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

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