Ezine Advertising » Ezine Advertising Tips

Solo Ads Advertising: Misleading Subject Lines

Adrian Jock — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:12:27 +0000

If you mislead the prospects, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. No normal person wants to buy anything from someone who cheats!

Examples of misleading subject lines…

Example # 1 – Subject lines that start with Re: or Fwd:

Such subject line suggests that there was a previous correspondence with the prospect and indeed this trick has big chances to make the prospect open the email.

However, immediately the prospect sees that you’re just cheating. The email is opened and then immediately deleted. What did you get? A high open rate and a click through rate close to zero!

Example # 2 – “Notification of Payment Received”

An email having this subject line is definitely opened, but what follows…

I remember an advertiser who insisted on promoting a solo ad having such a subject line. I accepted to publish his ad because he was a loyal advertiser and the ad copy of that email said in fact that is not a good practice to use such a subject line!

You don’t want to know the content of the replies I received from some of my subscribers… Shall I mention how many unsubscribe requests I received?

I learnt my lesson and you should learn it too! A misleading subject line is a very bad marketing idea.

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. For more interesting ezine advertising tips, you can subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info newsletter.

P.P.S. Recommended reading: Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads

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On Which Day of the Week is it Better to Publish a Solo Ad?

Adrian Jock — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:17:43 +0000

The first thing you have to know is that many publishers won’t let you choose the date when your solo ad is published. The main reason is that they have a schedule and cannot modify it each time when an advertiser wants it.

For example, you may want your solo ad to be published next Monday but the publisher may not agree because of the simple reason that she/he publishes her/his own newsletter on that day and doesn’t send more than one mailing per day. Or another reason may be that the Monday you’re talking about is already booked by another advertiser.

However, if you are able to choose the day, which day to choose?

Well, I checked for you the results of two reports issued by two companies specialized in email marketing. Both reports are based on the analysis of milions of email messages sent via companies’ servers.

1) The report issued by AWeber Communications shows this result: the best day was Thursday and the second best Wednesday.

2) The report issued Mailer Mailer LLC contains a shocking information: the best day was Sunday and the second best Monday. According to their study a lot of people check their emails on Sunday nights in order to prepare for the upcoming week. This was quite shocking news because by now it was considered that it’s not good at all to send emails on weekends.

As you can see, the reports issued by the big boys of email marketing industry don’t match one another.

Conclusion … It seems that there is only one conclusion: there is no “best day” to send an email.

As a matter of fact, in the first mentioned report Justin Premick, Education Marketing Manager of AWeber, said that “our assumptions about what works are often quite wrong” and “you ultimately have to test for yourself to see what best suits your audience“. Again the magic wording “test for yourself”. You and I are different. So are the newsletters and their readers.

To Your Success,
Adrian Jock

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

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

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Ezine Advertising Resources – How Valuable Are Other People’s Recommendations?

Adrian Jock — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:30:05 +0000

Today’s article responds to a question many advertisers do NOT ask (unfortunately!): “Is it good to advertise in ezines other people recommend?“

First of all, when you read a review or a simple recommendation, check whether the person who wrote the review has something to gain from that review. It may not be an honest review.

How to check? Look at the link. Is it an affiliate link or not? If it is an affiliate link or a link that redirects the visitor to an affiliate page, then don’t take into consideration too much that review.

The internet is full of so called reviews made by people who never purchased the product or service they are writing about. Such reviews are in fact not reviews but sales pages.

Example: one of the ezine ad co-ops from my advertising network has an affiliate program in place and there are a lot of affiliates who never purchased anything but still promote that ad co-op. They actually don’t know whether the ad co-op is good or not but they still recommend it.

When you find a real recommendation or review, still take care. Continue and refine your research. Why?

If someone recommends an ezine whose topic is “weight loss”, don’t jump and buy advertising space for promoting let’s say … your internet marketing new ebook. Most probably that person promoted a weight loss RELATED product or program and that’s why he got a very good result.

The simple fact that somebody else got a very good result when he promoted his product (different from yours) doesn’t mean that the same will happen to you when you will promote a different product.

Finally, let’s discuss the “affiliate members area” topic.

Many affiliate programs managers try to help you by showing you in the affiliate area a list of “recommended” places where you can promote your affiliate link.

In many cases, such help is not quite a help unless you are one of the first affiliates. Let me explain you why…

Experience has shown that many affiliates are not experienced advertisers. They don’t have their own experience and their own opinions. They follow step-by-step what the affiliate manager advised them to do.

They go to that list of recommended resources and select a few ezines. Usually they choose the ezines listed first (even if there is no particular order based on how valuable the resource is). Then buy advertising space.

The next affiliates do the same. The next … the same. Guess what happens soon …

Many people that are subscribed to those ezines from that recommended list buy the book that is promoted (or join the program that is promoted). Other subscribers to those ezines only get bored seeing again and again promotions for the same thing.

And now … it’s your turn. If you follow the affiliate manager advice, you will go to the same ezines and buy your solo ad. Surprise! The people who already purchased the ebook will never buy it once again from you, no matter how good your ad is. The people who are bored will not be happy seeing yet another ad for the same thing.

What will your result be after you followed the affiliate manager’s advice?

An expected result: close to zero!

The same happens when your upline recommends you something. Don’t always listen to his or her advice! If your upline got an excellent result, your chances to succeed by promoting the same thing to the same persons are very low.

Exception …

Of course this discussion about “affiliate members area” is valid for a product (or a program) that can be purchased (joined) only one time.

If you promote for example products from a book shop with thousands of books, then you may promote them to the same people because they have the option of buying other books than the books they previously purchased.

Conclusion: a recommendation is just a starting point for your own research. Nothing more, nothing less.

