Does
Your Ezine Publisher Try To Rape Your Pocket?
By : Paul J Easton
(www.Digitalawol.com/?source=Article
)
If you have been online for a while, one of the most well know ways of selling
online is to build an optin email list or ezine. So now there are thousands of
email ezines on just about every possible topic.
Hey- it is a proven tool, so you should use it however some ezine owners have a
mental break down when they get some subscribers, its like AHA! Now I have your
email address, I am going to sell you every affiliate program I can find.
Don’t get me wrong ezines take a lot of time and effort to put together and its
natural for the owner to make a few bucks for his effort. At the same time they
should not try to rape your pocket at every chance.
This defeats the main purpose of the email list : to build trust. Lets put it
this way, if every week I said "X" tool was the best, and every week a new tool
or special, then it would not take look for the subscribers to work out- this
guy is suggesting every tool that makes a buck- lose of creabilty in minutes is
the result.
So let’s set some rules for the list owner:
You own it - before you recommend something you should already own it,
otherwise its like trying to tell somebody about a movie by looking at the
posters out side.
Write a review - What did you like about the product/tool or service, but also
what could be improved. What progress did you make from it? At the same time if
you are still testing, say that too.
Be honest – No product is perfect, is there something that could be added. In
some cases maybe you created a spreadsheet or some kind of form to help the
product work better- offer this as a special bonus, if someone orders- just get
them to forward the receipt of purchase to you and you will send the helpful
form.
Be focused- Joining 100 affiliate programs will not help- focus on a few good
ones and then repeat them at different times in your ezine- let your
subscribers know that they are good tools, and they will thank you for it
Take a stand – I have to give credit to the publisher, Jim Edwards for this
one- If you have tried something and it didn’t work let your subscriber know,
together with why you think it didn’t work- try to keep it very factual with
numbers.
Stay in for the long haul – Take time out to work out that things take time,
and marketing online is no different. It can be very low cost compared to a
business online but it takes time and effort to work.
Ask and accept feedback- Using email is very efficient for this, but at the
same time you need to offer reason, a gift of some sort in exchange for
feedback-everybody is short of time. Let your subscribers tell you what they
need.
Balance - If you always offer freebies, and then decide to sell something, your
subscribers may not be very responsive.
I guess the short end of it is mutual respect between the subscribers and the
ezine owner. The subscriber has trusted you with his email information, you as
the list owner needs to respect this information.