What exactly is an e-zine? Well, an e-zine is short for “electronic magazine.” It is usually emailed to people though it can be in the form of a web page with a member\’s login.

The first thing you need to understand is why somebody would sign up for an e-zine or news letter. This all comes down to why people even surf the Internet in the first place.

They\’re looking for information.

This information can be anything from looking for a natural treatment for acne to trying to find directions for building a bird house. If you go to any search engine and type in just about anything, you will literally find millions of results on most topics. Yes, there is a lot of information out there.

But what if somebody wants a lot of information? What if they\’re interested, not only in natural treatments for acne, but natural treatments for a number of ailments? Imagine how they\’d feel if they saw something like this on the Internet.

“Natural Health E-Zine…Get your weekly e-zine news letter where we cover a different health issue each week.”

A person looking for such a resource has just struck gold. Don\’t you think that they\’re going to sign up for that e-zine quicker than you can say “Bob\’s you uncle?” You better believe they will. Okay, you\’re probably thinking now something along the lines of “Okay, but so what? How does this do anything for me to send somebody an e-zine on a weekly basis? What do I get out of it?”

What follows in the next few articles are a boat full of things that you can get out of offering your own e-zine.

The point is, once you\’ve gotten these people to opt-in, as we call it, you now have the opportunity to occasionally (and I do stress the word occasionally) send them an offer for something to buy from you. We\’ll touch on how often to do this later in this series. Publishing your own e-zine and building a list is actually building your business. So now we\’re going to show you just how to do that so that you become an expert at e-zine advertising.

What this does is establish you as an expert in your field as well. As your subscribers get your information, they\’ll start to see how knowledgeable you are and will begin to respect you for that knowledge.

Plus, and this is something most people don\’t realize, but offering your own e-zine, you actually get educated yourself. It\’s unlikely that you will know everything off the top of your head. This is going to make research necessary. As you research, you learn. The more you learn, the better you get at your business.

Jake Riley operates an internet Marketing review center available at http://www.GurusLab.com - The site was designed to offer uncensored reviews of all the latest product launches, WSO\’s, marketing services and products from new marketers and seasoned pros.

This is where most people are tripped up right out of the gate. The truth is, this is no different from coming up with an idea for a product or service. In this case, your e-zine IS your product, and if you want to keep people hanging around for the next issue, you better come up with a solid idea to keep them coming back. This will usually take some thought and a lot of hard work.

So just how DO you come up with ideas for your e-zine?

Well, there are a number of ways.

The first is to go on the Internet and see what e-zines are already out there. If you go to a directory of e-zines, of which there are many, you will see that there are more themes than Imelda Marcos has shoes. What you might want to do is subscribe to a few e-zines in the niche that you are in and see what kind of information they send out in their e-zine newsletters. Don\’t copy it. Just get a feel for what kind of information is sent to subscribers. Also make a note of the format of the e-zine. See if there are any ads in the e-zine or if it\’s strictly content.

While you\’re looking through these e-zines to see what they\’re sending to their subscribers, here\’s something you should do that very few people even think of. I\’m just giving you the benefit of my years of experience here with this subject.

Look to see what\’s NOT in the e-zine.

Of course each topic is going to be self contained and therefore you\’re not going to see every piece of information that exists in each e-zine. But, over time, you will start to notice things that the e-zine publisher does NOT cover.

Why is this important?

Because this is potentially a market to exploit and take advantage of.

For example, let\’s say you subscribe to an e-zine on Internet advertising and you notice that in all the issues, the publisher never once brought up the subject of article writing for the purpose of advertising. This could be a chance for you to capture that corner of the market.

How?

Simple. Start an e-zine for aspiring writers. Show them how they can turn their writing into profit not just by selling their works, but also by using their writing to promote other products and services. Teach them how to do a product review among many other things.

You could very well come up with an e-zine that reaches a wide audience.

Coming up with original e-zine ideas is not easy, but it doesn\’t have to be excruciatingly difficult either. By doing a little research and thinking outside the box, you can come up with ideas for your e-zine that could very well make you one of the most popular e-zines on the Internet.

Jake Riley operates an internet Marketing review center available at http://www.GurusLab.com - The site was designed to offer uncensored reviews of all the latest product launches, WSO\’s, marketing services and products from new marketers and seasoned pros.

This has been a problem that has been plaguing e-zine owners since the beginning of time.

Do I have single or double opt-in for my e-zine?

Well, let\’s first go over how each type works before we try to answer that question.

