Top 5 Mistakes In Ezine Advertising

Ezine advertising has been glorified by experts the world over as the last refuge for the little guy/gal to make a buck online. Well, I hate to deliver bad news, and please don't shoot the messenger, but there are some draw backs to ezine advertising and many of the Inner Sanctum E-Letter subscribers are making them daily. Let's look at the most common mistakes and their solutions.

Mistake #1: Not Tracking Your Ads

Many business owners have no idea how they can track every ad they place. Whether for an affiliate program or their own product, they just don't know. Not knowing what ad is working and producing the sale will cost you and your business thousands of dollars. When you know what ad produces and what ad doesn't you can cut the worst of the ads and only keep the ad/s which is producing for your business.

--Solution--: If you own your own website and domain name, you can track every ad by creating a special redirect link that is only used in that ad. Or you can add a question mark to the end of the URL and check that on your stats page.

A simple, http://www.yourdomainname.com/pagename.html?trackingcode will suffice in most cases. Check with your web host to see if you have access to your web site stats log. Or sign up for one of the free/fee tracking services online.

Mistake #2: Writing Me-Too Ads

When writing your ad you must take your ego, your desire to boast about you and your company, out of the equation. An example of a me-too ad:

"Acme Law Offices have been in business for 20 years. Our staff of lawyers all graduated from Harvard Law School with honors. Call us at 1-800-acme-law today!"

--Solution--: Write benefit and results oriented ads. Example:

"Guaranteed Settlements! Win your settlement guaranteed and save 43% on attorney fees by calling ACME Law Offices at: (blah, blah, blah)"

This ad focuses completely on the end result, the main benefit. Guaranteed Settlements. Which ad do you think would pull more responses?

Mistake #3: Running Classifieds

Since they don't cost much, business owners tend to use classifieds to save costs. Classifieds are cheap, $5-$20 per ad, and in most cases run faster than solo or top sponsor ads because the ezine publisher runs 10-20 per issue.

What's not so commonly known is the fact classified sections are often times scanned by the reader (I scan past them every time) and get very little eye time.

--Solution--: Run Solo or Top sponsor ads. These ads get more exposure. They are exclusive (solo mailings) or only have 2-3 (sponsor ads) per issue spaced out between the content.

Mistake #4: Going for Large Subscriber Bases

Large subscriber stats are impressive. 30,000 subscribers is a ton of eye balls and the potential to return a profit is greatly increased. Well, this is completely untrue.

A recent test we ran took our breath away. We spent $180 on a solo ad to a subscriber base in a general marketing publication of 30,000 subscribers. We ran that same solo ad for $65 in an ezine about website design strategies with a subscriber base of 1200.

Ad #1 to 30,000+ brought back $0!

Ad #2 to 1200 specifically targeted subscribers brought back $900 in pure profit!

--Solution--: While tons of subscribers may seem like the right way to go, before you invest money, check out smaller, highly targeted ezines and test your ads in those. You'll save money and odds are your returns will be greater.

Mistake #5: Running Your Ad Once

When I first started advertising in ezines, I would run one ad one time. If it didn't produce results, I would switch ezines and run the ad again. This was how I tested the ad. Many business owners are doing the same thing today. By running the ad only once, you're cutting your chances to profit in half.

Running it 2-3-4 times, even if the first run didn't make a profit, gives your ad more exposure. Readers will "think" it's producing because you ran it more than one time, therefore other subscribers must have thought it was worth looking at, helping your ad produce.

--Solution--: Run every ad at least twice. Then instead of switching ezines, switch ads. Run that ad twice. Do this with all your ads. You'll be suprised to find the ezine actually produces profits for one ad but not another. So now you can run that ad 4-5-6 times and squeeze more profits from the ezine.

Ezine advertising is profitable. It takes testing, tracking, solo or top sponsor placments and more testing to pin point ezines with high sales ratio's. Don't give up on the ezine just because a successful ad from another test didn't work. Place another ad, test it, test another and so on.

All you need is 5-10 profitable ezines and you'll increase sales and profits for your business.

About the Author

Alessandro DeBarros is a web marketing specialist for BrandBlast http://brandblast.com , a CT based firm whose cutting edge hosting services is quickly being recognized around the world as a leader in its field. At a current base of 5,000 clients, BrandBlast specializes in small to medium business hosting, providing small businesses with the services and support they need at affordable prices.

