Since then, I’ve learned to ignore the hype surrounding “fast money” with ezine ads. Like everything else, ezine advertising is something you get better at with practice, experience and knowledge. Here are a few things to consider before you buy an ad …

How many ads are run in each issue?

This makes a big difference in how effective your ad will be. Newsletters that are content-rich are far more likely to be read than those that are basically a list of ads. Fewer ads also means less competition for your own.

Where are the ads placed?

We’ve all seen newsletters that dump a mass of classifieds at the bottom of the message. This “classified black hole” is pretty much useless; people tend to skip this section entirely. Your ad, placed by itself at a key location within the ezine, is by far the best option.

Don’t only consider ezine size

Contrary to what many people believe, a bigger ezine doesn’t necessarily give you better results. It’s not the number of subscribers that matters; it’s the number of people who READ the ezine that counts. Check out past issues of the newsletter so that you can make an educated judgment about the quality of the newsletter, the credibility of the editor, and whether or not it appears that the editor has managed to develop a relationship with his or her subscribers.

How often is the ezine published?

Ezines that are published “too often” or “too infrequently” typically give poorer results. For example, daily ezines may cause busy people to automatically delete the message from their over-filled mailboxes without even reading it. Monthly ezines, on the other hand, may not be published often enough for the subscribers to “remember” what it is. My personal experience shows that the best results come from ezines published either weekly or biweekly.

Is it opt-in or opt-out?

“Opt-in” is the term used when someone must explicitly request a subscription before joining a newsletter. This is the type of newsletter you want to advertise in. “Opt- out” is also known as “spam”. Subscribe to the newsletter yourself first to see how the editor builds his or her subscriber base.

How likely is it that you’ll make a profit?

This is what it all comes down to. What kind of profit margin do you have? What are your click-through and conversion rates? Consider these questions and others when calculating the likelihood that your ad campaign will turn a profit.

And, of course, it almost goes without saying that picking an ezine that caters to your target audience is an absolute necessity.

While the selection of an ezine cannot guarantee the success of your ad, it’s a good start. Ad tracking, sales copy, and all that other good stuff obviously play a major role in how well you do. Start small, choose wisely, and consistently track and improve upon your results … and you’ll be on your way to doing well with ezine advertising.

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First of all, what are spam filter triggers? They are common words and expressions that are penalized by spam filters. When the penalty points assigned to a certain email message pass over a certain threshold, that message is usually routed to the intended recipient’s spam folder, rejected or even deleted at server level.

How to deal with such a problem?

The first part of the solution is relatively easy to accomplish: identify the problem words and expressions. Most of the third party services used to broadcast your email marketing messages (for example: AWeber) include pieces of software that point the words which trigger the filters. If you don’t use such a service, it’s still not difficult: search on Google for spam filter triggers and you’ll find many helpful articles.

The real challenge follows: you identified the problem words but what do you do next?

The worst and the most spread method was “invented” by someone quite many years ago and a lot of internet marketers copied it like parrots without checking whether the idea is right or wrong. What was that “great” idea? If you are subscribed to some newsletters, it’s impossible not to notice it: misspelling the words. Thus, money became m0ney, free became f’ree or f.r.e.e. or fr.ee, money back guarantee became m0ney back g’uarantee, etc.

Why is this solution the worst one?

Reason # 1: In marketing, image matters a lot. What do you think your image is in most of your readers’ mind, when they see that your emails are full of typing and grammatical errors? Most of your readers never heard about spam filter triggers. Whether you like it or not, for them “m0ney” is exactly what is it for almost everyone except you: a typing error. In such case, how’s your credibility?

Reason # 2: Many spam filters were now taught to penalize also weird spellings like “f.r.e.e.”, so you’re not actually solving anything.

Reason # 3: Gmail (and maybe more web-based email service providers) makes the word “fr.ee” clickable and there is a bigger surprise: that website exists (though it’s still under construction). Result: some of your readers will click on these links and some of your traffic will be diverted.

Then … what to do? Well, it’s very easy: remove the problem words and replace them by synonyms (or expressions having a similar meaning) that are not penalized themselves.

Example: instead of “100% money back guarantee” you can use “every penny back if you’re not 100% thrilled/satisfied”

To Your Success,
Adrian Jock

P.S. If you want to improve your emails deliverability, whether they are solo ads or newsletters, I highly recommend you to read the special report “How to Avoid Spam Filters”

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We all know how important the headline is. We also know it’s the hardest part of the ad to write. So we’re going to leave that until last. Know why? Because you can spend so much time creating the perfect headline that you never get to the ad itself. Besides that, if we leave it until last we’ll be writing a headline that goes with the ad, not an ad that goes with a headline.

Okay, so what’s our first step going to be then? We’re going to define our ideal customer, get inside her skin and find out who she is, what she’s looking for, what she wants. This is very important because if we don’t have this information, who are we going to write our ad to? Are we just going to send it out into cyberspace with no destination in mind?

Now that we know who we’re directing our ad to, the second step is to list all the ways our ideal customer will benefit from the program, product or service that we’re promoting. Notice I referred to benefits, not features.

