Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List, Part II

More tips on how to beef up that all important ezine list … which in case you didn’t know you can still use to connect with your folks, even if you’re a passionate blogger. Why? It’s a better concrete list building tool because you HAVE to sign up to get it, unlike a blog post. 

1. Announce ezine ‘events’ on PRweb.com and other PR sites. There’s an entire world of web-based press release distribution services out there, some of which are low cost or even free. But be sure to only plant press releases that are truly newsworthy.

2. Sponsor other people’s contests/events. Simply run an announcement in your ezine. Ask participants to provide a URL for the event so you know it’s legit. Then offer up your bonus … and see if they’ll promote your ezine to their list as a thank you, too.

3. Run quality content. There’s no substitute for heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject that matters. It gets passed along!

4. Allow reprints. I like to have borrowers send an email requesting permission, so I can enter their info into a big database – these could be future swap partners. Plug the reprint permission at the end of your essay.

5. Create a survey or contest. This would be one of those newsworthy ‘ezine events’ I mentioned above in point # 6. Surveys can generate media-friendly statistics you can use in all kinds of press releases, etc.. And contests are just … well … fun!

Another Free Ezine Check Service

Hallelujah! Reader Ken Burgin provided a good alternative to EzineCheck – Spamdance … See http://www.bmyers.com/spamdance/ This is a service that scans your ezine copy to make sure it doesn’t wind up in the Junk folder by accidentally including spam trigger words.

Right on!

End of a Great Free Spam Filter Checker

Sigh. For years now we’ve relied on the erstwhile www.ezinecheck.com to scan our text before we send it in bulk emails, ezines, etc.. And … well … this wonderful free source just isn’t there anymore.

Anyone know what happened to them?

Meanwhile, the gap is being filled by the industrious folks at SiteSell. You can find a reasonably good free form that scans html – not quite as user friendly on the email aspect, but still good. Go to http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/

Anyone else have a preferred free spam filter?

New Free Places to List Teleclasses

I’ve run across these places recently to list your teleclasses and drive folks to jump in and join you. Which, by the way, is an awesome way to build your list.

All you do is offer folks the sign up for the call and at the same time let them know that when they sign up, you’ll be sending them your free ezine/bonus/whatever with your compliments as a thank you. (And do let them know it’s easy to unsubscribe … and make sure that it is.)

I more than doubled my list using calls like this as an incentive in 2006. Forward ho!

Don’t forget to list your classes here:

http://planetteleclass.com/

http://www.cculearning.com/

http://solo-e.com/

The Tender Relationship Between Ezines and Blogs

I’ve been asked a lot over time just WHAT the relationship should be between your blog and your ezine. I like symbiosis on the whole. That means your ezine always has linked titles of your last four or five posts. And your blog occasionally refers to your ezine (like my own Expert Status – which sends you free, useful tips and articles on building platform every other week … just scroll up to the box at the top of this page to sign up.)

See how smoothly I did that?

It’s really a matter of including both in both – and do feel free to start articles in one place, like your ezine, and post more information about that in your blog. For instance, the most recent issue of Expert Status referred to an article I ran here about the history of my business. Then it expanded on all the mistakes I’ve made over time.  it out here

Basically, this is all about thinking like your reader and determining what they want to learn more about and how you can direct them to find it. A good example is what NPR does on its news broadcasts. Frequently, stories are continued on their site with links to additional information, interviews, etc..

Think creatively, and by all means, cross link!

Stats on the Name Squeeze Question

Since my recent post about a friend's name squeeze page test, a few of you have rightly pointed out that I never included stats with that post. Here they are:

The test was run over two months, via Google Adwords. One ad led folks to a name squeeze page which captured name and email, and then took them to a sales page. The other ad went straight to a sales page.

1080 clicked on the name squeeze page, and surrendered 177 leads, but yielded only $565 in sales. That was an impressive 16.4% conversion rate, but only a 0.6% sales conversion rate.

Meanwhile, 1072 clicked on the straight sales page ad and surrendered 91 leads, but yielded a much healthier $1289 in sales (twice as much!) That would be an 8.5% lead conversion rate, and a 1.1% sales conversion rate.

So what's a person to do? This study's author is going back to a straight sales page on the theory that he'll generate fewer leads but they'll be a whole lot more qualified. That says a lot about name squeezes and whether they're worth it.

