Newsletter,
EZines,
or whatever you want
to call them, oh my...
If you haven’t already, start by diving into the section on
List Building, then come back here when
you’ve already covered that ground.
OK: Welcome back.
The majority of the time, when we’re talking about
Newsletters and EZines, it’s in reference to a website. The
website serves as the attractor of visitors, and there are
often subscription offers on every page of the web site and/or
on pop-ups, offering inducements to people to provide their
name and e-mail address. Often, the inducement is in the
form of a newsletter or EZine. It’s a method of building a
list of names and e-mail addresses, and of maintaining a great
relationship with the people on the list, with the intention
that you can convert that relationship into sales of your
product(s) or of products for which you are an Affiliate.
However, be aware that you don’t have to do it that way.
Although it’s rare, there are people who make a nice income,
on very rare occasions even a full-time living, simply out of
their EZine, without a formal web site whatsoever. (Although
today, the EZine is often backed-up by a Blog.)
- In some cases, the EZine IS the focal point; the web
site exists only to attract subscribers, and they may well
charge a subscription fee for the Newsletter or EZine
itself … although you had better be sure it’s providing
real value if you’re going to do that.
- Almost all EZine and newsletter owners with serious
subscription levels charge for advertising in the
newsletter or EZine. This just plain makes sense;
newsletters and EZines are usually highly targeted to a
specific market, and others are willing to pay to have
access to that market.
- Newsletters and EZines are also an excellent vehicle to
promote products where you have an Affiliate arrangement
with a merchant. They give you the justification for
repeated mail-outs to your List. This can be more than
lucrative ... it can be VERY lucrative.
- They can also be an excellent vehicle for
promoting a product where you are in a Joint Venture with
the product’s owner.
Whichever way you go, you’ll find the same kind of issues
arising.
One of the biggest, these days, is the growing problem of
getting your EZine delivered. The explosion of Spam means many
spam filters flag perfectly good EZines, aimed at Double-Opt-in
recipients, and kill them before the intended recipient knows
anything about it.
This has prompted a lot of different strategies and tactics;
there are ways to check whether your e-mail passes the Spam
filter tests, for example, before you send it. And more and
more EZines are being backed up with a Blog; the main EZine is
sent out, but soon after it is followed by a simple e-mail,
designed to easily pass through the Spam filters, which says
something like “If you didn’t receive my EZine, then click here
to see what you missed.” And the link is almost always to a
Blog, where the newsletter owner posts the entire article and
invites comments.
In addition to these tactics, you’ll find hot discussions on
a lot of other issues.
Should you have a plain text e-mail newsletter, or a
fancy one using html code, with a header, perhaps some
graphics, colors, etc?
You’ll find passionate supporters of both. Many Spam filters
are very quick on the trigger with html EZines more than text
newsletters, it seems; but others will tell you that, having
been delivered, the html versions will be read all the way
through much more often than a plain text one. But then that
begs debate about the quality of the copy, and … so on.
The real answer? Use a list management service that allows
you to track deliverable rates, track open rates, then test,
test, test.
Which day of the week should you send your
EZine?
There ARE major differences in the rates in which people
open newsletters, for example.
Where should you place your promotional
material?
You’ll see arguments for having it first (but you’re asking
for a high rate of unsubscribes), last (but how many people
will read all that way?), or somewhere in the middle,
interrupting the flow of the content (my preference, but not
that common).
Should you go with long copy (lots of content) or
short copy?
I listened to Jim Edwards interview a fellow a while ago,
where the guest was explaining the results of a test; against
all their intuition (and Jim Edwards's intuition is better than
most … which still makes it worth spit in comparison to
actually conducting a test!) when the copy was shortened, it
performed better in terms of being read, AND causing clicks
through to the web page carrying the promotional product.
Shortened again … and the response improved again. Right along
to the situation where it appeared that basically a greeting, a
useful tip, and a promotional offer, were the ideal
newsletter!
Now I have to tell you that having read this, I’m still
seeing mostly long copy from the Pros. But it’s worth testing.
The optimum direction obviously depends on the type of EZine or
newsletter you have, the target audience, your relationship
with them, etc.
IF You Want To Learn How To Do This
Right...
As always, you can find a lot of free material on EZines and
newsletters just by searching the ‘Net.
If, however, you are seriously interested in a
high-performing newsletter or EZine, interested enough to want
to learn from the professionals, then I have a couple of
recommendations.
First of all, subscribe to Christopher Knight’s free
newsletter at email Universe; his web site, Blog and
EZines are packed with useful information. And you can
actually observe a successful EZine in action, as well as
learning from his material.
Then wander along to another of his pages, where he offers a
huge wealth of information in the form of articles and
EZine Tips. You'll start to see the
breadth of topics that are worthy of discussion in this
field.
Also, subscribe to the free E-zine Tips offered by
Alexandria Brown, who goes by the handle The EZine
Queen.
Then, if you want an in-depth course in managing an EZine,
consider one of Ms Brown’s products. She knows of what she
speaks … she earns a very nice income from EZines. In the
neighbourhood of tens of thousands of dollars a
month, which is a very nice neighbourhood. But I’ll warn
you, her know-how doesn’t come cheap; she knows what her
knowledge is worth, and she prices it accordingly.
Her flagship product is Boost Business with your own E-zine, and
it's without question the best of the breed. If you want to
get into the EZine business, this is simply invaluable.
It’s not inexpensive at US$247 (I warned you). Why would
anyone pay that? The answer is in the arithmetic. The odds are
that implementing just ONE of the thousands of suggestions in
her material will pay for the book handsomely. Just a handful
of new customers would probably repay that investment
completely, and anyone applying Ms Brown’s strategies is pretty
much guaranteed to a do a LOT better than that (or your money
back, for up to 12 months). If you're starting from scratch,
getting you up and running a few weeks earlier than you would
otherwise have done will probably recover your investment just
from that benefit alone. Her material is comprehensive, and
detailed, with lots of goodies that will save you a LOT of
time. Check out the testimonials on her site … there are
people who will have recovered their investment in days,
realistically, with the boosts in subscription rates that they
point to.
Summary of Resources mentioned on this
page
email Universe - sign -up for
Christoper Knight's free EZine, it's always informative
EZine Tips - free, valuable tips
and articles from Christopher Knight
free E-zine Tips - sign up for
Alexandria Brown's free newsletter and tips, always
valuable
Boost Business with your own E-zine -
Alexandria Brown's excellent step-by-step guide to profiting
from an EZine
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