The Pros and Cons of Starting Your Own Ezine
| Category: E-zines | Date: 2003-05-21 |
The Pros and Cons of Starting Your Own Newsletter
Strangely enough, over the past several weeks I've seen several well-known internet gurus take both sides of the "start a newsletter - don't start a newsletter"argument... So who's right?
To figure that out for yourself, you'll need to consider the pros and cons of publishing.
The Pros of Newsletter Publishing:
<> FREE Leads!
Of course, your leads are your subscribers. How do you get them for free? You go to the following sites and register your newsletter. Within a day or two, these coops will be sending you subscribers. In return you agree to run one ad for that new subscriber, something you'd no doubt do anyway getting your own newsletter off the ground.
Coops:
My Wizard Ads -
http://www.mywizardads.com/index.php?pubID=PamSplitt
EzineAd.net
http://ezinead.net/?psplitt68
SDT Advertising
http://sdtadvantage.com/?psplitt
Essential Team
http://hop.clickbank.net/?psplitt68/javed
Targeted-Ad.net
http://www.targeted-ad.com/targetedad_publishers.htm
<> Discounted ezine advertising!
In addition to bringing you subscribers, most of these coops also offer special advertising deals to their publishers. They vary, but you generally will get a Free Ad per month somewhere on the website and discounted prices when running your own solo ads or ezine ads. Most Coops also offer the special Publishers Ad, which only goes out to all the other publishers, usually under $10.
<> Self-promote any/all of your programs!
The final pro is also an obvious attraction, you get to promote any/all of your affiliate or MLM programs.
Promote anything you see fit! Don’t sell those “Featured”or “Top” ad spots, use them yourself!
The Cons of Newsletter Publishing:
The cons of starting your own newsletter need to be carefully weighed while you figure out if publishing is right for you. They include:
<> Lots of time and effort
<> Rejection
<> Little money.
Lots of time and effort is right! All those subscribers the co-ops send you have to be emailed a confirmation
notice somewhere between 24 and 48 hours upon receiving the ad. Most serious publishers never get a real vacation (unless they own a laptop and carry it to the beach). They have confirmations to send, next editions to be created and edited, and solo ads to be scheduled and sent out to all the subscribers. It’s a lot of work. Just try doing all this while you are unhappy with your current software and shopping for more!
Publishing an ezine is a full-time job and don’t expect a lot of respect for that job.
Besides the family and friends heckling you to, “Show me the money!” you’ve got subscribers canceling every
week, so be prepared for the rejection. When I’m deleting names from my database, I’m adding up all the new subscribers in my head. As long as the new exceeds the “gone” you’ve got an ezine. Just be sure to join more than one co-op and list your ezine in all the directories!
The best, surefire method of keeping your subscribers is, of course, great content!
I read a lot of newsletters before I started my own (don’t have much time to do that now). Some just throw
you plain text, with one lousy article and a bunch of ads. I try to give my ezine a different look with
interesting and resourceful information. The bigger, better ezines have contest, readers input (which BTW
is hard to get), a theme for each issue and/or 3 to 4 good informative articles.
As for the money, expect little or nothing, particularly in the beginning. Larger ezines can sell their own ads for a pretty penny, but they too had to start somewhere. Even newsletters with 2000+ subscribers can earn some money from joining solo coops. (Do your homework before joining, some coops let you sell ads and keep all the money, but can you sell the ads? If not, you’re just driving your subscribers crazy running tons of solos and fattening up some other publisher’s bank account).
Your goal is to instill trust and confidence in your subscribers by providing useful material - information they need and can use. Once you've established that rapport, they will begin to trust you enough to check out your own program recommendations, and hopefully make you some money.
So, is it worth it? Well, like anything else, do you enjoy it? I believe that if you work at it long enough it’ll pay off. Just make sure you’re in it for the long run!
Subscribe to the 5 day FREE Course - Start Your Own 'Zine For FREE
15700@ez-optin.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Pam Splitt is the editor of The Beginners Guide To Internet Marketing. She specializes in Insurance Underwriting, but is currently on leave raising two children and working at becoming a super affiliate and marketer.
Visit her website and subscribe today to her ezine at http://www.wheredomomsgo.com or
ebook-and-software-club.com. Subscribers receive tons of FREE ebooks and software programs.
