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By Terry Dean
There are currently over
300,000 ezines on the Internet. The number is growing every
single day.
Most of these ezine publishers
never earn any real money (over $1,000 a month). They work
their butts off week after week to produce good content
and then only receive a very minor income from selling ads
or linking to affiliate programs.
You may have found yourself
in this very same position.
The first thing you need
to understand is that a big ezine is not the goal you are
reaching for. It is a means to the goal. Your business goal
probably isn't really to build a 100,000 person ezine list.
Your goal is to make money online. Building the list is
just the vehicle which will take you there.
This isn't just semantics.
Having the right focus and position for your ezine is all
important online. If you don't understand why you are running
an ezine, then I guarantee you won't get maximum value out
of it.
I have been teaching home
businesses about the importance of email follow-up, multi-responders,
and ezines for almost 3 years now...and I see many people
have fallen into some major misconceptions on this subject.
Say this out loud with
me...
"The goal of my
ezine is to build relationships with prospects and turn
them into customers."
You probably didn't get
it the first time, so please say the sentence out loud once
again...
"The goal of my ezine
is to build relationships with prospects and turn them into
customers."
If you are building a large
ezine list just to sell advertising, then you are missing
out on the primary income stream it can provide you with.
Your ezine is the gateway into selling more of your products
and services.
If you are the member of
an affiliate program, then your ezine is the gateway into
selling more of their products and earning higher commissions.
Your ezine should become the source of multiple streams
of income from selling both your products and the products
of those you affiliate with.
One of the biggest mistakes
I see being made from ezine owners is not inserting your
own personality into your ezine. Part of the advantage to
having a small business is you are a real person they can
contact, agree with, disagree with, etc.
Don't just publish other
people's articles and call that an ezine. Sure, you can
use some articles from other people. Even all of your articles
could be from other people.
What you need to do is
add in a few paragraphs you wrote
yourself to the top of the ezine. Do an editorial section
just like in magazines.
Don't just run ad copy
from an affiliate program. Tell your readers how you feel
about the product. What did you gain from it? How did you
learn from it? What don't you like about it?
You may be so afraid of
making mistakes in this area that you don't do anything.
So, make some mistakes. We all do. It is part of being human.
What you say may offend
some people and they may unsubscribe from your ezine. So
what? They weren't planning on buying from you anyway!
I'm not telling you to
purposely offend anyone...just letting you know it's going
to happen. Use spell checkers and have some one edit your
writing for you, but guess what? There are still going to
be mistakes people will let you know about.
People always ask me how
I have gotten my name published all over the web. Here's
the secret...
"Be a real person."
It's not what you were
expecting, is it? It's not exciting or highly technical.
It's just the truth. People online are looking for people
who are real, who have opinions, and who make mistakes.
One of my most popular
articles being published around the web mentions a cow named
"Oscar" who lives next door. Some people won't
like you mentioning daily life such as this. Let them unsubscribe.
The ones who stay on your list will buy more once they know
you.
"Personality"
is one of the most under used tools in the ezine publishers
arsenal.
Right alongside personality
is good content. You need to balance the one with the other.
You won't be able to produce a growing ezine without good
quality content.
If you don't feel you can
write good content for your newsletter, then use other people's
articles. Just keep in mind your primary goal - "to
build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers."
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran
of Internet marketing, will Take You By The Hand and Show
You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing Techniques
he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to
Find Out More:
http://www.alphabizweb.com/netbreakthroughs.html
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