After all, isn't platform really shaped most effectively around truly eager and loyal fans ... as opposed to those who are just in for the freebies, and generally taking up unresponisve space on our lsits?

More thoughts anyone?

Do Squeeze Pages Work? Some Hard Data

A Web marketer I know recently did a great little split test using Google Adwords, which meticulously tracks all of your hits from each ad and how much income they earn you. And he generously shared his results with me.

His intention was to find out whether more folks buy from a squeeze page, which would demand their email and name (and add them to an ezine list) before delivering them to a sales page … or if they buy more from going straight to a sales page.

Interesting question. I often find myself landing on a squeeze page off of an ad or an offer and really debating whether to stay or go. On theory, I don't like a squeeze page that hasn't already given me some value. In other words, I'm comfy with a squeeze page to a bonus, sample or questionnaire of some kind that pops up in the middle of an info-laced article or meaty web page or blog post. Then I don't mind surrendering my info.
But to land on a sqeeze page as a site's home page - or off of a Google ad … that seems bitter and a tad harsh. Like yeah, I'm being squeeeeeeezed … and I don't like it!

Want to see a sample of a squeeze page to see what I'm talking about here? Go to my Coaching page and scroll down to see the turquoise box about my Branding Acid Test. OK … it's not technically a squeeze page in itself, but a squeeze … uh … box? Same principles apply.

By the way, I've more than doubled my list for my Get Known Now ezine, Expert Status, this year by letting folks know that when they opt in for my bonus, free telelcass, report, sample, questionnaire, etc. they'll also get Expert Status with my compliments. That's worked like a charm. And for the most part, people stay!

How do you feel about squeeze pages?

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List, Part II

And here's the rest...

6. Announce ezine 'events' on PRweb.com and other PR sites. There's an entire world of web-based press release distribution services out there, some of which are low cost or even free. So use them. But be sure to only plant press releases that are truly newsworthy, and thus likely to get press attention. Even if the media don't use your words this time, they'll hopefully file you as an expert for future use.

7. Use discussion boards or groups. These are sites frequented by gangs of people interested in the same thing. Avoid the unmoderated sites, because they're likely to be spam targets that generate little bonafide traffic. Boards found on member sites are the best. Don't spam the board with your subscribe message. Instead, offer some genuinely helpful info. Then sign off with a signature line that includes ezine and subscribe info. You can find some of these groups at groups.yahoo.com, topica.com, mail-list.com, and listfool.com for starters.

8. Sponsor other people's contests. Jenna Glatzer gives away products like her paid newsletter, Absolute Markets Premium Newsletter, to writers' groups, contests, and conferences that request it, regardless of size. I've tried this too, to good effect. Simply run an announcement in your ezine that you'd be happy to sponsor comparable events. Ask them to provide a URL for an event description so you know it's legit. Then offer up your gifts, and ask for a plug for your ezine and for them to talk up your dazzling freebie, as well. Jenna notes that groups she sponsors "often send out ads for us to their lists … just as a thank you."

9. Run quality content. There's no substitute for heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject that matters. Jenna writes: 'The main reason our list stays so big is our 'letter from the editor' … Each week, I chronicle my writing life and my triumphs and failures … when an article is killed, when I'm having trouble finishing a book … And I share personal things, too, like when my grandfather died…. People write: ' I feel like I know you so well.' And I think that's why they stay on the list, even when their mailbox fills up with dozens of other writer's newsletters.

10. Allow reprints. Allow any newsletter that wants to reprint your articles do so. I like to have an email requesting permission, so I can enter their info into a big database I use to track where I can send more articles in the future. I end each article with the line: You may reprint this article in your own ezine or website. Simply send an email requesting permission to jill@getknownnow.com. Please be sure to include our full bio box at the end.

11. Create a survey or contest. This would be one of those newsworthy 'ezine events' I mentioned above in point # 6. Make it a fun, relevant question that you could really develop a good, newsy story from. I did a survey asking people what they fought with their spouse/partner/boy or girlfriend about. The results made for the kind of reading offline media enjoy running short, 100-word pieces about (fillers.) I made sure to attribute the survey to my ezine, The Joy Letter, with a mention of the site's basic URL. You can get the technology to run your own survey and collect responses at surveymonkey.com (for a fee) or bravenet.com (for free.)

