You’ve faithfully submitted your free ad to dozens of ezines. You’ve heard that ezines are one of the best ways to get the word out about your business …
… So why aren’t you seeing any RESULTS?
There is no doubt that ezine advertising is one of the most effective and cheapest way to advertise online. But HOW you advertise plays an important part in what kind of response you get …
Choose Your Ezines Carefully
You want to choose an ezine that caters to your target audience. For example, if you’re selling pet accessories, find an ezine for pet lovers.
Be creative. Try to think up another audience (other than the most obvious one) that could use your product. That way you’ll have access to a niche market that may not have heard about it yet, but are eager to find out more. The most obvious market is usually also the most saturated market.
Before you purchase an ad, view an issue or two of the ezine. You’ll be better able to judge whether or not it’s what you’re looking for.
Use Sponsor Ads or Solo Mailings
Sponsor ads are those ads placed by themselves at the top of the newsletter for best exposure. Readers *have* to see your ad before they even get to the rest of the ezine.
Solo mailings are special mailings sent by the publisher to their subscribers – in these mailings, your message is the ONLY message in the mailing. There’s nothing else to distract the readers from your offer.
For those of you short on time, use a directory to find ezines offering sponsor or solo mailings. The one I use can be found at /ommm.html.
The Fewer Ads, The Better
This is especially true if you’re running a regular ad. A regular ad placed by itself in between articles can still work very well. Readers will naturally read your ad as they browse through the newsletter.
No Competing Ads
Ask the ezine publisher if he or she will publish a competing ad in the same issue. If you’re selling ABC’s Fabulous Product, you don’t want another ad also selling ABC’s Fabulous Product in that issue. You want as little competition as possible.
Write, Re-Write, and Re-Write Again
Polish your ad. Make it persuasive, a call to action. Make the reader WANT to click your URL to see what you have to offer.
Your first ad isn’t necessarily your best. Come up with several variations of your ad so that you can look them over later when you’re not so “close” to it.
Be sure to also check for spelling mistakes and obvious grammatical errors. You might also want to hold off on too many !!!! … people often associate a bunch of exclamation marks with scams.
Track Your Advertising
You want to focus your efforts on what actually WORKS. But in order to find out what works, you need a way to track the effectiveness of your advertising.
There are a number of ways to do this, but one excellent tool is the Ultimate Link Tracker, available at http://www.cgitoolbox.com/cgi/uat/index.html .
TIP: You can get the Ultimate Link Tracker FREE if you are an affiliate for the 5 Pillar Club. 5P affiliates are provided with a wonderful opportunity, incredible support, and powerful tools such as the Link Tracker. Read more at /myss.html.
Try Different Ezine/Ad Combinations
Not every ad will “pull”, and not every ezine will work for you. Perhaps your ad needs a little re-writing … or maybe the ezine’s audience is not quite “targeted” enough for your product. There are countless reasons why a particular ezine ad won’t get the response you want.
Check Your URL!
I know, I know, this sounds obvious … but you wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve received ads where the URL listed doesn’t work! Take a couple of seconds and check your URL. Copy and paste it directly from your ad into your browser, so that you can be absolutely sure it works.
Good luck with your ezine ad campaign!
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Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, a practical, down-to-earth guide to building an Internet business on a beginner’s budget. If you enjoyed this article, you’ll love the book! Visit http://www.onlinebusinessbasics.com or request a series of 10 free reports to get you started.