Single opt-in is where you send a subscriber to an opt-in box where they plug in their email and name and click submit. From that very moment that they hit that submit button they are automatically subscribed to your e-zine.

Double opt-in goes one step farther. After they fill in their information and hit the submit button, they will then get what is called a confirmation email sent to their in box. In order to get into your e-zine as a subscriber, they have to click a link in that confirmation email, otherwise, they are not subscribed to your e-zine.

That is the difference between single and double opt-in.

Now, to those of you who are new to this game, you might be thinking that double opt-in is an extra, useless step that only makes it harder for people to opt-in. What if they don\’t get their email? What if they don\’t know how to click on the link? What if they\’re afraid to click on the link because of a virus or Trojan or something?

What it they give a phony email address?

Ah, are the lights coming on?

Unfortunately, many people out there want something for nothing. If you offer an e-zine, especially if you are offering a free gift for people who sign up, you are going to get a certain percentage who will give a phony email address just to get to the download page where they can get their free gift.

Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, that\’s not so terrible. So they got a free gift out of me? So what?”

Well, there\’s still one more problem with this scenario. See, not only did they get the free gift out of you but they also gave you a phony email address. Remember that? But what if it\’s NOT a phony address? It may not be THEIR email address, but it MAY belong to somebody else.

Are the lights coming on a little bit more?

What do you think is going to happen when this person, whoever they are, a person who doesn\’t know you or your e-zine from Adam, gets YOUR e-zine in THEIR email?

Can you say “spam button?”

And they would be perfectly within their rights. Remember, they didn\’t ask for your e-zine to be sent to them so as far as they are concerned, it IS spam. In other words, with single opt-in, you are risking having your business shut down because of spam complaints.

Yes, with double opt-in you are going to lose some potential subscribers because they either won\’t want to click on the link, don\’t know how to click on a link, or don\’t even get your email. But if you\’re using a good autoresponder service, the problem of email delivery is the last thing you have to worry about.

Naturally, it\’s your decision to use either single or double opt-in. I just personally don\’t recommend using single opt-in as it opens up the potential for way too many problems.

Jake Riley operates an internet Marketing review center available at http://www.GurusLab.com - The site was designed to offer uncensored reviews of all the latest product launches, WSO\’s, marketing services and products from new marketers and seasoned pros.

How Often Should You Send Out Your Newsletter?

Okay, your e-zine is done, it\’s listed in the directory and you\’re starting to get subscribers. You\’re so excited that you can\’t wait to get your messages out to them.

Don\’t Send It!

Sit back and take a deep breath. I know you\’re excited and you want to start making some money. But the last thing you want to do is get your subscribers running for the unsubscribe link, or worse, the spam button.

Let me explain.

Even though these people have opted into your e-zine, they do have lives outside of Internet marketing. Unlike you, they don\’t live and breathe every minute of the day to make a buck. And even if they did, they\’ve got other things to do besides reading your e-zine. That is only going to be one part of their day.

So the question we need to ask is simple.

How often do we send our e-zine to our subscribers? Do we email daily? Do we send them a message once a week? Do we contact them only once a month? Do we tell them when they sign up how often the e-zine is going to be published? Do we tell them that there may be occasional special issues? Do we tell them anything at all about the frequency of the e-zine? Why, or why not?

Well, let\’s look at what happens if you do tell your subscribers about the frequency of the e-zine.

Let\’s for argument sake say that you\’ve decided that you\’re going to publish your e-zine on a daily basis. Everyday they are going to get a new tip or piece of news on something. What do you think the person, who thought that this was going to be a weekly or monthly e-zine is going to do? He\’s going to opt out before he ever gets his first issue. This person is going to be GONE.

Conversely, what about the person who is expecting a daily e-zine? If he finds out that your e-zine is monthly, he\’s going to be very upset because he was probably expecting more information on a more regular basis. He may not unsubscribe, since he wants whatever he can get, but he\’s not going to be a very happy camper and probably won\’t become a paying customer of yours.

But what if you don\’t mention the frequency at all? Well, you\’re probably going to get some people wondering if they\’re going to get overrun with spam 10 times a day.

As you can see, this isn\’t an easy question to answer. Well, actually it is. See, a lot of study has gone into this problem and most of the evidence points to not sending your e-zine too often, but often enough to keep your subscribers thinking about you.