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List, Part I

Want your ezine list to catch fire and really start to fill up? Jenna Glatzer took her own list from the hundreds all the way to 75,000 in 7 years by simple, steady marketing, and using many of these techniques. (Jenna bought only 4000 opt-in names along the way.) Here are some tips we provided, and some I've pulled from my own experience, building my list for The Joy Letter to 17,000 over five years.

1. Free Stuff. Pick genuinely useful free stuff that you know your audience wants and needs. For instance, my brand new ezine, Expert Status, attracted 600 readers in just a few weeks by offering a report, "25 Top Self Help Literary Agents". The practical freebie works. Jenna Glatzer offers two free ebooks/reports to subscribers on agents who are receptive to new writers, and on writer's markets.
She notes: "Before I did that, my subscriber numbers were
in the hundreds, not thousands.

2. Put a subscribe box on every page of the site. This has worked for both Jenna and me. Mine is parked in the left hand column of the site. Experts advise putting a simple sign up box (with freebie mentioned) in the top left hand corner, as that's where the eye naturally travels first. A simple sign up box that requests only email address works best.

3. Ad swaps. Exchange plugs for your ezine with another website, to run in each other's ezines. Be sure to mention those freebies! Doing this on a regular basis with a rotating selection of web partners will keep your subscription page busy.

4. Cross-registration. I've found subscribers by having a plug for my ezine on the thank you page of a comparable (but not directly competitive) website. This offer is made to folks who just signed up for an ezine, and are therefore deemed 'in the mood for more.' Offer a swap with your site, and try not to list more than about two other ezines. Also, make a point of including only really good, reliable publications that reach your target market.

5. Give away a bonus for other sites to use, based on your ezine. A popular web marketing technique is the special one or two-day promo that offers big bonus lists when you buy a certain product on those particular days. (I cover this promo technique in more detail in my e-book/binder, Get Known Now; How to Build Your Platform as a Self Help Expert.) So collect some of your best ezine essays, pack 'em up in a downloadable PDF-based e-book, and offer it as a bonus these sites can use in their special promos. Don't forget juicy descriptive copy about your ezine, and a subscribe link at the end of your e-book. I've gotten hundreds of new readers this way, and much traffic to my site.

More to come...

More Insight on How to Switch Email Broadcast Providers

Denise O'Berry of the AllBusiness blog has some good things to say about how to effectively switch your email opt-ins to a new broadcast provider. You may remember I posted about this right here last month, when 1shoppingcart.com, my provider, was having a hiccup.

It's always seemed like it's pretty much impossible to do that kind of switcheroo without losing half your list, because services like aweber.com and 1shoppingcart.com require all folks you bring in to re-opt in before they will mail out. And usually, there goes half the list.

Denise suggests some kamikaze strategies that require a bit of in-your-face emailing. Which can rankle some readers, but I have to say, if they love your work and they're loyal … it shouldn't be any problem to get their opt in again.
Thanks Denise. We needed this!

Technorati Tags: Email marketing, Email Broadcast Services, aweber

More on The Perils of Moving Your List

Regarding our on-going discussion about what happens if your broadcast service, i.e. 1shoppingcart.com, goes kerflooey. Recently I contemplated out loud moving to aweber and got a ton of comments begging me to back off, think about it, and not be too rash.
Here's a response from my coaching partner, Pam Slim.

"… you are actually required to double opt-in a list imported into AWeber. I just moved my list over about 2 months ago, and my list was a 'clean' opt-in list. When I asked them if I had to have people go through the double opt-in process again, they said yes. They are just trying to maintain the integrity of their system, and if they don't request the double opt-in, they just have to trust someone's word.

I did lose about 40% of my list (it was still small at that time) but I am actually fine with it. I would rather have an updated and 'true' list rather than one bogged down with people too tired to remove their name. My open rate with AWeber has hovered between 80-89%, so it appears to be working."

Personally, I'd LOVE an open rate of 80-89% … that would rock! But the prospect of slashing 50% of my list - at this point more than 10K names would hurt. And I wouldn't want to hassle my clients to re-opt in. Just too risky.

It all comes down to online credibility-does she with the biggest list win? Or she with the highest open rate and a smaller, but more dedicated readership?
What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Ezine list building tips, moving your list, aweber

1ShoppingCart.com Blows a Gasket … and A LOT of Net Marketers Suffer

Bad news here in Joy-land. Last week I did a GREAT free teleclass with the abundantly successful Michael Port - all about how his Amazon Campaign totally took off and he sold 3000 books in one day. And … disaster struck. Even though I mailed out to those who signed up twice with the call number, only about 50% of the emails got through.

