EZINE MARKETING (PART 1)

Solo Ezine Ads----

Stand Alone Advertising
So what are Solo Ezine Ads? Simply stated, these are advertisements published in ezines or newsletters where no other ad competes against your marketing message. Also know as Stand Alone Ads. This ad is then sent to subscribers of ezines who have already agreed to recieve these ezines and any accompaning ads.

Often referred to as the KING of ezine advertising, the solo ad allows the advertiser to reach her audience of willing to buy opt-in subscribers. These subscribers are already familiar with the publisher of the ezine and trust his or her recommendations.

A well developed ad sent through this type of advertising has the potential to create fortunes. Many online professionals have used this method to build huge internet businesses.

While no one can guarantee your ad will make you a fortune, using this method will offer you the best chance of getting your marketing message out to warm, willing to buy interested subscribers.

Once you eliminate competiton from other advertisers by using solo ads, it's up to you to develop your advertising to get that almighty click and close the sale.

How Solo Ezine Ads Work
One of the beauties of using stand alone ads is the amount of words you are able to use. Generally publishers allow ads to include up to 500 words. This allows you to create headlines, bulleted points, and your URL. Think of it as a mini-mini website.

Your ads should have an attention getting headline (believeable headline) subheadings, bullets, and a call to action. Above all list, benefits, benefits, benefits!

Take full advantage of the amount of space being offered. Read your ad, let others read your ad. State a problem, then share how your product or service can solve it for them.

Once you have an ad ready, you need to find a resource that will send your message to their readers. For those who are marketing to people interested in making money on the internet, we recommend Ezine King.com

If your target market is outside of internet marketers, we suggest doing a search for ezine directories. Some require membership fees and others are free. There are thousands of ezines and newsletters to choose from. Not all will allow advertising. However, you can subscribe to a few to see if they are of value, if so, contact the publisher and offer your product or service for his or her review. A good review from a trusted publisher can mean profits to you.

Track Your Ads
Tracking your ads is very important. If you place ads with more than one vendor you will need to know which are pulling and which are not pulling.

We use and recommend LinkCounter.com a free trial is available. We've used this service for several years, it is accurate and stats are provided in real time. No matter what type of advertising you do, if you are not tracking every click, you are losing money.

Are Solo Ezine Ads Dead?
With the advent of Google Adwords, and the mad rush to advertise using this effective method, Internet marketers left the ezine world. This leaves an old but still effective marketing door open, especially for niche marketers.

Spend some time today searching for quaility ezines in your targeted market. A well written solo ad in a quaility ezine can still make the mortgage payment.

Starting an eZine Publication & Converting Every Visitor into Subscribers----

Starting your own eZine can be a lot easier than you think. This is because in the most basic necessity, all you really need to get started publishing your own paperless newsletter are wealth of content, auto responder with broadcast feature, and a website (which is optional).

Content. You can compile weeks of content ahead in advance and slowly dispense them to your subscribers. For example, you can compile 100 short tips in one day and dispense 10 tips once a week. In other words, you can compile 10 weeks worth of content in just one day!

Auto responder. Your auto responder is your asset. You need an auto responder to send your mails and eZine issues to your subscribers and store your data base of people subscribed to your newsletter. Some recommended auto responders include GetResponse.com and aWeber.com.

Website. You may be surprised that this is actually an optional component. In short, there are eZine publishers publishing their newsletters without a website! But of course, having your own website can offer you tremendous advantages, such as the ability to bring in more subscribers and having your newsletter indexed in the top Search Engines.

These are the things you need to get started on publishing your own eZine at its bare minimum. Do not underestimate the little you need, though, because several eZine publishers today succeed well with only an auto responder and contents, with or without a website.

Converting Every Visitor into Subscriber.If a person visits your website and leaves, chances are that he or she will not come back, especially if there are no compelling reasons to do so. After all, we all behave rather impulsively on the Internet, so much so that we can easily forget where we were 10 web pages ago.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back. You could have converted a fraction of the visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitor’s name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offer, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve – the easy, wise way.