Advertising Sucks! Long Live The Web!

How much does an advert in Yellow Pages cost? How many enquiries would you expect to get back for that investment each day? 1? 10? 100?

What about an ad in the local newspaper or a trade publication? They don't come cheap.

When was the last time you heard an advertising salesman say:

"If you're not happy with the volume of responses and sales you get from the ad I will give you your money back."

How many times have you heard an ad salesman say:

"I will tell you exactly how many people view your advertisement, how long they read it for and which ad they were looking at before they starting reading your ad. You can use this to work out the profile of your potential customers."

Hardly likely is it? Yet this is the kind of information that you can get your hands on via your website.

Expensive is a dirty word. Nothing is about cost - everything is about value. Having a great profile on the web can not only bring you more customers and sales but it can boost the perceived size and stature of your company.

As a business owner of course you want to see your website at the top of the search engines - everyone wants to be higher than their competitors - what value would you put on this?

Imagine placing an ad in a magazine and asking the salesperson:

"Can you guarantee me more sales? Will you give me my money back if people read the ad but don't buy my product?"

It just wouldn't happen. And yet there is a lot of scepticism surrounding the web - I come across it every single day.

"Mike, we've had our fingers burned in the past and though I like what you're saying how do I know you're not one of the cowboys?"

Ultimately nobody will ever buy anything from anybody unless buyer confidence is establsihed - no matter what is being sold. And the only way to establish buyer confidence is to develop a lasting relationship built on trust, two-way communication and transparency of information.

I don't believe that website marketing is, or should be, a black art. I don't believe that copywriting or accounting are black arts. They are all just things that, if you want done right, you need to get the professionals in to do.

*TOP TIP*

Want to know what people are looking for on the web? Visit the following link and type in words related to your business and this nifty tool will give you an indication of what phrases people are typing into search engines to find the products and services you provide. Cool eh?

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com

[You have my permission to use this article in your newsletter, on your website or anywhere else for that matter as long as it remains unedited and includes the resource box at the bottom.]

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a Free Bonus Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet" worth a value of £47 ($85) here.

10 Effective Advertising Tips!

Writing a classified ad to sell your product isn't as hard as you might think, if you spend time researching effective copy writing strategies.
Here are a few to try NOW!

1. Never try to sell expensive items from a small classified ad. Use the two step method. Request the reader visit your site for free information or email an auto responder address for more details where you will respond with longer ad copy to effectively sell your product.

2. Study how other marketers write their sales copy. This is a no brainer. Simply study the ads in newsletters you are subscribed to. Or surf to a few of the free classified ad sites and study the ads placed there. Don't copy their ads word for word but use them as an effective design to write your own adverts.

3. Advertise in the right Newsletter. That's right. This is basic stuff. Don't place your ad for cooking lessons in a Sports Trivia Newsletter. Or High Tech Ebooks on Java-Scripting in a Romance Writers Newsletter.

4. Target several appropriate publications. Subscribe to the publications and study their classified ads for several editions before placing your ads. Practice writing adverts following their basic ad writing guidelines.

5. Advertise in more than one publication at a time. Why? You want to pull in as many interested readers as possible in order to make sales.

6. Change your ad copy if it's not working. If people read the same old ad copy in the publication every month they will get bored and probably ignore your copy. It's human nature to do this.

Freshen up your copy with new headlines, different lengths, new wording, power words, appropriate humor, details, interesting facts, testimonials.

7. Key your ads to find out which one's are working. Or simply have several email addresses or auto responders and calculate which email address receives the most response to your ads.

8. Keep records of every one who responds to your ads. Follow up with appropriate messages about your product. Of course give them the option to opt out of receiving further correspondence.

9. Free Classified Ad Sites are a great way to test your ad writing skills before placing paid ads in publications online. Study how other marketers at these sites write their ads.
Respond to their ads to see how they further market their product. Don't forget to set up a free email account especially to handle your request.

10. Study offline publications. And, advertisements you receive by snail-mail to see how they put it all together. This will help to build your ad writing skills and confidence in your copy writing abilities.

BB Lee is Editor/Publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter. Visit the site at http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz Limited Time! New Subscribers Request Your Free Ad! mailto:smallbiz@angelfire.com

About the Author
BB Lee is editor/publisher of the home based business newsletter SmallBizBits. And a published writer of articles and non-fiction books.