Personally, I send my e-zine once a week. Some people send their e-zines twice a week, and that\’s fine. But I wouldn\’t send them an email any more often than that. This way, they don\’t forget who you are and at the same time, they\’re not overrun with emails.

E-zine frequency is a tricky subject and easy to err on the side of harassment. But if you follow the above tips, you shouldn\’t have too much trouble with your subscriber base. Just make sure you include the frequency of your e-zine in your description at the e-zine directories. That way, if it\’s too often or not often enough, they have the option of simply passing on it.

Better that than having somebody hit the spam button.

Jake Riley operates an internet Marketing review center available at http://www.GurusLab.com - The site was designed to offer uncensored reviews of all the latest product launches, WSO\’s, marketing services and products from new marketers and seasoned pros.

Outlook 2007 Email Issues

For those of you creating and sending email newsletters there are some changes to the way Outlook 2007 will display your newsletters. Most Outlook users are probably still using a previous version but that will be changing soon. Here are some of the changes to Outlook 2007.

• Limited or no support for background images and background colors. These will be stripped out or won’t display consistently, so if you’re used to using either, you’ll want to adjust.
• No support for forms. This could be an embedded survey which will now have to be a link to a form on a website.
• Background colors in nested tables won’t display, only the highest level table background color will be applied.
• No support for animated gif files.
• No support for floats. This is used for positioning elements.

Previous to Outlook 2007, there were 2 different rendering engines for Outlook; Internet Explorer (IE) was for reading the email content and Word for composing messages. So Microsoft decided to be consistent and use Word for both reading and composing. This meant a loss of support for styling that was there for IE and causes adjustments to be made to try and keep the look of email newsletters consistent across various email programs. If you’re using images you’ll still want to make sure you use captions in case the images aren’t displayed. This was the case in Outlook 2003. For newsletters that are very heavy with images, it doesn’t leave any message content given images aren’t displayed properly. Cascading style sheets (CSS) support for Outlook 2007 email newsletters have taken a step backward. For detail about Outlook and Word 2007 HTML and CSS rendering visit Microsoft.com.

Remember to test your email newsletters in as many email applications as possible to insure that your message is displayed consistently by your recipients.

NJE Design (http://www.njedesign.com) is a Michigan web design company specializing in website design, search engine optimization and graphic design.

Self Publishing-The Art of Getting Published I know that up and coming authors struggle in writing great content daily. This is one area in of itself that some writers become clogged. Its a well known fact in the writing industry that finding the right publisher, who is willing to even read the work, is an uphill battle. As a matter of fact, you could say maybe even an impossible task. This leads to frustration as the up and coming artists knows without a doubt that they are writing excellent copy, but no one is taking the time to read that information.

It would seem to me that there are a great many politics that come into play when trying to get work published. This whole process can lead to absolutely no success and can even mean that people who really do have something timely and informative to share with the world, often never get notoriety at all.

In my own writing, I have noticed that it is often times frustrating in getting the information out to the right people. I have often thought to myself that would it not be excellent to find a system that would cut through all the bureaucratic tape and allow me to create the work I know that I can do, plus allow me to get that work published quickly and simply?

Well, I am here to tell you that I have broken new ground in that area. I was fortunate to find a gentleman, his name is Steve Cox, that is assisting me with my journey. Steve is actually a very accomplished software designer and engineer. He is also owner of MediaClick Inc. He is a developer of educational software applications. Steve’s goal is to improve the efficiency of established methods.

Indeed, this is exactly what he has accomplished. His latest project, called the PocketBook is allowing authors like myself to have the ability to first write great and relevant content, then transforming that project into an iPod format. I have to tell you, I am more and more convinced as time goes by that Mr. Cox has the ability to solve the publishing woes for us forever. His system is extremely efficient and easy to use. He even takes this to a different level. His is willing, at a very modest cost, to take your information, both in written and audio and even video format, and house it within an iPod book.

If you catch the vision of this, with the millions of iPod users on this planet today, would it not make perfect sense to allow Steve to put his expertise to work for you, allowing you more freedom to express yourself in written and audio form? I can heartily agree with that statement. I am not a highly technical person, but do consistently write articles, press releases, blog post and forum posts daily. This is how I earn my living as I am a search engine optimization specialist. I know the importance of focus. Steve Cox has cut down the time needed by me to learn another system of promoting by simply using the PocketBook. I sincerely believe that he has hit the mother lode of the self publishing industry with his creative and efficient solution to the publishing woes for all of us.

