What is an Ezine How can You Use It for Internet Marketing

As the name suggests an ezine is an electronic magazine. It is quite often pronounced in two different ways. E... zine as in maga zine and sometimes as e...zeye..n. What the heck. It doesn't really matter how the word is pronounced so long as we can use it to our advantage. Perhaps the best way to understand ezines is to compare them with their printed counterparts. As you are aware there are many different magazines available covering all sorts of topics from heavy economic tomes to the latest gossip types.

The same applies to ezines. So it is important that any advertising you may carry out should be in an ezine in the right area. For example if you are promoting a car accessory then you wouldn't want to waste money by promoting in a fashion ezine. Obviously you want to promote to a targeted audience

This may not be quite as simple as it first seems. For example supposing you had a product for people interested in snowboarding. The obvious place to advertise would be in a snowboarding ezine. However an ezine specialising in snow sports in general would likely have snowboarder readership as possibly would an ezine about sports in general. So choose carefully

One of the best ways to ensure that you are in the right area is to subscribe to a directory of ezines

So how do you go about advertising in ezines?

Two of the best ways are free by either getting an article published or submitting a press release but these are subjects of another report.

Normally you have to pay to advertise in an ezine the same way you would have to in a "normal" magazine.

There are four ways to advertise:-

- Bottom ad
- Classified or middle ad
- Top sponsor ad
- Solo ad (sometimes called exclusive mailings or featured ads).

Bottom ad.
My experience is that these ads are not too effective. It would appear that as they are normally included with other small ads they are often overlooked by the reader.

Classified ads.
The same argument applies as above although I could be wrong and you may wish to have a go. The choice is yours.

Top sponsor ads.
These ads consisting of 4 or 5 lines are placed at the top of the ezine. Therefore they are the first thing noticed by the reader and as such get much better results. A bit like being on the front page of a newspaper/magazine.

Solo ads.
Going back to our comparison with a normal published magazine a solo ad can be likened to the flyer that is inserted within the covers. It is a "stand alone" advertisement hence it's name.

However in the case of ezine advertising the solo ad is sent out separately to the ezine data base and as such is the only thing seen by the recipient. This tends to give much better sales results. Another advantage with solo ads is that generally they can be much longer although you will have to check with the publisher as they do tend to have different requirements. The major disadvantage is that the email may not be opened so you must ensure that you have a heading which invites the receiver to want more information.

I should mention that Top Sponsor Ads and Solo Ads are normally more expensive than the Classified ones.

If you do a search of ezine publishers you will note tremendous variations in pricing and numbers of subscribers. Bear in mind that those with the most number of subscribers may not necessarily be the most effective for your campaign. As always experimentation with regard to your advertisement content and method of promotion is the key.

However do not expect instant sales. It takes time to build up a presence so patience and long term commitment is required but it will be worth it. Repeated advertising WILL be necessary as it often takes seeing the advertisement 4 to 7 times before someone takes action.

To YOUR success

John Beaumont Internet Marketer.