Ezine Advertising.
The fastest and easiest way to get traffic is to tap into other people's lists. An ezine (electronic magazine) is much like a traditional magazine or newsletter...only it's delivered via email.
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.
Three reasons why ezine advertising is the perfect solution for beginners who want to get into profit fast:
1. 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.
2. It's cost effective. You can find ezines that sell solo ads for as little as $20.
3. It's a quick way to get traffic. You can place an ad tomorrow and see profits by the end of the week.
Ezine Advertising is the number one choice of experienced marketers for driving laser-targeted traffic to their websites. If you do your research and select the best ezines for the product you promote, you can expect response rate of 20-30% or more.
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.
Here are a few ezine coops to get you started:
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 3 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 can also make sure your ad goes out.
Tip: set up a specific email address for your subscriptions and filter them into a specific folder in your mail program for easy access. In Outlook Express, select Tools, Message Rules, Mail. Click New. Apply this rule after the message arrives Where the To line contains 'newsletters@yourdomain.com' Move it to the ‘Ezines' folder.
You can find a wide variety of ezines in these directories:
http://www.directoryofezines.com
If you're a Gold Member, you can find a database of ezines here.
Step Two: Contact the Advertisers
The surest way to maximize your results from any ezine is to ask people who have already advertised. Take a few minutes to contact one or more people who have placed ads similar to the one you want to place. Tell them you're new to ezine advertising and are afraid of losing money. Most people will be glad to help you out. And if they had a bad experience, they'll definitely let you know.
In addition, if you see the same ad running multiple times, that's a good indication that it was profitable. Smart marketers will run the same ad at least three times if the first one was successful.
Here's an example:
Subject: {!firstname}, about your ad in [Ezine Name]
Hi {!firstname},
I'm just getting started on the Internet and I
was hoping you could help me out.
I noticed your ad in Action Marketing News and
was wondering what kind of response you got.
I'm on a tight budget and don't want to lose money
my first time out.
I appreciate your help.
[Your Name] Step Three: Contact the Ezine Publisher
Contact the publisher to find out if anyone has else has purchased an ad within the last month for the same product you want to promote. This is critical because you don't want to advertise the same product to people who may have already purchased.
Here are some additional questions to ask (if they are not stated on the website):
Can I personalize the subject line?
Can I personalize the message?
What are the personalization codes?
How often to you publish?
When is your next opening?
What is the maximum word count?
Step Four: Set Up an Ad Tracker
You will want to create a tracker for each ezine. The system will create a link for you to use and it will track your visitors and commissions just like your regular affiliate link.
Never pay for adverting 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.
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.
Step Five: Write Your Ad
Most affiliate programs provide pre-written ads for you to use – don't use them! Well at least not word for word. Make them unique and you'll get much better results.
Here are some suggestions for writing ads:
Add a personal endorsement. With all the hype online, people are more likely to read and click on something that you personally recommend.
Use a section from the sales letter or a testimonial for the product you are promoting. That's an easy way to get content for a good solo ad.
Use other people's ads. One of the bests ways to come up with ideas for good ads is to read ezines. Look for ads that catch your eye. Modify them to fit the product you're promoting and add your own personal touch.
Step Six: Place Your Order
This is the easy 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 telling you 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 Seven: 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.
Let's say you place your ad for Affiliate Cash Secrets in three ezines as I suggested and they yield the following results:
|
| Response | Subscribers | Ad Cost | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ezine #1: | 20% | 1000 | $100 | $120 |
| Ezine #2: | 30% | 1000 | $100 | $230 |
| Ezine #3: | 30% | 1000 | $100 | $340 |
| Total: | - | 3000 | $300 | $690 |
All three ads were profitable. The response rate and conversion were close. But Ezine #3 brought the most cash. So if you were going to put half your profits back into advertising, where would you put it?
Let's say you are going to put $400 into advertising this time... 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.
You could buy two more solo ads in ezine #3 or you could place a different ad in ezine #2 to see if it pulls better. But you're probably not going to waste too much time with ezine #1 (although I wouldn't discount it because it did produce a profit).
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 :o).
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.