Butch Hamilton is an SEO/SEM Specialist. Living on the internet has become a way of life…a successful way of life. His talents for obtaining top positions on the search engines have led him to the point in his life where he has always wanted to be.

Says Mr. Hamilton, “Writing has always been my passion. Gone are the days when I placed blatant ads on the internet for exposure. I have found my life’s work in writing articles.

Butch Hamilton’s Quote: “What we think-is what we become.”

Butch Hamilton


806-874-3314

806-205-0648


Skype: butch.hamilton

http://pocketbookmaker.com


http://butchhamiltonsbestdomains.com


http://butchhamiltons-internet-newsletter.com

One of the basic tools today’s on line entrepreneurs simply must have in their promotional strategy is email marketing. Following up with prospects and existing clients with email, either by using autoresponders, or by sending regularly published e-newsletters (ezines), or better yet, a combination of both, produces measurably better results than other types of direct marketing. With the latest advances in technology, it has never been easier to prepare, publish and profit with ezines.

How fast you can expect to see results from email campaigns will depend largely on the type of business you’re running. For example, if you are a life coach, it may take you months to establish a connection with your contacts, until they get to know, like and trust you enough to hire you. However, if you sell real goods, such as vitamins and supplements, your email promotions may produce results immediately.

Unfortunately, many budding entrepreneurs mistakenly think that sending email is free, and that they can simply use their own email program to send email promotions. Wrong! This type of email list management can quickly get you in trouble: with your local ISP, possibly with the law, and, most importantly, with your contacts!

As an ezine marketing coach I see this on a regular basis. People collect hundreds of email addresses from various sources, such as Yellow Pages, chamber of commerce directories, association members lists, etc., and start sending them email promotions from their own PCs. Most beginner e-marketers don’t even know they can put all the addresses into the BCC (blind carbon copy) field, so that everyone’s contact information is hidden from public view.

If you’re thinking of marketing your business or professional practice by email, the first step you need to take is choose the most appropriate Email Publishing System (EPS), or List Management System, as they are sometimes referred to. Please notice that I am not using the word the best, but rather the most appropriate, because the best will mean different things to different people.

Just like it is with anything these days, choosing an EPS can be a bad case of “too-much-choice-itis“. Because they all offer a free trial period or a money-back guarantee, you may think you’re not going to lose money if you make a bad choice. However, if you’re working on launching your business on line, you’ll want to make your first choice the right choice. Your money may be refunded, but your wasted time can’t be replaced.

Here’s an overview of three major players in this area: AWeber, Constant Contact and 1ShoppingCart. I have hands-on experience with all three of them, so this, in a nutshell, is my personal list of their best features.

AWeber

* I like their robust list-management features; absolutely the highest CAN-SPAM compliance, and very high deliverability rates.

* Of course, major feature is unlimited auto-responders, with unlimited follow ups and broadcasts, plus I like their low flat monthly fee for up to 10,000 leads.

* In December 2005 HTML templates were introduced, however, even after the Fall 2006 upgrades to the graphical HTML editor, creating an HTML email is still not as user-friendly as Constant Contact’s mail wizard. However, for those who’d like to use their own HTML code, AWeber offers much greater flexibility and ease of use.

Recommended for: those who either do not sell on line, or have an e-commerce or shopping cart system already in place. AWeber connects nicely with most e-commerce solutions currently available, such as PayPal, ClickBank and 1ShoppingCart, among others.

Constant Contact

* In early 2007 they have completely revamped the email creation wizard, that puts anyone with average computer skills in the captain’s seat of creating a great-looking HTML email, without knowing a bit of HTML. Using the wizard also automatically updates the text-only version of the email.

* Some entrepreneurs will appreciate the ability to import their existing lists without being required to re-confirm every single subscriber (like AWeber does). Subscribers can be re-confirmed “softly,” over time.

* Their tracking features are probably the most detailed and useful out there, although, in my humble opinion, they border on being a Big Brother tool. More on this in an upcoming feature article.

Recommended for: e-marketers who have large lists of existing contacts, or for those who’d like to create their own snazzy HTML emails without hiring an HTML coder or designer.

1ShoppingCart (a.k.a. Kick Start Cart, Auto Web Business)

* What I like best about this system is that it’s a completely modular on line business system, that provides list management, autoresponders and ezines, a shopping cart with credit card processing, on line delivery of your digital products (such as PDF e-books, courses or music in MP3 format, etc.) and an affiliate program.

* They are also more friendly towards purchased leads, through various co-registration services, such as Glen Hopkins’s ListBuilder.