Submitting articles to Article Directories----

A lot of have been written about the Importance of submitting articles to Article Directories. Article Directory is a useful source for information on the Internet today. Many people including journalist, analysts, and writers among others surf different article directories in search of useful information. So if you want to share useful information or for that matter promote your website then submitting articles to such directories is the best solution. Now the question one need to ask here is how can this help in promoting your website in the Search Engines.

Article directory is an important technique as far as Search Engine Optimization is concerned. As a web promoter you write the articles and submit them to article directories for approval. The key factor is that you can add a link back to your website in the resource box of these article directories. So basically if some one on the Internet comes across your article they will have a chance of actually visiting your website through the resource box.

There are thousands of Article directories on the Internet. While submitting your articles to such directories you have to understand different features that will help you in distributing the article in the right way. Every article directory has a title, article summary, article body whereby you post in the entire article, keywords and most importantly the resource box. Let me show you the resource box I have used for this particular article.

“ Thomas R is the author of this article on “Your website keyword” (Link back the keyword with the URL of your website). Find more information about the subject at (URL of your website)

If you just check at the bottom of this article you will find my resource box. I have highlighted my primary keyword with the link back to my website. Likewise you too can write interesting articles that will enhance the readers interest so much so that they will be forced to check out your website link as well.

How many article directories should I submit my article to?

Now this is a very interesting question. I am sure you to must me haunted by this question regularly as to how many article directories you need to submit your article to. To be frank let me tell you that there is no limit to the number of article directories on the Internet. It will be good for your website and your business if you could submit your article to as many directories as you can. For quick results you can start submitting your articles to quality article directories that have a high Pr in the Search Engines. However this does not mean that an Article directory with Pr 0 has no value. One of the important points that you have to consider here is that these directories too will get a Page Rank on their next google Update. So basically it’s a matter of time that your article will be indexed here as well.

However in doing so you have to make sure to avoid submitting your articles to directories that are plagiarized and banned by the Search Engines.

Successful Ezine Advertising Techniques.----

Ezines are highly effective advertising tool if done correctly. One of the most important advantage ezines have is the target group of people they refer to. Of course there are rules to be followed in order to succeed in ezine advertising.

1. Write Benefits Not Features.

It may sound cynical but most people are selfish. They don’t care about your company or background but they DO care about the benefits they gain. So, instead of saying that the “A” software title contains these features, try to specify that it will save money and time in the exact amount. Be as accurate as you can on that.

2. Choose very careful the ezines you advertise.

An ezine of 150.000 subscribers may seem tempting but you should ask yourself, how the publisher got those subscribers? He bought the list, used FFA, or used similar methods? Does the publisher use contests for his subscribers in order to visit your website? If a subscriber visits your site because there is the expectation of gaining something how valuable this subscriber is for your business? Zero if you ask me.

3. Double opt-in much better than single opt-in.

Yes, if you find an ezine that builds the subscriber base with double opt-in method, it’s highly possible that you have a goldmine here. A double opt-in ezine of 2500 subscribers has more value than a single opt-in ezine of 10.000 subscriber base. With double opt-in you can be reassured that you will have no spam complains and the value of the prospects is much higher.

4. Run you ads more than once.

This is important because prospects have to see more than one time to absorb your message. One thing you can do is to run your ad 2-3 times and if the first is not successful you can modify your copy.

5. The Headline is all the money.

People have their mailbox filled with emails and spam these days. Obviously they don’t have the time to read every single email they get. So the screening process starts with the headlines. It’s a simple as that, if your headline sucks your all effort goes in vain. They will just ignore the whole message.

6. Call to action – Create urgency sense.

This is a copywriting rule you must follow. You must use the time pressure technique to the readers in order to act now. You can use limited time discount offers. In that way you tempt the reader to visit your website which is your first aim.

