- Advertisement
- Scenario of Article Marketing
- www.buzzar.tv
- You Can Get Paid To Drive Traffic To Your Site?
- Advice
- Customer Care Training
- Do I have to report this crime? I've been wronged. Is it illegal or immoral?
- Students Have the Wrong Mental Approach to learning Irregular Verbs
- Arts
- Organizing craft supplies
- One Mistake
- Selling Handmade Candles? Get the Word Out With a Yard Sale!
- Business
- Thinking Big - A Fundamental rule for your business planning
- The Do's and Don'ts of Cash Management
- Trading Options For Your Information
- Community
- Carp Bait Making For Beginners And Cheap Big Fish Baits!
- Facts About The French Language
- The Creation of a New Major Political Party
- Entertainment
- Scrapbooking: Creating memories on paper
- New Mexico Film Festivals 2009
- NFL To Stream Sunday Night Games Live
- Environment
- Recycle Old Mobiles and prevent environmental pollution
- Going Green-How To Save Money With Homemade Energy
- Family
- Simple Gifts Give the Greatest Joy
- This year, give gifts that won't cause clutter
- The strategies how to decrease your cholesterol in order to be health
- Food
- The strategies how to decrease your cholesterol in order to be health
- Simple Gifts Give the Greatest Joy
- The Biggest Secret in Sausages
- Health & Fitness
- Thought For The Day
- Pass Kidney Stone Quickly - Learn How to Flush Your Kidney Stones at Home
- Unavoidable mistakes in choosing hair and beauty products
- History
- How Newton's Telescope Changed the World
- Early History Of The Marine Diesel Engine And Application
- Profiles in Classical Guitar: Fernando Sor
- Hobbies
- Origins of Christmas
- How to Bind Documents with Plastic Comb Binding
- Musicians, Put More Time Into Doing What You Love
- Home & Garden
- Asthma and Sleepovers
- Buying Kitchen Cabinets Online- Is it Safe?
- Budgeting: Cut Back on Spending
- Internet
- Scenario of Article Marketing
- Google Adsense - The Easiest Way To Make Money Online?
- SEO Tactics - Signal Your List With Viral Direct e-Mail Quake
- Miscellaneous
- How Newton's Telescope Changed the World
- The Kraggleys have arrived
- Memorable Limousine Ride
- News
- Facebook, Intel Sign Server Agreement
- American Airlines Drops Google Lawsuit
- Microsoft, Yahoo Antsy Over AOL
- Pets
- What is Excessive Licking? Read More of the Dog
- Male and Female Dog Names
- Aging Dog - How to Make Old Dog Comfortable
- Reference
- Things to consider before becomming a parent?
- Mothman - Alien from another world, or a being from the spiritual realm
- 4 Ways to Transform Your Relationship Now
- Sales
- Guitar Hero Word Tour - Dream Coming True for Rock Stars
- Jaco Real Estate Agents' Tips On Investing
- Things you should keep in mind at the time of wood floor restoration
- Self Improvement
- Why Anger Management Skills are Important
- Facial Enhancements - Improve Your Appearance
- Some common questions about Physical Immortality
- Spiritual
- Origins of Christmas
- Age New Spirituality - The Open Secret ( Read It At Your Own Risk )
- The Foundation For Received Prayer, And the Bible
- Sports
- Buy Rams Football Tickets For A Part Of NFL History
- How To Watch Live Football On Your PC
- Another Kind of Horse Brand: Business Branding in Equine Marketing
Three E-Zine Alternatives You May Not Have Considered
12/28/2008 - By Alexandria Brown After my live talks, I always get a few people who say to me, "You know, publishing an e-zine sounds great, but I just don't think I have the time to do it on an ongoing basis." Or, "I'm not sure if I'll have enough content to publish an e-zine."
If this is your case, you may want to consider one of these e-zine alternatives. These can still help you achieve your goal of establishing credibility, staying in touch with your prospects, and capturing your Web site visitors.
For the first two alternatives, you'll need an e-mail autoresponder. This is like a fax-on-demand system that sends out e-mails automatically when others request them. (I recommend QueenCart.com, which has a 30-day trial for $3.95.)
The great thing about autoresponders is that you can set the timing of a series ahead of time. For example, you can schedule message 1 to go out immediately once a person signs up for the list. Message 2 could follow two weeks later. Message 3 would follow two weeks after that. Get the idea?
ALTERNATIVE 1: THE "EVERGREEN" NEWSLETTER
If you don't foresee yourself writing fresh new content every week or month that you publish, why not make your newsletter "evergreen"?
This means that you write all your content ahead of time, and none of it can be time-sensitive. That is, it should be just as relevant today as it would be a year from now.
Evergreen e-zines are brilliant and easy to do. Here's how it works: Suppose you want to publish a short tip every week. That means you'd need 52 tips for a year's worth of content. Once you had these written, you'd just set them up on your autoresponder and tell it when you want them sent out. (For this example, it would be day 1, day 7, day 14, etc. -- each reader would get a message every week.)
It's important to realize that when you use a sequential autoresponder, these are sent as a SERIES. That means everyone who signs up goes through the series in order, no matter when they sign up. For example, let's say you publish a weekly tip like in the example above. If I sign up today, I start with tip #1. And in 10 weeks, I'll be on tip #10. But if Suzy Q signs up 10 weeks from today, she starts with tip #1 just like I did. Get it?
[BONUS TIP: You don't have to write your entire series before you begin! Just stay one tip ahead of the first person who signs up for your series. : )]
ALTERNATIVE 2: THE MINI E-MAIL COURSE OR REPORT
These are very popular right now. You simply create several e-mails' worth of content to spread out over a certain amount of days, and set them up on your autoresponder.
Many sites offer 7-day courses or reports, and quite frankly, many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOU to stand out. Make sure yours offers really useful or interesting content that's more helpful than salesy.
For example, say you're a small business coach. You could offer a course called "5 Ways to Make This Your Most PROFITABLE Year Ever!" Just sit down and list the 5 ways, then write a few paragraphs of copy under each.
Then write one final sales message that you'll add on to the end of the series as the 6th message. This should be a friendly invitation encouraging the reader to call you for a consultation, buy your book, sign up for your workshop, etc.
Paste all the messages into an autoresponder series, set the timing to what you want (e.g. every day or every few days), and voila -- you've got an e-mail course!
ALTERNATIVE 3: PROMOTIONS ONLY
If you offer products on your site that don't lend themselves well to creating related content, just offer what you've got!
Give your visitors the chance to receive special offers that will save them money at your site. The trick to high sign-up rates is to make them feel as if they'll be part of an exclusive group. Use words like "special, exclusive, limited, VIP, first looks, discounts, savings, club, and members-only."
For example, one site that I frequent sells discounted designer clothes and handbags. (Hooray!) During my last visit, they invited me to sign up for "discounts, exclusive offers, and first looks." I jumped at the opportunity!
Don't underestimate your visitors' interest -- many of them WILL sign up for e-mail offers if you politely extend the invitation and make them feel special.
Just make sure not to overdo your messages to this crowd. Keep your blasts to a maximum of once a week. Otherwise your readers will get irritated and may unsubscribe.
© 2003-2008 Alexandria Brown International Inc.
Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown publishes the award-winning "Highlights on Marketing Success" weekly ezine with 36,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at AlexandriaBrown.com