Practical Strategies To Boost Your Ezine Readership

Do you have a fresh ezine ready to start taking subscribers but don't know how to attract them?

Maybe you have a list already operating that you want to enhance.

There are many practical methods available online that can be applied to either situation, some free and some not. This article will cover the basics of:

? Buying leads

? Submitting to ezine directories

Buying Leads:

The easiest way to build your list is to buy ?leads? from companies such as ListOpt or LeadFactory. Leads are people who have shown an interest in what you offer, and provide you their name and email address.

What you do is create an ad, usually about three lines long, 60 characters to a line, and the lead company will put your ad out on the Internet and capture potential prospects for you.

What you must absolutely avoid are companies who sell pre-assembled lists of email addresses. These addresses are not ?opt-in?, and are not only worthless but can get you accused of spamming!

An ?opt-in? lead is a person who has specifically seen YOUR ad and shown an interest in what you offer by giving out their email address JUST for the purpose of getting on your list.

It is important to distinguish between ?single opt-in? and ?double opt-in? when buying leads. Most good lead companies will offer both, double opt-in being slightly more expensive.

In the case of single opt-in, when a potential prospect gives their email address in response to your ad, it is then supplied to you as-is. You don?t know for SURE that the address you got really belongs to the person who supplied it.

With double opt-in, the lead company will send a ?confirmation? email to the address supplied by each potential prospect, requiring them to click a link to verify that they are indeed the owner of that email address. As you can imagine, double opt-in leads are more safe and secure.

NOTE: If you use an autoresponder like GetResponse to run your ezine, check your user settings to see if your list sends out a ?confirmation? email to verify subscribers. If so, and if you buy double opt-in leads from a lead company, you will in effect be creating a ?triple opt-in? process for your potential prospects! This may severely reduce your readership, as people will have to not only confirm their email address through the lead company, but once again through your autoresponder. The idea is to only make them confirm once, so either buy single opt-in leads and have your autoresponder confirm, or buy double opt-in leads and don?t let your autoresponder confirm. Be aware that in GetResponse, once you turn the confirmation feature on, you cannot turn it back off, ever.

The lead company you choose may have different options for delivering your potential prospects to you. These may include a daily list sent to you via email, which you will then have to import manually into your autoresponder (if you use one), or they may send prospects directly to your autoresponder. Be sure to review all these options before choosing a lead company.

Submitting to ezine directories:

An ezine directory is a website which compiles a list of ezines. Some only list ezines that relate to a certain subject while others allow a wide range of subjects.

Most directories will not allow ezines which contain pornography, ?hate?, ?anti-government?, or other related subject matter to be listed on their site.

Submitting your ezine to a directory costs nothing and takes little time. Just go to any major search engine and look up ?ezine directories?.

Some results for your search will be actual ezine directories, others may be web pages which contain a list of them. Browse through all sites methodically to find as many ezine directories as possible.

In each directory, there will be a link somewhere on the website that says something to the effect of ?submit your ezine?. When you click it, you will be taken to a page with a submission form to fill out.

Be sure to give the details of your ezine in a purely informational style. It is not an advertisement, so leave out all catch-phrases and other hype.

Visit as many directories as time allows. The more you submit to, the more people searching for the information you offer will be likely to find your ezine while browsing those directories.

There is a software program called EzineAnnouncer which makes this whole process much quicker. It will submit your ezine to a large number of directories for you, without you having to spend time doing it all manually. It costs money, so check it out and decide for yourself if you feel it?s worth it.

How much time and money you spend is up to you. If you formulate a plan and stick with it, using the techniques outlined above will result in a significant boost (even an explosion!) in your ezine subscriber list. Give them a try, you will be surprised by how well they work.

Copyright 2005 Jeremy Hershberger

Jeremy Hershberger is a computer specialist, Internet marketer, and webmaster of his "Plug-In Profit Site". For free training and essential advice on building and enhancing an online business, subscribe to his Internet marketing newsletter here: http://www.online-income-solutions.com

More Ezine Marketing Articles

Increase Your Business Success With A Free Newsletter
Publishing a free newsletter is an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy with several business benefits. Here are some of those benefits:1.

Generate Free Traffic Submitting Articles to Ezine?s
Now this has been very successful for me? It generates some nice traffic and converts quite a few sales.If you don?t mind writing up articles this is definitely something you should consider doing.

Marketing Your Home Business through Newsletters
Newsletters are a wonderful way to market your business when on a budget. You can opt to write them yourself or hire a writer to do the job for you.

Entrepreneurs - 3 Ways You Can Profit From Newsletters Without Writing Them Yourself
I'm sure you have heard many online marketers touting the benefits of having a newsletter. I have used newsletters in the past for many sites.

Win More Sales with Customer Newsletters - More Small Business Power Tools
One of the most powerful ways for small businesses to increase sales and keep customers coming back for more is to mail them a newsletter periodically.Why is this such a powerful tool? It?s because if done right, a newsletter automatically separates you from the big box stores like Best Buy and Toys ?R Us, and can help you even compete successfully with the giant online retailers like Amazon.

Article Distribution: How Will Your Results Vary?
It?s not enough to just sit around and expect that your articles will bring you a good amount of traffic right after you submitted your articles for distribution.Might as well think of some factors? Is your article worthy to be reprinted? Do the content and title ring a bell to most webmasters and publishers?Questions like these are just some of the many factors that could greatly affect your article distribution results.

Ezine As A Viral Marketing Tool
A very popular method of marketing ezines and newsletters is by making them viral. If your newsletter contains information of value, such as tips, hints, news or tutorials, you'll find that subscribers will forward it on to others.

What?s In Your Resource Box (SIG File)?
One of the most important things you can do to improve your visibility and connect with customers or clients is to create a strong personal branding statement in your resource box. I'm not talking about adding your job title.

How to Make Your Newsletter Have Raving Fans!
Would you like to have a newsletter with barely satisfied subscribers who take a look at each issue and then remove it, or loyal readers who can't wait to get your next issue?A truly successful newsletter doesn't have just a bunch of subscribers, but "raving fans" who have a strong relationship with you.But how can you have such a winning newsletter?#1.

6 Easy Ways to Promote Your Ezine Articles
If you think you can't brand yourself because you're not a major corporation, think again.You can easily establish yourself as an expert by writing quality articles and submitting them to ezines and directories.