7. Track your ads.

Do Not underestimate that factor. If you start to have sales, how would you know which ezines produce the results? You can’t afford to miss that. With so many tracking software and services out there is no excuse to risk your advertising budget on guessing.

8. Focus on Top-Sponsor and Solo ads.

They are the most effective. Top sponsor ads are on the top of the publication and it is the first message the reader views. Solo ads are highly effective because the reader views your message alone with nothing else tracking his or her attention. Forget the classified ads, although they are cheaper. When you read a newsletter you focus on the content or the 15-20 displayed ads?

Finally, as a recommendation, you can start searching for effective ezines on the directoryofezines.com . It’s the ultimate resource for tracking and advertising on targeted ezines.

The Real Value of Online Marketing Tools & Those Freebies----

The other day I happened upon a site where I was invited to subscribe to the webmaster's ezine. All good and well and of course good marketing to have a subscribe page and way of capturing visitors emails on your site. But the webmaster purported to say that the newsletter had a value of $399 but I would be one of the lucky ones and get it for free.

Well I produce a newsletter and I think it is fairly good quality so what value would I put on that...certainly not $399, and I would have no idea what to value it at, after all only the subscriber can properly put a perceived value on the ezine they receive. So how can this other ezine have a value of $399?

And what about all these ebooks which apparently have a resale value of $47, or $97 or more. Who are you going to get to buy these ebooks when everywhere you look the same ebooks are being given out for free...you know the ones - 'Million Dollar Emails', 'Scientific Advertising', 'Magic Letters' and so on....

Many websites and sales pages will attempt to persuade you to buy their product by throwing in a large number of bonuses.....worth hundreds of dollars of course and what are they, the same old ebooks again. And while some of these ebooks are actually worth reading, they now have no real value as they are distributed for free everywhere you look.

If you want to get someone to signup for your newsletter or buy your product or service you need to offer something of real value...something they cannot get hold of anywhere else, or certainly not for the price you are offering it at.

If you produce a newsletter or report, don't place a fictious value on it that cannot be backed up. We are so used to having freebies, bonuses, extras etc pushed in our faces that they no longer really work and to stand out from the crowd, you need to be different. Stick to real quality, proper value and you will get subscribers, sales and signups.

The secret to eZine marketing.----

One of the common mistakes many new web site owners make when they start their online business is to think that scores of people are going to stream to their site. They spend the money for that professional look, add all the relevant information and now they sit back and wait for the visitors. The shock is quite traumatic when they find out that this is not the case. The logical question that's asked when the customers don't show is," how do I get customers/visitors".

Well the answer to this is, start a marketing campaign. There are several ways to go about this.

One of the options that creates quite a lot of attention are ezines. The problem the web site owner now face is how to find information on how, where and how much. Of course an important aspect of this ezine marketing technique is finding the highest targeted ezines or web sites to post your articles to. A pitfall to lookout for are the fly by night ones. They will take your money but you will wait in vain for the traffic.

There is of course always a tradeoff between money spent and money made from your investment, it is therefore always important to make sure you that you find an ezine that gives you a good return on your investment (ROI). So one more time, be careful because a vast majority of ezines are a waste of time and money.

The age old saying applies to ezine marketing as well "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Here are a few points to keep in mind.

1. You get what you pay for.
2. You must offer something that relates to the niche market.
3. Target your advertising to your audience.
4. The best things are not always free.

Where you must advertise or which newsletter is right for you depend on your product or service. The good thing about ezines is, these days you get newsletters on about anything.

So as can be seen, do your homework before embarking on an ezine campaign and you will reap the rewards.

PS: I left the best secret for last, build your own list with subscribers. With this you will be assured your ezine is targeted to an audience who want to hear what you have to say, they want to hear about your product or service and it will cost you next to nothing to advertise to them.

The Ultimate Recipe to Make Money Online----

As you know a well written article can do wonders for your exposure and traffic.