The Focus is on Benefits…

There is a big and important difference here. Benefits tell people ‘what’s in it for them’. Benefits tell them what they will gain from your product. Features, on the other hand, are things that describe your product.
For example, let’s pretend that you’re promoting cell phones. A feature of the cell phone is that it has an extra long-lasting battery. A benefit of the phone is that the purchaser can talk longer with her pals without having to worry about the phone dying.

Another feature might be the unique design. The corresponding benefit would then be that, not only can you talk longer, you’re more comfortable while you’re talking. Benefits are things that appeal to the emotions and that’s usually what makes a person buy.

Okay, now we know we have our list of benefits. Next, we’re going to choose which benefits to focus on. If we’re writing a small classified or ezine ad we’ll choose only one benefit and concentrate on that. With longer solo ads we could choose several benefits. We’re going to write an ezine ad today but the same guidelines apply to any ad you need to write.

Write like you talk…

If we want our ad to be interesting we need to write in terms that everyone can understand. Leave all the $50 words in the dictionary and just use a conversational tone. We aren’t writing the ad to impress people with our vocabulary; we’re writing it to appeal to their emotions. A stiff, formal tone isn’t going to do that.
So… we’re going to write like we were talking to a friend. We’re going to use short, punchy sentences and omit any words that we don’t positively need. Remember, we only have a few lines to convince our ideal customer that she wants to click on our link and learn more. We have to choose our words carefully and make each one of them count!

Don’t use an ad to sell your product…

The purpose of the ad is just to get our ideal customer to our site. We aren’t trying to sell her on our product ~ that’s the job of the sales page. We’re simply putting her in a “buying” frame of mind. We’re creating interest and leaving her wanting to find out more about our product. That is the sole purpose of our ad.

Just start writing…

Now we’re ready to start writing. The best way to do that is just to start writing without thought of how it’s going to sound, spelling, puctuation or any of that stuff. We’re just going to write down what comes into our minds. Okay, ready?

We might end up with something like this:

If you want to talk all night with your best friend, you don’t want to worry about the battery on your cell phone dying. You want to know that you aren’t going to miss all the juicy details of her dinner date with a new guy. You want the confidence that you won’t lose your connection in the middle of her story. That won’t be a problem with the new XYZ cell phone. Check it out here and see how it meets your needs.

Go back and polish it…

That isn’t a bad start. Now we have something to work with. We’re going to pare this down, punch it up, polish it and see what we have.

Don’t you just hate it? Right in the best part of the story your cell phone dies. Now you won’t have to worry about that happening ever again. Now you know you’ll decide when the story ends, not your cell phone. Find out more today.

Well, that isn’t too bad but we still have to cut it down more and liven it up some.

Don’t you just hate it? She was going to tell you… and your cell phone died! Don’t put up with it! If you want to hear the end of the story every time — find out more now! http://www.xyzphone.com

Can you see the difference? The sentences are short and snappy. We’ve created interest. We’ve told her we’re going to solve a problem for her but we haven’t told her so much that she doesn’t have to visit the site to know what we’re all about.

I’ve simplified this a little. Sometimes you have to write and rewrite a few times before you have exactly what you want. It may take a little time but the end product will be worth it. You’ll have an ad that will make people want to click on your link and learn more about your product. They arrive at your site already thinking you can solve an annoying problem for them. Your ad has done its job.

And finally…

Okay, it’s now time to go back and find a headline for this piece of art! Can you see that it’s easier to create a headline now than it might have been at the beginning? And… the content of your ad is finished so that takes some of the stress away.

Try out a few different headlines and choose the one that you believe to be the most magnetic. Put yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes and imagine what would appeal to her the most. You get the idea, don’t you?

Let’s just pretend that we’ve made our list of possible headlines. We want one that is short, catchy and fits our ad. How about this one? “It was just getting good when … or “Don’t miss the best part!” Then there’s “Hang up when YOU’RE Ready!” Now you have lots to choose from and once you make your final choice you’re finished. Or, are you?

Always, always, always proofread your copy…

There is nothing that will ruin the impact of an ad quicker than errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar. You have to find all of the errors and typos before you send that ad out! Don’t just rely on spell check either. If you misspell a word it won’t be caught if the misspelling is actually a word – even though it wasn’t the word you wanted to use. For example, maybe you typed “hear” when you meant to use “here” – it won’t be caught! Go over those ads with a fine-tooth comb or, better yet, have someone else read them too.

There you have it…

Now you know how to write copy that works. You can apply everything you’ve learned here (and hopefully if was a lot) to any ad you write. And don’t worry, as with any skill, it gets easier with practice.

Just one word of warning…

Please do yourself and your business a favor and become familiar with the FTC guidelines for advertising on the Internet. Make sure you know them and that you follow them. You can’t afford not to! Keep your ads and your web pages honest, cut out the hype and half-truths ~ if you don’t, you may not have a business to promote!

Now go out there and knock ‘em dead! I’m expecting great things from you!

Linda Offenheiser

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