or whenever you have enough articles to warrant doing it. Just try to make sure you mail your newsletter often enough that customers don't forger who you are.

Finally, never and I do mean never, send out a newsletter without including an offer that will bring customers into your store or have them calling you for an appointment. Make the offer as powerful as you can and make sure your customers know it's only available to those who read your newsletter.

Creating and mailing a newsletter requires time and effort. But I promise you this: If you do provide good, helpful information in each newsletter, your customers will not only read it, they will start looking forward to receiving it each month or quarter.

For more information on building a mailing list for your newsletter, be sure to look for my article, "Small Business Power Tool: Direct Marketing."

Have you heard about HD radio technology? It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound almost like you were listening to a CD ... and its free! To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.

How To Use Mail Merge In Outlook To Send Personalized Publisher Newsletters To A Distribution List

2009-01-09T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Adam McFarland

If you create an email newsletter in Microsoft Publisher, you have probably run into the same problem that I did - distributing the newsletter after creating it. Publisher allows you to send the file as an email message (File -> Send Email) but surprisingly doesn't allow you to send it to a distribution list.

This is fine if you only want to send it to a few people, or if you don't have to worry about making everyone's email visible to everyone else in the group. But what if you send a business newsletter to clients? Or if you want to personalize each message (for example, putting each persons name in the salutation as opposed to a generic one)?

Previously, the only options that I saw were to send it to every person individually (can become extremely time consuming) or send it to the distribution list as a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy). BCC's are bad for two reasons - one, they tend to be automatically filtered out as spam, and two, they don't allow for personalization.

Most people will tell you that if you are in this situation it is time to upgrade to professional email software. I personally like doing my newsletter design in Publisher and would prefer to continue to use Publisher. I also like using Outlook distribution lists. I have a script that sends me the list of people that are signed up to my newsletter each month in a format that simply copies and pastes into a working Outlook distribution list.

So I came up with a work-around that I now use for my newsletter:

Step 1: Create your Newsletter in Publisher I use the term 'newsletter' but any Publisher file can be sent via email, so whatever your application you can put this strategy to work for you.

Step 2: Create your Distribution List in Microsoft Outlook If you aren't familiar with Distribution Lists, there is a tutorial at http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=417511&seqNum=3

Step 3: Send your Newsletter to Yourself In Publisher, go to (File -> Send Email -> Send This Page as Message) and email it to your email account in Microsoft Outlook.

Step 4: "Forward" the Newsletter to the Distribution List using a Mail Merge At this point, you have received your newsletter at your email account in Outlook and you no longer need Publisher. Essentially, the rest of the process is just forwarding your newsletter to your Distribution List using a Mail Merge, something you can't do when sending via Publisher. This consists of several steps:

1. Save your Distribution List in Rich Text Format by opening the List and choosing File -> Save As.
2. Open the list, delete any headings, and replace them with headings for the fields in your distribution list, separating each heading with a tab. For example, if your distribution list contains first name, last name, and email address, you would want to list those headings in the order they appear, separating them with a tab.
3. Click Forward on the email that you sent yourself and delete the lines of text that show the recipient that it is a forwarded email.
4. Click in the body of the message, and choose Tools -> Letters and Mailings -> Mail Merge.
5. Choose E-mail Messages and hit Next.
6. Choose Use the current document and hit Next.
7. Click Browse and select your Distribution List. Your list should appear, click OK and then click Next.
8. Use the More Items menu to insert any personalized messages. For example, you could greet each recipient personally by inserting their name at the top of the email. Click Next when complete.
9. Edit your recipient list if you like. Otherwise, click Next to complete the merge.

That's it! Now you can now send your Publisher email as a Mail Merge!

Adam McFarland owns SportsLizard.com - an online marketplace for buying and selling sports collectibles.

SportsLizard.com was recently awarded honorable mention in the Microsoft Start Something Amazing Awards.

You can read Adam's blog about being a young internet entrepreneur by going to http://www.sportslizard.com/blog/

Are We Dating Or Married

2009-01-08T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jeanette S Cates, PhD

You've convinced me that I want to sign up for your
newsletter. Now that I'm ready, what do I do? I go to the
signup box on the current web page and complete the form.
But wait... what are you asking for? If you're asking for
more than my name and email address, I will hesitate.

After all, if you're going to send me an email newsletter,
why do you even need my name, much less my street address,
city, state, zip, telephone number, number of people in my
household, etc. My email address should be enough. Now I'll
give you my name, because I understand that you'll want to
personalize my email messages. But unless you show me very
good reasons, I'll forget about signing up and go on to
another site that doesn't want a lot of information in
exchange for their complimentary report or newsletter.

It's like dating. When you first meet you get only the
necessary information - name and phone number. As you agree
to date, you'll get the address. Later, as you get to know
one another better, you'll start to add more details.

Moving a visitor from lead to customer involves a courting
process. You want them to get to know you. They need to
learn to trust you. You need to establish a relationship.
That's the purpose of your newsletter. You offer them good
information and in return they give you the right to market
to them. As they become more interested and more loyal,
they'll move from just a lead to a steady prospect.
Eventually you'll "marry" some of your prospects and they'll
become customers.

So what's your courting pattern? How do you get to know your
prospects? When do you ask for more information -- more
commitment?

For more information on the online sales process sign up for
the complimentary mini course at
http://www.SalesSiteQuickStart.com.

Dr. Jeanette Cates is The Technology Tamer and Internet
strategist for small business. She is the author of Online
Success Tactics: 101 ways to build your small business at
http://www.OnlineSuccessTactics.com.

The Best Web Trafficgenerating Secret

2009-01-07T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by John Iacovakis

There are many advantages to writing articles and distributing them to online article directories. Driving more visitors to your web site is just one of the benefits.

Article directories allow you to include a resource box at the end of your article with a link back to your web site. This translates into more visitors and back links to your web site.

Most likely, these links will help your search engine ranking because major search engines count back links as a factor to rank web sites. So be sure to add the URL to your web site using anchor text with your key words.

Writing articles on a specific topic and submitting them to article directories can establish you as an expert. And online credibility counts a lot!

Hundreds of web site owners are looking for fresh online content. Your articles will help other web masters to add valuable content to their web sites. It is a win win situation!

It is totally free. Submit your articles to article directories for free. You will only need to invest some of your time to write a nice article and a little more time to submit it to article directories.

You can submit your articles manually but it can take a lot of your time to do so, especially if you plan to submit your article to many article directories.

Another option is to use an Article Submitter. This software submits your articles to one or two hundred article directories almost automatically saving you time and efforts.

I know, writing a nice article takes time, but it can become very rewarding. Keep your articles short, about 400 - 800 words. Do not copy from other writers. Check your grammar and spelling. Write a title that makes your reader want to read more. Include a call to action like click here. Believe it or not, it can make a difference! Add a link back to your web site in your resource box.

John Iacovakis is an Internet consultant and has over 10 years of marketing experience. He is the owner of PopAds Online Advertising and Article Submitter Software

How To Start An Online Newsletter

2009-01-05T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Matt Bacak

The first thing you need to do is decide on a topic that you are interested in and your potential customers would also like to know more about. Then all you need to do is decide if you have enough knowledge on that subject to write confidently about it, and if you don't, there are ways around that too. Then decide what format you want to use to present the information and bingo; you have a winning formula for your newsletter.

Choose a topic.

You should pick a subject that interests you, and if possible, one that you already know something about. It should also be a topic that is relevant and interesting to your potential customers. It should also be linked to the products and services you sell so that throughout your publications, you can refer readers to your web site for further information or relevant products or services.

For example, if you sell second hand cars, you may want to write a newsletter about "What to look for when buying a second hand car" or "Basic car maintenance", if you sell houses, you may want to write about" Tips for preparing your house for sale", or "How to profit from the buy-to-let market", etc.

Do you have the knowledge?

If you don't feel you have enough knowledge to write on specific, relevant topics, another strategy for producing a newsletter is to ask others to write it for you. Why would an author give you an article for your newsletter? Because they can include their contact information and links to their web pages, that's why. The more copies of your newsletter that you give away, the more traffic they get to their web sites. More traffic equals more sales.

There are many article syndication agencies that take articles from experts in all fields for reproduction in newsletters and on web sites. It's a great place to start looking for articles you can use and as long as you reproduce them in their entirely, including the authors details and links, there will be no problem with copyright infringement. Try typing "article syndication" into a major search engine such as Google along with your particular area of interest and see what comes up.

I would also advise that if you use an article from a particular author, you email them and let them know you have reproduced it and are interested in any other articles of a similar type. You may then find that they send you new relevant articles as they are finished and this will provide content for some of your future newsletters without having to go looking for it.

Another way of getting experts to write articles for you is to seek them out and interview them. Ask yourself:

- What problem can you think of that could be solved by experts

- Who are these experts?

- Where can I contact them?

Ask them if they agree to be interviewed for your newsletter. You can interview them by telephone, email or in person. Often, experts who would not take the time to write an article would be more than happy to answer a few questions and let you publish their answers in return for the free publicity, the publishing of their contact details and a link to their web site.

Don't get discouraged if they don't all respond. Remember to be courteous and respectful as they're doing you a favor.