The article should contain good useful information. It should be of interest to the reader. A boring article could possibly brand your site as boring also. Although, someone might find it useful if they're having trouble sleeping. You might want to write about your tips and techniques and turn them into a series of articles for the newcomers that are starting out in this business.

An article that solves someone’s particular problem or answers their questions is a good article. You will be amazed at the number of people that will read an informative and interesting article.

Whatever it is you choose to write about, you will be starting from the headline; it should catch the people’s attention. It must make them read the next paragraph with eagerness to learn more. The title of your article can more or less determine the success of your articles exposure.

Your chosen article topic must match the contents or theme of your website. If your expertise is about banner marketing and your website reflects this, then writing your article about the pros and cons of banner advertising or creation could be a good option.

You article introduction should be powerful continuing from the headline. It must be compelling enough to keep the reader wanting more.

The content must be interesting and informative. It must contain what the headline and introduction promises. If the content is written with the intention to help the reader solve their problem or answer their questions, then your reader will appreciate your information and continue reading to the end and hopefully clicking on your link for more satisfying advice. At this point the reader already likes your work and the chances of him or her buying your product has been fused with trust.

As mentioned earlier the placement of your keywords is paramount to the success of your article reaching its target market. The keyword/s should exist in the headline of your article, in the introduction, and in the main body. They should not interfere with the flow of you message and they should look like they belong there. Your keyword density probably shouldn’t exceed 3% in your article. This would simply mean 3 keywords for every hundred words.

Your article might be seen by thousands of potential customers, so it is important that you include a brief description of yourself or your product along with your name and website URL on the bottom. Your little ad here should entice the reader to visit the link.

Example:
W.B. Butler is the author of "The Ultimate Recipe to Making Money Online," a must read for increasing your sales, targeted traffic and web site ranking. Visit http://www.wealthybutler.com to grab your beautifully illustrated secret money making recipe now!

Top 10 Reasons To Advertise With Ezines----

You've heard the buzz but still have some questions. Does Ezine Advertising really work?

Yes, Ezine Advertising really does work and here are 10 reasons why this form of internet marketing is so powerful and effective:

1. An Ezine is an electronic magazine or newsletter. The electronic format makes it easy to respond to your ad. A simple mouse click is much more convenient than picking up the phone, mailing in a card, or driving to a physical store

2. The electronic format offers less potential for distraction before they arrive at your "store". Just think if you send a traditional sales flyer through the mail. The customer is eager to buy but needs to drive past several other retail establishments to arrive at your store and then walk past still more in the mall or shopping center. They might spend the money meant for your pocket before they ever arrive! In an Ezine they click right from the ad into your "store" so there is less potential for loss.

3. Subscribers have opted in. Opt In means they have voluntarily signed-up to receive the Ezine and were not added to the list without their knowledge or permission. Your ad is less likely to be tossed in the garbage like junk mail or deleted like spam. It is also likely to be "white listed" and so won't get caught up by spam filters.

4. Cheaper than most traditional forms of advertising. Priced television, radio, or print media lately? It is also cheaper than many other internet advertising options. Have you looked into the cost of PPC?

5. Easy to target ads and products to specific audience. No matter what your target audience there is an Ezine out there to serve it-and probably dozens to choose from!

6. No need to narrow your category like in traditional classified advertising. Classified listings restrict your placement so only people looking in that category see your ad. In an Ezine every reader sees it!

7. Most Ezine subscribers read for the free information they expect from their Ezine and will usually read each issue from top to bottom. Since most publishers only allow a limited number of ads, your ad will have greater visibility.

8. Most people buy when they least expect to, so as they are reading their Ezine they will be relaxed and more receptive to marketing. This contrasts sharply with many other advertising mediums (TV, radio, direct mailing) as then people are expecting a sales pitch!