Basically our broadcasting service, the usually reliable 1shoppingcart.com, hit a MAJOR snag. Here's what happened, according to our Customer Services coordinator, Lorraine Carol:

"Spamhaus is a non-profit organization, which small companies like Comcast who don't have their own Abuse Departments can hire to manage their spam filtering.  Somehow, they got it into their head that us Opt In folks who send through 1shoppingcart.com were spamming the world. So they cut off all access to their clients from our 1sc addresses.

For the first few days Spamhaus wouldn't even respond to 1SC's attempts to communicate.  They are now in communication and Spamhaus has taken 6 of 1SC's "banned" IP addresses off their list.  Spamhaus has requested 1SC to make certain changes before they will take the remaining addresses off their list.  One of those changes is possibly going to a double opt-in system. By the end of this week 1SC is hoping to have all their addresses cleared."

By the way, 1SC is not handling this in the warmest, fuzziest way. Even though their situation seriously fouled up not one but two offers we were making to our lists, 1SC is saying 'Tough!'

Their party line: Because 1SC had actually sent the emails - it's the customers' email providers who disallowed them from receiving the emails - they feel they lived up to their side of the bargain. Regardless of the final delivery situation. (Give me a break!)

We are now looking into switching our broadcasting functions and lists to the even-more-reliable aweber.com … but that could entail losing a lot of readers if the new service insists everyone on our lists opt in again. We're currently pondering the matter.

Anyone else out there having the same achey feeling about 1SC?

Tags: Spamhaus, 1 Shopping Cart, email marketing

Results from our first segregated email campaign

Basically, I read a lot of research about how your open rate on emails/ezines can soar when you divide up your email list into commercial and home domains. So my trusty webmistress, Peggy Murrah, helped me make that happen. And here's what we learned on the last broadcast of Expert Status.

Our usual open rate swings between 18% and 35%. The list has hovered between a low of 3500 (a few months ago) to almost 5000 (this week.)

Sent to home domains on a Saturday morning
Emails Opened: 439 | Opened/Sent Ratio: (23.14%)  4/29/2006  Done

Sent to commercial domains on a Thursday
Emails Opened: 772 | Opened/Sent Ratio: (31.84%)  4/28/2006 12:20:00 PM 

Nothing new here … hmmm. This was only the first send, so we'll play with delivery days. And we'll keep on segregating for about three months just to see how it works.

Could be an overall trend towards emails getting opened less and less. (Expert Status used to have a 55% open rate in 2005.) Viva RSS and blogs!

What do you think?

Tags: Email list building, list segregation, ezine marketing tips

The Instant Ezine Has Arrived

(From FeedBlitz's own blog)

TypePad has just announced a new set of features called "Widgets" that will enable their users to quickly add massive functionality to their TypePad blogs in a few clicks, dramatically simplifying the process.

FeedBlitz, the leader in RSS and Blog to email messaging solutions, is one of the inaugural services selected to work with the TypePad Widget API to deliver an email newsletter publication widget for TypePad users.

The FeedBlitz email widget makes publishing a blog-based email updates (a newsletter, in effect), almost as easy as subscribing to one. All a TypePad blogger needs to do is give their email address to the FeedBlitz Widget Generator and they then choose the blog(s) to add email update capabilities to. That's it. The Widget does the rest, automatically.

Meanwhile, the blogger confirms the email address using the standard email confirmation link sent to her by the Widget generator and then they can configure their blogs using all FeedBlitz's array of capabilities, such as:

• Real-time analytics
• Subscriber management
• Post truncation
• Email format tailoring
• Schedule customization

So what do we make of this folks? Stay tuned as I will be experimenting.

Tags: FeedBlitz Widget, Feedblitz, ezine publishing, blog v ezine

The World Wants Reality These Days – And How to Give it to Them

Roy H. Williams, owner of the good site, www.wizardofads.com , had some really cogent insights recently about what the public is in the mood for these days. Namely, reality. And I couldn’t agree more. After several years of successfully avoiding all TV, I, too, have gotten sucked into the new season of American Idol. And it’s because it’s so … so … real!

And what about this crazy blog craze? Reading people’s honest, off the cuff, spontaneous remarks is also completely addicitve. Because … it’s all about just being yourself – and it really is what people want today.