How to present the information

If you are using someone else's articles or interviews for your newsletter, the format will present itself. You can't change the format of a prewritten article for copyright reasons and an interview is usually easiest to present in a question an answer format. When writing your own articles you can also use question and answer format, using yourself as the expert or you can explore a topic in depth in an article style format. Another popular way to present the information is what I call the "tip-list" list option.

For example:

21 maintenance tips for your car

10 ways to prepare your home for sale

101 things you can with your digital camera

25 easy ways to say money on your household bills

All you need to do is decide what question or problem you want to solve and come up with a list of answers. Easy! And if you get stuck, go back to those experts again.

The truth of the matter is, today anyone can become a published author with a subscriber based newsletter in no time at all.

Now that you're a newsletter author, you're going to be interested in ways to improve and make money from your newsletter. But that's a topic for next time...

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine's e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak's Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or http://promotingtips.com

Self Publishers High Earners Make A Significant Part Of Their Income From Affiliate Programs

2009-01-04T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Christopher Kyalo

There are several business models that successful self publishers use these days. While most of them rely on the self publisher selling their information, the World Wide Web has made another much more effective business model possible. This new model is being exploited very successfully by many leading self publishers.

This is the strategy where the self publisher makes all their valuable information available online for free and they then earn their six figure incomes from affiliate programs. Probably the most common example of this is the self publisher's business where the Google Adsense program contributes heavily to the profits earned. This business model works very well with Adsense because instead of spending valuable time looking for advertisers, the Google Adsense program provides an endless list of advertisers who appear on the site via the Adsense code that an affiliate posts at their site.

Other self publishers have successfully combined Adsense with other affiliate programs on their blogs to end up with the sort of revenue that is but a dream to most people.

However this heavily depends on the self publisher choosing the right affiliate program for the valuable content that they are generating. This in itself can be quiet a challenge.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online self publisher. Visit his Self Publisher blog to read the rest of this article and for other amazing success tips. Subscribe to his free email newsletter to discover all the secrets of an amazing online publishing company that generates 100 million dollars a year. Send a blank email now to InternetinfoPublishsecrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Paying My Dues Trials And Tribulations Of A Newbie Publisher Part Two

2009-01-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Donesia Muhammad

In the beginning, things were difficult for me. Learning the techniques to be a good publisher.

I have learned through other publishers, ebooks, email courses, and websites. I learned all about content, formatting, and promotion. I then came to the realization that I can't mirror another publisher, another newsletter, or another concept.

I had to be myself, and take the good with the bad.

It wasn't about being a guru.

It wasn't about getting as many people as possible to sign up under you for the "Next Big Thing"

To me, it was about helping people. I tried just about every "method " out there, but when it all boiled down to it, I just wanted to help people.

In the six months since I've written the first "Trials and Tribulations" some of the same gripes are still there, those were just the inevitable everyday problems.

I got a lot of reality checks in those past six months:

>> It's not always a bad thing if you have available ad space. That can be a good thing. I'll just run my own ads instead. Some publishers prefer it that way.

>> It's okay to use reprinted articles. Sometimes when you are trying to write an article and you just can't get the words together, stop pressuring yourself and just find an article already waiting for you.

Reprinted articles are a good backup but Original Content still rules the roast.

Looking for Reprinted Articles?

Sign up for my Reprinted Articles Group and grab all the articles you need for your site or ezine. Send a blank email here

>> Trying to find a good quality list host or list software is about as hard to find as a good quality web host.

But once you find one, stick with it. Cheaper prices may mean cheaper quality. It all depends on what your newsletter needs, not what everyone is trying to sell you.

>> You truly have to learn and understand how email is delivered so you can then understand Spam, and understand why email bounces. Learn to read the headers in email so you can see not only who is really sending you mail but you can also be able to recognize what system is used to send out the mail, and what you can do about it. You can't just learn all the glamorous things about ezine publishing.

Understand all about spam filters and how it affects the delivery of your newsletter. How one simple word in the subject line of your email can stop your entire message from getting through.

>> Getting frustrated is natural, but you should not give up. You are not going to get rich from this your first year, maybe not your second year either. Everything always goes back into the business anyway.

>> Stop acting as if your name and business doesn't matter. Don't promote everything you see. What works for you may not work for me. Read the fine print. Forced matrixes, downlines, 2 tier,

Whatever..

I have come to love this world of publishing. It enables me to enjoy my love of writing and business skills.

Of course I still make my mistakes from time to time. I am still learning every day, still adjusting to the sting of a rude unsubscribe request, and as always people are still sending me unsubscribe requests with of course, the address that is not on your list.

As hype gets more professional, more slick, I have to think fast on the new schemes out there and the ones to come down the line.

I now realize why a lot of the big newsletters have more than one editor, because it is not easy to handle a weekly ezine by yourself sometimes. And trying to maintain your website and basic web promotion is a lot of work, but...

Just getting that one email from one of your readers saying "Thank you for helping me" makes it worthwhile. This lets you know that your ezine isn't hitting the trash folder as soon as they receive it.

You see I can finally stop calling myself a Newbie Publisher..

I am a Newbie No More....

Just call me the Gradual Publisher because aren't we all?

Note: If you have not read the original article "Trials and Tribulations of a Newbie Publisher" first published on January 11, 2002 you can read it here ==>http://ezineadhelper.com/donesia/trials.htm

http://EzineAdHelper.com
http://KDMPublishing.com

Ezines Vs Trade Journals

2009-01-02T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

As many people know Industry Trade Journals in America have gone through a tough time in recent years due to slowing of advertising dollars. In many industries this is the case. Many of us use to get free Industry Trade Journals, yet many have now gone out of business and others are being a little more particular than normal. Some send you questionnaires every three months to make sure you are interested and reading their material. Most companies DO NOT advertise in such trade journals. A few do, mostly for brand name recognition, although in my opinion it is a lot of money considering the much lower costs of Ezines and Internet Advertising. Some believe paper trade journals or Industry Rags as they are often called are waste of advertising money, even worse than attending some under attended trade shows.

As advertising dollars continue to dry up and even with all the media consolidation, there seems to be a very aggressive approach to sales tactics of these salesmen/women and a touch of unnerving arrogance among the editors, publishers and self-important writers. I guess that arrogance goes with the job, however I think it is time for all Industry Journals and media for that matter to come back to Earth, realize their relative value in our society. Everything has an intrinsic value and an actual value and we need Industry Journals to find equilibrium. Why would any company in any industry waste money on such advertising when they are not getting relevant clients from those ads, yet continue to throw good money after bad? Perhaps they themselves want to see their pictures in the ads, perhaps if they advertise they can get the editors to go ahead and do a story on the company? Maybe we have just too big egos in business? What say you? Would you want to buy from a company that blows money on such advertising; money that could be better spent helping the customer succeed with their product? What does this say to the customer about the price they are paying for those goods are services?

It seems many companies are so busy doing things the old way that they rarely update their websites, never advertise in Ezines or bother to survey their customers as to how they discovered them in the first place. There is a time and place for Industry paper journals, yet so many companies use those advertising dollars incorrectly rather than diversifying those funds to get the most bang for their bucks. I pity such companies and am glad to say we are not one of them? Are you?

Lance Winslow

What Media Picks Up Articles From Online Article Submission Sites

2009-01-01T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Lance Winslow

Many online article writers put their creativity to work writing articles and putting them online. An easy way to do this is to find an online article submission site, which specializes in "Ezine Articles" or companies, which produce online newsletters sent out by email. You can find such sites by searching; Ezine Articles on the various search engines.

Having written many online articles and I have had my articles picked up everywhere. Ezines, Magazines, Newspapers, Industry Journals and used as web content. I have had people insert my articles into Blogs, Forums, Chatrooms online, as well as into stories of fiction and books. They have been put into E-books, regular books and educational literature. Used by NGOs to advance causes and political organizations to drive traffic and controversy or propel an issue. You name it.

If you are looking to drive traffic or something of that nature. My objective is none of what is listed above, just sharing my ideas and observations rather than running around with them in my head. JP Morgan said "know a lot, say little" and yes I did that for 20 years. Now I have taken a new tact; "know a lot; tell a lot"

I suppose such online article sites work differently for different people. I like it actually, I think it is very cool. But I imagine of the 170,000 articles online on one particular online article submission site that well, some do not get read much or used much elsewhere. And of the 20,000 authors who contribute, some probably do a lot better than others?

That's it basically. My goals there are not making money, promoting myself or any company, just expressing views, propelling thought and sharing observations really? So where as yes I have been getting that done in a very big way; results will vary for those who participate, but I very strongly recommend using such source for marketing, services, products or just plain ideas like me. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

3 Ways To Save Money On Ezine Advertising

2008-12-31T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Deanna Mascle

Ezine Advertising is still one of the top ways to advertise online because it is cheap, easy, and targeted.

If you are one of the many internet marketers who understand just how effective ezine marketing can be then you will be happy to learn that I have three tips that will save you money on Ezine Advertising.