This article is copywrited © 2003 by Pam Splitt, and may be reprinted in it’s entirety as long as this byline and copywrite statement are included.
editor@ebook-and-software-club.com
http://www.ebook-and-software-club.com
Strangely enough, over the past several weeks I've seen several well-known internet gurus take both sides of the "start a newsletter - don't start a newsletter"argument... So who's right?
To figure that out for yourself, you'll need to consider the pros and cons of publishing.
The Pros of Newsletter Publishing:
<> FREE Leads!
Of course, your leads are your subscribers. How do you get them for free? You go to the following sites and register your newsletter. Within a day or two, these coops will be sending you subscribers. In return you agree to run one ad for that new subscriber, something you'd no doubt do anyway getting your own newsletter off the ground.
Coops:
My Wizard Ads -
http://www.mywizardads.com/index.php?pubID=PamSplitt
EzineAd.net
http://ezinead.net/?psplitt68
SDT Advertising
http://sdtadvantage.com/?psplitt
Essential Team
http://hop.clickbank.net/?psplitt68/javed
Targeted-Ad.net
http://www.targeted-ad.com/targetedad_publishers.htm
<> Discounted ezine advertising!
In addition to bringing you subscribers, most of these coops also offer special advertising deals to their publishers. They vary, but you generally will get a Free Ad per month somewhere on the website and discounted prices when running your own solo ads or ezine ads. Most Coops also offer the special Publishers Ad, which only goes out to all the other publishers, usually under $10.
<> Self-promote any/all of your programs!
The final pro is also an obvious attraction, you get to promote any/all of your affiliate or MLM programs.
Promote anything you see fit! Don’t sell those “Featured”or “Top” ad spots, use them yourself!
The Cons of Newsletter Publishing:
The cons of starting your own newsletter need to be carefully weighed while you figure out if publishing is right for you. They include:
<> Lots of time and effort
<> Rejection
<> Little money.
Lots of time and effort is right! All those subscribers the co-ops send you have to be emailed a confirmation
notice somewhere between 24 and 48 hours upon receiving the ad. Most serious publishers never get a real vacation (unless they own a laptop and carry it to the beach). They have confirmations to send, next editions to be created and edited, and solo ads to be scheduled and sent out to all the subscribers. It’s a lot of work. Just try doing all this while you are unhappy with your current software and shopping for more!
Publishing an ezine is a full-time job and don’t expect a lot of respect for that job.
Besides the family and friends heckling you to, “Show me the money!” you’ve got subscribers canceling every
week, so be prepared for the rejection. When I’m deleting names from my database, I’m adding up all the new subscribers in my head. As long as the new exceeds the “gone” you’ve got an ezine. Just be sure to join more than one co-op and list your ezine in all the directories!
The best, surefire method of keeping your subscribers is, of course, great content!
I read a lot of newsletters before I started my own (don’t have much time to do that now). Some just throw
you plain text, with one lousy article and a bunch of ads. I try to give my ezine a different look with
interesting and resourceful information. The bigger, better ezines have contest, readers input (which BTW
is hard to get), a theme for each issue and/or 3 to 4 good informative articles.
As for the money, expect little or nothing, particularly in the beginning. Larger ezines can sell their own ads for a pretty penny, but they too had to start somewhere. Even newsletters with 2000+ subscribers can earn some money from joining solo coops. (Do your homework before joining, some coops let you sell ads and keep all the money, but can you sell the ads? If not, you’re just driving your subscribers crazy running tons of solos and fattening up some other publisher’s bank account).
Your goal is to instill trust and confidence in your subscribers by providing useful material - information they need and can use. Once you've established that rapport, they will begin to trust you enough to check out your own program recommendations, and hopefully make you some money.
So, is it worth it? Well, like anything else, do you enjoy it? I believe that if you work at it long enough it’ll pay off. Just make sure you’re in it for the long run!
Subscribe to the 5 day FREE Course - Start Your Own 'Zine For FREE
15700@ez-optin.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Pam Splitt is the editor of The Beginners Guide To Internet Marketing. She specializes in Insurance Underwriting, but is currently on leave raising two children and working at becoming a super affiliate and marketer.
Visit her website and subscribe today to her ezine at http://www.wheredomomsgo.com or
ebook-and-software-club.com. Subscribers receive tons of FREE ebooks and software programs.
This article is copywrited © 2003 by Pam Splitt, and may be reprinted in it’s entirety as long as this byline and copywrite statement are included.
editor@ebook-and-software-club.com
http://www.ebook-and-software-club.com
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