by Archie R. Lawhorne
Ezines have become an increasingly popular and cost-effective means to distribute information. Today there are close to 400,000 online newsletters covering just about any subject you can think of. For Web marketers, ezines offer one of the best promotional avenues available.
Ezine advertising, for example, has proven to be an extremely cost-effective way to reach a large audience. And since most ezines have a narrow subject focus, they also provide a highly targeted audience. One of the challenges of ezine advertising is finding the right ezine in which to advertise. While it's not difficult to find plenty of ezines, it can be a tedious task contacting publishers to get demographic and subscriber base information, as well as ad rates and submission procedures. I've found a number of different directories (listed at the end of this article) that will help greatly in simplifying this process.
Another effective marketing opportunity ezines offer is in writing short articles and "how-to" tips, as many ezine publishers are constantly looking for high quality content. And the best part is, the only cost involved is the time it takes to write the article!
Here's some tips that might be helpful if you'd like to pursue this strategy:
Start by reviewing ezine categories and narrowing down your area of interest. Then decide what your topic will be for the article. You may find it is useful to tap into a few search engines and find 4 or 5 related articles to your topic. This will help you to begin organizing your thoughts. With so much information on the Internet, you will find this to be easier than you think.
Next, it's time to put your thoughts on paper. It helps to write a rough draft about what you want to say and start to polish and flesh out the article. A helpful hint: stay on topic. Don't be talking about fishing and then switch over to your mother-in-law, unless it may be a humorous story about your mother-in-law and fishing.
Some of the ezine articles that you read are really low-grade sales letters. To maximize your credibility and increase your chances of being published, do yourself a favor and avoid writing those types of articles.
In most cases, you are allowed a short "resource box" at the end of the article that can include a web site or product reference. This is essentially a free classified ad. Unlike an ad, however, it has far more credibility because you (and your product) have been virtually "endorsed" by the publisher of the ezine.
Spend some quality time looking for "good" ezines to submit your articles (and advertise in). Most have a web page where you'll find archives of past issues, subscriber demographics, advertising rates, lead times, etc. Jot down important information in a notebook for easy reference -- it will come in handy later.
Writing articles for ezines can be one of the best promotional decisions you'll ever make. Not only can it provide you with highly targeted exposure, but if your articles are good, you'll become a trusted professional in your area of expertise.
Here are a few ezine directory links that I've used to find ezines that are appropriate for my subjects.
http://www.liszt.com
http://marketingwise.com/ezines.htm
http://www.bestezines.com
http://www.e-zinez.com
http://www.infojump.com
http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html#Search
http://www.ezineworld.com
In addition, here are some additional promotional resources to help you get published:
http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm
http://www.mediapeak.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.writebusiness.com
Disclaimer - Copyright - Contact
Online: buildfreedom.org - terrorcrat.com - mind-trek.com