Join The Directory of Ezines

Yes, it may seem a bit pricey up front but I have been a member for years and never regretted the money I paid -- because I made it back in savings! Not only do you get a lot of great bonuses and freebies but you will also be able to find a list of free advertising available from the ezine owners listed in the directory. Plus on top of that many of the ezine owners listed in the directory offer a discount to directory members. So if you think about the amount of money you might save over time -- the Directory of Ezines is actually a very big bargain!

Visit The Ezine Ad Auction

You will need to register to use this auction site but there is no cost involved.

At any given time there are hundreds of auctions available -- some starting at just $10. You can shop by category to more easily find your target audience and will find a range of ezines and ad formats available.

Ezine publishers put up regular offers and discounts on unsold space -- and either way you save money off their posted rates.

I regularly use Ezine Ad Auction to buy and sell ads. It is a great resource and I have developed some great, long-lasting relationships as a result.

Ask The Ezine Publisher For A Deal

Many Ezine Publishers are willing to offer special deals for either or both new advertisers or long-term advertisers. I used to have a "Test Drive Offer" for my ezines and currently offer some great discounts and free ads through my Renaissance Woman Online Ad Club.

I occasionally have advertisers contact me about a discount and if I have open space I am often willing to make a deal or at least a counter offer.

If you are a hesitant about boldly asking for a discount then simply contact the publisher to see if there are any deals available. Believe me, if they ad inventory available they will make you a deal--and it might be better deal than you would have dreamed of asking!

Deanna Mascle will be glad to explain how Ezine Advertising Works or How To Advertise With Ezines (where the full text of this article is available). You can also learn more about saving money on your ezine advertising with the Renaissance Woman Online Ad Club.

Do You Know The Difference

2008-12-30T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Theresa Cahill

It appears that the true definition of a certain type of online advertising is becoming a bit blurry around the edges, and I'm wondering, "Do you know the difference?"

It used to be that the answer was a resounding, "Yes!" but nowadays, especially if one is new online, the answer most likely is "No."

You're probably reading this article in an ezine, most likely a very popular ezine, that offers it's subscribers several advertising options, such as:

Top sponsor ads
Middle sponsor ads
Bottom sponsor ads
Paid classified ezine ads
Free classified ezine ads
and the ever popular Solo ad.

It's the solo ad I'd like to discuss today.

First, here's an across-the-board, true definition of a solo ad:

"A special offer or information about a product or service emailed to opt-in subscribers of ezines or online publications."

This is an acceptable practice because readers are typically informed when they subscribe that they can expect a solo ad mailing on occasion.

Most solo ads are purchased directly from the ezine itself because the publisher provides good prices and incentives for an advertiser TO purchase from them directly.

Publishers know what a solo ad is - because it is their "bread and butter" providing some form of income for that publisher as he or she slaves away producing their publication on a regularly scheduled basis. It "pays the bills" so to speak.

But, lately, I've noticed that the words "solo ad" are used when, in essence, it is not a solo ad at all. And it's not usually the publisher who is making this mistake.

Reread the definition above. It's a mailing that goes to an ezine subscriber list - typically a group of opt-in EZINE readers - on occasion.

Now let's look at the definition of two other types of advertising that lately are being called "solo ads" when in fact they are not.

SAFELISTS:

"Safelists are lists of email addresses consisting of people who join and agree to receive email from other members, and send email to other members."

This is bulk mailing with permission - truly nothing more, nothing less. While your ad may be the only one inside the email received, it is NOT a solo ad in the finest sense of the word because, in return, you agree to also be mass emailed by the others on that list.

It's sort of the equivalent to emailing your address book, but knowing your new online "friends" won't turn you in to your own isp.

F^FA MAILINGS/POSTINGS

"FF^As are nothing more than raw link pages. They often have no categorization, no review... and no traffic. On the plus side, many do offer marketers the gratification of instant submission -- something not found easily elsewhere -- although the gratification does not last long."

Again this is a type of bulk mailing and/or posting of one's website. This type of mailing also leads to the "poster" being hit by massive amounts of UNSOL^ICITED emails in return.

Neither of these two are true solo ads, and while the controlled and well-handled safelist can be a good way to advertise (provided your headline stands out enough to be seen, your offer is read, and you don't mind getting tons of email in return), it is NOT a solo ad.

DON'T BE FOOLED!

I'm seeing programs and offers stating "send your solo" when, in fact, the method more closely resembles the Safelist or FF^A.

Remember, a solo ad comes from an ezine publisher. For the advertiser, this is an excellent form of advertising since your ad will be seen by the readers of that publication.

A solo ads value is based on:

1. The fact it is a one-time mailing
2. It is sent to ezine readers looking for good offers
3. It does not generate massive amounts of unsolicited email to the advertisers inbox.

A solo ad IS a full page ad in a quality publication.

As a ezine co-op owner I also offer solo advertising at a discounted price agreed upon by the publisher. This is true solo advertising - right on down to paying each publisher on the advertisers behalf to run that advertisers solo.

Because the participating ezine publishers have agreed to work with me, they in essence have dropped the price they typically charge to the advertiser to allow that advertiser to contact their subscriber list. I'm just a third-party method of helping the publisher sell their "exclusive" commodity - the solo ad.

But it IS just that - a solo ad.

So, where and what to purchase? How can YOU ensure you are purchasing a true solo ad for yourself?

Start right here! Start with THIS ezine. Go check this publisher's rates first!

Why? Because YOU are reading this - and it's a good bet that others are, too!

A well-read publication is always a good starting place when beginning any advertising campaign!

Support your local publisher :)

And, remember, no matter where you end up as you surf the net, always purchase with your full understanding of what you are buying. Purchase wisely.

Sometimes it takes a bit of reading before you truly know the difference.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Medium And The Message

2008-12-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Sam Vaknin

A debate is raging in e-publishing circles: should content be encrypted and protected (the Barnes and Noble or Digital goods model) - or should it be distributed freely and thus serve as a form of viral marketing (Seth Godin's "ideavirus")? Publishers fear that freely distributed and cost-free "cracked" e-books will cannibalize print books to oblivion.

The more paranoid point at the music industry. It failed to co-opt the emerging peer-to-peer platforms (Napster) and to offer a viable digital assets management system with an equitable sharing of royalties. The results? A protracted legal battle and piracy run amok. "Publishers" - goes this creed - "are positioned to incorporate encryption and protection measures at the very inception of the digital publishing industry. They ought to learn the lesson."

But this view ignores a vital difference between sound and text. In music, what matter are the song or the musical piece. The medium (or carrier, or packing) is marginal and interchangeable. A CD, an audio cassette, or an MP3 player are all fine, as far as the consumer is concerned. The listener bases his or her purchasing decisions on sound quality and the faithfulness of reproduction of the listening experience (for instance, in a concert hall). This is a very narrow, rational, measurable and quantifiable criterion.

Not so with text.

Content is only one element of many of equal footing underlying the decision to purchase a specific text-"carrier" (medium). Various media encapsulating IDENTICAL text will still fare differently. Hence the failure of CD-ROMs and e-learning. People tend to consume content in other formats or media, even if it is fully available to them or even owned by them in one specific medium. People prefer to pay to listen to live lectures rather than read freely available online transcripts. Libraries buy print journals even when they have subscribed to the full text online versions of the very same publications. And consumers overwhelmingly prefer to purchase books in print rather than their e-versions.

This is partly a question of the slow demise of old habits. E-books have yet to develop the user-friendliness, platform-independence, portability, brows ability and many other attributes of this ingenious medium, the Gutenberg tome. But it also has to do with marketing psychology. Where text (or text equivalents, such as speech) is concerned, the medium is at least as important as the message. And this will hold true even when e-books catch up with their print brethren technologically.

There is no doubting that finally e-books will surpass print books as a medium and offer numerous options: hyperlinks within the e-book and without it - to web content, reference works, etc., embedded instant shopping and ordering links, divergent, user-interactive, decision driven plotlines, interaction with other e-books (using Bluetooth or another wireless standard), collaborative authoring, gaming and community activities, automatically or periodically updated content, ,multimedia capabilities, database, Favourites and History Maintenance (records of reading habits, shopping habits, interaction with other readers, plot related decisions and much more), automatic and embedded audio conversion and translation capabilities, full wireless piconetworking and scatternetworking capabilities and more.

The same textual content will be available in the future in various media. Ostensibly, consumers should gravitate to the feature-rich and much cheaper e-book. But they won't - because the medium is as important as the text message. It is not enough to own the same content, or to gain access to the same message. Ownership of the right medium does count. Print books offer connectivity within an historical context (tradition). E-books are cold and impersonal, alienated and detached. The printed word offers permanence. Digital text is ephemeral (as anyone whose writings perished in the recent dot.com bloodbath or Deja takeover by Google can attest). Printed volumes are a whole sensorium, a sensual experience - olfactory and tactile and visual. E-books are one dimensional in comparison. These are differences that cannot be overcome, not even with the advent of digital "ink" on digital "paper". They will keep the print book alive and publishers' revenues flowing.