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. For more ezine advertising tips, subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info newsletter. Then discover the free resource that will soon become the No. 1 exclusive collection of ezine advertising articles in the world: http://www.ezineadvertisingtips.com

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Ezine Advertising: Small Ezines Aren’t Good. Right or Wrong?

Adrian Jock — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:40:06 +0000

Ezine advertising is a complex process and is influenced by many factors. If you don’t take into consideration the effects of as many variables as possible, then some of your conclusions may be wrong.

Recently I had a conversation with the owner of a directory of ezines. I was puzzled when I found out what his newest plan is: to remove the small ezines from his directory. Why? Because according to him the small ezines are worthless for ezine advertisers.

Hmm … Is it right or it’s just another misconception about ezine advertising? Let’s see …

Let’s suppose that you’ve just discovered a new product (or service, or program). You like it and the next step is asking yourself “Why not promoting it and get some money out of it?”. Some people will jump without thinking too much and promote it. Then they will see the results (that may or may not be as expected). Others will be more professional and they will first make some marketing tests in order not to invest too much in something that the market may reject for various reasons. In vain you or I like something if the market rejects the product. OK? Let’s move on …

How will you do the marketing tests? First of all you make a list of ezines that are in the same niche like the product you plan to promote. Then you choose some of these ezines for the purpose of buying some ad space in them. Taking into account that you don’t know yet what the market thinks about that product, what ezines are you going to choose for your test? Will you choose the largest ezines and pay a lot of money? Or will you choose some small ezines and invest just an insignificant amount of money? Remember your goal: to test the reaction of the market. So … if you can get the answer to your question by paying less, then there is no point in paying more just to find out the same answer. Of course that you will avoid the large ezines.

What we learned so far? Are the small ezines worthless? Hmm …

OK, let’s move on and take into consideration another situation. Recently I subscribed to 2 ezines. One of them, let’s call it A, has only 1 or 2 thousand subscribers. I don’t remember exactly. But so far I liked all the newsletters I received and I will continue to read the ezine A. The other one, let’s call it B, has over 300,000 subscribers but honestly … I will unsubscribe very soon. The issue is not that I didn’t like the content. The issue is that by now the ezine had almost no content, only ads and sales pitches. Sometimes there was inserted the first paragraph of an old article that I read some years ago somewhere else plus a link to the rest of the article. That was all …

If I have to choose between the ezines A and B, where do you think I will advertise my business? In that small ezine that has good quality content or in that ezine that has a ton of subscribers but I honestly think that no one reads?

What we learned from this second example? Sometimes the number of subscribers is not relevant because it is very different than the number of readers. However, you will never know how many readers an ezine has. Checking the content is a very good approach …

Other two important aspects that many ezine advertisers don’t take into consideration are the spam filters and the form of subscription – double opt-in vs. single opt-in. What’s the connection between these 2 aspects and our topic? The subscribers who never got an ezine due to their email service provider’s powerful spam filter … will never unsubscribe. Oops! Such “subscribers” may stay forever subscribed to a single opt-in ezine and the publisher will proudly show you nice figures … In the same time, it is very much possible that the same persons won’t be subscribed to a double opt-in ezine, even if they request it by filling an online form. If they don’t receive the email “Confirm your subscription”, they won’t be able to confirm their subscription and they won’t be subscribed. They won’t become part of the nice and … fake number of subscribers, like in the case of a single opt-in ezine.

[Pay attention and don't misunderstand the previous paragraph of my article: the double opt-in form of subscription is not a guarantee that all emails sent by the publisher of that ezine land in subscribers' Inboxes. In the same time, the double opt-in form is not a guarantee that the number of subscribers is real.]

I can continue this article, but I guess you already understood my point. The large ezines are not better than the small ezines, but once again don’t be misled – this article doesn’t prove that the small ezines are better than the large ezines. I didn’t plan to prove that. Why? For a simple reason: I cannot prove it. Small ezines are not better than the large ezines. Remember what I said at the very beginning of this article … Advertising in ezines is a complex process.

To Your Success,
Adrian Jock

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Ezine Advertising: Guess Who is the Uninvited Guest

Adrian Jock — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:39:29 +0000

Some ezine advertisers are busy searching for “the best ezine to advertise with“, even if such ezine doesn’t exist. Others are busy looking for “the most responsive list“, as if it does exist a list of idiots who jump quickly once any garbage lands in their Inbox. Actually many online advertisers believe that once they buy a solo ad slot or another ezine ad slot, they are some kind of special guests and everything is solved by the publisher who publishes “the best ezine” that has “very responsive readers” and it will produce for the advertiser “the best ROI” (ROI = return on investment).

These approaches are completely wrong. Here are some ezine advertising “secrets” …

Most of the people don’t like ads. People don’t subscribe to ezines for the purpose of reading your ad, clicking on your link, visiting your website, buying your product, signing for your mailing list. Nope. Actually no reader cares about you. People care about them. People are online for making money (for themselves, not for you), for having fun, for solving their problems (not yours), etc.

Therefore forget about that “Special Guest” approach. An ezine advertiser, the same like any other online or offline advertiser, is just an uninvited guest.

“When executing advertising, it’s best to think of yourself as an uninvited guest in the living room of a prospect who has the magical power to make you disappear instantly.” – John O’Toole, The Trouble with Advertising

No reader is obliged to read your ad, to click on your link, to visit your website and to buy your product. No publisher can do that for you, no matter how good is her or his ezine. It is YOUR job to GRAB & KEEP READERS’ ATTENTION right in the seconds your ad is in front of their eyes. If they skip your ad … for ANY REASON, you FAIL.

Got the point? Focus on your ad copy, offer solutions, make readers’ life better and you’ll make yours alike!

To Your Ezine Advertising Success!
Adrian Jock

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