List Building Tips (Part 8)

To continue the series on List Building Tips, here are two promotional strategies that I also employ at the moment.

I'm subscribed to an eZine that allows free advertising for its readers. So I submit an ad there on a weekly basis. There are paid eZine advertising and I'm sure they're not that difficult to find. 

The other is banner advertising, which I also currently offer at my text ad exchange, Winning Solos. Join for free and get a Free JV Upgrade till we hit 250 JV members.

21. Buy ezine solo ads

 

Ezines offer a wide variety of different advertising options, but most of them amount to taking up a small portion of the total ezine. In the case of an ezine solo ad, you actually purchase the rights to all of the content in a single mailing.

Now, you might be tempted to rush to the closest ezine solo ad broker, buy up a bunch of solo ads, and then send off the first mailer you can draft, but this is definitely not the best approach. And, in fact, most who do it ultimately end up getting almost no traffic.

So, instead of doing this, here’s what I suggest: start by finding a copywriter. Since you’ll be writing a short solo ad, it won’t cost much (in, comparison, say to 15 pages of long copy). Working with your copywriter, come up with a great deal to offer readers; and an accompanying great piece of copy. Or you can write it yourself if you're quite competent as a copywriter.

Once you have your copy in hand, begin methodically seeking out good ezine matches. Start by subscribing to relevant ezines, and taking notes on the content style. For instance, is it typically loaded with ads? And how frequently does it send solo ads? And finally, is the content typically good? A good measurement is if you join the eZine as a subscriber so you'll get an inside look.

Answering all of these questions is an important part of selecting your ezines. Once you have done this and have made your choices, either proceed with a purchase (if the option is available) or contact the list owner to see if he/she is willing to allow you to purchase a solo ad.

I personally suggest that you run only one ad at a time, wait for the results, and then decide whether to proceed with the next ezine solo ad submission. Test and track.

Again, Google has a huge list of ezines that sell advertising space and solo ads. Search for “ezine solo ads” or “ezine ads” to find them.

22. Cross-promote with banners

 

If you don’t have a lot of resources to sink into expensive forms of advertising, cross-promotion may be your best option.

Simply put, cross-promotion involves finding other webmasters or list owners; and forming an agreement to promote each other’s sites to your own visitors.

Say you agree to put banners that promote each other’s websites on your thank you pages. Then your new subscribers can join your JV’s list and vice versa.

In addition to an informal arrangement like this, there are also more formal ways to exchange ads. One way is by joining text ad exchange or banner ad exchange sites.

For instance, there are banner exchanges which give you promotion credits to go towards your banner displays whenever you promote someone else’s (via a banner they add to the system).

In general, cross-promotion provides an inexpensive alternative to other methods of list advertising.

When you're starting out, you are naturally concerned with the cost of advertising. Read, research, and ask around for the best option. You can think of more complex and expensive types of advertising when you can well afford it.