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Guaranteed
Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List
© 2004 By
Suzanne Falter-Barns
Here are tips gleaned from roughly 5 years
spent building up an ezine list. I've also incorporated
comments and tips from Jenna Glatzer, who successfully built
her list up to 75,000 at her excellent site,
www.absolutewrite.com.
1. 'Free' Stuff. Pick genuinely useful frëe stuff
that you know your audience wants and needs. For instance,
my brand new ezine, Expert Status, attracted 600 readers in
just a few weeks by offering a report, "25 Top Self Help
Literary Agents". The practical freebie works. Jenna Glatzer
offers two frëe ebooks/reports to subscribers on agents who
are receptive to new writers, and on writer's markets. She
notes: "Before I did that, my subscriber numbers were in the
hundreds, not thousands.
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2. Put a subscribe box on every page of the site.
This has worked for both Jenna and me. Mine is parked in the
left hand column of the site. Experts advise putting a
simple sign up box (with freebie mentioned) in the top left
hand corner, as that's where the eye naturally travels
first. A simple sign up box that requests only email address
works best.
3. Ad swaps. Exchange plugs for your ezine with
another website, to run in each other's ezines. Be sure to
mention those freebies! Doing this on a regular basis with a
rotating selection of web partners will keep your
subscription page busy.
BEAT the Cold Winter of 2007 ARIZONA'S NEWEST WONDER
Kartchner Caverns State Park opened in 1999. This stunning limestone cave system is one of the top in the world. Visit Sunny Southwest this cold winter |
4. Cross-registration. I've found subscribers by
having a plug for my ezine on the thank you page of a
comparable (but not directly competitive) website. This
offer is made to folks who just signed up for an ezine, and
are therefore deemed 'in the mood for more.' Offer a swap
with your site, and try not to list more than about two
other ezines. Also, make a point of including only really
good, reliable publications that reach your target market.
5. Give away a bonus for other sites to use, based on
your ezine. A popular web marketing technique is the special
one or two-day promo that offers big bonus lists when you
buy a certain product on those particular days. (I cover
this promo technique in more detail in my ebook/binder, Get
Known Now; How to Build Your Platform as a Self Help
Expert.) So collect some of your best ezine essays, pack 'em
up in a downloadable PDF-based e-book, and offer it as a
bonus these sites can use in their special promos. Don't
forget juicy descriptive copy about your ezine, and a
subscribe link at the end of your ebook. I've gotten
hundreds of new readers this way, and much traffïc to my
site.
6. Announce ezine 'events' on PRweb.com and other PR
sites. There's an entire world of web-based press release
distribution services out there, some of which are low cost
or even frëe. So use them. But be sure to only plant press
releases that are truly newsworthy, and thus likely to get
press attention. Even if the media don't use your words this
time, they'll hopefully file you as an expert for future
use.
7. Use discussion boards or groups. These are sites
frequented by gangs of people interested in the same thing.
Avoid the unmoderated sites, because they're likely to be
sp@m targets that generate little bonafide traffïc. Boards
found on member sites are the best. Don't sp@m the board
with your subscribe message. Instead, offer some genuinely
helpful info. Then sign off with a signature line that
includes ezine and subscribe info. You can find some of
these groups at groups.yahoo.com, topica.com, and mail-list.com
for starters.
8. Sponsor other people's contests. Jenna Glatzer
gives away products like her paid newsletter, Absolute
Markets Premium Newsletter, to writers' groups, contests,
and conferences that request it, regardless of size. I've
tried this too, to good effect. Simply run an announcement
in your ezine that you'd be happy to sponsor comparable
events. Ask them to provide a URL for an event description
so you know it's legit. Then offer up your gifts, and ask
for a plug for your ezine and for them to talk up your
dazzling freebie, as well. Jenna notes that groups she
sponsors "often send out ads for us to their lists... just
as a thank you."
BEAT the Cold Winter of 2007 ARIZONA'S NEWEST WONDER
Kartchner Caverns State Park opened in 1999. This stunning limestone cave system is one of the top in the world. Visit Sunny Southwest this cold winter |
9. Run quality content. There's no substitute for
heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject
that matters. Jenna writes: 'The main reason our list stays
so big is our 'letter from the editor' ... Each week, I
chronicle my writing life and my triumphs and failures
...when an article is killed, when I'm having trouble
finishing a book ... And I share personal things, too, like
when my grandfather died... . People write: 'I feel like I
know you so well.' And I think that's why they stay on the
list, even when their mailbox fills up with dozens of other
writer's newsletters.
10. Allow reprints. Allow any newsletter that
wants to reprint your articles do so. I like to have an
email requesting permission, so I can enter their info into
a big database I use to track where I can send more articles
in the future. I end each article with the line: You may
reprint this article in your own ezine or website. Simply
send an email requesting permission to Email Address. Please
be sure to include our full bio box at the end.
11. Create a survey or contest. This would be one of
those newsworthy 'ezine events' I mentioned above in point #
6. Make it a fun, relevant question that you could really
develop a good, newsy story from. I did a survey asking
people what they fought with their spouse/partner/boy or
girlfriend about. The results made for the kind of reading
offline media enjoy running short, 100-word pieces about
(fillers.) I made sure to attribute the survey to my ezine,
The Joy Letter, with a mention of the site's basic URL. You
can get the technology to run your own survey and collect
responses at surveymonkey.com (for a fee) or bravenet.com
(for frëe.)
I think I could actually go on and on. The possibilities
seem to be endless. If you try even half of these techniques
on a regular basis, you'll find your subscriber rates double
and even triple. Here's to building your list... the
foundation that much of your traffïc and success rely on.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Suzanne Falter-Barns' website,
The Self Help Salon
offers tips and tools that help you build your
platform and get known as an expert in your
field. Sign up for her frëe ezine, Expert
Status, and receive her frëe report, "25 Top
Self Help Literary Agents" |
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