* The system supports split-testing and ad tracking, and so many other great features. It’s really no wonder that most big-name internet marketers use it.

Recommended for: new and established e-marketers who want a completely integrated turn-key system which includes a variety of tools and features all under one roof.

Conclusion

With monthly fees for these services ranging from $15 to $29, and a wide variety of features and capabilities, one of these service providers should fit both your budget and your requirements. Defining your requirements before you go shopping for an Email Service Provider will save you time and aggravation in the long run.

Copyright © 2007 by Boris Mahovac

Online entrepreneur Boris Mahovac, “Your Ezine Coach,” publishes the ‘Contacts 2 Clients’ semi-monthly ezine. Sign up today and receive a free tele-seminar: “Six Steps to Setting Up Your Business On Line and Making Money with Ezines,” an exclusive interview with Glen Hopkins.

If you want to jump-start your small biz marketing, make more money while working less, get your free tips now at http://www.YourEzineCoach.com

Once there were three bears that lived in a far off land. Each had their own weekly ezine and worked hard to make their ezines the best possible.

Papa Bear included knowledge-based content on fishing and the role salmon play in the North Pacific ecosystem.

Mama Bear included knowledge-based content on the role of doily making in a burgeoning cottage industry related to bed and breakfast establishments worldwide.

Teen Bear wrote a stream of consciousness ezine that read more like a common blog entry than any knowledge-based content his parents produced.

One morning the bear family sat down to finish their weekly ezines when they simultaneously discovered their Internet service was down.

The three made their way to McGruff’s 24-hour Sushi Bar where they enjoyed a breakfast of Hirame, Saba and Shrimp Rolls.

Meanwhile a young lady named Goldie was wandering through the forest when she happened upon the cottage recently vacated by the bear trio.

While she knocked, she was an individual of pronounced curiosity. She stumbled into Papa Bear’s office just as the Internet came back up. She saw his ezine ready to send. Goldie read of salmon and ecology and said, “This ezine is too hot.”

Then she visited Mama Bear’s computer where she read of doilies and the latest fashions in bed and breakfast décor. Goldie said, “This ezine is too soft.”

Then she found Teen Bear’s laptop and read about the latest olie impossible tricks on a skateboard using little more than a hard flip and a nose manual. She smiled and said, “This is just right.”

The bears came home and discovered Goldie reading Teen Bear’s ezine. While they were grateful she enjoyed it they asked her to sign up online instead of breaking and entering.

The moral of the story is there are a multitude of ezines available for a wide variety of tastes. Not everyone will be satisfied with yours. Make it easy for them to opt in and opt out. It is OK for a visitor to sign up for your ezine and then opt out after a relatively few ezine deliveries.

Market your ezine effectively and honestly and you will find a more interested group of individuals that will look forward to what you have to say. Ezines can be a highly effective form of online marketing, but you don’t have to trick people to drop by.

Most of all make sure the ezines you send are worth reading and compelling enough for those on your list to come back to.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Ezine publishing is of course the process of creating email relationships via the use of online magazines or ezines – very similar to traditional email marketing – but generally the ezine is themed to something that is relevant to the subscribers.

Personally, I prefer to just build a traditional list online – I don’t care too much for the ezine itself – but if you think about it, they are really the same thing – they are basically the same thing – the ezine has a theme, my email list does not.

So how do you make more profit with ezine publishing?

The way I see you making more profit with ezine publishing is to go back to my core principles and those are traffic and conversions.

So you have to get more traffic – and one way to do that is by increasing your email conversions and clickthroughs. And you have to get more conversions – you have to convert the people that click through from your ezine or your email list.

I think one of the real mistakes people make with their ezine publishing is that they are not targeted enough. You have to really target your product to whatever the theme was that drew the ezine subscriber in in the first place. So you have many different target demographics – make a list for each.

My favorite method of driving traffic to my squeeze pages for my ezine list building is that of article marketing. Sure, there isn’t quite as much traffic – but the traffic really spends money with you – it converts very well – and that is what is important to me.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 900 articles in print and 9 published ebooks.

Let’s begin with defining what an “ezine” is and how it can help you drive tons of traffic to your website and help you sell products and services. An ezine (electronic magazine) is much like a traditional magazine or newsletter. However, it is only delivered via email. People sign up to receive ezines for free or a monthly subscription fee. Most ezines are published weekly, but some are published daily, monthly or bi-monthly.

