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    How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 5)

    March 30th, 2009

    If you missed the previous parts of our “Quality Ezines Checking Map”, please go to How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 1).

    Setup a Gmail email address and subscribe. Reminder: if there is a double opt-in subscription process, you need to confirm your subscription by clicking on a link from an email message or by replying to that message, as the case may be.

    After you completed your subscription, let’s see what the publisher is sending to her/his subscribers.

    The very first message you’re supposed to receive now is a welcome message from the publisher. If you don’t receive it, add a minus on your Checking Map.

    As a general rule, check both the Inbox and the Spam folder. If some of publisher’s messages arrive in the Spam folder, stop testing that ezine. That newsletter has deliverability problems and you don’t want your own ad to land in a spam folder where almost no one will see it.

    I can hear you asking, “What exactly means some of the publisher’s messages?” Stop the test after you receive 2 messages in the Spam folder (if there is only one message, there may be a temporary problem).

    Now actually take a seven days break. Then come back and start your final analyze.

    Question # 6 – How many solo ads you received?

    If you received more than one solo ad per day, the analyze ended. The subscribers receive too many solo ads and you cannot get a good response unless you’re lucky.

    If you received one solo ad daily, add a minus on your Checking Map.

    If you received less than one solo ad per day, that’s good.

    Question # 7 – How the subject lines of the solo ads look like?

    If the subject lines are the same (like “Name of Ezine – Solo Ad” or similar), then run away. If the publisher doesn’t include advertiser’s headline in the subject line, then the result for that solo ad is a guaranteed failure.

    “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” – David Ogilvy.

    [to be continued]

    Update, 6th April, 2009: the article continues here – How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 6)

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    2 Comments | Ezine Advertising Tips | Permalink
    Posted by Adrian Jock

    How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 4)

    March 16th, 2009

    If you missed the previous parts of our “Quality Ezines Checking Map”, please go to How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 1).

    Question # 5 – What type of opt-in subscription is used? Double opt-in or single opt-in?

    Let me clarify the terms “single opt-in” and “double opt-in“.

    Single opt-in subscription is when all you’re required to do in order to subscribe is to fill in some pieces of information about you (usually your name and your email address) in an online form.

    Double opt-in subscription is when you’re required to fill in the same information in an online form and in addition you’re required to confirm your subscription. Such confirmation is made by replying to an email message automatically sent to the email address you indicated in the online subscription form, or by clicking on a link from that email. If you don’t confirm your subscription, you’re not added to that mailing list and you won’t receive that ezine.

    From the advertiser’s point of view, a top quality ezine will always use the double opt-in form of subscription.

    Why? Because in case of a single opt-in subscription, these facts can happen:

    i) the ezine can be sent to people who actually never asked themselves to receive it. The opt-in subscription form can be filled in with OTHER person’s email address and the publisher doesn’t verify anything but sends her or his ezine to that email address. You don’t want your solo ad to be reported as spam by such a person who didn’t subscribe to the ezine but receive it.

    ii) if a potential subscriber fills in incorrectly the online form and misspells his or her email address, then the publisher will send his ezine to no one or … even worse … to someone else who didn’t ask to receive that ezine. Since the cost for the ad space is based on the number of subscribers, you don’t want to pay for such “subscribers”

    iii) The spam filters are not publishers’ friends. When they use the double opt-in form of subscription, they know that at least their first email arrived at the right destination. In case of an opt-in form of subscription, the publisher doesn’t know anything. You don’t want to advertise in an ezine that arrives in subscriber’ Spam folders, do you?

    What is the conclusion when the subscription to the tested ezine is single opt-in? Add a “minus” on your Checking Map and keep running the test. In case at the end of the test you decide that a single opt-in ezine has an overall good score and it worths to be used for your ezine advertising, then ask a reduction of price for the ad space. Explain to the publisher that some of the subscribers may be “dead” subscribers (use in your explanation the facts described above at i, ii and iii) and that’s why it’s not fair to charge you for such “subscribers”.

    [to be continued]

    Update, March 30, 2009: the article continues here – How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 5)

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    3 Comments | Ezine Advertising Tips | Permalink
    Posted by Adrian Jock

    How to identify top quality ezines for your advertising needs? (Part 3)

    March 9th, 2009

    If you missed the previous parts of our “Quality Ezines Checking Map”, please go to How to identify top quality ezines for your ezine advertising needs? (Part 1).

    Question # 4 – Are there any restrictions regarding the subscription email address?

    Some big email service providers installed powerful spam filters and whether their users know it or not, they censor users’ correspondence by deciding what they may receive and what they may not receive. Of course they claim that they defend their users and stop the spam emails sent to them but … the reality is different. A lot of legitimate emails are forwarded to the spam folders or even worse blocked or deleted at server’s level. Why is that? Not because these email service providers want to censor the correpondence, but because some of the services they provide are of POOR quality (they use low quality spam filter programs).

    You may wonder what I am talking about here …

    Well … because of these spam filters, a lot of ezines have deliverability problems. Since you don’t want your ad to arrive in a spam folder or simply deleted at the server’s level, you have to analyze very carefully how the ezine publisher is handling this issue.

    The first step is to check whether there are any restrictions regarding the subscription email address.

    If you’re not allowed to subscribe using certain email addresses, then that’s a good sign. It means that the publisher cares about the deliverability of her or his emails. Don’t get mad that you cannot subscribe using your favored email address. This is just food for your thoughts. You may be one of the email users whose correspondence is censored while they are not aware of such “great”service provided to them.

    If you’re allowed to subscribe using any email address, then that may be a question mark. Not a big one, but still a question mark. Some publishers don’t have any clue on spam filters and deliverability issues. Other publishers rely on third party providers (like Aweber) that issue deliverability reports. Such reports are never accurate because no third party software program can detect if an email arrived in the intended recipient’s Inbox or in her/his Spam folder. However, the advantage of using providers like Aweber is that they have built strong relationships with the big internet service providers and email service providers and are kind of “whitelisted” by them.

    So what is the conclusion in case there is no restriction for the subscription email address? The conclusion is that … there is no conclusion yet! Add a small question mark on your Checking Map and keep running the test. Since deliverability is very important, we will see how to further make more tests in order to see whether there are any deliverability issues or not.

    [to be continued]

    Update, March 16th, 2009: How to identify top quality ezines for your advertising needs? (Part 4)

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    1 Comment | Ezine Advertising Tips | Permalink
    Posted by Adrian Jock

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