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