Successful Advertising

Most folks starting out on the Internet have tried freeclassified ads sites and they usually get hit by peopletrying to sell you stuff. Or, they get into the top twentyresults in the Search Engines, and a week later drop tonumber 164.

The Internet, the largest market in human history, hasmillions of folks in its audience. How do you reach thosefolks?

EZINE ADVERTIZING The best way of reaching your targetaudience.

Email newsletters, or 'ezines', are sent out regularly tosubscribers, or 'opt-in' lists. Folks who have 'chosen' toreceive a newsletter, like the one you're reading right now.You get results when people read the ezines, read your ad,and, if you have matched the ezine with the product you'reselling, you have reached your target audience.

Ad swap services offer you access to many other folks whowould be interested in swapping ads with you. All you do issign up with them and they send you emails with names andads. You then contact these folks, negotiate your bestoffer, and VIOLA ! Your ad is seen in their ezine.

http://www.partenon.com
http://www.MyWizardAds.com
http://www.Noozles.com
http://www.adsmarket.biz
http://www.Links-For-You.com

"THE" most important rule in ezine advertising "Track YourAds!". If You place your ad in 5 different ezines and get ahundred responses, how are you going to know which ezinesbrought you which responce? Or how many they brought you?And, most importantly, which ones were not performing?

But how do you track your ads?

The simplest way to track your ads, is to place a key or acode at the end of your email address. If your ad was in anezine with the name 'FREEZINE', you might use the followingemail address with the ad:

mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=FREEZINE

Then, when you get a reply with 'FREEZINE' in the subjectfield, you'd know which ezine it came from.

For a URL, same principle:

http://www.yourdomain.com?FREEZINE

However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll need asophisticated webstats program to track the coded URLs. Check out this page for some free webstat programs -

http://www.thefreecountry.com/scripthosting/webstatistics.shtml

Another way to code your URLs, for every ezine ad, create aduplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezinethat your ad will appear in. If the ad is appearing in EzineA, the URL you'd place in that ad would be:

http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA

Again, you'll need to use a good web stats program to trackthe hits to your coded URLs.

Look at the ads in the ezines you read. Why are they there?Do they get results? How can you find out?

Subscribe to a number of ezines that target your audience.If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue after issue, youcan be pretty sure that its getting results and you've found agood ezine to advertise in. (A lot of ezines offer archiveissues. Check there for repeat ads.)

How many ads are in the ezine? Are you going to be lost inan ezine farm at the bottom of the newsletter? The bigezines, with 1000's of subscribers, tend to have more adsthan their smaller counterparts. Those with 15 or 20 ads perissue, may not give you as much responce as those with fewerads. Sometimes readers get hardened to the ads and learn toskip them. Smaller ezines, with only a few hundredsubscribers, may have a much more targeted audience.

Does the ezine publisher run ads for two similar products inthe same issue? Why not go straight to the horse's mouth andfind out? A simple email asking that question, if not statedin the ezine, should tell you what you want to know. If yourad is the only one of its kind in that particular issue,it's a pretty good bet it will be much more effective.

Research shows, an ad has to be seen on the Internet about 9times, before someone acts on it.

"Repeat Your Ads!"

If your budget allows, and believe me, I understand aboutbudgets, but that's a later story, repeat your ad at leastthree times in a particular ezine. Some ezines offerdiscount packages for bulk advertising. Ezine advertising iscost effective. A 5-line ad to 3,000 people will cost youbetween $5 and $20 per issue. and you'll always get back atleast the cost of the ad, and usually much more. So, there'svery little risk.

Next, "Target Your Audience". Some advertisers don't payattention to this. As obvious as it may seem. A marketingcourse dosen't belong in an ezine that deals with gardening.I'll bet you a dime to a doughnut, they won't be interested.

Use the 'subject categories' in the ezine directory you'rethinking of advertizing in, that relates to the productyou're selling. You can find a list of ezine directories in'The Free Directory of Ezines' at:

http://www.netmastersolutions.com

The jury is still out on the next item. "Email address vs.URL". Email address's allow you to send a sales letter to thereceipient. And, as we explained above, they're much easierto track. URL'S on the other hand, allow the receipient towander through your web site, if that's your URL, and lookat other items that may interest them.

If you offer "FREE" in your ad copy, it just might change yourreaders mind. Free is always a good persuader.

Short ads are more likely to be read even if you're notusing the number of words you're allowed. Sentences willpack much more power if you keep them short too. Andremember to tell your reader what your product can do for"them".

Currently there are around 90,000 ezines published eachmonth. Whatever you're selling, there's an ezine that willreach your target audience.

Learn from experience. It's a process of trial and error.Keep placing your ads in those ezines that you know arebringing you a high response rate and you'll have aguaranteed stream of customers.

---------------------------------------------------------------

All the Best...

jerry durham lonestar enterprises - opportunity to succeedhttp://www.freewebs.com/opportunity_to_succeed/
5705 marvin loving dr suite 202garland, tx 75043

---------------------------------------------------------------

"OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED NEWSLETTER"Ideas you need to start, manage & grow your online business! Strategies,downloads, & articles written by professionals.
mail to: InfoEzineOptnRequest@sendfree.comhttp://www.freewebs.com/opportunity_to_succeed/

About the author:

jerry durham has been in business as "OPPORTUNTIY TOSUCCEED" since the fall of 2003. We offer ideas you need tostart, manage & grow your online business with strategies,downloads, & articles written by professionals.
mail to:InfoEzineOptnRequest@sendfree.com