Mike - Part 2 of Ezine/Newsletter Advertising Tutorial

[You are receiving this email as an AdMinder subscriber. Removal instructions found at bottom]. Dear Mike, In my last email to you, we began discussing the topic of ezine and newsletter advertising. I let you know about a few key places on the web where you can determine WHERE you should advertise. I also spoke about a few things you should "watch out" for, like: Who's subscribing to the newsletter? What's actually in the newsletter? Any sponsor ads? Ezine/Newsletter Advertising Tutorial - PART 2 Let's continue with the second part and finish up with the following topics: Subscribe First, Pay Later The More The Merrier Testing = More Profits & Less Losses Subscribe First, Pay Later Before you pay for your classified or sponsor ad, it may be a good idea for you to take a look at the newsletter at least one time. The best way to insure satisfaction is first subscribe to the newsletter of choice and then read through a few of the issues to get a feel for everything (you can do this by simply sending an email to the publisher and asking for a "sample" issue.). Sometimes, the website will have an area for past newsletters or "archives". Take a look... read some of the articles... look at the classified ads and see if you're comfortable with the "environment". Also, one simple trick you can use to see how successful a newsletter is for the advertisers, is by watching all the classified ads for a few issues. If you see ads repeated, issue after issue, chances are that the newsletter is working for these advertisers. (Not too many people are going to continually pay for ads, issue after issue, if they weren't making a profit off of them!). The More The Merrier One question I get asked a lot is, "What's better, a newsletter with low or high subscriber count?" Usually, the higher the total subscriber count, the better response you'll get... But this isn't always the case. As stated above, you'll get your best responses from very targeted newsletters that are 100% opt-in, with 1-2 informative and original articles containing only 10-15 total classified ads. Of course, the higher the subscriber count... the higher the price will be for your ad. But, as always, to get a definitive answer to any question you have to TEST. I've had incredible results with a couple newsletters that only contained 6,000-8,000 subscribers... and I've also had almost no results with newsletters containing over 250,000+ subscribers. (Test, test and then retest!) Testing = More Profits & Less Losses Before getting started, I need to emphasize the most important factor between you and success... and that's TESTING! In a minute, I'm going to give you step-by-step "rules" for getting the most out of your time and money, while keeping your losses down to zero! Regardless of how much money you currently have or make, the last thing I want you to do is lose money or make a bad investment when it comes to advertising and promoting. So, read the below steps carefully and take notes! 1. Classified Ads The first you want to do is start small! Place 2-4 classified ads in the online newsletters/ezines... and wait for the results. How were they? Good Results: See which of the ads gave you good results and make a note of it. What you can do next is continue to place more ads in the newsletters/ezines that were profitable... or go to the next level and try out a sponsor ad (if it is offered). If a classified ad is profitable in a particular newsletter/ezine, chances are a sponsor ad will make you even MORE money! Bad Results: If one (or all) of your ads were not profitable, then it's time to evaluate the situation. Did your ad even go through properly (sometimes, the publisher forgets to place your ad and it never gets sent out)?... Did you place the correct URL link in the ad (I've misspelled my own URL on numerous occasions!)?... If you've done your "damage-control" checks, and everything in the ad was fine, then chances are that the newsletter/ezine you placed your ad in was either NOT targeted well, or it just sucked! Now, you have two options - The first is to do a sponsor ad (if it is offered) because even though a classified ad may fail, a sponsor ad may turn out to be profitable. If you do decide to test out a sponsor ad in the ezine, just do ONE test to see if it really is the fact that the newsletter is bad or if it's just something else. The second step is to make a note of the "poor" results and to NEVER advertise in that newsletter/ezine again. 2. Sponsor Ads After you've done the above step one, you can start experimenting with sponsor ads. If you recall, sponsor ads are similar to classifieds, except that they are all by themselves, usually at the very top of the ezine... so they don't get lost with all the other classified ads. Because they get the "spot" light, they are a more effective form of advertising... but they are also more costly. So, once you've tried and experimented with the above classified advertising tactic, and you are more comfortable, more confident and have made some of your investment back, proceed to sponsor advertising. Test small... only 1-3 sponsor ads, wait for the results and depending on if the results were good or bad, you'll know if you have a winner or loser on your hands. Follow the same steps as I mentioned above for the classified advertising tactics. 3. Solo Mailings One last tactic you can use is to have the editor/publisher of an ezine, send out a special "solo" mailing to all of his current subscribers. This is by far the most effective tactic... but with everything else, it also costs a lot more money. Don't even consider solo mailings until you've done both classified and sponsorship advertising (or at least one of them and you've received good results). You can make and definitely lose a lot of money if the solo mailing does badly. There is a lot more risk involved, so proceed with caution! Not all ezine publishers offer solo mailings. In fact, most don't. So, chances are after you've done all of your research and testing, you'll probably need to contact the publisher directly and ask them if they do offer such a service. Most of the time, if they do at all, it needs to be reserved in advance. If your solo mailing turns out to be profitable, wait about 3-6 weeks before sending out another solo mailing to the same list. NOTE: With classified ads... or even sponsor ads, repeated advertisings bring in MORE sales. Usually, the potential customer needs to see your classified/sponsor ad a few times before they order. But, with solo mailings, one shot is all you need. Sending out too many, too often is counter productive. Send out a solo mailing, wait for the results... use other promotional tactics... wait some more... then you may want to try another solo mailing 3-6 weeks later. As always, TEST... TEST... TEST! There you have it... a very comprehensive tutorial on newsletter/ezine advertising. I highly recommend you reread this information a few times so it really becomes absorbed and you fully understand it. Please, don't be like other people who just read and NEVER TAKE ACTION! You may need to reread the information again, but taking action is the most important ingredient in success. Right now, sit down and write out a simple ezine ad and figure out a way to track it and then follow through! Warmest Regards, Sam Robbins Founder AdMinder P.S. By the way, I cover numerous additional ways of promoting - both free and paid - in my article "How To START & PROMOTE Any Business". Click the below button and see if you can benefit from any of the tactics. Removal Instructions: You are subscribed to the AdMinder Free Web Advertising Course. Click here to remove yourself from this list.