Finding The Right Ezine To Advertise With

Ezines are a great way to advertise if you know a few tricks.  There is so much in fact that I could write a book on it...

But for now I am going to give you a run down on what to look for and do when using ezines to advertise for your website.  This way you can take some of the learning curve out of your efforts.

Ezines are a great way to get your offer or ad out to hundreds if not thousands of targeted prospects all in one shot and are relatively inexpensive.

First of all, what is an ezine?

An ezine is an electronic magazine otherwise known as a newsletter.  You can purchase ad space on ezine owner's newsletters and have them send out your offer to be read by their list.

There are literally thousands of places to buy ezine ad placements on the net, we will get into the best place to find them in a little bit.  But for now we are going to let you in on what to look for when researching ezines and finding the right one for your business.

When advertising with ezines you want to make sure you only use top sponsor ads and solo ads.  There are a few more ad spots to buy but they are less productive than the two above mentioned ads.

A top sponsor ad is the first ad that the reader sees when opening the newsletter.  Usually it is three to 8 lines long 65 characters per line and is located at the top of the issue.  Each ezine owner has different requirements for their ads, so you will want to abide by these rules and change your ad accordingly.

A solo ad is just that, it is an ad that stands by itself in the issue.  Usually a full page letter or ad that is the main focus of the issue.  Usually a little bit more expensive to purchase but are well worth the money if you can find an ezine that fits your offer.  The same goes for the solo ad as the top sponsor ad with the length requirements. 

Some ezine owners even allow unlimited length in a solo ad.  This doesn't mean that you should write 4 pages of content just because you have unlimited length.  I have found that shorter solo ad produce better than longer ones, so if you are wondering how long you should make it just keep it short.  (a page or less)

So how do you find an ezine that will work for you and your offer/business?

First you want to research and find different ezines in your target market.  Maybe it is business opportunities, home business, network marketing, or mlm.  You have to make sure that your offer or ad fits in to the demographic so it is not a complete waste of time and money for you.

Once you have found several ezines in your target market it is time to do some in depth research. 

These are crucial steps in making sure that your ad fits the ezine and will get read by the readers.  So don't skip any of these steps.

Ok, now you have your list of ezines...

You need to get in touch with the ezine owner and ask them several questions to make sure that their list will be a good fit for you.  With the system that I am going to tell you about in a little bit, they list all the owner's phone numbers and email addresses.  The best way is to call them directly.  If they seem helpful and like they will be good to work with, this is a plus.  If they seem angry and unhelpful then you should probably find another one to work with.

What questions do you ask them...?

1.  How often do they send out issues to their list?

You need to make sure that they don't send out too many emails to their list.  If they send more than two emails in a week, their list will be less responsive to your offer.  Look at it this way...  If you get a ton of emails from a certain person, you are more than likely to just delete that email before reading it.  I know that I do. ;)  So be sure that the frequency of messages is low.  Less than 2 per week.

2.  How many ads do they send in each issue.

This is very important.  Some ezine owners will send out 6 to 10 ads in each issue.  You want to stay away from these.  You need to make sure that they send out 3 ads or less per issue.  This way your ad will more likely be read by the reader.  Which in turn creates more money and leads for you.

3.  How many new subscribers are they getting each week?

You want to make sure that they are adding new people to their list every week.  This means they are still advertising and attracting new prospects for you to continue to advertise with.  If they aren't adding new people to their list every week then that list may dry up and be less responsive to you and your offer.  You want an active list to advertise with.

4.  Do they have past issues archived to read?

A good ezine owner has their past issues available for readers to view.  You will want to make sure that they do, so you can go in a read past issues to see the style they use.  This way you can adapt your ad accordingly to the type of style they use.

Last but not least, the most important question to ask...

5.  How often do they send content vs. offers to their list?

If they send nothing but offers out, then their list will be less responsive because every time they get an email from the owner they are constantly being sold something.  Remember nobody likes being sold anything.  However if they send out more content than offers, then when your offer comes across they will be more responsive to your offer.  So make sure that they only send out offers once in a while and send more helpful content.  You can be the judge on this step, if it seems like they send more content than offers then go with them.

The research process is a little bit time consuming but it is well worth it in the end.  Once you have researched your ezine and found one that works for you.  One that meets the criteria from the questions above, it is time to write an ad.

First you want to research the archived issues from the ezine owner to see what style others have been using to place ads.

Top sponsor ads are pretty easy to write to get decent results.  You have limited space so you want to write something enticing that will get the reader to click on your link.  Try not to hype it up but get them enticed to want more information.  You can play around with different ads to see which one works better. But be sure you include a link in the ad and abide by the guidelines set forth by the owner.

Solo ads I have found to be better than top sponsor ads but here it gets a little tricky.  You want to keep them short (less than a page).

You want to write it from your prospective and not so much like an advertisement.  Explain what you have got out of using the particular service and explain how it will help them.  Then be sure to include a link to your site at the bottom.  You will again want to play around with different types of ads and test which works better. 

Be sure to write the solo ad more like a press release or an article.  Don't hype it up too much, give good content and leave them enticed.  The only way they are going to get more info is to click on your link. 

I have a couple more things to tell you about before I let you go for today.

When placing your links in your ads you want to be sure to use a tracking link of some kind.  This way you will know how many people clicked on your link in the ad.  This will determine how successful your ad was.  You can find good tracking link creators in trackthatad.com or 1shoppingcart.com.  This is a must when using ezines, so you know what works and what doesn't.

Lastly, where do you find ezines to advertise to?

The best place I have found to advertise with is the directory of ezines.  You can literally search through thousands of different ezines and read tons of information to better your ezine advertising experience.

You will need to purchase a subscription the directory.  It runs $97 a year or $147 for a lifetime membership.  The prices I believe are going up soon but well worth it. ;)

It is 100% well worth the money.  You will have all you will ever need for advertising with ezines and finding ezines to advertise with your subscription.