Real Email Excerpts

Time for another peek into my email. Todays "email excerpts" include the inside scoop on...

How and where to submit articles

How to process ebook sales

Ezine delivery options from cheap to simple

How to start an online business and what to sell

REAL EMAIL #1:

From: Artie L.
Subject: Where to submit articles

Jim, Ive just begun to write and submit articles to ezine editors in hopes of drumming up some traffic to my stock market advice site. So far Ive submitted just two to a handful of ezine editors, and I can see that this strategy really works! Its helping me get site visitors and grow my own ezine list rapidly. Now Id like to send my articles to more editors but I need a list. Can you help?

jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:

Dear Artie,

Glad to see you taking advantage of an excellent internet marketing strategy. The best thing about submitting articles is that it costs you nothing except time -- and it really works if you write informational articles designed to help each editors audience.

Now its time for you to step up your article submission campaign. You do this by submitting articles on a monthly basis to your own growing list of ezine editors.

Your next step is to visit a few ezine search engines and search on keywords such as "financial", "investing" and "stocks". A few great ezine search engines are at http://www.ezineseek.com and http://www.e-zinez.com. Once there, start gathering a list of editors in your target area. Be sure to get the editor name and email address and whether or not they accept articles.

Next youll want to get to know each editor you plan to submit to. For this reason, steer clear of the typical "Dear editor" submissions. You can address them personally each time you submit by keeping your editor contact list in a program such as Swiss Army App.

With this program you can grow, manage and mail to your list personally. All the big internet marketers use email merge tools to stay in touch with contacts personally. It just makes sense when trying to stay in touch with growing lists.

This should help you get your article submissions into full swing. Just remember, dont overdo it. An article submission or two per month is plenty. Many ezine editors get a dozen a day, so make yours stand out by personalizing the subject line in addition to the message itself.

Thanks again for writing.

Best regards,
Jim Daniels

REAL EMAIL #2:

From: Martha M.
Subject: How do I setup to sell an ebook at my site?

Jim, Im finishing up my ezine and want to sell it along with yours at my site. How do I set this up?

jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:

Thanks for writing Martha. Heres a simple explanation of how that is done...

For starters, you would upload the .exe, pdf or zip files (your finished e-books) to a new directory at your website, then password protect the directory. Next, you would set up a username and password to access that directory. (I host my site at Virtualis and password protecting a directory is as simple as a few clicks through a web-based interface, with other hosts it can be a bit more difficult.)

When someone buys your ebook, this password protected URL along with username and password, is then included in the email message to your customer. You can send this "delivery" email manually or automatically if you plan to use real-time credit card processing.

Okay, did I confuse you yet? I hope not! Its really not as tricky as it sounds. For more details on the e-commerce process, you can read the following two articles...

ecommerce article 1
ecommerce article 2

Regards, Jim

REAL EMAIL #3:

From: Candice C.
Subject: Delivering my e-newsletter

Well Jim, Ive taken your advice and started offering an email newsletter at my site. So far I have collected 390 email addresses. Now Im ready to start with my first issue.

Can you tell me the cheapest way to deliver my e- newsletter? Also, as my list grows, what are the best ways to "scale up" my delivery methods?

jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:

If your list is still very small and you want to try managing/mailing to it without paying a penny, heres how...

- Get Eudora email program from www.eudora.com - it is easier than Outlook for this task.

- As new subscribers sign up, use Eudora to filter the incoming subscribe messages into a separate mailbox.

- Before you mail each issue, open the mailbox where all your new subs are and select all messages. Next, click "special" and then "make address book entry". (name it by date)

- Then youll find all those addresses under one listing in your address book.

- Simply open that listing then click BCC and all the addresses will be in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field of a new outgoing message. Next paste in your newsletter, a subject and a "to address", then send.

As you can see, this can get time consuming as your list grows, since youll have to do it multiple times and wait for each list to mail out.

This method is also subject to your ISP -- some will not allow BCC recipients totaling over 25. Check with them.

You may also want to get a free demo of Juggler, a tool that can help you manage your list as it grows, including merging two lists, subtracting one from another and purging duplicates.

Yes, this ezine management and delivery method is more time-consuming than others but it is virtually free. And it works. I used this simple method even as my list grew past a few thousand subscribers.

Once you get to a few thousand subscribers delivering manually can be time-consuming. To scale up your email list management and delivery you can do one of two things. You can get a script installed at your site or use an email list service.

A script like SubscribeMe found at http://cgi.elitehost.com automates just about everything and is a fine solution until your subscriber base grows to several thousand.

Once you hit the 6, 7 or 8 thousand subscriber mark, you may find that many script based solutions become troublesome. Your next scale up move would be to use the services of an email newsletter hosting company. There are plenty available on the web and although this is more costly than the previous solutions its the way to go when your list gets large. I use a company called SparkList and their service pretty much does it all for me.

Well, I realize this was quite a long reply but I wanted to cover all your bases. Have fun publishing!

REAL EMAIL #4:

From: William D.
Subject: How to start and what to sell?

Hi Jim,

Im taking the plunge! Ive managed to sacrifice three hours of TV time every night and found 15 hours a week to start my own business online. Please help me get started! Ive watched you for a few years and if anyone can help it is you! Whats the best way to get started and what should I sell?

jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:

Hi William,

Good for you. I started the very same way. I missed Seinfeld on Thursday nights but it was sure worth it. ;-)

Anyway, Id like you to download my free book - it will give you lots of the information you need to get started. (The price is right too... free!

Once you decide on a product, service or opportunity spend some time at our private site and give some serious consideration to joining. When it comes to growing a business online (especially from scratch) you wont find a single source for better assistance.

Good luck William. And remember, Im always here so dont hesitate to contact me when you need more guidance. (And that goes for the rest of you reading this right now!)

About the author:

Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing. Jims site has helped 1000s of regular folks profit online. Visit bizweb2000.com for FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and more. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to their Free, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: freegazette@bizweb2000.com

Jim@bizweb2000.com
http://bizweb2000.com