Ezine Advertising

The success of a solo ad depends on the following:

1. The subject line of the solo ad
2. The ad copy (the content of the solo ad)
3. The landing page where the reader finds more about what you promote.
4. The product/service/program you promote

Let’s talk now about 1, 2 and 3.

1. The Subject Line of the Solo Ad

A reader can do 2 things after reading the subject line of your solo ad: to delete the email or to open it. This is the first very important step. No matter how good is the product/service/program you promote, if the reader deletes your email because of a poor wrriten subject line … you fail.

2. The Ad Copy

If the reader passes the first step, the content of your solo ad must “force” the reader to click on your website’s link. The reader may click on your link or may delete the email if the content of the ad is poorly written. Again … no matter how good is the product/service/program, if the reader deletes your email because of a poor ad copy … you fail.

3. The Landing Page

The reader passed on more step and you’re almost done. However, you should take very much care … If the reader reads the page and doesn’t understand what to do or doesn’t like what he/she is supposed to do … you fail … no matter how good is the product/service/program you promote.

* * *

As you can see 1, 2 and 3) above are not related to the product/service/program you promote, but are extremely important and you can fail no matter what you promote.

Take care!

The subject line of a solo ad is extremely important.

That is the first point where you risk to lose the reader’s attention. If what’s there is not attractive, the reader may not even open your solo ad and simply delete it.

Now here are two important technical features of any email software: the subject line has a limited lenght and its part that is visible without actually opening the email is in many cases (depends on the email software) not equal with the total lenght of the subject line.

This means that a long subject line will not be seen entirely without opening the email. If the visible part doesn’t have any meaning (because it may be only a part of the whole subject line) or the attractive point of the subject line is not visible, that’s it, the email may be deleted.

First conclusion? Don’t write very long subject lines and be sure to include the attractive point at the very beginning of the subject line.

Now let’s look at the question from the title of this article. If you use the first name of the reader in the subject line, then you use it at the very beginning of the subject line, right?

Like this:

John, do you know what’s happens when you use the first name in the subject line?

By using the first name of the reader in the subject line … you only diminish the visible part where you can get the reader’s attention. That’s not good. Readers are no longer attracted when they see the first name in the subject line. It has to be something more attractive there to make them read the email.

Some ezine publishers still use the first name of their readers in the subject line but … I hate to see how many times they use a wrong code and instead of my first name, I see in the subject line something like FNAME or FIRSTNAME. When I see that someone
is calling me FNAME, that email suddenly becomes not important for me and I delete it.

You don’t want this to happen to your own solo ad, do you?

For these reasons, I highly recommend you to NEVER use first names in the subject lines of your solo ads.

The ezine classified ads purchased from ad co-ops are the cheapest ezine ads.

Newbies are buying them because the ads are cheapand they are afraid to invest more.

The advertisers who are more experienced are buying them to test a program or product or for branding their own programs or products.

I’ve seen people disappointed because after a few days the results were not as expected.

Here are the results of a test I started in 2007 and it finished in 2008.

You already got the first point? You have to be patient when you buy ezine classified ads from ad co-ops.

I tracked the clicks on their links for 3 of my customers who have purchased ezine classified ads on 21 June 2007, 4 July 2007 and 2 August 2007.

Here is what the ad tracker revealed for the last 3 months:

1st ezine ad - 27 clicks
2nd ezine ad - 31 clicks
3rd ezine ad - 30 clicks

Surprised?

If you write a good classified ad, you’ll get the same results …

This is a benefit very few advertisers know: you will get visitors to your website many months or even years after the ad is published.

How is this possible?

Many ezine publishers archive their ezines online and these ezines stay there as long as the ezine’s website is online. The search engines index these pages and they show up when people are using the search engines by searching for different things.

Be confident and patient when you buy ezine classified ads and never use links that expire because you’re losing money.

For a few bucks spent on a single classified ad, your website will get a long term exposure.