People buy printed matter not merely because of its content. If this were true e-books will have won the day. Print books are a packaged experience, the substance of life. People buy the medium as often and as much as they buy the message it encapsulates. It is impossible to compete with this mistique. Safe in this knowledge, publishers should let go and impose on e-books "encryption" and "protection" levels as rigorous as they do on the their print books. The latter are here to stay alongside the former. With the proper pricing and a modicum of trust, e-books may even end up promoting the old and trusted print versions.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

List Your Ezine In Directories And Forums

2008-12-28T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ken Mathie

We are going to go into a little more detail concerning the topic of getting your Ezines listed in directories and forums. Exposure is so key to getting subscribers, so you want to spend a lot of time on this part. It will pay off for you in the long run.

Let's start with forums. Forums are wonderful places and there are many of them around. All you have do to is go to a search engine and type in the word "forums" and you'll see about 12 million entries pop up. But wait. Before you start going through each one of them, you're going to want to narrow this down a little more. Why? Well, if your Ezine is about building a home based business, you're not going to want to post it on a forum that deals with race cars. Most likely, you won't get very many people who are interested. So what you want to do is type in something like "Home Business Forums". Now you'll get about forty pages of results. Not too bad. Now you can start looking through them and find some that will be more targeted to your Ezine.

Once you have found a forum, you want to introduce yourself. Do NOT post an ad. Most forums do not allow this. What they do allow is a link in your signature. Post something that shows your knowledge of the subject. Give some free information that people will find useful. Do this on a regular basis so that the people at the forum will begin to see you as an expert. Over time, they will begin to trust you, especially if you have shared things with them that have helped them. Now, when they see the link in your signature promoting your Ezine, they are more apt to subscribe. You have already given them so much info that the trust is there. Now you just have to capitalize on it.

Directories are a little different because they are not as personal. The truth is, directories are very impersonal. These are simply listings of Ezines. But again, the same principals apply as to finding a forum to advertise in. You want to narrow your search to Ezine directories that focus on your topic. Listing your Home Business Ezine in a directory that specializes in home gardening isn't going to do a thing to increase your subscriber base. If anything, most of these directories will reject your Ezine if it doesn't fit their theme. So don't waste your time submitting to them unless they are specifically targeted to your audience.

Once you have found an appropriate directory you want to carefully read their submission guidelines. Almost all of them specifically say NO ADS. You are listing your Ezine, NOT promoting your product. Also, you want to make sure that you upload your listing with an appropriate and interesting description. When people read it, you want it to be something that will capture their attention and make them want to subscribe. A dull, lay-on-the-floor do nothing description, will do just that, nothing. So take your time with your descriptions. It may mean the difference between getting subscribers and not.

Learn more

HBNezine.. Home Biz News & Tips. Weekly up-to-date powerful strategies to outsmart, out market and outsell even your toughest competition. Receive your free report "Fail Faster For Success" when you subscribe. Yes!' Please send my report!

The Future Of Email Newsletter

2008-12-27T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Llnado Ford

The future of email Newsletter - Llando Ford 07.28.2004 What are you doing with the Spam you receive? I'm sure you are not happy receiving it just like none between us.

You have installed already a good Spam filter or you let your ISP to select your Spam and you receive it already into your "Spam mail folder" where from you can delete it easily.

But you as entrepreneur should carefully observe your feelings doing this activity because I'm sure You have got your own newsletter or if don't, you intend to start one in the near future.

Well at sending out your newsletter you have to count with the fact that (especially if you are using a bulk mail software) your email will land eventually in the Spam folder of your subscriber.

He will retrieve the emails in his Spam mail folder too because he is subscribed to several newsletters and he is waiting for your info but only if he is convinced that this info is of high value for his interest niche.

How actual studies are showing contrary to what some people may think newsletters still have a great future.

Since not every small marketer can allow for himself to use the "direct to desktop" technology and very few costumers want to be bothered with flashing graphics on their desktops the majority of delivered news will still remain the "good old email newsletter".

So it seems you as owner of a newsletter are a winner because you will post your newsletter in the future too, but it becomes more important than ever to deliver a relevant content.

Surveys are showing that people do not read anything what seems to be waste of time.

Your newsletter must bring useful, up to date information on your market niche without to become boring at all.

What are this niche markets?

Everything what is not of general interest, and the information about it is instant deliverable.

There are no limitations. You can write about Your interests which could be gardening, pets, body building, search engine optimization, everything you love, or you feel passionate about. This because if you love your topic you will never run out of subjects, you will never loose your passion for it and your prospects will always receive with your rows the power of your enthusiasm which starts from your love. for the given topic.

But you should avoid to start newsletters about a topic you don't love at all or do not feel any passion about it because that will give you much more headaches as money.

For a better understanding of this subject and not at last to keep this article short I suggest you to check out What Gary Halbert America's #1 sale copy writer says about creating a product. Here is the link go there http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/ it is completely FREE and read the newsletter titled "How to get a product to sell if you don't have one already and how to get it for nothing"

You can find another great collection of ideas if you go to http://marketingadvices.com/newebooks.html and check out the ebook Creative Product Creation.

So as final conclusion: If you still don't have your own newsletter or want to start one more be careful what you choose to be your topic. Finally you want people to read your newsletter want to build a huge list and want to think in very long terms by publishing your newsletter.

Llando Ford Started The M.A.Newsletter in late 2003 with the goal to report about the latest Internet marketing news. On his website http://marketingadvices.com you will find a collection of marketing courses (some of them FREE), from the most reputed marketing gurus.

To subscribe to The Marketing Advices Newsletter and get instantly your Free bonus Gary Shawkey's If I can Anybody can and Gary Shawkey's Secrets send an email to: marketingadvices@getresponse.com?subject=SUBSCRIBE&cc=llando@marketingadvices.com

7 Best Practices For Email Newsletters And Email Newsletter Marketing

2008-12-26T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Jeffery Glaze

Many companies today have found that it is crucial to have an internet presence in order to be viewed as a real company. In fact there are many consumers who make buying decisions based on the information contained in a company's web site. Along with that has come a growing realization of the value of newsletter marketing, blogs, and podcasting.

While most companies who market via newsletters have an information based newsletter, there are those who use a newsletter simply to sell a product, service or event. If your newsletter falls into the latter category, you may want to reconsider how your email is represented.

A newsletter is a source of information thus the name, news letter. It may be information on a particular topic or topics, company information, or a combination of both delivered periodically. A marketing email is an email to sell a product or service or to advertise an event. It is important to recognize the difference between these two types of emails.

Why is it important? Because of consumer expectations. When a consumer subscribes to your newsletter, they expect to receive a newsletter that contains the information that they want, not a third party advertisement from an affiliate program. A lot of newsletter providers judge the success or failure of their newsletter by the number of unsubscribes. I would like to float the idea that people may not unsubscribe, but they may not be reading your email either.

There are many people who subscribe simply to receive a free gift for subscribing. They then delete each subsequent email, or worse open it and delete, giving false read statistics. Why would they do this instead of simply unsubscribing? To be polite of course. Maybe you gave them something free to subscribe, maybe you didn't, but to unsubscribe would be rude, now wouldn't it?

Next there is the SPAM issue in newsletters. Some people who have a newsletter will just go on the web and look for people that are in a similar industry and sign them up as a subscriber, or better yet, they get your business card and add you to the list. This is not a way to send newsletters, it is a way to send spam.

There are many other things I can address, but to save you some time, why not just give you a DO list of things to do to keep your subscribers? Here it is:

1. Only use an opt-in system. This avoids all hassles that can arise from service providers that your subscribers may be using to receive their email. These hassles include simple things like being blacklisted.

2. Consider using a popular online email management solution service. The online solution, if it has a significant presence, can be a mediator in the event you are accidentally blacklisted. They do this for a living and will do all they can to protect their business and in effect - yours.

3. If you must send third party advertisements to generate revenue, consider establishing a separate list for this purpose. Make one list an obvious newsletter that may include advertisements, and make the second list for special offers only. Give people a choice and most will sign up for both.

4. Track open rate statistics and click through rates from links within your newsletter. If your mail list management system does not provide this data, find one that does.

5. Try not to send newsletters more than once per week. If you are an infinite source of information and can't help but write every day, consider creating a blog that can be used to supplement your creative outlet.

6. Content is king. Try to supply your readers with information of value to them, not just advertising or a commercial disguised as a newsletter.

7. Lastly, adhere to all Can Spam laws to keep yourself out of court.

These are just a few tips, but I have found them to be very effective in retaining my subscribers.

Jeff Glaze is the Editor of http://www.AtlantaEvent.com, founder of http://www.privacy-first.com e-mail certification program and the author of several e-books. His company, Mostcool Media Inc.( Mostcoolmedia.com ), specializes in marketing planning, coaching, business networking training, web and media development. His e-book "The Six Xtremes Of Power Business Networking" is available here: http://www.atlantaevent.com/ebook.htm Jeff Glaze is available to speak to your group and can be contacted at 678.508.5975

How To Make Your Newsletter Have Raving Fans

2008-12-25T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Ladan Lashkari

Would you like to have a newsletter with barely satisfied subscribers who take a look at each issue and then remove it, or loyal readers who can't wait to get your next issue?

A truly successful newsletter doesn't have just a bunch of subscribers, but "raving fans" who have a strong relationship with you.

But how can you have such a winning newsletter?

