About Publishing an Ezine
A few years back, I was fascinated with stories on how people earn a living without having to leave the house. Stories like Allan Gardyne, James Martell and so forth are stories that actually got me into affiliate marketing.
Back then, I was still afraid of having to interact with strangers. I was a young guy in an Asian country wanting to sell to the world. The thought kind of scared me. So sticl to building content-sites. I have a few sites on the topic of computers, paintball, swiss army and more.
But over the years, my strategies changed. I still build content-sites but I also I started an ezine. Later I started another project to capture emails and the number of subscribers just keep growing.
At first I didn’t know what to write, how to write and all that. I just simply fire away. Some are crap, some are good … and along the way, you lose subscribers and sometimes get new ones. And not to mention a few failed projects.
I remember watching the number of new subscribers. A week goes by without any new subscriber is not uncommon.
But for the past few months, I think I am starting to understand this. Things started to fall into places. The things that I’ve read in the past, though didn’t really make much sense back then started to come into perspective. Permission Marketing
And I think publishing an ezine is a great strategy for online and offline businesses. I think it’s a lot of fun. And to me, it gives great joy interacting with new people. why wouldn’t it when you even exchange photos of your kids, and share stories about last holiday trip. And it’s a great way to make money too.
Perhaps many, like how I was, didn’t have believe in publishing an ezine. I thought that you can still build a business without it. And sure enough, you can … but I didn’t know what I was missing.
The power of building a list comes when you really build relationship with your subscribers.
Advertising is expensive … and it gets more expensive as effective ads are repeated ads. And only huge corporations can actually afford that.
There’re a few advantages that small businesses have over huge corporations. One thing for sure is personality.
With huge corporations, nobody remembers you. You are always talking to the machine on the phone, “Press 1 for Customer Support. Press 2 for Products Enquiry … ” There’s no personality there.
But it’s different with small businesses. Customers actually talk to you. And you can remember them. And when you do, they’ll remember you. And with an ezine, you can push this advantage a step further.
I always give this example to friends - what you need is for your customers to remember you. After that comes the loyalty. Imagine if you own a shoe shop. And every week, you write to your customers - a little bit about shoes, and a little bit about yourself. Little by little, your customers will start to know you a lot more, and they’ll start to remember you.
With each issue, it’s like putting a coin in the piggy bank. You are actually trying to establish a memory inside your subscribers about yourself. As time goes by, you might have a special spot in the mind of you subscribers.
And about the same time, you gently tell them about your offers, your services, and your products.
Now your subscriber may not need a new pair of shoes then, but when they do, I bet your shop will come to mind first. And they know that you sell shoes. Even at times when somebody started talking about shoes, I am sure your subscribers will start mentioning your shop.
So, do you think spending a few minutes a week writing an ezine is a worthwhile thing to do?
In my case, I think my ezine strategy is the strongest contributor to over 40 copies XSitePro sold through my affiliate link.
Feel free to share you thoughts and experience.