9. Ezine subscribers feel comfortable acting on sales pitches because the electronic format makes it risk-free to respond to your ad. They don't have to risk getting trapped on the phone or in a store by an over-eager sales staff. They take comfort in knowing that one simple click can get them back out again!

10. The electronic format also makes it easy to capture more information about your prospect. You have the opportunity to at least get their name and e-mail address (if you are savvy about your offer) and potentially a whole lot more. Once you've got that then you can sell, sell, sell!

Use Ezine Marketing To Boost Traffic Or Profits----

You’ve probably seen them advertised or subscribed to a few. E-zines seem to be sweeping the Internet and filling mailboxes. Maybe you’ve thought about creating your own for your site, but decided against it for any number of reasons. Maybe you didn’t see how e-zine marketing could help. Maybe you decided that maintaining an e-zine would be too much work. Maybe you didn’t think anyone would pay to subscribe, and why go through all that work for free? Well, here are some responses to your excuses.

E-ZINE MARKETING WON’T BOOST SITE TRAFFIC.

You’ve probably got repeat users on your site; those dedicated few who check up on you everyday to read any new posts no matter what. Obviously an e-zine won’t make them come back more frequently. They already visit every day! How much more do you want them to view your site?

Then you’ve probably got those people who check you out once in awhile when they think of it. Those people might only visit the site once a month. What if they had subscribed to your e-zine because they liked your site so much and received it in their mailbox once a week? Wouldn’t that remind them to go visit the site more?

And what about that one time user who came to your site, loved it, and then suffered from a minor head injury and partial amnesia and forgot all about your site. No traffic from this person. But what if they had subscribed to your e-zine? The reminder would be sitting in their mailbox, which they had stored the username and password for in case they did succumb to partial amnesia, and they would once again be able to visit your site. And who knows? Maybe visiting your site could trigger all of their memories to return. You’d be seen as the hero you are, all thanks to an e-zine.

And if you simply mail out the password to subscribers and have the e-zine posted on your site, then every time a subscriber reads the e-zine, they add one more hit to the site.

E-zines are a regular reminder to Internet users that your site is still around and worth checking out.

AN E-ZINE WON’T MAKE ME ANY MONEY AND ISN’T WORTH MY TIME.

Oh contraire. E-zine marketing can and does produce revenue. Ignore the fact that in the last section I showed you how e-zines increase site traffic and thus revenue. Think for a moment about affiliate marketing. What if you place some of your affiliate marketing links within the e-zine? By doing that you are sending your revenue generators directly to mailboxes instead of being forced to wait for consumers to come to you!

Also, who said that the e-zine has to be free, or that you can’t have an upgraded e-zine available for a small fee? The upgraded version could have extra articles, more frequency or other nifty features that people would be dying to pay for. If people like what you have to say, then they will be willing to pay for it.

AN E-ZINE WOULD BE TOO HARD TO PRODUCE

As with so many things on the Internet, you have to remember that you’re not alone. There is an entire market out there of people whose job it is to help you market online, and e-zine marketing is no different. There are websites out there that you can buy articles from to post and sites devoted to writers trying to find freelance jobs just like writing for your e-zine. Programs can be downloaded to help you with your formatting, and contact lists in e-mail programs make mass mailing a cinch.

I am not saying that creating an e-zine will be as easy as eating a sandwich, but it can be done without an obscene amount of work. The benefits are absolutely worth the cost in time or money. In today’s Internet, e-zine marketing is a tool that cannot be ignored.

Why Didn't You Publish My Article? Other Major Article Sites Did!------

QUESTION: Do you feel like giving me a reason for rejecting my article, considering all the other major article sites have published my article?

ANSWER:

There are a dozen of reasons why I could have chosen not to publish your article. Without knowing which of your articles I rejected, it is a hard call to make from memory.

I own and manage more than 150 article distribution groups. I own and manager seven websites that are either article directories or websites that print reprint articles. I own and manage one article distribution service. Soon to be two services.

I see tons of articles.

