Ask almost anyone these days, "What's the 'secret' of making money on the Net," and you will get about three answers.
- Publish your own ezine.
- Publish your own ezine.
- Publish your own ezine.
Yes, I'm being redundant. And no, I'm not being redundant.
In the old days, you could make a fortune with just search engine results. Today, do a search on the term 'ebook downloads' or 'free ebooks'. How many million results are returned? Even if you have a reasonably high ranking, what are your chances of being seen?
Forget FFA pages. You may get a few hits. But, no one sees your posts. And, if you host a page, not many will actually see your confirmation sales letter. But, that's another article.
Safe mail lists? You signed up for them to send out your messages to millions - spam free. Right? How many messages sent to you from the list have you actually read? Well, that's how many people are reading your sales letter, too.
That brings us back to the subject.
PUBLISH YOUR OWN EZINE.
If you don't have your own newsletter, ezine, or whatever you choose to call it, you are shooting yourself in the foot. As of the time of this writing, almost everyone who is making real money - six-figure money, is doing it because of their ezine & the size of their mailing list.
So, what's the problem? Why doesn't everyone have an ezine going out on a regular basis? It's the old excuse monster.
"But, I don't know how to publish an ezine."
"But, I don't know what to write about."
"But, I don't know how to write."
"But, I don't have time."
Well, guess what? It's time to get off our "buts" (pun intended) and get to writing. It's easy. It's quick. And, it will increase your sales!
** But, I don't know how to publish an ezine. **
So what? I can't sing. I couldn't carry a tune if it had handles. But, I sing anyway - no matter how often my daughter asks me to stop.
You want an ezine? Here it is in easy steps.
- Write a short introductory paragraph. Use this in each issue.
- Insert your first article here.
- Insert your sales pitch here. Change it in each issue.
- Insert your second article here.
- Insert your unsubscribe information here. Use this in each issue.
- Send it to your mailing list.
OK. There's your ezine. See how easy it is.
** But, I don't know what to write about. **
Visit some of the message boards/discussion groups that pertain to what you are selling. The hot topics are what you write about. This way, other people are giving you the ideas & you keep your article content current.
** But, I don't know how to write. **
Once again - so what. The only thing you have to write is the short introductory paragraph. If you are selling someone else's product as an affiliate, they probably have sales letters or short ezine ads pre-written. Use them - that's what they're for. If you are selling your own product, find someone who can write good sales copy. Pay them to do a few ads for you.
As far as articles go, borrow them. There are literally 1000's of authors who want YOU to publish THEIR articles in YOUR ezine. Why? At the bottom of the article they get to put a link to their website. The more people publish their article, the more people visit the site, the more sales they make.
BLATANT PLUG: See the bottom of this article, as well as most of my other articles. You are granted distribution rights. Put them in your ezine ... Please!
** But, I don't have time. **
Do you have 20 or 30 minutes every couple of weeks? That's all it really has to take. You already have your introductory paragraph, sales pitch, and unsubscribe information. All you need to come up with for each issue is a couple of new articles. If you use 'borrowed' articles, this is already done for you. Your ezine is simply a matter of copy & pasting.
That's it. You now have an ezine that you publish twice a month. And, it's as good as most any of them. Your bi-weekly ezine need not take more than one hour per month to put together and you really don't need to write anything yourself.
The only thing you have left to do is build that mailing list so your ezine goes out to as many people as possible. How to do this is the subject of many articles, so I won't go into detail in this one. But, a few suggestions would be:
- Have a subscribe link very visible on the main page of your website.
- Have a subscribe link somewhere on every other page of your site.
- Place free ads in ezines where possible announcing your ezine.
- Take advantage of ezines that offer "ad swapping."
- Offer a free bonus for new subscribers. Make use of free ebooks.
- Use a signature file in your email directing people to subscribe.
- If you can write, give away your free articles - with links.
There you have it. A basic blueprint for your ezine.
Good luck.
This article is copyright ' 2002. Dan Levy.
All rights reserved, except as noted. You are granted
distribution rights, but this article may not be sold.