Ezine Advertising Tips » Tips

Ezine Advertising: The Simple Math Doesn’t Work

Adrian Jock — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:15:14 +0000

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 smaller 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 don’t use the single opt-in method of subscription but the double opt-in method. 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! Oh, by the way, I remove from time to time subscribers even if they didn’t require it (inactive subscribers).

Another story … when I was a newbie publisher my 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

You have permission to use the article above for your ezine, website or any other public print as long as you include the entire article, including the P.S. and the P.P.S., without any modification.

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Ezine Advertising Results: Why the Number of Sales is Not Relevant?

Adrian Jock — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:04:01 +0000

Ezine advertising seems to be a simple way of promoting online your products or services. However, the truth is that reality has shown that most of the advertisers actually don’t know what they are doing. Frequently advertisers can be seen spending only a few minutes for complex activities like writing an ad, finding an ezine for placing the order with and then assessing the result. Today’s article deals with an aspect regarding the assessment of the results of an ezine advertising campaign.

The biggest mistake usually made in assessing the results is that many advertisers don’t even think to perform such activity. Their judgment is simple: if they get enough sales (or signups), great. However, if the number of sales is not satisfactory, the conclusion comes within seconds: the ezine is not good, the publisher is a scammer or simply ezine advertising doesn’t work. Usually there is no other alternative in their minds. The failure is always due to other people or other things. Really?

It’s true that some ezines are not good and it’s also true that some publishers are scammers (or only amateurs – it’s a difference though). Discover them before placing an order with them, otherwise your failure will be due to you too.

It’s true that advertising in ezines doesn’t always work (that’s a complex topic and I won’t develop it here).

However, it is very much true that the outcome depends a lot on … the advertiser. Yes, many things depend on the advertiser and this means that the result itself depends very much on advertiser’s actions or inactions. That’s why looking only for the number of sales (or signups) won’t help the advertiser understand what was wrong, who is at fault and what to do next in order to avoid another failure.

First thing you have to know is that the number of sales depends also on the landing page, on the price (affordable or not), on the product itself (good or not, or simply not competitive), and on other factors, all of them having absolutely no connection with the ezine, its publisher or the ezine advertising itself. That’s why when you asses the result of an advertising campaign in a certain ezine (or groups of ezines), never ever look again for the number of sales. It’s not relevant even if selling is your final target.

Then … what to look at? The clicks! That’s the magic answer: the number of unique clicks on the link from your ad. For example if there will be a lot of clicks on your link and no sale, then you know for sure who is not at fault. The ezine, the publisher and your ad copy are OK. Check what’s wrong with the other factors (landing page, price, etc).

To Your Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. For more ezine advertising tips, subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info newsletter.

You have permission to use the article above for your ezine, website or any other public print as long as you include the entire article, including the P.S., without any modification.

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Ezine Advertising: Guess Who is the Uninvited Guest

Adrian Jock — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:34:08 +0000

Some ezine advertisers are busy searching for “the best ezine to advertise with”, even if such ezine doesn’t exist. Others are busy looking for “the most responsive list”, as if it does exist a list of idiots who jump quickly once any garbage lands in their Inbox. Actually many online advertisers believe that once they buy a solo ad slot or another ezine ad slot, they are some kind of SPECIAL GUESTS and everything is solved by the publisher who publishes “the best ezine” that has “very responsive readers” and it will produce for the advertiser “the best ROI” (ROI = return on investment).

These approaches are completely wrong. Here are some ezine advertising “secrets” …

Most of the people don’t like ads. People don’t subscribe to ezines for the purpose of reading your ad, clicking on your link, visiting your website, buying your product, signing for your mailing list. Nope. Actually no reader cares about you. People care about them. People are online for making money (for themselves, not for you), for having fun, for solving their problems (not yours), etc.

Therefore forget about that “Special Guest” approach. An ezine advertiser, the same like any other online or offline advertiser, is just an UNINVITED GUEST.

“When executing advertising, it’s best to think of yourself as an uninvited guest in the living room of a prospect who has the magical power to make you disappear instantly.” – John O’Toole, The Trouble with Advertising

No reader is obliged to read your ad, to click on your link, to visit your website and to buy your product. No publisher can do that for you, no matter how good is her or his ezine. It is YOUR job to GRAB & KEEP READERS’ ATTENTION right in the seconds your ad is in front of their eyes. If they skip your ad … for ANY REASON, you FAIL.

Got the point? Focus on your ad copy, offer solutions, make readers’ life better and you’ll make yours alike!

P.S. For more ezine advertising tips, subscribe free to Ezine Advertising Info newsletter.

P.P.S. Recommended reading for every marketer who wants to master the solo ads topic: “Ultimate Guide to Solo Ads”

You have permission to use the article above for your ezine, website or any other public print as long as you include the entire article, including the P.S. and the P.P.S., without any modification.

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