Any and all article directory managers are free to make their own choices about what to publish and what not to publish.

On my distribution groups, so long as you follow a few basic group rules, your articles will be permitted through the systems.

1. 2 posts per day maximum.
2. Not subscribed to the group in NO Mail mode. If you want other people to read your stuff, you should at least demonstrate the same courtesy to others.
3. No straight advertising.
4. No press releases.
5. Nothing that reads like a sales pitch.

In my services, the only rules that apply:

1. Nothing that reads like an ad.
2. No press releases.
3. No foul language, or disreputable business practices.

In my directories, I follow the same basic rules above. I also follow many other internal guides.

* I don't want any of my sites to look just like all other sites. So I reject some at will, based on an urge or based on nothing.
* I don't want to be a sheep who does exactly what everyone else does.

* Bad formatting in article will get it rejected.
* Perceived advertising in body of article could get it rejected.
* Certain topics are generally always rejected.
* If the website listed in your resource box consists mostly of information scraped from search engines, and if I catch it, I will usually reject your article --- no matter how good your article might be. I know other directory managers who have the same policy.
* All acceptance and rejection decisions are made in just a split second.

Chances are that your article has been published in 90% plus of the reprint article resources I own, primarily the reprint article distribution lists.

Do you need 100% exposure across my networks? No.

Do you want 100% exposure across my networks? Probably.

If all article directory managers accept all of the same articles, then your article on their site will be nearly worthless. If there are five to six sites with exactly the same content on them, then chances are that the spiders will eventually figure that out, and then they will stop indexing the "mirror" sites.

Your article 100% across the board is the worst thing that you can hope for. On the surface, it may seem good, because you have that many more links. But, these "mirror" sites with 100% the same content will come back to bite you in the arse. They will hurt your SEO rankings in the end, because these sites will be penalized by the search engines, AND the articles on those sites may be hurt as well.

I am happy to reject articles "at will" on my free article directories, because I definitely do not want to be seen as exactly like another 30 article directories.

Let's face it, few article directory websites are the same. Some are simply better than others and they are recognized as such by the general internet community.

The site where you are complaining your article "was not included" is a new directory with little recognition in the marketplace. I set it up to test out and play with its article directory software.

When we get to the end of the day, each article directory or website that hosts articles is part of a democracy. The webmaster can accept your articles or reject your articles. It is up to you to provide an article that the webmaster will want to use on his or her website. This business about expecting people to use your articles is totally off-base, and could net you the result of being forever barred from participation in the offended webmaster's website.

Tread carefully and wisely.

Why Ezine Advertising Still Works-----

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.

Why Ezine Articles Make Me Dance-----

I wrote my first ezine article in December 2001. I titled it 'The Power of Online Friendship'. It was five paragraphs long and contained 3 typos. I used it to promote 'The Free Promotion Tips Ezine', an ezine of mine that has long since faded into the Great Void of Cyberspace. I still think it's one of my most moving articles.

I danced around the house, riverdance-style, for about 10 minutes when I read the email from Chuck Bowden, the editor of Your Ad Space Ezine, who promised to use my article. That was quite possibly one of the happiest days of my adult life.

I'm aware that most of you have more thrilling lives than me and, therefore, would not find getting an article published online to be a crowning achievement in your life. I, however, live a life of loneliness and solitude and would thank you not to rub your lives in my face.

I've written many more ezine articles since then and have had most of them used by various ezines and websites. Sometimes when I'm tired of sorting out spam or signing up for free promotional programs just to get 50 free visitors to my site, I like to type my name, followed by the word 'articles' into Yahoo or Google. I take a few moments to go throught the results and see where some of my articles have been used.

Sometimes I find that my articles are being used in some very interesting places. For instance a few of my articles have turned up on religious websites, even though I have never written an article with a religious theme. I guess the Good Lord really does work in mysterious ways.

