Ezine Advertising

Today we will talk about email addresses and ads.

Let’s get straight to the point.

********************************************
If we are talking about classified ads, then the answer is
definitely NO.
********************************************

These days many publishers post their ezine online and some of them even move the previous issue in an online archive.

This is very good for your ad because it can be found and read today, tomorrow and even after many months. It will be a long term exposure.

However, if you insert in the ad an email address, very soon you may regret it while the spambots will be very happy.

[A spambot is a software designed to collect email addresses for the purpose of sending spam.]

Of course, you may write in the ad a throw-away email address, but then … why do you write it?

Do you want to be contacted by the prospects or do you want to set & forget it?

A second reason for not recommending you to use an email address in your classified ezine ads is that such an ad is by definition a very short one. The space is very limited: 5 to 7 lines.

Why waste this space by inserting an email address when you can show more interesting things to the reader so that to make her or him to click on your link?

********************************************
If we are talking about solo ads, then the answer is
definitely YES.
********************************************

A solo ad is another story than a classified ad. Now you have plenty of space and it is recommended to add your name and your email address.

They will build trust. The readers will see that it is not an ad who is talking to them, but a human being

However, pay attention: some publishers, very few, publish the solo ads also online. When you order a solo ad, ask the publisher if the ad is posted also online and tell her or him not to post online your email address [see the above reason].

Well, that’s it for today.

---

Published in Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter on 28th of January 2008.

Ezine King is one of the first ad co-ops on the market and always has been the biggest ad co-op in terms of number of ezines and subscribers.

However, it was never the number one ezine ad co-op despite the fact the all the other ad co-ops have half or their number of subscribers or even less.

Why is that?

Well, I cannot know exactly but maybe the advertisers noticed that there is something wrong with this co-op.

Let’s visit their ezines list and see what may be the reasons.

First question mark appears immediatelly you take a look at this page: there is a list of ezines, but there is absolutely no link to any ezine’s website. Are the names listed there numes of ezines? If the names are names of ezines are they still published? No visitor knows. Any serious ad co-op provides links to the ezines’ websites so that the advertisers to see that the ezines really exist and find more details if interested.

Let’s go deeply. If you look better at the list of ezines, you begin to understand why this ad co-op has so many subscribers in comparison with any other ezine ad co-op.

Let’s look at the position no. 1: Pathway to Success, 8,960 subscribers. Good. Let’s look now at the position 215: Pathway to Success, 137,500 subscribers. WOW!

Let’s look at the pos. no. 125: AdvertMania Gazette, 2,562 susbcribers. Then look at pos. 256 (the last one): AdvertMania Gazette, 2,593. Great!

It’s easy to show big numbers when you list the same ezine for more than one time …

Do you remember the test done last week? The one about Valerian’s ezine initially named Morning CoFree and then renamed Online Business Opportunities on 5th of April 2006.

Look on Ezine King list at position 66: Morning Coffree, 3,200 subscribers. You can look also at the position 217: Morning Coffree, 6,100 subscribers. Shall I tell you that the figures anyway do not reflect the reality? You may have guessed already, haven’t you?

Did you have enough or shall I continue?

Let me show only a few ezines that are NO LONGER PUBLISHED:

pos. 31 Food and Ads Ezine
pos. 45 The Upper Hand Ezine
pos. 60 The EarnBIG Ezine
pos. 152 Sunny Days Ezine
… and others

Shall I continue? No, it doesn’t have any sense, right? Using such pattern in one day I can create immediatelly even a bigger ad co-op than Ezine King …

Take care!

---

Published in Ad Co-ops News Ezine on 27th of January, 2008.

At first, let’s check URIBL (URI Blacklist) database.

We go to http://lookup.uribl.com enter free1up.com where indicated (Enter URI), click the red button and see the result: the domain name is listed on SURBL (Spam URI Realtime Blocklists). Not very good news. Any email containing an affiliate link for Free1Up will be penalized by spam filters.

Let’s go on and check an affiliate website. Let’s analyze what we see on the first screen (what you see without scrolling down). Well, half of the screen is full of pictures: cars, money, diamonds, stuff that is supposed to impress me … The other half tells me only useful things:

“You are now at the website of the product specialist: X” then “This website is best viewed with Windows Internet Explorer 7!!! Simply click on the button below to receive your FREE browser!!!”

I wonder why the copywriter of the salesletter believes that the most important information a visitor must find immediatelly is whose site is this. Other affiliates have even more funny sites: after their name follows another important information: the fact that the affiliate now accepts PayPal at … [here it’s his email address]. Probably the main purpose of this design is to help spambots to quickly find and harvest the email address and then start sending spam to it … If you scroll down a little bit you finally understand why the PayPal email address is so important that has to be posted on the first screen: the program is free to join. No, I am not joking. If you’re confused, it’s not my fault. I am only describing the salesletter.

Now let’s return to the first screen and comment the second and last important information: the website is best viewed with IE7 (3 exclamation marks) and if you use another browser, then go and waste your time to download IE7 (another 3 eclamation marks). Indeed we need some exclamation marks here because it’s unbelievable.

That’s all you can see in the first screen. It’s like the copywriter tried to design the worst site possible. Shall we continue?

Scrolling down one more screen … I didn’t find yet what this website is about. All I could find is the following information: the program has just been launched and it is in trial pre-launch mode. Today is 25th of January 2008. Well, I cannot explain you why I did the following thing, but I did it: I’ve searched for free1up.com in the folder where I’ve archived my subscribers’ ads from the whole past year. Surprise! I found many ads for this program and the oldest one was received from a subscriber on … 27th January 2007 (seven!). One year ago! Well … indeed this program is just launched!

When I see that someone is not a very good copywriter, I can understand the situation, not all people can be experts. But if you say that a program launched one year ago is just launched … this shows really a complex thinking. Probably that guy thinks globally, in terms of centuries. What is one year in comparison with the age of mankind? Nothing. So he has right!

The salesletter continues and continues and continues, but I won’t continue because I would have to write a novel. I would just like to remark something that can be found close to the end of the salesletter:

“It’s Absolutely Imperative For You to Register With FREE1UP.COM by MIDNIGHT, FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2008 to be Eligible to Take Advantage of ALL of Our SPECIAL MEGA PROMOTIONS!!! Cutoff Time is Strictly 12:00 AM MIDNIGHT!!!”

Wow! The problem is that I’ve clicked on the right button of my mouse, I’ve selected “View Source” and I’ve read the HTML code. Guess what? The code doesn’t contain the deadline of January 25 but a script that shows to the visitor the CURRENT date. So … tomorrow the deadline will be “extended” till tomorrow. After 6 months, the deadline will be exactly after those 6 months. What a cheap trick!

That’s it! We’ve had enough!

---

Published in Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter on 25th of January 2008.