#1. Quality Content

It doesn't really matter for your readers how professional your newsletter design is, or how long the articles are. They want "quality content". Period.

After all, the reason why they joined your newsletter in the first place was because you made a promise to provide them with some certain valuable information.

So each time you sit down to write your next issue, remind yourself what your readers expect to learn. What did you promise them? What benefits did you offer when asking them to sign up?

You should keep these answers in mind all the time when writing articles, making recommendations, and even placing ads in your newsletter. Make sure you deliver what you've promised. This is the secret to keeping your readers happy and winning new subscribers through word-of-the-mouth.

#2. Let Your Readers See the Real You

Which of the following newsletters would you like to read the most?

1. A faceless newsletter like it was written by a robot

or...

2. A newsletter with a personality that shines through its every word. You feel as if you know the writer and feel he/she is your friend.

I don't think anyone in the world prefers the first one. Do you? I know all my favorite newsletters show what type of person has written them. When we read an article, all of us like to know the characteristics of the writer and create a picture of them in our mind.

Tell your readers a little bit about yourself. The best place to share this information is "Editor's Notes" section. Tell them what makes you happy, and what makes you upset. If you publish your newsletter in HTML format, you should definitely consider placing your photo at the top of each issue.

Let your readers see who you really are. Let your personality shine through your newsletter!

# Final Thoughts

More and more newsletters are being published every day about every subject you can think of. It means many options for for readers, and many competitors for you. Your competitors are just 2 clicks away: One click on your newsletter unsubscribe link, and the other on your competition's signup button.

So publish an informative newsletter providing quality content and let your readers know the REAL you. Now you can relax because yo know your readers will not even "look" at the competition.

Wish you the best of luck!

Ladan Lashkari

About The Author: Ladan Lashkari is a respected Internet marketing expert, and the owner of http://www.FreeNewsletterIdeas.com/ where you'll find free newsletter templates, creative newsletter ideas, honest reviews, and helpful resources to start your own highly profitable email marketing campaign.

How To Promote Your Business Using Ezine Articles

2008-12-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Loren Beckart

If you aren't already submitting articles to ezines, you're missing out on an easy opportunity to promote your business. It's a practice that has a double impact on your bottom line - by decreasing expenses and increasing profits.

Consider the following benefits of having articles that you've written published on-line.

Resource Box Exposure: This is basically fr^ee advertising. When you submit an article, publishers not only allow, but request that you include some background information. Often called a resource box, you can include information that helps you brand your business, web site, and yourself.

At a minimum, the resource box includes your name and business name and your web site address. Oftentimes, you can also include your credentials, email address, a tag-line, etc. Read the editorial guidelines of the ezine to which you are submitting.

Inbound Links: Via the resource box, each time your article is published with a live link to your web site, that is one more inbound link that helps your site with search engine ranking.

Credibility: Your published articles help to establish you as an expert in your field. You develop a position of authority regarding the topics you write about. With this credibility, it is much easier to gain the trust of prospective clients, who will then be more likely to buy your product or service.

Targeted audience: Your article and business information is being sent out to a number of people who have subscribed to the publisher's list because they are highly interested in the subjects of the ezine. They are pre-targeted for you.

Note that you can maximize that effect by submitting your articles to more than one ezine publisher.

Exposure: When your article is sent out to a publisher's list, that's an excellent result of your efforts. In addition, many publishers place articles from the current issue on their home page, and then archive the articles.

Visitors often refer to the archives before deciding whether to subscribe, and so the exposure you receive from each article extends beyond the initial publication date.

Leverage: When you write an article, you have content that you can leverage. That is, you can use what you've written in other formats. An article could be developed into a presentation at a seminar, or expanded to a special report or e-book. And remember to put the article on your own site: search engines love to find fresh content.

Viral Marketing: Allow ezine publishers to include your articles in their fr^ee ebooks, as long as your resource box is included. Since these are being given away, your ad multiplies.

As well, submitting articles to publishers that have a fr^ee content directory on their site will allow visitors to republish your article intact, again multiplying your exposure.

If any or all of these benefits of being published online appeal to you, then simply go to a search engine and type in a phrase like: ezine publishers. Get more specific by including the word fr^ee, and the topics about which you would like to write.

After you have found some publishers, and you know that there's an audience out there for your topics, write an article. You can help your chances of getting published by taking a look at other articles in your selected ezine editors' archives.

And of course, proofread your finished article. Remember, your intent is to establish credibility and to brand your business favorably. A well-composed and polished piece of writing will go far toward accomplishing that result.

Once you've gotten your first article published, go ahead and do it again, continuing to spread the word about you and your business all over the internet.

Loren Beckart, business consultant and internet publisher, is a contributing writer for Click Tracs, offering valuable marketing resources to help increase traffic to your business web site. Articles by Loren can also be found at Yes Education.

8 Things To Think About Before You Start Advertising Profitably In Ezines

2008-12-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by William Johnston

Advertising in ezines is possibly the most effective way of generating fast sales. Ezine advertising also consumes very little of your time. However, ezine advertising does consume your money and can consume it very quickly if you're not careful. Here are 8 things, which if you think carefully about, will ensure that ezine advertising does not cost you more than you earn.

1. Who is your target audience?

Be sure to identify this early on. Do not make the mistake of thinking that everyone will be interested in your product. Your target audience are those people who would benefit from your product or service because these are the people who are most likely to make a purchase. Advertising to a targeted audience will result in a great amount of interest and a lot of sales.

2. Which ezine should I advertise in?

Choose an ezine which is made up of subscribers who fit in with your target audience. The closer your targeted audience and the ezine subject, the more sales you will make. Also, if you are looking to advertise in a particular ezine, subscribe to it. Do some research on how often subscribers purchase from the publisher's recommendations because this will give you a good idea of how effective it is to advertise in this particular ezine.

3. How much are you prepared to pay?

Set yourself a budget. This is extremely important because overspending could have a serious effect on your overall profits. Look to divide your budget up as well to advertise in several ezines instead of only one. This way, ezines which have been bad to advertise in will be compensated for those which are particularly good to advertise in. Additionally, you will know where to advertise next time.

4. Should you track your ads?

Of course you should. This is how you can tell which ezines have been particularly successful to advertise in and which ones are those to stay clear of next time. If you aren't tracking your ads you are making a big mistake. Go to: http://www.clickaudit.com/ to track your ads.

5. How many subscribers does the ezine have?

This is a very common mistake which ezine advertisers make; they assume that the more subscribers the ezine has, the more profitable advertising in it will be. Generally, this is untrue. What you should be looking at is the quality of content in the ezine. If the quality is good then you can guarantee that most of the subscribers will actually be reading the ezine and consequently will read your ad.

6. Are you going to use autoresponders in your ad?

It is essential to put your autoresponder email address into your ad. When readers are looking at your ad, the majority of them will not be persuaded to buy at a first glance. However, this does not mean that they are not interested. You need to follow up with these people and the easiest way to do this is to capture their email address using an autoresponder. Use your ad not only to make immediate sales, but to make sales in the long run.

7. What type of your ads are best?

If you wish to test your ad or try it out to see its effect then put a tracking URL on it and use a classified, top sponsor or bottom ad. These are the cheapest ads but bring in the poorest results. If you've done necessary research and are looking to sell directly from your ad then consider using a solo mailing ad. A solo mailing ad is an individual email sent out to all subscribers with your ad in it and no one else's. These ads bring in the best results but are inevitably the most expensive.

8. Is your ad effective?

Before spending huge amounts of money on ezine advertising, be sure that your ad is effective so that you can guarantee that it will lead to a huge number of sales. Just make sure that your headline catches the eye so that your ad gets noticed. Capture your reader's interest and desire by using persuasive, positive words such as free, profits, breakthrough etc Make sure that you give contact details or an 'additional information' link so that readers can find out more about your product or service. For a more detailed explanation on how to create profit pulling ads go to:

http://www.blog.info-ebooks.co.uk/creatingprofitads.html

For more information on this subject or about making money online go to http://www.info-ebooks.co.uk

100s of free ebooks and software products are also available at this address. Gain free access to these by sending a blank email to:

infoebooks@freeautobot.com

Thank you for reading

William Johnston
(will@info-ebooks.co.uk)

5 Ezine Publishing Tips To Help You Avoid Spam Filters

2008-12-21T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Debbie LaChusa

Question: What is the number one enemy of email marketers?

Answer: Spam filters

I believe the majority of those using email marketing are on the up-and-up. They're people like you and me - small business owners and independent professionals who know the importance of building relationships with their prospects and clients. They also know that an ezine is a great small business marketing tool and one of the easiest and cheapest ways to build a big prospect list.

But the one battle we all face is deliverability. How can you ensure your ezine, which is an important small business marketing vehicle, will actually get through to your readers and not get trapped by sensitive spam filters?

(1) You must be familiar with the common spam trigger words.

Find out the words and phrases that trigger SPAM filters and avoid them at all costs if you want your message to get through.

(2) Always run your email messages through a spam checker before sending them out.

Even if you're writing to avoid spam trigger words, there may be phrases or words in your message that can be problematic. By running your messages through a spam checker you have an opportunity to edit out these problem words or phrases. If your email marketing program doesn't offer a spam checker, search online for one - there are free, web-based services available.

