Archive for July, 2008

3 Must Haves For Your E-Newsletter

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Kristie L. Lorette asked:




The #1 way to communicate with your subscribers, existing customer base, and prospects you want to turn into customers is with an e-newsletter. Many business owners struggle with what information should be included in their newsletters. The truth is that some people get fancy with the info that is included, but there are three basic items that each and every newsletter needs to include.

1. Information. Newsletters are information providers. They are not hard-selling direct marketing pieces that are trying to sell, sell, sell to your clients. Now is the time to share information-articles, tips, how-tos and more. My newsletter, The Inky Dot, always starts off with an article that covers techniques, tips, and tricks on writing and marketing for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

2. Promotion. Hold a monthly promotion to give your readers an incentive to do business with you and to continue to do business with you. For example, during the month of February, I offered a couples sale, where clients that bought one press release received another press release for free.

3. About us. You’re the producer of the newsletter and you need to tie in your expertise to the newsletter content. This means you need to toot your own horn in your newsletter. Usually this is handled in a sidebar or at the bottom of the newsletter rather than making it the central point of the piece. Make sure your about us info includes a phone number, email, and website address for clients to contact you.

Visit The Inky Dot e-newsletter archives for samples of my newsletter. While you’re there, subscribe to receive writing and marketing tips to help grow your business.

Garrett
Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Proven Methods of Traffic Generation in Internet Marketing

Saturday, July 19th, 2008
John D. Edwards asked:




The underlying rationale of internet marketing is to generate cash traffic. There are a number of proven methods that have been developed over the years though none are easy to take up. Internet marketing calls for mastering of the various strategies that are employed as well as taken up. You need to have a clear establishment on the type of audience that you want to market to. You also need to establish the various avenues that you can take up, the advantages and then the cons of each and every avenue.

A number of proven methods of traffic Generation in Internet marketing have been developed over the years. The very first is referred to as Search Engine Optimization. The largest traffic source comes from search engines. Search engine optimization hence comes in primary tools to meet and interact with the clients and customers. It aids in traffic generation through the involvement of prime enhancements that are required on websites in order to scale them up the search engine ranks. A number of algorithms are taken into use and this may often be confusing if not well mastered. A professional in the use of Search engine optimization tools if often required achieving the internet marketing goal. The second proven method that can be taken up when carrying out internet marketing is the use of pay per click search engines. They are offered either as affiliate marketing or search engine placement. Great care need to be considered when taking up pay per click search engines as the returns are slow to come. The same entity of picking up professionals in encouraged as they are well versed with the use of not only key words but also word codes and monitoring tools.

Websites such as ezine furthermore go a long way towards increasing traffic as well as propagating internet marketing. ezine provides an avenue for writers to give information on certain entities in life. you can often submit articles that talk about your business and the various factors that make it distinct. when using ezine, you need to keep the content fresh and up to date. the articles that you submit should furthermore be free of bias by being objective despite the fact that you are addressing your line of trade. always go back to the articles and check for comments. The comments offer a great feedback tool that you can use to establish if the message that you are sending is effective and also if the internet marketing strategies are working. ensure further that you establish great working relations with popular franchises that deal with similar goods. through the relationships you can generate traffic on your business page via reference as well as ripple effect. last but certainly not the least; social media site participation has been a proven method. they offer opportunities for one to interact in conversations as well as discussion forums. posting your comments on the pages and the blogs ensures that you engage with the users on the views of the business entity that you stand for.

Chester
Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

22 Ways to Grow Your Subscriber List

Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Catherine Franz asked:




1. Don’t bury your subscriber form, place it on your home page and or every page and make it VERY easy to find.
2. Add a one-liner to the byline section of your online published articles. For example: “You can subscribe to [name]’s free e-newsletter by visiting [URL].”
3. Give people an additional incentive to subscribe. Give them a free ebook or ecourse that has valuable content on a topic that will attract the exact type of ideal clients/customers for you.
4. During network events, ask them if you can sign them up for your newsletter. Then you manually add them when you return from the function with a double opt-in feature. Explain the opt-in feature to them when you ask them to subscribe. This gives them a way out if they were just being polite. Keep asking and don’t stop. Practice a simple two or three liners to explain the frequency and purpose of your e-newsletter.
5. Contact any trade organization or associations you belong to or membership has your target market. Ask for their member list. Member’s usually get this free, they may charge you if you aren’t.
6. After you have the organization’s or association’s member list, send a direct mail letter, and offer a free subscription and another other free offers you have that help them get aquatinted with you, the type of services you provide, and the benefits of working with someone such as yourself. You can educate them through free ecourses that were created from your e-newsletter articles.
7. Recommend your client’s company’s newsletter in your e- newsletter. Ask them for a reciprocal recommendation. Both of you win with new subscribers.
8. Write reviews or provide feedback to other newsletters (electronic or printed) you read and enjoy. Many times your comments will get posted in a future issue, along with a link to your site.
9. One of the top ways to attract people is by giving them various ways to interact with you at your web site. Use questionnaires, contests, giveaways, games, or ask for post survey questions and post the statistical responses. Send out a special e-mail announcement when the results of the questionnaire, survey, contest is posted on your web site. The Sales Lead Report, http://www.imninc.com/macmcintosh, adds a survey with each issue, then uses the information in his PR campaign with phenomenal success.
10. Offer a different writing style. One that is warm, comforting, as if you are talking to a friend on the phone. Write conversationally with a personal tone. Add I’s, me and you.
11. Always encourage your readers to forward a copy of your e-newsletter to friends, colleagues, and co-workers. You can even write a “forwarding e-mail paragraph” at the beginning so it is even easier for them to forward.
12. If you do speaking engagements or sales presentations, use one of the first few slides or last slide to invite them to subscribe to your e-newsletter. Don’t turn off the screen so it is displayed after you are finish speaking if possible.
13. At speaking engagements, pass around a clip board with a manual way they can register for your e-newsletter. Start passing the board around before you begin speaking. Place a small different piece of paper with a short letter from you to them explaining the topics, frequency, and objectives of the e-newsletter as well as the opt-in option.
14. Send out a press release to the organizations you belong regularly about what’s been going on in your e-newsletter. I began mine by sending out a short press release whenever an article was published. When I began getting published 10 and 20 times a month that no longer seemed practical. Thus, I moved over to one a month with a list of where the articles were published. Add a press release section to your web site and post them there as well — at least the last six releases.
15. Find sites that give out awards for e-newsletters and keep applying until you receive one. When you do, send out a special announcement to your list as well as posting it in a few issues of the e-newsletter and rewrite your bio paragraph at the end of your articles.
16. Don’t add people on your list without asking for permission first. Always offer an opt-in/out options. Give them a personal greeting if you are responding to a particular networking even group or other particular group. Some web hosts only need one s*p*a*m complaint before they shut your e-newsletter down. And it isn’t worth the problems caused by not respecting this.
17. KISS your subscriber form. Meaning, “keep it short and simple.” Ask for their e-mail and first name only. You can even simplify it more by just asking for their e-mail address.
18. Set up section for past issues of your e-newsletters. I recommend just listing their main topic or name of the article and not by date. People don’t like to read things that they consider “old” easily. If you create pdf files for past issues, remember that it does save space but it also doesn’t allow you to use unique meta page tags so that they show up in the search engines.
19. Add your e-newsletter bio line to all your e-mail signatures.
20. Send out your e-newsletter articles as content for reprinting into other media.
21. Offer targeted subscribers a special report when they refer your e-newsletter to three or more colleagues. Add a price to the special report to give a perception of added value. A special report is 3-10 pages on a very focused topic.
22. Offer your readers high-value content for them to read. Content they can’t find easily or ever somewhere else on the Internet and they will keep coming back. This is the new wave for 2004. Subscriptions to e-newsletters are going down because content is too general.