I find that a lot of my articles get published on Work At Home Mom websites. I find this interesting (1) because as a male I cannot, technically, be a mom and (2) as a poor, blue collar, working class stiff I do not, technically, work at home. But my message still carries weight with all those housewives. They must be despaerate...

My overall point is: Writing ezine articles is a great way to get your name, website, product, etc. plastered all over the World Wide Web. No matter how well you promote and advertise there are just some dark corners of Cyberspace that you will not reach. You articles, however, over time, can find their way to these nooks and crannies and illuminate them with your words.

So my advice to everyone? Keep writing ezine articles! Not only do you get the satisfaction of writing them but you also get the joy of seeing your name (and you words) all over the Net. And then it'll be your turn to riverdance...

Why Most Newsletters Don't Work - part two: For Effective Newsletter Content, Get Real--------

Client newsletters do generate results. Yet, many business people who issue a newsletter find it frustrating to generate the results they want. This is why most newsletters are cancelled after a few issues. Many eventually conclude that newsletters just don’t work. Those not willing to give up on their newsletter need to get real about newsletter content.

what newsletters do
A good newsletter might never cause a spike in sales. However, if you watch other indicators over time – such as business per client, referrals from newsletter readers, and client retention – you would see how a newsletter performs as an investment in client relations. Newsletters shape market perception. Good newsletters help to build and maintain hundreds of business relationships with meaningful engagement.

What to say?
For many, a newsletter is demanding and time-consuming – especially when content that the issuer wants to communicate elicits difficult-to-measure results.

Some report news to readers already swamped with news. Some offer persuasive articles or clever commentaries to readers who really don’t need to be sold. Some offer lists, tables, and graphs. These, too, come with the risk that readers might not care. So, if a newsletter is best used as a tool of brand management, with what content?

the cost of off-the-shelf content
In a lot of situations, it is tempting just to buy good content, if you can find it easily at a reasonable price. But what is the reputation-shaping effect? Your clients can tell when your message is not really yours.

meaningful, brand aligned
Because a client newsletter is a medium for business communication, and because it assumes a business relationship between the issuer and the reader, a newsletter is a medium for client relationship management. Your clients can tell when you’re involved in your newsletter. Hence the need for original, brand-aligned newsletter content.

the cost of do-it-yourself content
Some decide to keep the connection with clients alive by developing their own content. This entails a commitment to produce meaningful, well-written content on schedule. Many then face these basic assumptions:
1. You need to have talent and creativity.
2. You have to provide value in the newsletter, such as advice or insider tips or discounts.
3. You must educate readers on points related to your business.

Put into practice, these basic assumptions stop some from issuing their own newsletters. These are worth considering, but are not must-haves. What readers really need from you is heart.


survey says…
Gallup research shows that the key to wooing customers isn't price or even product. It's emotion. Gallup developed an eleven-question survey to understand client engagement (CE 11). Eight of those questions (73%) probe emotional engagement. (Alec Applebaum: The Constant Customer, Gallup Management Journal 06/17/01)

emotional engagement
When you engage clients emotionally – which often follows from showing your own emotional engagement – that leads to more loyal, profitable business. People go out of their way to deal with businesses whose values they respect, whose style they like, and whose sincerity they like. When people believe in you, they demonstrate it with loyalty to you and bring more business to you.

medium for meaningful contact
When a newsletter makes people feel good about themselves in connection with the newsletter issuer (e.g. it validates their values) then it can create a feeling of connectedness. When that sense of connectedness is maintained through meaningful contact (e.g. a brand-aligned newsletter) then competitors’ attempts at wooing your clients have less effect.

Why not…
honor what your clients like about you?
reflect their interests?
celebrate your connection with them?
declare the satisfaction you find dealing with them?

measure engagement
In addition to issuing an engaging business newsletter, also set reasonable performance expectations and measures. Rather than short-term sales increases, efforts to optimize newsletter performance should reflect long-term business goals, such as:
stronger client loyalty or retention.
more, higher-quality referrals.
more business per client.

get real sincerely
Newsletters are naturally brand-management tools, and good brand management is good client relations. If you think in terms of client relations – maintaining the connection and managing the client experience – then you can improve your business with a client newsletter that shows your true colors. That’s getting real.