(3) Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their white list or address book.

This will increase the chances of your ezine getting through to them and not getting stuck in a well-intentioned spam filter.

(4) Use your name and/or company name in the "From" line.

Your subscribers will recognize the email is from you AND if they've added you to their address book or white list, your ezine has a greater chance of being successfully delivered and being opened.

(5) Include the name of your ezine in the Subject line.

Once again, this helps with recognition. Even if your ezine gets through your subscribers' spam filters, if they don't immediately recognize it as your ezine, they could delete it, or not take the time to open and read it.

If you're using email marketing as one of your small business marketing tactics, it's important to stay up on the latest technology and information about spam and deliverability. If you do, odds are you'll be able to count on your ezine as a valuable marketing tool for your small business for years to come.

Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to make marketing your own business as simple as answering 10 questions. Learn more about this unique, step-by-step system and get a free 10-week Marketing E-Course when you subscribe to the free, weekly 10stepmarketing Ezine at http://www.10stepmarketing.com.

Lesson 6 Six Simple Steps To Writing Magnetically Charged Email Messages

2008-12-20T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Max Weber

If you remember, the majority of people (i.e., 68%) need to see your sales message more than once before they even think about going ahead. This is applicable to every market.

But, Does Following Up Really Get Results?

While most people understand the concept that using a smart autoresponder saves a lot of time by putting one's business on autopilot.

Become Relentless Like a Collection Agent!

After a prospect asks for more information on your offer via your autoresponder, it can automatically deliver your series of pre-written follow-up email messages in preset intervals.

By creating a sense of urgency (such as by making your offer time-sensitive), your follow-ups can help reinforce that urgency in subsequent mailings and add weight to your offer!

Your follow-ups can nudge prospects into action!

Plus, by adding an extra incentive with each mailing, your offer becomes more valuable and more difficult to ignore.

These additional bonuses can simply be comprised of special reports, articles, ebooks, freeware, reviews or even courses delivered incrementally via smart autoresponders.

Write Effective, Sales-Generating Emails

Writing an effective, response-generating email ad, whether it's a small, six-line ad or a full-length "solo" ad, is not as hard as it seems. It really needs to follow six simple steps:

Create an attention-grabbing headline,
State a problem (and present a solution)
Increase desire with ego-driven benefits
Use power words (like the word "FREE")
Call for some kind of action
And reinforce a sense of urgency.

1. The Headline

---------------------------------------------------------
"UNLOCK THE MOST POWERFUL SECRET TO DOUBLING YOUR SALES!"
---------------------------------------------------------

For starters, this ad has a headline that sucks you in to the ad and makes you want to read more. I mean, let's face it: who wouldn't want to know how to double his or her sales?

The headline entices you with a powerful benefit and makes you curious. In fact, an attention-grabbing headline is proven to result in as much as a 1,700% boost in response rate!

2. Problem/Solution

---------------------------------------------------------
That secret is "follow up" -- but the trick is to be fast,
repetitive, personalized and consistent.
---------------------------------------------------------

The body of the ad then gets straight to the point and tells you what the secret is right away. But it then pushes "hot buttons" by stating a problem and offering a solution...

---------------------------------------------------------
New, sophisticated autoresponder does all that for you ... And more!
---------------------------------------------------------

3. Benefits

---------------------------------------------------------
SAVE time and money.
---------------------------------------------------------

The problem is solved but only if the prospect takes your solution... And it may not be enough. So, the trick, here, is to increase desire by conveying more benefits of your offer.

4. Power Words

---------------------------------------------------------
GET YOUR FREE VERSION NOW!
---------------------------------------------------------

Words that help increase interest, curiosity and desire are those that help to paint vivid pictures in the mind, and offer some kind of direct incentive or reward to the reader.

For example, some words are proven to "pull" more, such as: "discount," "guarantee" and "free." But obviously, no incentive can be more direct than one with the word "free" in it!

5. Call-to-Action

---------------------------------------------------------
Don't wait, go now: http://www.sharehobby.com
---------------------------------------------------------

Don't be shy. Tell them what to do. It's the most vital step to follow! This can be as simple as telling the reader to visit your website right now or to email an autoresponder address.

6. Sense of Urgency

Finally, try to create scarcity with your ad or add a sense of urgency. Make the offer time-sensitive or quantity-bound. The more you do, the more responses you will get!

Urgency is Where It's At!

Let's say you've purchased space for a solo ad in an ezine and wanted to expand the above ad. The easiest way to do this would be to add more benefits and a few testimonials.

But another effective way is to also add scarcity into your ad in order to give the reader several reasons to respond NOW! For example, you might add the following note to the ad...

---------------------------------------------------------
Please note: this special price is only available for the
readers of [ezine] until [future date]. After that date,
however, we will be raising it to the ordinary price and
may never repeat this offer again! So, please act today.
---------------------------------------------------------

Of course, this will only work if you're honestly raising prices. But you may be offering, say, the extra bonuses for a limited time, or perhaps there are only 17 of your products left.

A final addition to your solo ad should definitely be a "P.S." at the end. A "P.S." is usually the second most read part of your letter (after the headline, of course).

Use one (or more) to not only highlight the main benefits or even a guarantee, but also to remind readers of a deadline or to reinforce the urgency maybe with an added bonus.

Here's how you could use one if you were selling an ebook...

---------------------------------------------------------
P.S.: As an added incentive, you get 30 extra days to
review this information. If it's not everything you've
hoped for and more, I urge you to contact us right away and
we'll refund you on the spot and let you keep the free
gifts! However, this additional incentive is offered only
for the first 500 visitors. So, you must hurry and act now!
---------------------------------------------------------

Follow these six simple steps and you'll be able to create a powerful email ad to advertise your autoresponder in... One that will generate tons of visitors and sales every time!

Learn more about internet marketing, search engine marketing, email marketing go to internet marketing and website promotion.

Why Your Newsletter Must Get A Personality Today

2008-12-19T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Michael Green

Newsletters are becoming ever more popular. Not surprising since all editors know that they are a tried and tested method for both disseminating information and subtly (and quite frequently blatantly) promoting any product or service. In short, newsletters work for their owners.

IT'S A CROWDED WORLD OUT THERE.

But the Internet and Email (as well as lower print production costs) have meant that the number of newsletter Titles is growing at breakneck speed!

And with new Titles being published by the hour - covering just about every subject under the sun - the market is getting pretty jam-packed out there.

So how are you going to ensure that your newsletter doesn't get crowded-out? How will you guarantee that your publication gains and develops a truly loyal readership, when they could so easily be distracted by your competitors' newsletter offerings?

The answer?

YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE YOUR PUBLICATION A TON OF "NEWSLETTER PERSONALITY".

Or to put it more accurately, you actually need to allow your own personality the space to shine through and dominate your written publication.

You see, when somebody meets you face-to-face they are quickly presented with (and pick up on) your personality traits and this makes you instantly memorable. Even when you have a conversation on the phone, you naturally give over a whole range of characteristics that mean that you'll likely be remembered in the future.

But once you're in writing, particularly if it's in the form of a plain text email, then you've got to fight harder to have your personality shine through.

And the stakes couldn't be higher. If you fail to impress your readers, then they will quickly forget all about you and move onto your competition. But the *best* way to distinguish yourself is to let your personality leap at the reader, right off the page or screen!

Now many newsletter editors face a problem that they are more accustomed to writing somber business documents than publishing a lively and memorable read.

HERE IS A TIP TO HELP YOU GET YOUR "NEWSLETTER PERSONALITY" RIGHT OUT THERE.

Think about your favorite newspaper. Maybe it's the New York Times, USA Today or some local paper that you buy weekly. Somewhere in that paper there will be a columnist that you probably turn to and read week-in week-out. Why? Because you feel you know the characteristics of the writer. You understand where they're coming from, on a whole range of issues. You either empathize with their views or read the column because it makes you angry and you enjoy the controversy.

No matter. What that journalist has achieved is to make their own personality leap from the paper. And you need to emulate precisely that approach in your entire newsletter!

HOW TO HAVE COMPLETE STRANGERS FEEL THEY KNOW YOU.

If you don't do it already, start telling your readership a little bit about yourself. People like to feel they know you and understand where you're coming from. Here are some handy pointers. Just pull out and use the ones that best apply for your own newsletter readership.

- ENSURE THAT YOUR READERS KNOW WHERE YOU ARE FROM.

People automatically start to think they know you and build a picture just from a place name, State or Country. You may not have been there for years, but it'll start to build an image picture in your readers' minds!

- ESTABLISH WHETHER YOU ARE STRAIGHT-LACED OR A BIT OF A JOKER.

Humor can work wonders, but if you're not a natural funny man (or woman) then don't try and fake it. Just beyourself.

- BE FORTHRIGHT ABOUT YOUR VIEWS.

Don't sit on the fence worrying about whether your readership will agree or not. Establish where you are coming from straight-away and celebrate the fact. Either your readers will agree or if they disagree, it will create some interest and soon you'll get readers letters, etc...you get the idea.

