Ezine Advertising

Every ezine advertiser knows that ezine advertising is a numbers game. The formula is simple: more subscribers = higher price for the ad and higher expectations for that ezine advertiser. Nothing uncommon, right?

Now let me tell you about a variable that is not included in the formula mentioned above and is not taken into consideration by almost all ezine advertisers: the type of opt-in process for the ezine. I can hear some of you saying, “What is that? I don’t care about that and I don’t publish a newsletter myself, just tell me the secret you promised!”. Hey, don’t be a gambler like most of the advertisers! Be patient…

There are two types of opt-in processes: single opt-in & double opt-in. When the subscriber is requested only to fill in a simple online form, that is a single opt-in subscription process. When the process is more complicated and he is also required to check his subscription email address for an email from the publisher and take a further action (clicking on a link from that email or replying to that email), then that is a double opt-in process.

Now here is what may happen when the publisher uses the single opt-in process:

1) If the potential subscriber mistyped his email address, then there are 2 cases:

a) when the wrong email address doesn’t belong to anyone, the publisher will detect it quite easy when the next mailing will be sent. It will bounce.

b) when the wrong email address belongs to someone else, the publisher will start spamming that person. It’s not your problem? Well, what if the next mailing is YOUR SOLO AD? If that message is reported, then the publisher has a problem but … you have a problem too.

2) If the potential subscriber indicated for subscription an email address where the email service provider has installed an aggressive spam filter, that “subscriber” may never ever receive in the Inbox that publisher’s messages. A lot of people still use email service providers like the one described above, so this is a real danger.

What this case 2 means for an ezine advertiser? It means that many subscribers will never ever read your ad. Not because it’s not a good ad, but because they will never receive it. How is that? Do you remember the simple formula from the first paragraph? The price depends on the number of subscribers. The more subscribers who don’t get the emails, the more money YOU throw away!

When the publisher uses a double opt-in process, both cases described above disappear! If no one takes any action after the publisher’s first email is sent, then the prospect doesn’t become a subscriber. So you already know the secret, right? Check what type of opt-in process is in place and buy advertising space only in double opt-in ezines.

To Your Ezine Advertising 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

No matter if you like it or not, ezine advertising is a complex process. If you try to simplify it, you save some time but you won’t get better results unless you’re lucky.

One of the common mistakes the advertisers make is to simplify the assessment of an ezine advertising offer by checking only the number of subscribers and the price. The more subscribers, the better the results that have to be expected. This is the common way of thinking. Simple math, right? Any newbie can understand that you get better results when you advertise in an ezine that has 1,000 subscribers in comparison with the case when you promote exactly the same thing in a small ezine – from the same niche – that has only 100 subscribers. Well … It’s not very wrong, but it’s not correct …

I remember like it was today the day when an angry advertiser wrote to me, “Hey, Adrian, here are the facts. After you published my ad in your ezine X, I got x clicks. However, after the same ad was published in the ezine Y that has 100 times more subscribers than yours, guess what? I got 2 times less clicks than in your ezine. That publisher is a scammer, isn’t she?”

Believe it or not, I knew that publisher and she wasn’t a scammer! What the advertiser didn’t know is that when it comes to ezine advertising, the simple math doesn’t work!

I guess your question is “Why is that?”

An offline publication – a newspaper for example – has a complete staff: editors, marketers, people who take care of the distribution, and so on. Online publications usually are one man show. Ezine publishing, the same like ezine advertising, is complex. It’s not only about writing or copying an article and sending it to some people. The ezine publisher has to do a lot of things and she or he is alone, without any staff for help. Some publishers do these things, other don’t. Why don’t they do all the stuff required? Hey, ezine publishers are not gods! Some of them don’t even know that there are some actions missing from their daily routine … but hey, they are not scammers.

I publish Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter since 2001 but almost all these years my total subscribers number was in the range of 700-900 subscribers. Why? I don’t get subscribers by giving away different freebies. I don’t participate in giveaway events. I use the double opt-in method of subscription. I remove from time to time subscribers even if they didn’t require it … an so on. There is nothing illegal in doing what I don’t do. The publishers who do all these things (and many other alike actions) will always have a bigger number of subscribers. However, the number of readers may not be so bigger!

Another story … when I was a newbie publisher my mailing list kept growing and growing. I remember that when the list reached about 1,700 subscribers I read somewhere about undeliverable emails and I told to myself how happy I am that I don’t have such problems. Very soon after that moment I discovered that my mailer was setup so that to delete the undeliverable emails without them being forwarded to my email account. I corrected that and once I sent my newsletter I got tons of undeliverable messages. I had to delete more than 50% of my “subscribers”. I learnt my lesson. Beware: some publishers didn’t learn it yet!

I can continue writing stories here, but I don’t want to bore you. Here is the last fact … Some publishers send many solo ads to their subscribers. Some ezines contains many ads in a single issue. Too many ads sometimes. Some publishers post the classified ads only online, on a page dedicated to that purpose, where there are tons of ads. There is nothing illegal in doing that. There is no trick and you’re not scammed if you buy advertising in such ezines. However … if you’re an advertiser who knows your “job”, then you may know already that your ad may be more successful when published in an ezine where there are 2 or 3 ads than when your ad is published in another ezine where there are published 20 other ads. Irrespective of the number of subscribers! 100,000 readers who skip the long sea of ads are useless for you. 20 readers who read the 2-3 ads from the first ezine may get you better results.

Finally, let me say it once again and be sure you learn it … When it comes to ezine advertising, the simple math doesn’t work!

Take care!
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

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