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    Solo Ads – How to Test the Subject Lines

    October 26th, 2009

    Solo ads are the most powerful ezine advertising tools, but any ezine advertiser or email marketer has to know that a poorly written subject line affects dramatically the result of an advertising campaign. Today’s article shows you a simple method for testing solo ads subject lines, in order to avoid the unwanted and unpleasant failure of your solo ads advertising campaign.

    Step 1 – Read once again your sales letter and focus your attention on buyers’ benefits. Then write 8-10 subject lines, none of them longer than 60-65 characters (including the empty spaces between the words).

    Step 2 – Take a break! Forget about the product or service you plan to promote, forget about your next advertising campaign, forget about your goals, forget everything. Empty your mind of all your thoughts. Then take a look at the subject lines as if they are not yours. Consider these headlines written by a certain John Doe and always ask yourself, “So what?”

    Step 3 – Simply delete two subject lines that you consider the worst ones. I know, they all are your babies, they are all fine in your opinion, but … just do it! I told you to empty your mind and consider them as not being yours.

    Step 4 – You still have 6-8 subject lines. Contact some of your friends and don’t tell them anything about your plans. Just send them the subject lines and ask each friend to choose two of them. Don’t tell them that they are headlines. Don’t tell them what criteria to use in making their selection. Tell them not to ask any question but to choose two of the “expressions” you sent. Repeat the same test by posting the question in some online forums.

    Step 5 – Based on the answers you received during the Step 4, make a “Top 2 Subject Lines”.

    Step 6 – Buy two very cheap solo ads. Free solo ads are even better. It’s best to choose an ezine that is in the same niche like the product you plan to promote. Don’t be bothered by the fact that the ezine or whatever it is doesn’t have thousands of subscribers, but only make sure that both ads are sent to the same readers (don’t buy one solo ad in one ezine and the second ad in another ezine). For these two ads, use the subject lines from Step 5, the same ad copy for both ads and two different tracking links (an ad tracker is a must for such test).

    Step 7 – After the ads are published, wait 4-5 days and then analyze the number of clicks generated by each ad. The advertisement that got more clicks is the winner and its subject line is “The One”. You’ve just finished the test.

    To Your Email Marketing Success!
    Adrian Jock

    P.S. If you want to improve the results of your solo ads advertising campaigns, I recommend you to read Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads.

    P.P.S. For more ezine advertising tips, subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter.

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

    Solo Ads – 9 Common Mistakes Made by Advertisers

    October 19th, 2009

    Solo ads are powerful advertising tools. However, any tool has its own limits and if you don’t know how to properly use it, then it won’t help you to achieve your goal. Today’s article reveals some of the most frequent mistakes ezine advertisers make.

    1. Writing common subject lines – Your ad is not the only message that lands in recipient’s Inbox. If the subject line doesn’t grab the attention, the solo ad won’t be opened.

    2. Writing long and boring solo adverts – People don’t have time to read novels and when they have it, they read real novels, not long advertisements.

    3. Talking about themselves – If you’re not a very known person, forget about the pronoun “I”. No one is interested to find out what a John Doe did yesterday or one week ago.

    4. Trying to sell in their solo ads – Understand once and forever what the purpose of an email advert is: to make people click on your link. Give them a reason to do it. The fact that you want to sell them something is not a reason for them to click on your link.

    5. Exaggerating in their ads – All hype does is telling readers you’re not serious. If that is the feeling the solo ad creates, who do you think will click on your link?

    6. Advertising in ezines outside their niche – If there is nothing in common between the topic of your ad and the topic of an ezine, it is very likely that the readers of that ezine won’t be interested in your solo ad.

    7. Advertising in poor quality ezines – There is a jungle out there. Before placing an order, subscribe to the ezines and see what content is published. If the content is of poor quality, how many readers do you think that ezine has?

    8. Not using an ad tracker – If you can’t analyze the results of your advertising campaign, how do you know what you should change, remove or improve?

    9. Not repeating their marketing message to the same persons – Usually an ad has to be seen more times before someone acts on it. Most of the people don’t take decisions on the spot (and then they forget about you & your stuff).

    Nobody’s perfect… Learn from other people’s mistakes, whether you’re advertising or you’re just living your own life.

    To Your Success!
    Adrian Jock

    P.S. If you want to improve the results of your solo ads advertising campaings, I recommend you to read Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads.

    P.P.S. For more ezine advertising tips, subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter.

    EAI Blog – Terms of Use Excerpt
    Any reproduction, retransmission, or republication of all or part of any document found on EAI Blog is expressly prohibited, unless the Author has expressly granted his prior written consent to so reproduce, retransmit, or republish the material.

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    Posted by Adrian Jock

    The Detail That Can Ruin Your Solo Ads Advertising Campaign

    October 12th, 2009

    Attention grabbing headline, interesting solo ad, no words or expressions that trigger the spam filters, high converting landing page, great product. It’s not easy, I know, but you can do it. However, if a small detail is overlooked, then your promising solo ads advertising campaign may be ruined in seconds. What may be that nasty “bug”?

    Did you hear about blacklists (or blocklists) of domain names? They are databases of domain names that were reported as being used in spam messages. Once a domain name is listed by a major blacklist, all major spam filters will flag any email that contains a link to any page from that domain name.

    I can hear you, “But I don’t spam, I’m a legit email marketer, so that’s not a problem for me …”

    Well, don’t take this issue so easy. There are many newbies that think that spam is also an email that they don’t like or they are not interesting in. There are people who forget different things, including the fact that they subscribed to the newsletter they have just received. It happens … If such a “nice” person reports your email to the appropriate place, no one will ever give you the chance to defend yourself. Your domain name will be blacklisted without no further notification being sent to you. I know, it’s surprisingly and unpleasant, but that’s the reality.

    Affiliate and reseller links are other potential dangers. If another affiliate or reseller sent spam or has been reported as spamming and the reported email contained her/his affiliate link, then the whole domain name of that affiliate program may be blacklisted. Suddenly your own affiliate page is blacklisted even if you’re an honest email marketer…

    How to detect such problems?

    Before starting any solo ads advertising campaign, check whether the domain name of the link you inserted in your solo ad is blacklisted or not. Do it no matter who the owner of that domain name is, how famous is and how honest is.

    How to check whether a domain name is blacklisted or not?

    Search on Google for “URI blacklist” and you’ll find the major blacklists. Most of them have a feature called “Lookup” and you’ll be able to search their databases.

    What to do if a domain name is blacklisted?

    If it is your domain name, contact the staff who runs the blacklist and prove that your email marketing practices are according to the laws and industry’s standards. If it isn’t your domain name, you cannot ask for its delisting. All you can do is to warn the owner. Until she or he succeeds to delist the domain name – don’t use your plain affiliate or reseller link. Hide it using an URL shortening service or an URL redirection service. Are these solutions safe? Yes, spam filters don’t click on links so that to notice what’s behind the new links.

    To the Success of Your Solo Advertising Campaign!
    Adrian Jock

    P.S. Recommended readings: How to Avoid Spam Filters & Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads

    EAI Blog – Terms of Use Excerpt
    Any reproduction, retransmission, or republication of all or part of any document found on EAI Blog is expressly prohibited, unless the Author has expressly granted his prior written consent to so reproduce, retransmit, or republish the material.

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    No Comments » | Spam Filters | Permalink
    Posted by Adrian Jock

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