You Have Won!
Hold an ongoing prize drawing in your e-zine. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your subscribers. Most people who enter will continually read each issue for the results.
100% Original
Give your subscribers content they can’t read anywhere else. I’m not saying all your content has to be 100% original, but a portion of your e-zine should have original information. People will usually read information they haven’t read before.
Was I Right?
Give your subscribers a quiz or a series of trivia questions. Publish the correct answers in your following issue. The people who participate will want to see if they were right.
Read All About It!
Supply news stories related to your e-zine’s topic. People want current and up-to-date news. If you can be their first source, they will become loyal readers.
The Polls Are In!
Hold an interactive poll in your e-zine. Ask subscribers a poll question. Have them e-mail their vote or opinion. People love to give their 2 cents worth. They would also like to read the results in your next issue.
Become A Jester :)
Give your subscribers a little humor now and then. Don’t be so serious, tell them a joke. If they associate your e-zine with being happy they will want to read every issue.
The Information Free-way
People love to get free stuff. Tell readers were to get free stuff online or offline. It could be software, services, sample products, e-books etc. The freebies should be related to your e-zine’s topic. Keep the freebies coming and your subscribers will keep reading!
Mini-Yahoo
Tell your subscribers about Web sites related to your e-zine’s topic. The web sites should be interesting and helpful. Become your readers miniature “Yahoo”, you know how many readers they get.
In Our Next Issue…
Get your subscribers excited about your next issue. Tell them about upcoming articles, prize drawings, freebies etc. If they know what’s in store for them, they won’t want to miss reading your next issue.
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. And you can, too!
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....
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