Gilbert
Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

How to Publish an Ezine

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Dhruv Patel asked:




At the context of publishing an ezine, a person must keep in mind few a primary objectives that are taken into serious consideration to start an ezine. The first is your intended website will be flooded with fair amount of traffic. This is the most important factors to be accounted for before thinking of ways of how to publish an ezine. The second is the potential of building a rapport with the readers and word of mouth publicity. The third is about publishing the desired content and earning money. In the dynamic world of the internet, an ezine is an effective low cost tool of marketing with fruitful impact.

When you chalk about how to publish an ezine, the steps are not that simple, but not that difficult too. The first measure involves planning the content. It must be entertaining in its mould. Also, the content must bear relevance to the website and carry correct information. To get a high quality content material, the rational thing would be hiring an experienced and professional team of web content writers. If the budget is more limited, then avail the required content from the reprint directories on condition that you provide a back link of their site at your website.

The next thing to be focused on is planning the format. There are several components to be decided upon such as an impressive introduction; exciting snippets that provide back links to your site, web space for sponsoring sources, and other miscellaneous information that essentially speak about the website. Knowing these details about how to publish an ezine is very important from a general perspective. It is of utmost significance that your ezine be sent in an html format due to the fact that most of the times the readers prefer to loon and explore an ezine that has been nicely laid out.

The next measure in regard to the ongoing discussion is creation of database in order to store the details of the subscribers. If there are programmers hired for the work, then maintenance of such database is an easy fair. But if you consider renting database then you free yourself from the hassles of programming and the petty issues of the server. An exclusive opt-in list server enables you to shoot newsletters to as many subscribers as possible with the help of a single click and this is one of the crucial parameters about how to publish an ezine.

The vital measure of sending newsletters to the subscribers must be stressed with acute seriousness as the crux of how to publish an ezine depends on this specific step. The above measures are stepping stones of planning and properly executing the newsletters for the purpose of publishing your ezine. Getting subscribers is not that easy and you need to plan and work hard for that, especially in the realm of promoting your newsletter. Once you are able to grasp the finer points of publishing an ezine, you are sure to leave marks on the internet world.

Tony
Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Ezine Directories – 5 Simple Steps to Make it Work

Friday, July 4th, 2008
Joel Christopher asked:




You may already have your ezine with you now. What next? The next thing to do is to inculcate it in as many ezine directories that is possible. This is one tool that will help you in your internet marketing business.

Ezine directories make or break your ezine. You have to be able to make best use of ezine directories if you want your ezines to be read, publicized and biring you the much needed income you are looking for. If you are able to make your ezine appear in as many ezine directories as possible, you will be able to find your ezines working well for you.

But you may be wondering what steps to take when it comes to dealing with ezine directories. Here are some steps that can serve as guide as you deal and work with ezine directories.

Step One: You choose your directories.



The first step in dealing with ezine directories is that you search which ezine directories are right for you. You must be able to check and deal with ezine directories that are really well-read by your target prospects. You must also find that ezine directory which has a category for what you do; so that you will be able to determine which pre-existing ezines related to that field are already there.

Step Two: You fill out a form for your chosen Ezine directory



The thing about ezine directories is that you are supposed to fill out a form before they link you up. You must be able to pass their standards. Remember, you are not the only one signing up your ezine in their directory, so it is really their option to follow through or discard your attempts to link with them.

There are various tips and tricks for you to be able to fill out a form for your ezine directory, but this is an entirely different topic that deserves its own space.

Step Three: Directories Screens Your Ezine



After you fill out and do the nitty-gritty work of answering numerous queries from your ezine directory of choice, the ezine directory now screens your ezine by means of reading it, and reading your answers to the forms they have provided. Now, their judgment will be based on how you answer their questions and if they view your ezine to be substantial.



Step Four: Directories Links Your Ezine



After you pass the ezine directory standard, it finally gets its own space and gets linked. The link of ezine directories links your ezine back to your site, providing some short description for your prospects and visitors of the ezine directory.



Step Five: Directories Lists Your Ezine with Other Ezines

You are definitely not the only one. Your ezine will be listed with several other ezines in the directory. Depending on their manner of arrangement, you will find that your ezine directory will really help bring traffic to your site by means of making your ezines available for their readers.

Christian
Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace