My Response to: Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-16 Tips To Boost Your Profits Author: Greg Root

You may read Greg's original article here

Greg writes:

In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.

Ok, I understand the concept of targeted advertising, but we can't catgorize people in one neat box. For example, I could have an interest in personal health, chess and fishing. Today, I could look for the best chess software ..., tommorow, I may look for the hottest lure or fishing combo. Folks DO have a diverse set of interests :) Why limit your exposure to what you THINK may be your target audience?

The idea of EA is fairly simple - but to make yours a success,you have to first determine which ezines or newsletters produce results, and which ones to avoid.

After a year and a half of EA, I've created a formula that produces increasing profit because I've learned how to avoid poor performing ezines and rip offs, while revealing the gems.

Strategy for Profit

I used to get ripped off about once for every 2 or 3 ezines I advertised in. They either took my money without running my ad (and ignored my subsequent emails), or my proven ads did too poorly for the money I paid.

Ok, I DO understand your frustration, your aggravation. There ARE publishers who take the money and run. However, your wording almost seems to imply that ALL publishers do this, which isn't true. You stated in your opening that (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today. While I DO under and appreciate the need to be cautious, it seems that you may be touting exine advertising as a potential rip-off. "Proven Ads" CAN get old ... and then become LESS effective ... this isn't the publishers fault :)

The reasons ranged from abandoned ezines with working payment links, unethical newsletter owners, to a lot of ignorance and impatience on my part.

Up to now, You mostly haven't found the RIGHT ezines / owners. You will also need to be teachable AND open minded. I've been in the ezine advertising field for 4 + years now. I DO recognize a good ad, as well as a poorly written one. I'm now learning HOW to detect ads that have FTC guideline concerns. Do you know IF your ad complies? Do you know IF your website complies AND has ALL the proper disclaimers? A lot of folks seem to make the assumtion that because a known internet marketer is associated with the program or product, that the provided sales copy is OK as is. I have to disagree ... don't assume ANYTHING! Educate yourself. The FTC website, IMO, should be bookmarked. http://www.ftc.gov

If you follow my proven strategy, you'll discover the best sources of ezines to advertise in - no matter who your target group is. And, you should see positive results every time.

This article outlines the steps to making your EA a successful return on investment (ROI).

Writing Your Ad

I won't go into details about ad writing, but if your ad is poorly written or untested, you should start with the cheapest ezines first. If you're really unsure of your writing abilities, I further suggest hiring a professional to write your ad for you.

Now, I have to whole heartedly disagree here ... why pay for adspace to test THEN hire a professional? Why would you chose to invest $50, only to have a sinking feeling "well, I HOPE this works, but I don't expect much."? Wouldn't a satisfaction guarantee for your advertising be a BETTER investment? Where YOU decide IF you're satisfied with the results ... or not. Why wouldn't we invest in a professional FIRST, and THEN invest in advertising? Granted, budgets CAN be tight, but I WILL work with any size budget.

Because you can run your ad as many times as you want, your investment in a professional will more than pay for itself in the end.

Ok, I recommend http://flashyads.com .... send me ONE five line ad and I'll have it 'flashed' for you.

Target your advertising

If you leap into EA without first researching your target group, you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money. Plus, you probably miss some of the best ezines available.

To determine who your prospect is, take the time to list the possible keywords that directly relate to your product and do keyword searches for ezines, newsletters, and ezine directories.

For example, if you sell herbs, a good keyword search would include: herbs, health, nutrition, supplements, etc.

Avoid Co-ops

While doing your ezine research, you will probably stumble upon the offer to use Co-op (bulk) advertising as the means for your EA.

To be blunt, you should never pay to use Co-ops for your EA because they are too difficult to track and usually contain untargeted ezines. Worse still, you'd find that most never run your ad.

Well, I don't care much for the cheap co-ops ... publishers are required to check the ad AND website for FTC friendliness. Some ads are SO poor ... have SO many unproven claims. With CAN Spam, publishers should be getting a "confirmed consent" digitally signed form from the subscriber, IMO

Subscribe

Now that you've found your ezine target group, you'll want to know whether the ezines you found are a good option (i.e.profitable) for your EA.

I've found the best strategy for making this determination is to subscribe to the targeted ezines.

To keep the subscriptions readily available for further research,I recommend creating a separate folder to store your subscription data.

And because you'll need to subscribe to quite a few ezines, I also suggest creating separate email accounts dedicated to your ezine subscriptions.

A lot of folks that use the cheap co-ops will use "disposable" email addresses ... Yahoo is one. They keep the account open long enough to have the ad run, then they abandon the account. I sincerely doubt the subscriber could read EVERY ezine they get from purchasing an ad from a co-op.

Double Opt-In Subscriptions

In the process of subscribing, you'll quickly determine
possible ezines to avoid. When you subscribe and get a notice that you must confirm your subscription, the ezine is referred to as 'double opt-in'.

Could you give more detail on your first statement? How do YOU determine the ezines to avoid by the subscribing process?

Double opt-in ezines indicates a better quality of subscribers with a lower risk of bulk email addresses. For you and me, this means better ad responses (yeah!).

Solo Ads

Within the first week of your new ezine subscription, you should see solo ads from other advertisers. If not, the ezine may be too new, or worse, no one is advertising because of poor results. Worse yet, the ezine took the advertiser's money and failed to run the ad.

I don't think the last sentence belongs here ... While I know you've been burned in the past from unethical publishers, it almost seems like you may have a negative attitude with ezine publishers.

On the other hand, if you see two or more solo ads a day, their list is probably burned out due to over advertising. You're looking for no more than one ad a day, or a minimum of one ad a week. Keep watching!

Subject Line

Does the ezine put the advertiser's subject line in the subject of the email or do they just say something like "Solo ad from xyz ezine"?

Your subject line is the most important part of your ad
and definitely should be in the subject of the email. No subject line equals no response.

I generally agree here ... some call the subject line a "headline". However, SHORT ads NEED a headline too.

Advertiser Response

Repeat (or regular) advertisers in an ezine is a very good sign that the subscribers are responsive. To further test responsiveness, I recommend looking through the ezine's online archives (if available).

You could also request a recent issue IF they have no archives.

Archives are previous email publications that the publisher has posted to their website for visitors to view. The archive search is not only quick and easy, but archives can also provide an extra trickle of visitors when your ad gets archived.

Testimonial Page

After passing the above steps, see if your prospective ezine has a testimonial page. If the ezine has gotten this far, chances are it will.

Waiting Period

Another indicator of responsive subscribers is the waiting period to run an ad in the chosen ezine. If the waiting period is a month or more, this indicates a very popular ezine with responsive readers. You've uncovered a real gem!

Web Forms

I've found that the better ezines have web forms that get your ad to the publisher's inbox and usually send auto confirmation of receipt. If there is no web form, try emailing the publisher a question first, like when the next ad run date is.

No response may indicate a poor choice in the ezine, or your email was filtered or blocked as spam. Wait at least 2 days and try emailing again using a different email account.

If your emails still don't get through, neither will your ad.(Ironically, your payment always go through). Trust me, if they fail to communicate, save your money and time and move on.

Also look for a phone number ON the website AND in the emails... another FTC requirement

Free Classifieds

If the ezine offers free classifieds, this is another good
place to run your ad. Since classifieds usually don't produce responses, any activity from your ad here would further indicate an active readership.

This will depend on your ad. So many folks use the ads that the affiliate programs hand out ... those are "herd ads". These ads quickly lose their effectiveness, even IF they're well written

Ad Tracking

Never advertise without using an ad tracker. You can purchase one, or better, use one of the many available online for free. Adtrackers give you a url that you use in place of your website address.

The new url gives you important information like how many visitors you had, where they came from, and some list the number of sales per visitor.

This tracking information is crucial to the direction of your ad campaign because you'll learn of the need to change your ad and/or the sales page. More importantly, you'll know for certain whether the ezine produced enough visitors for the advertising price you paid.

Again, wouldn't a satisfaction guarantee be better? Look at advertising as an investment NOT a "cost". Usually, a long term campaign is best ... would you rather have a one time "ad blast", OR ... an extended campaign that may last 6 months or a year?

Run Your Ad Twice

If your ad produced a great response, wait a week or two and run the ad again in the same ezine. I've found you'll probably get as good if not better results the second time around.

I would advise against running the ad a third time in a row because most of your prospects will be found in the first two runs.

This will depend on the ad. Some well known folks say it may take the ad being exposed seven times BEFORE an action is taken. This of course depends on how well the webpage that the ad leads to ... sells!

Using a Capture Page or Auto-Responder

To maximize your efforts, you want to "capture" your visitors so you can send them additional information about your product,related merchandise, and pertinent updates.

This is done with a capture page that provides a place for visitors to put their name and email address. There are different methods to accomplish this and you may want to hire someone to do it for you, if you're not comfortable installing scripts on your website.

You might also want to send your visitor directly to your autoresponder, where you have a series of messages set up to "warm and inform" your prospect about your product or service.

Rotating Ads

Once your ad has been tested and you have a base of 5-10 solid, performing ezines, start rotating your ad between your ezines.

You can also change headlines to extend the life of your ads

For optimal results, make sure 2-3 months have passed before running your ad in the same publication. Keep building your base and watch your profits grow!

WHY 2-3 MONTHS?? Some folks will monitor the ezines to see how OFTEN someone advertises ... to see IF the advertiser is serious about WHAT they promote. Remember, all of my comments are my OPINIONS ONLY.

About The Author: Greg Root has been using ezine advertising almost exclusively since 2003 and owns andmaintains 'The Ezine Ad TesterĀ©' at http://www.maxprofitpro.com/. See the results of his ezine advertising campaigns to find the best ezine marketing resources on the internet.