Ezines Provide A Cost-Effective, Highly Targeted Marketing Tool

By ARCHIE R. LAWHORNE


Ezines have become an increasingly popular and cost-effective
means to distribute information. Today there are close to 400,000
online newsletters covering just about any subject you can think
of. For Web marketers, ezines offer one of the best promotional
avenues available.

Ezine advertising, for example, has proven to be an extremely
cost-effective way to reach a large audience. And since most ezines
have a narrow subject focus, they also provide a highly targeted
audience. One of the challenges of ezine advertising is
finding the right ezine in which to advertise. While it's not
difficult to find plenty of ezines, it can be a tedious task
contacting publishers to get demographic and subscriber base
information, as well as ad rates and submission procedures.
I've found a number of different directories (listed at the
end of this article) that will help greatly in simplifying
this process.

Another effective marketing opportunity ezines offer is in
writing short articles and "how-to" tips, as many ezine publishers
are constantly looking for high quality content. And the best part
is, the only cost involved is the time it takes to write the article!

Here's some tips that might be helpful if you'd like to pursue
this strategy:

Start by reviewing ezine categories and narrowing down your
area of interest. Then decide what your topic will be for the
article. You may find it is useful to tap into a few search
engines and find 4 or 5 related articles to your topic. This
will help you to begin organizing your thoughts. With so
much information on the Internet, you will find this to be easier
than you think.

Next, it's time to put your thoughts on paper. It helps to
write a rough draft about what you want to say and start to
polish and flesh out the article. A helpful hint: stay on topic.
Don't be talking about fishing and then switch over to your
mother-in-law, unless it may be a humorous story about your
mother-in-law and fishing.

Some of the ezine articles that you read are really low-grade
sales letters. To maximize your credibility and increase your chances
of being published, do yourself a favor and avoid writing those
types of articles.

In most cases, you are allowed a short "resource box" at the
end of the article that can include a web site or product reference.
This is essentially a free classified ad. Unlike an ad, however,
it has far more credibility because you (and your product) have
been virtually "endorsed" by the publisher of the ezine.

Spend some quality time looking for "good" ezines to submit your
articles (and advertise in). Most have a web page where you'll
find archives of past issues, subscriber demographics, advertising
rates, lead times, etc. Jot down important information in a
notebook for easy reference -- it will come in handy later.

Writing articles for ezines can be one of the best promotional
decisions you'll ever make. Not only can it provide you with
highly targeted exposure, but if your articles are good, you'll
become a trusted professional in your area of expertise.

Here are a few ezine directory links that I've used to find
ezines that are appropriate for my subjects.

http://www.liszt.com

http://marketingwise.com/ezines.htm

http://www.bestezines.com

http://www.e-zinez.com

http://www.infojump.com

http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html#Search

http://www.ezineworld.com


In addition, here are some additional promotional resources
to help you get published:

http://www.web-source.net/links/Articles_For_Publication

http://www.mediapeak.com

http://www.makingprofit.com

http://www.ezinearticles.com/

http://www.writebusiness.com

Archie Lawhorne, APR, is an accredited public relations
professional, marketing writer and president of Crosspoint
Publishing. For information on his current business venture,
visit: http://www.sixfigureincome.com/free/?73917.23. For a FREE
copy of his new E-Book, "Web Marketing Basics," send a blank e-mail
to: mailto:archiel@getresponse.com or visit: http://www.profitleader.com