Why You Should Archive Your Ezines and Newsletters Online-----

As a publisher of ezines and newsletters, you know that customers always want more from your services. One way to provide customers a good service while increasing your search engine rankings is to place your ezine archives online. By placing these online, you are giving your readers a value-added service that will set you apart from other ezines and newsletters. Not only will this provide value to your customers, but also by placing your archives online, the search engine spiders are able to "see" your unique combination of content. Ultimately, having your ezine archives online will give you higher search rankings and additional keyword phrase variations that everyone so desperately wants.

There are some things to consider when making the decision to put your newsletter archives online.

The first consideration is whether or not your ezine model is a paid subscription or a free subscription. If your ezine is a pay subscription, you probably do not want to place all of your archives online where someone can access them for free. If you were to do this there would be no need for readers to actually pay for a subscription. However, you may want to consider placing a couple of archived issues on a website, so that potential customers and advertisers can see what it is your publication has to offer them. Then, you can keep your remaining archives in a member's only website that is only accessible to your paying subscribers.

If you offer a free ezine or newsletter, there is little reason not to offer all of your archives for free online. The reason that people will want to go ahead and subscribe to your ezine or newsletter is that they can get the issue as soon as it comes out. You may want to consider only offering archives online that are at least a few months old. In other words, do not offer this month's issue in the archive for a few more months, so that people will still want to subscribe to your publication to see it when it is first made available.

Search engine spiders love content on websites. Not only do spiders like the generic content, but they really like valuable content such as articles. Quality content is one of the primary things that search engines look for when providing rankings and the level of importance of a website. The articles that are included in your archive will boost your search engine ranking. Having a higher search engine ranking means that potential subscribers are able to find you much easier. Being easy to find and offering a service such as free ezine with archives gives potential subscribers many reasons to choose your ezine or newsletter to land in their email box over your competitors.

Having your publications placed in an online archive will automatically provide you with a good amount of keyword optimization. For example, if you are publishing an ezine that mainly talks about home improvement, there is a high likelihood that many of the articles in your publication will contain the words "home improvement". Now when a potential subscriber searches on the Internet for "home improvement," they are much more likely to be directed to your website and learn that you provide a valuable subscription on this very topic. If you do not have your archives online, chances of picking up these new visitors and subscribers are greatly diminished.

Simply put, having your newsletter archives online is probably the easiest way to increase your exposure in the search engines and the easiest way to increase your ezine's subscriber base for free. It is very inexpensive to provide your archives online, and it can improve your subscriber's experience, letting him or her feel good about the service that you are providing to them.

People may have a desire to read your publication, but your ezine can easily get overlooked due to the excessive number of publications currently arriving in the subscriber's email box. A day will come when an individual feels overwhelmed by the number of publications arriving in their mailbox each day or week. When this starts to happen, they start canceling subscriptions because it is simply too much hassle to go through and delete these newsletters and ezines every week or every month. I have found myself in that position, so I eliminated the ones that bored me and only kept one or two subscriptions that really seemed to offer me the quality content that I wanted in an easy-to-read format. It was getting to be annoying to go through my email on a regular basis to filter out the excess ezines and newsletters that I did not read anyway.

So if you want to set yourself apart from your competitors and offer this value-added service to your customers, you seriously need to consider placing your archives online. It is likely that you will be surprised at the change in your search engine rankings as well. Again, if you provide a pay subscription do consider offering a few issues in a free archive, so that you can at least show potential subscribers and advertisers the quality of the product you provide.

Follow my advice, and down the road, you will be able to generate more income from your newsletter, because you will have a much larger list of subscribers to count as your own.