Generating Traffic with Ezines (Ads)

Classified Ads: the cheapest ads you can buy. Classified ads are limited to two or three lines and placed at the end of the ezine. Unless you place a classified ad in an ezine with 30,000 subscribers or more, your chances of getting a response are very small.

Sponsor Ads: these are more expensive than classified ads, but will give you much better response. Sponsor ads can be placed at the top, middle or bottom of an ezine issue. You can include more text in a sponsor ad so it’s a good way to test your copy before going all out on a solo ad.

Solo Ads: these are the king of all ezine ads because your offer is sent exclusively to everyone on the mailing list and gets the full attention of the subscribers. No articles or other content is included. Solo ads can be expensive, but they can increase your response by as much a 100% over sponsor ads. You can usually expect a 10% response rate from a good solo ad. In other words, if you purchase a solo ad for $100 in an ezine with 10,000 subscribers, you should expect about 1,000 highly targeted visitors.

Note: Solo ads can be purchased for as little as $10. You will usually get a better response from a $10 solo ad sent to 500 subscribers than you will from a $10 classified ad sent to 5,000.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to successful ezine advertising.

Step One: Subscribe to 3 or More Ezines

Subscribe to ezines that offer top sponsor and solo ads within your budget. Subscribing to ezines before you place your ads will allow you to determine the quality of the list and potential profitability of your campaign before you spend any money. You can also make sure your ad goes out.

You can find a wide variety of ezines in these directories:
http://topezineads.com
http://www.directoryofezines.com

Step Two: Contact the Advertisers

The surest way to maximize your results from any ezine is to ask people who have already advertised. Take a few minutes to contact one or more people who have placed ads similar to the one you want to place. Tell them you’re new to ezine advertising and are afraid of losing money. Most people will be glad to help you out. And if they had a bad experience, they’ll definitely let you know.

In addition, if you see the same ad running multiple times, that’s a good indication that it was profitable. Smart marketers will run the same ad at least three times if the first one was successful.

Step Three: Contact the Ezine Publisher
Contact the publisher to find out if anyone has else has purchased an ad within the last month for the same product you want to promote. This is critical because you don’t want to advertise the same product to people who may have already purchased.
Here are some additional questions to ask (if they are not stated on the website):

• Can I personalize the subject line?
• Can I personalize the message?
• If yes, what are the personalization codes?
• How often to you publish?
• When is your next opening?
• What is the maximum word count?

Step Four: Set Up an Ad Tracker

You will want to create a tracking campaign for each ezine that you advertise in. The system will create a link for you to use and it will track your visitors and commissions just like your regular affiliate link.

Never pay for adverting unless you can track the response. You need to know how many visitors and sales you get for each ad you place so you can determine whether or not you want to run another ad in a particular ezine.

This information is critical for determining how well each ad campaign does and how well you’re converting visitors into sales. Sometimes you just need to tweak your ad copy and run the ad again for better results.

If you get good results the first time, run your ad again in a week or two. Not everyone will buy the first time around. And many who were “on the fence” the first time they saw your ad, may purchase the second time around.

Step Five: Write Your Ad

Most affiliate programs provide pre-written ads for you to use. While that is convenient, you’ll get much better results if you don’t repurpose them word for word. Make them unique and follow some of these suggestions:

• Add a personal endorsement. With all the hype online, people are more likely to read and click on something that you personally recommend.

• Use a testimonial from the sale letter for the product you are promoting. That’s an easy way to get content for a good solo ad.

• Use other people’s ads. One of the bests ways to come up with ideas for good ads is to read ezines. Look for ads that catch your eye. Modify them to fit the product you’re promoting and add your own personal touch.

Step Six: Place Your Order

This is the easy part. You simply fill out a form with your ad copy and credit card information. After you process the order you will receive a confirmation telling you when the ad will run. And since you are already subscribed to the ezine, you can verify it yourself. Don’t rely on them to send you a “courtesy copy.”

Step Seven: Put Half Your Profits Back Into Advertising

Once you start generating sales from your ezine ads (this is why you need to track them accurately), take half of your profit and use that to purchase more ezine space. This ensures profitable growth and proper allocation of your marketing spend.

Ezine marketing and advertising is the same as any other online marketing vehicle. The key is to start small, test, evaluate the results, and channel your marketing to those ezines that produce a positive return. Once you’re up and running, continue to tweak your ad to see if you can increase response rates.

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. For your copy of the free SEO report visit MarketingScoop.com.