Ezine Advertising

When it comes to ezine advertising, no advertiser wants to buy ad space in poor quality ezines.

You don’t need me to tell you why, but you may need to discover how to identify top quality ezines.

Since testing is a key word in any type of advertising, this is what you have to do too. I know you may say,

“How to test? I don’t want to spend my hard earned money by testing one ezine after another.”

You don’t have to spend money on the tests I’ll reveal …

Let’s draft a “checking map” with questions and answers that you may further use for testing any ezine.

Ready?

Question # 1 – Does the ezine has its own website?

If the publisher of that ezine cannot afford (or doesn’t want) to pay a few bucks in order to get a domain name and hosting for her or his ezine, then you’ve just discovered an amateur.

Next step? Look for another ezine.

Question # 2 – Does anyone hear & talk about that ezine?

Go to Google and search for that ezine name. If the ezine name contains common words, in order to get relevant results type the ezine name in inverted quotas.

If you get only a few results where that ezine name is mentioned, ask yourself “Why?” and go to the next step: test another ezine.

If the ezine you’re testing has its own website and you also found on the Internet some relevant traces for that ezine, then you have to go to a different next step: subscribe to that ezine.

More questions and answers for your “Quality Ezine Checking Map” … next time.

Take care. I’m waiting you back to help you improve your ezine advertising skills!

[to be continued]

Update, March 2nd, 2009: How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 2)

First part of this article about some ezine ad co-ops can be read by visiting this page: Ezine Ad Co-ops – Don’t throw away your money

Fact # 1: According to Steven Boaze, he stopped publishing his ezine “Boaze Publishing Ezine” in 2008:

Fact # 2: Today, February 22, 2009, some ezine ad co-ops still charge you for publishing your ad in Boaze Publishing Ezine. The following screen captures are taken today and contain also the URL’s of the pages where they were taken from:

Essential Team

Ezine King

Ezines-R-Us

Note: one classified ad “published” only in Steven’s ezine that is not published anymore costs you $24.97!

Home Business Advertising (HBAds) – Sponsor Ads

Home Business Advertising (HBAds) – Solo Ads

Home Business Advertising (HBAds) – Classified Ads

There is nothing to be added and I don’t want to comment these facts in any way. Anyone is free to have her/his own comments.

What I hope is that these ezine ad co-ops will stop very soon such practices (or whatever they are) and offer the high quality services that I’m sure they are able to provide to their customers.

I would really want their owners to clean their very outdated lists of ezines, come here and post a comment like, “Hey, that was a terrible mistake due to … We updated our ad co-op and we assure ezine advertisers that such mistake will never happen again.”

We are human beings after all, and we all make mistakes. You make mistakes and I make mistakes. What is important is to correct our mistakes and take care not to repeat them.

For a better world!

When it comes to ezine advertising, one of the questions frequently asked by newbies is “What is the best ezine to advertise with?”

If you check the responses they get, you shouldn’t be surprised seeing that usually the potential advertiser asking that question never gets the answer he needs. Why is that?

First of all, as a general rule, if you don’t ask the right question, you may never get the right answer. You need to give enough details in your question so that people willing to help you to understand better what you’re looking for.

Coming back to the original question, the straight answer is this: it doesn’t exist the perfect ezine that is the best to advertise with irrespective of what you promote. You have to make a correlation with your niche, otherwise you may never get the right answer unless you’re very lucky.

Example: Someone may tell you that the best ezine to advertise with is “Blah Blah Newsletter“. You’ll visit the website of that ezine and see that “Blah Blah Newsletter” is a health ezine. What about the case when you actually planned to promote a product from tobacco industry? Of course that for you “Blah Blah Newsletter” won’t be the best ezine, but the most inappropriate ezine to advertise with. Did that person laugh at you? No way. Most probably he was involved for example in weight loss industry, his answer was based on his experience and you did not mention what is the niche you’re targeting.

Got it? You need to refine your question and say what is your target audience.

In such case, you may get answers that may be closer to what you actually need. Will you get THE ANSWER?

The practice shown that usually you will never get it! Let me explain you why …

If someone is an expert involved in the same industry like you, most probably he knows the answer, but he won’t tell it to you. Why? Because this is against his interest.

Fact: The more advertisers an ezine has, the longer the waiting time for advertisers until their ezine ads are published. Consequence: if you decide to advertise in that newsletter, then that expert will have to wait more before his own ads are published.

Additional reason: you may promote a product similar with his own product, but … who knows? Maybe yours is better or more affordable. Consequence: the subscribers may no longer buy the expert’s product but yours.

That’s why you’ll never get for free that answer from an experienced marketer.

Of course you’ll find on forums also many newbies who will not think that far. But will you rely on a newbie’s advice? There is nothing wrong to be a newbie in a certain field, but the newbie’s role is to learn, not to teach. I don’t advice you to rely on other newbies like you. Simple math: a newbie plus another newbie equals a newbie, not an expert.

Then … asking such questions on forums is a waste of time?

Straight answer: No. When done correctly, ezine advertising, like any other advertising, includes also market research and tests.

Refine your question so that to have better chances to get better answers and don’t stop your market research. Search ezines directories & search engines for newsletters from your niche. Then take a closer look at their websites and check the quality of the content published in these ezines.

If you’re following this path you’ll eventually find what is FOR YOU the best ezine to advertise with.