Whether you're new to the newsletter editing game or already established, remember that your readers have a choice. If your publication comes across as faceless and lacking in personality, the chances are your readers will jump ship, right across to the nearest competition.

Good luck,
Michael Green

The author Michael Green has developed a TOOLKIT for Newsletter Editors called "How To Write A Newsletter". The Toolkit comes packed with hundreds of excellent ways to enhance your newsletter publication. But there's more! Michael provides the would be newsletter editor with Copyright Free Articles, DTP Templates and a much more. A absolute must for all Newsletter Editors! Check out ===> http://www.howtowriteanewsletter.com

Top 10 Tips To Give Your Newsletter Impact

2008-12-18T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Philip E. Humbert

There are thousands of email newsletters or "ezines" produced every week, and most of them have great material and are written by passionate people who want to share valuable information. Unfortunately, very few of them have many subscribers.

Perhaps the biggest problem they face is that many of them are too hard to read! They are (let's be honest), ugly! As my newsletter has grown, I've learned some things about formatting and presentation. Here are my Top 10 tips:

1. Use lots of white space. Surround your best ideas with blank space, to draw the eye to them.

2. Use shorter sentences than you would on paper. Keep ideas simple, and clear.

3. Use much shorter paragraphs. Most of my paragraphs are less than 6 lines, and I very rarely have a paragraph longer than 8 lines. On paper, a longer paragraph is fine, but not on a computer screen. Keep it short!

4. Use lists! Use numbers or bullet points to keep things clear. As people scroll up and down their screen, give them reference points. Make it easy to navigate your material.

5. Use a standard "masthead" for your letter. The first screen (first impression) of your letter must be consistent from one issue to the next. Make it pleasant, give the essential info (title, your name, perhaps the date or issue number), and keep it simple.

6. Use a table of contents. Again, think in terms of easy navigation. Use clever titles to catch the reader's interest, and give them a map to help them find the material that interests them most!

7. Use simple words and clear language. Particularly in email, most of your writing should be at about the 6th grade level.

8. Use a clean lay-out, with distinctive marks to separate each section. I generally use a single row of either "====" or "++++" marks between each section of the newsletter. Some people use more artistic separators, and that's a matter of personal preference, but each section must be clearly delineated.

9. Take a moment before you send your email to insert line returns manually. You can't count on your reader's email program to calculate and place line returns where you want them. You decide, based on your sense of proportion and what you want to emphasize, where to put each line return.

10. Keep your lines very short. I manually insert line breaks in all newsletter articles. I recommend breaking your lines at about 60 characters, and I often break them as short as 50 characters. Again, think about white space, and look for ways to make your letter easier to read.

Denis Waitley used to tell this story about the importance of presentation.

Suppose I invited you to my home for an elegant dinner. When you arrive, I invite you in, and make you comfortable as a guest in my home. I tell you I am fixing your favorite dinner, with all the trimmings. You can smell it cooking! But, when the dinner is ready, I slop it onto your plate right out of the pan, splashing some in your lap in my hurry!

You'd be disappointed (at the very least!) and probably never come back.

In your newsletter, it's vital to have great cooking, but in many ways it's even more important to present it elegantly. Take the time to present your great ideas as attractively as possible.

© Copyright 2003 by Philip E. Humbert. All Rights Reserved. This article may be copied and used in your own newsletter or on your website as long as you include the following information: "Written by Dr. Philip E. Humbert, writer, speaker and success coach. Dr. Humbert has over 300 free articles, tools and resources for your success, including a great newsletter! It's all on his website at: http://www.philiphumbert.com

Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed15 Tips To Boost Your Profits

2008-12-17T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Greg Root

In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.

The reason: Ezine Advertising (EA) matches your product or idea to people with similar interests.

The idea of EA is fairly simple - but to make yours a success, you have to first determine which ezines or newsletters produce results, and which ones to avoid.

After a year and a half of EA, I've created a formula that produces increasing profit because I've learned how to avoid poor performing ezines and rip offs, while revealing the gems.

Strategy for Profit

The reasons ranged from abandoned ezines with working payment links, unethical newsletter owners, to a lot of ignorance and impatience on my part.

If you follow my proven strategy, you'll discover the best sources of ezines to advertise in - no matter who your target group is. And, you should see positive results every time.

This article outlines the steps to making your EA a successful return on investment (ROI).

Writing Your Ad

I won't go into details about ad writing, but if your ad is poorly written or untested, you should start with the cheapest ezines first. If you're really unsure of your writing abilities, I further suggest hiring a professional to write your ad for you. Because you can run your ad as many times as you want, your investment in a professional will more than pay for itself in the end.

Target your advertising

If you leap into EA without first researching your target group, you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money. Plus, you probably miss some of the best ezines available.

To determine who your prospect is, take the time to list the possible keywords that directly relate to your product and do keyword searches for ezines, newsletters, and ezine directories.

For example, if you sell herbs, a good keyword search would include: herbs, health, nutrition, supplements, etc.

Avoid Co-ops

While doing your ezine research, you will probably stumble upon the offer to use Co-op (bulk) advertising as the means for your EA.

To be blunt, you should never pay to use Co-ops for your EA because they are too difficult to track and usually contain untargeted ezines. Worse still, you'd find that most never run your ad.

Subscribe

Now that you've found your ezine target group, you'll want to know whether the ezines you found are a good option (i.e. profitable) for your EA.

I've found the best strategy for making this determination is to subscribe to the targeted ezines.

To keep the subscriptions readily available for further research, I recommend creating a separate folder to store your subscription data.

And because you'll need to subscribe to quite a few ezines, I also suggest creating separate email accounts dedicated to your ezine subscriptions.

Double Opt-In Subscriptions

Double opt-in ezines indicates a better quality of subscribers with a lower risk of bulk email addresses. For you and me, this means better ad responses (yeah!).

Solo Ads

Subject Line

Does the ezine put the advertiser's subject line in the subject of the email or do they just say something like "Solo ad from xyz ezine"?

Your subject line is the most important part of your ad and definitely should be in the subject of the email. No subject line equals no response.

Advertiser Response

Testimonial Page

After passing the above steps, see if your prospective ezine has a testimonial page. If the ezine has gotten this far, chances are it will.

Waiting Period

The best indicator of responsive subscribers is the waiting period to run an ad in the chosen ezine. If the waiting period is a month or more, this indicates a very popular ezine with responsive readers. You've uncovered a real gem!

Web Forms

No response may indicate a poor choice in the ezine, or your email was filtered or blocked as spam. Wait at least 2 days and try emailing again using a different email account.

If your emails still don't get through, neither will your ad. (Ironically, your payment always go through). Trust me, if they fail to communicate, save your money and time and move on.

Free Classifieds

Ad Tracking

Never advertise without using an ad tracker. You can purchase one or better, use one of the many available online for free. Ad trackers give you a url that you use in place of your website address.

The new url gives you important information like how many visitors you had, where they came from, and some list the number of sales per visitor.

Run Your Ad Twice

If your ad produced a great response, wait a week or two and run the ad again in the same ezine. I've found you'll probably get as good if not better results the second time around.

I would advise against running the ad a third time in a row because most of your prospects will be found in the first two runs.

Rotating Ads

Once your ad has been tested and you have a base of 5-10 solid, performing ezines, start rotating your ad between your ezines.

For optimal results, make sure 2-3 months have passed before running your ad in the same publication. Keep building your base and watch your profits grow!

Greg Root has been using ezine advertising almost exclusively since 2003 and owns and maintains The Ezine Ad Tester©. See the results of his ezine advertising campaigns to find the best ezine marketing resources on the internet.

The Five Most Powerful Forms Of Internet Advertising

2008-12-16T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Bill Platt

Webmasters and Entrepreneurs around the world are beginning to learn first-hand the long-term value of using Promotional Ezine Articles to promote their businesses in the online environment.

When you are promoting your website, there are five methods that clearly occupy the top five positions in the ratings for effectiveness. These methods are not listed in the order of effectiveness, but rather in the order needed to share my story:

- Search Engine Listings
- Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Listings
- Website Advertising
- Ezine Advertising
- Free-Reprint Promotional Articles

SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS

To get listed in the search engines does not have to cost you money. I use Free Web Submission ( http://freewebsubmission.com ) for my own search engine submissions. This tool is provided for us by Jayde Online, Inc.

Although their software submits only to the top 20 spider search engines, it does provide direct links to the top 50 spider search engines.

PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS

Overture ( http://overture.com ) is the largest of all of the Pay-Per-Click providers. Google Adwords is another one of the most powerful PPC providers ( https://adwords.google.com ).

With PPCSE's, you buy keywords or keyword phrases from the provider. When your purchased keywords are placed into the search engine query, your ad will appear in the paid listings next to the global results.

With all systems, you only pay a fee if someone clicks your link to visit your website. Google Adwords adds tougher criteria to the basic model. Their software determines your CTR (click through rate) to make sure your advertisement is living up to the Adwords Display-to-CTR recommended ratio.

In addition, with Google Adwords, your purchased keywords must be relevent to your offerings.

WEBSITE ADVERTISING

Most content driven websites offer advertising on their site. Some sites offer their advertising at very reasonable rates, while others offer ad rates that make them viable advertising possibilities for only the largest businesses.