Do you supposed this is delayed backlash to the 50’s, the 60’s, the 70’s, AND the 80’s which were all era’s that (each in their own way) were full of excess and artificiality?

So this interest in reality fits neatly with something I’ve always said, which is that the more vulnerable and honest you are in your writing, articles, ezine, etc.. the more responsive the public will be.

I learned this when I sold my first essay to a major magazine, SELF, back in 1987. It was the mushiest, most vulnerable thing you’ve ever read… all about how I was waiting for some guy to come rescue me from my single, lonely life in the world’s smallest studio apartment. Amazingly, it generated a huge amount of mail and commentary. People want to be touched. And they GET touched by your honesty.

So if you’re blogging or writing articles, follow Roy’s advice, and keep it so, so real. Say the stuff you’d ordinarily hide because it just doesn’t make you look good. Go for the gusto and tell it like it is.

Example - the titles of my two most popular articles of the past year:

1.How to Protect Your Dream at Dysfunctional Family Get-togethers
2.Highs and Lows of Building an Internet Business

What are you doing to keep it real?

The Unexpected Values of Ezines

I’ve gone back and forth this year about my ezine-blog relationship. It’s kind of a sibling rivalry of sorts, and I’m the negotiating parent in the middle.

I’ve tried different juggling acts so I can accommodate both a demanding blog schedule (I’m going for five posts per week) AND an in-depth issue of my ezine AND (eventually) regular podcasts.

Here’s what I’ve discovered.

Pre-blog, I published my two ezines, Expert Status and The Joy Letter, twice per month. Then I’d turn around and pass those articles along to my assistant, Lorraine Carol, who submits them to various article banks on the Web.

Once the blog kicked in, I cut back each ezine to once per month. I intended to launch both blogs at the same time, but found I only had the juice for one … if I only published the ezines once per month.

Meanwhile, I heard less from my people. While I got a steady stream of coaching and group coaching clients…I wasn’t getting the usual commentary on my ezines and I missed it. And they weren’t all rushing to my blog. I have almost 19,000 folks on my ezine lists, but only about 500 hang out at my blog.

So I’ve missed my readers … and I miss writing for them.

I’ve begun to realize that my primary job these days is to write ezines, blogs, podcasts and products… and mostly the first three. That’s where my spiritual thrust is – and the living of my purpose. There’s simply no getting around it. I’m a writer, even beyond being a coach, and this is what I do. This extends even to the two columns I’ll be writing each month.

So I’m back to two ezine editions per month, starting in October. AND, I’ve just launched a second blog, the Blast ‘o Joy, which is part of my howmuchjoy.com site. Writing more is forcing me to farm out more of the administrative work I don’t really need to do myself – and focus on delivering the spiritual goods as I’m being given them. It’s all good … and exciting.

If you’ve missed some of my writing, worry not. I’m back. J

The Future of the Ezine?

I just took an interesting look at the open rates for ezines I've been sending out lately. The Joy Letter, my BIG ezine (list hovers around 16,000) has a consistent open rate around 26-28%. (You can only get these stats if you use html formatting for the ezine.) I send this baby out religiously - and have since 1998 - every two weeks. My list is loyal and responsive.

However, I just noticed that my young, less developed 'upstart' ezine, Expert Status, has an open rate around 41 - 45%! That's an amazingly high figure for this kind of thing. Now, I just started tracking the open rate on this one a few issues back. And I took care not to throw some slick hmtl format in the mix, but create my own 'text-only' look in the hmtl I created for each issue.

In fact, I was happy with simple, down to earth text only formatting... and only put it in html to track open rates. I send this ezine much less frequently (ten issues in about ten months) and it's a lot less gorgeous to behold. So why the interest and readership? OK, it's meaty enough, I suppose. But I think the real reason is because it's seen a lot less.

My business coach, Travis Greenlee, is suggesting I cut back to one broadcast per month on my ezines, and fill in with 2-3 blog-casts per week, instead. More frequent, fast, easy communications and less time spent hashing out full issues. PLUS traffic seems to be drifting towards blogs. I'm suddenly getting more posted comments and private mail from this blog than I am from either ezine. Could this be the wave of the future? Are blogs eroding the solid place ezines have had in our Net communication pantheon? Am I the only one planning to cut back and mix it up? Thoughts?