The 'secret' of a successful free E-zine
By Terry Dean
There are currently over 300,000 ezines on the Internet. The number is growing every single day.
Most of these ezine publishers never earn any real money (over $1,000 a month). They work their butts off week after week to produce good content and then only receive a very minor income from selling ads or linking to affiliate programs.
You may have found yourself in this very same position.
The first thing you need to understand is that a big ezine is not the goal you are reaching for. It is a means to the goal. Your business goal probably isn't really to build a 100,000 person ezine list. Your goal is to make money online. Building the list is just the vehicle which will take you there.
This isn't just semantics. Having the right focus and position for your ezine is all important online. If you don't understand why you are running an ezine, then I guarantee you won't get maximum value out of it.
I have been teaching home businesses about the importance of email follow-up, multi-responders, and ezines for almost 3 years now...and I see many people have fallen into some major misconceptions on this subject.
Say this out loud with me...
"The goal of my ezine is to build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers."
You probably didn't get it the first time, so please say the sentence out loud once again...
"The goal of my ezine is to build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers."
If you are building a large ezine list just to sell advertising, then you are missing out on the primary income stream it can provide you with. Your ezine is the gateway into selling more of your products and services.
If you are the member of an affiliate program, then your ezine is the gateway into selling more of their products and earning higher commissions. Your ezine should become the source of multiple streams of income from selling both your products and the products of those you affiliate with.
One of the biggest mistakes I see being made from ezine owners is not inserting your own personality into your ezine. Part of the advantage to having a small business is you are a real person they can contact, agree with, disagree with, etc.
Don't just publish other people's articles and call that an ezine. Sure, you can use some articles from other people. Even all of your articles could be from other people.
What you need to do is add in a few paragraphs you wrote
yourself to the top of the ezine. Do an editorial section just like in magazines.
Don't just run ad copy from an affiliate program. Tell your readers how you feel about the product. What did you gain from it? How did you learn from it? What don't you like about it?
You may be so afraid of making mistakes in this area that you don't do anything. So, make some mistakes. We all do. It is part of being human.
What you say may offend some people and they may unsubscribe from your ezine. So what? They weren't planning on buying from you anyway!
I'm not telling you to purposely offend anyone...just letting you know it's going to happen. Use spell checkers and have some one edit your writing for you, but guess what? There are still going to be mistakes people will let you know about.
People always ask me how I have gotten my name published all over the web. Here's the secret...
"Be a real person."
It's not what you were expecting, is it? It's not exciting or highly technical. It's just the truth. People online are looking for people who are real, who have opinions, and who make mistakes.
One of my most popular articles being published around the web mentions a cow named "Oscar" who lives next door. Some people won't like you mentioning daily life such as this. Let them unsubscribe. The ones who stay on your list will buy more once they know you.
"Personality" is one of the most under used tools in the ezine publishers arsenal.
Right alongside personality is good content. You need to balance the one with the other. You won't be able to produce a growing ezine without good quality content.
If you don't feel you can write good content for your newsletter, then use other people's articles. Just keep in mind your primary goal - "to build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing, will Take You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to Find Out More: http://www.netbreakthroughs.com
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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