You should always select a website for your advertising where you suspect people in your potential marketplace actually visit.

For example, with my business, writers are the people who buy my services. So, I spend most of my advertising dollars to reach writers. One of my most effective advertising outlets I use is a site called Sell Writing Online at: http://sellwritingonline.com/ Another site I advertise on is Lyons International at: http://www.lyonsinternational.com/

EZINE ADVERTISING

When you advertise in ezines (online newsletters), you run into the same factors that you do with website advertising. Some have high ad rates, while others do not. Some have high readership, and some do not. And all of them target a certain segment of our population.

When shopping ezines to advertise in, you should always target the readers you hope to attract to your business. You should also make sure that the cost of advertising is within your budget and reaches the number of people that is needed to keep your advertising cost-effective.

Generally, ezine advertising rates run in the range of $8 to $18 per CPM. CPM is a publishers term that tells the Cost Per Thousand subscribers. If a e-zine charges $8 per CPM and has 700,000 subscribers, then your cost to have your advertisement sent to the whole list will run you a cool $5600 --- 700 x $8.

FREE-REPRINT PROMOTIONAL ARTICLES

Now, imagine if you could get your ad into dozens of ezines, and imagine that you could do so for far less than the $5600 in our example.

By using Free-Reprint Articles as a tool to promote your business you will begin to see your Classified Ad / Resource Box in the reading sections of ezines of all shapes and sizes... and all of your articles will appear in the ezines that most likely will target your potential customers.

With a free-reprint article, you are doing the publishers a favor by giving them quality reading materials that they can share with their readers. At the end of each article is what is called a "Resource Box". This resource box is like a short "About the Author" piece that resembles a short classified ad. As a general rule, the resource box should be limited to 6 lines by 65 characters. By limiting the size of the resource box, the writer is increasing his or her chance to see his or her article in print.

When you write articles that are consistent with the topics that your potential clientele will read, you are able to consistently target the people you need to reach with your advertising.

SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WITH PROMOTIONAL ARTICLES

I have personally used Free-Reprint Promotional Articles for the promotion of my own business for the last two and a half years consistently, and for the past five years on an intermitant basis.

My articles and the articles that I have distributed for my clients have appeared thousands of smaller ezines which offer inexpensive advertising and in hundreds of ezines which charge thousands of dollars for advertising. As a bonus, our articles are reprinted on thousands of websites of all shapes and sizes.

With just my own articles, if you were to count up the advertising fees for the publications and the websites that have published my articles, you would be able to see for yourself that I have gotten tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising in exchange for the small amount of time I had invested in creating and distributing my articles.

Whether you write your own articles or pay a ghostwriter to write your articles for you, the combined cost of creating and distributing your article is far less than the value of advertising that you will receive in exchange for the reprint use of your article.

As a general rule, by using free-reprint articles to promote your business, you can expect to gain $100 worth of free advertising for every dollar you spend to create and distribute your articles.

IN CONCLUSION

No other form of web advertising offers so much bang for the buck as does using free reprint promotional articles. The value gained from free reprint articles is big, and it is long-term. I wrote my first promotional article in 1999 --- it is still being published today on a regular basis.

With all other forms of advertising, you pay once and get immediate results. Once your dollar is spent, you will never earn any more value from that dollar --- it is long gone. With reprint articles, your dollar will deliver results to you time and time again.

The question I have for you is this. If you are not using free reprint articles to promote your business, then why aren't you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

When you are tired of the struggle of the link building process, it might be time to consider our "Links And Traffic" services.
When you are ready to employ more Natural Linking Strategies in increasing your link popularity, "Links And Traffic" can help.
When you are ready for your links to actually generate click-through traffic, we are here.

This is not a link rental system or a reciprocal linking scam. We Guarantee our results.

Newsletter Software

2008-12-15T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Kenth Nasstrom

Newsletter Software

What types of newsletter software can I use to make the creation and publishing of my newsletter an easier task?

Newsletter Software can be divided into different categories.

1. Executable newsletter software
2. Scripted newsletter software

Executable Newsletter Software

This is a program you download and install on your own computer. Software you may need to create and publish a newsletter can be among these different programs.

Email program Used to send and receive email. Most people use Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora or similar to do this.

Mailer program Used to send mail out to one or many recipients or mailing lists. The term bulk mailer is used here to name the process of mailing many people at once.

Newsletter writing and formatting program Used to create, manage or format the content of your newsletter. Many uses software like word, notepad, wordpad, Ziney or even programmers editors.

Scripted Newsletter Software

Script is normally hosted on a web server. This could be your own server or some company offering the service to the public. Most commonly known uses of these scripts are,

Autoresponders More or less the same as a combination between an email program and a mailer program. Bit with the added touch of being able to automatically subscribe/unsubscribe subscribers, as well as send timed emails to the subscriber list.

Text format services There are some online versions of programs like ziney and other that offer the user help with the task of formatting the text used in your newsletter.

Combinations of all the above.

Software you install on your own computer or your own server will normally be a once in a lifetime cost while the hosted (by others) scripted solutions normally has a monthly cost.

Kenth "The Designer" Nasstrom is the owner of http://www.free-newslettertemplates.com , where you can download free text, word and html formatted templates. Also visit http://www.newsletter-resources.com/ for more newsletter resources.

Top Seven Ways To Promote Your Ezine

2008-12-14T09:00:00.001-08:00

Writen by Judy Cullins

Your ezine builds customer confidence and trust when you give free tips, articles, and resources. Clients and customers buy only when they trust you. Expand your email subscriber list seven ways for eventual big sales.

1. Network offline.

Visit professional like-minded networking groups. These groups usually meet once a month, have speakers, and networking time for you to mix with other professionals. You will get valuable information at these meetings for low cost-yearly memberships run that around $25-$75 which includes free or low-cost meeting attendance. Each meeting is around two hours including networking time and talk. Usually at each meeting you hear a speaker and get a 30-second time to introduce yourself.

2. Speak to groups about your expertise.

You can guest speak for a large association or group, or you can give your own seminars and workshops, where people come to hear your expertise. During each meeting, pass as clipboard that asks your audience for their email addresses. At the top include a reason to "buy". Make a fre*e offer such as your ezine. Include your Web URL in plain sight as well as your email. You want these people to visit your Web site, to see what you can do for them, see your expertise, then perhaps to buy products.

You can give a teleclass too in the comfort of your office or home. When you introduce yourself offer a benefit of your free ezine along with a free bonus special report.

3. Promote your ezine on your Web site.

Visit various sites and take from them what will make your web pages zing.

Don't use the pabulum approach such as "Subscribe to my free ezine." Is this enough to make you buy? Give a reason for your visitor to buy.

Use the passion approach. For my new Web site, I submitted this blurb to my Webmaster: Finish, publish, and sell your book-fast! Receive free articles, tips and resources in the FRE*E monthly ezine "The Book Coach Says."

Nearby in a box, I put up a strong testimonial from someone highly respected in the business. Dan Poynter, self-publishing guru said, "Chock full of tips, how-to's, and resources, definitely worth your time."

You can also offer by autoresponder a free report when people subscribe. People want free information. When you give it to them, they will come back for more, and eventually buy.

Placement is important. For the best response and more subscribers, place your subscribe box before your visitor has to scroll down. Remember the old adage; "Make it easy for your customer to buy."

4. Promote your ezine through your signature box at the end of every email.

Create a promotional signature in four to seven lines, and add it to the end of each email you send out. Here, you would list your book title, benefits of your service, your FRE*E ezine title with a way to subscribe. Include your email, Web site address, and local phone number for people out of the U.S.

5. Promote your ezine through submitting free articles to opt-in ezines.

Once you subscribe to these ezines, you can submit one or two articles from 400-800 words every week. In each ezine, thousands of other subscribers will read and think about your article.

Each time you submit an articles to ten or so opt-in ezines (all with one click) you will receive 10-25 new ezine subscribers each day. A strong signature file brings you many new visitors a day. These turn into sales eventually, once trust is established.

6. Offer your subscribers a free gift subscription to send to their friends.

You can use another autoresponder to send the gift, plus whom it's from, and a little blurb about what they will be receiving. Always include a way for subscribers to unsubscribe.

7. Send out press releases via email about your ezine. Press releases by email are different from print ones. They must be short! They must be newsworthy! Don't pitch your book; offer some skills and how-to's. Skills Unlimited Publishing sends out over 150 different print releases a year, along with other effective Online promotion.

Media editors will respond to your compelling headline such as "7 Ways to Sell More Books Than you Ever Dreamed of" that brought first a feature in a major newspaper in San Diego. The results? Over 90 people came to a local seminar by the same name. Four new book coaching clients signed up. Twenty came to ongoing weekly seminars, and twenty more to a teleclass. Book sales amounted to over $400.

Send a list of tips and how-to's to editors. These may prompt a call to do a feature story on you.

Build your business and sell more products through an ezine. When subscribers experience your messages and information in six or more ezines, they will be more likely to buy from you.

Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," and "How to Market your Business on the Internet," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says...and Business Tip of the Month at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com

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