To Publish or Not to Publish – a Newsletter or Ezine

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To Publish or Not to Publish – a Newsletter or Ezine

Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. Best to presume they all are. This means that if you click on a link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission. There is no additional cost to you.

Just about everyone that’s involved in internet marketing will agree, one of the great things about this industry is the affiliate marketing arena. Think about it. Anyone can be an affiliate. As an affiliate, you can choose from thousands of products to promote. With hard work you could make thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, selling products you have nothing to do with. A lot of people have changed their lives proving this is possible.

Of course, it’s not an easy thing to become a successful affiliate. To start with you’ll generally have to build at least one website. In fact, there are some affiliate networks that will not let you join if you don’t already have a website. While it’s not impossible to succeed in affiliate marketing without a website, your odds of success will be much better if you do have one. Building a website is just the first step of many. And once you’ve built a website you have to get traffic to it.

Even on the internet, there is no “if you build it they will come”, but in our industry, we cling to the hope that “if I build it google will send traffic”. Nope. Not necessarily. In fact, it’s not likely.

But there are a number of things you can do to increase traffic to your site. Some of those things could be social media ads, banner advertising,  solo ads, forum and blog commenting, paid traffic and solo ads, and more. Another way to increase traffic is to publish a Newsletter or an Ezine. DUHWebMarketingInsight.com is the home of my Ezine: Marketing Insights.

If you haven’t subscribed to Marketing Insights, I invite you to sign up on the Get Insights page (just click that link, go ahead, I’ll wait, it’ll open in a new tab so you won’t lose your place here, so really, go ahead, take a look…ok, I’ll stop now).

A lot of people think “Oh, I can’t write a whole Newsletter” or “what would I write in an Ezine?”. Well, if you’ve written email messages, you can probably write a Newsletter or an Ezine. You might be like me and have to take a few days to come up with enough words. Some days you come up with better words than the day before so you replace the appropriate ones, or you move on with adding more words. Then you PUBLISH! Don’t procrastinate.

But what’s the difference between Newsletters and Ezines? Let’s make sure we are all on the same page. Many people consider a Newsletter to be a more formal type of publication, assuming that it will be published on a fixed schedule – weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Sometimes people expect a Newsletter to have the same sections or topics (think newspaper columns, like “Dear Abby’s column”) in every edition. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules in internet marketing. Do what works.

An Ezine is often perceived as a more casual type of publication. Articles tend to be more ad hoc with fewer recurring topics or “columns”. And Ezines are often published on fluctuating schedules. Most Ezines tend to be shorter than the average Newsletter. But again, there’s no hard and fast rule.

The one drawback to publishing your own Newsletter or Ezine is that you will need an autoresponder account. But this is something every marketer needs. You may have heard the phrase “The money is in the list”. Well, it’s almost impossible to have or build a list without an autoresponder account.

Publishing a Newsletter or Ezine through your autoresponder account allows you, or practically forces you, to “build your list”. Building a list is something that most internet marketers consider to be crucial for creating a sustainable internet marketing business.

So that’s another reason to consider a Newsletter or Ezine, it kind of formalizes your list building. You have something to talk about when offering your readers and followers the opportunity to subscribe. You are adding new subscribers to something specific, not to a vague “list”. If you run a Newsletter or Ezine you know what you are publishing, and it’s easy to find related topics and products to promote to your new list when that list IS your Newsletter or Ezine. If you subscribe to Marketing Insights, you’ll be on my list (and I thank you).

An Ezine or Newsletter makes it easy to keep in touch with your subscribers. In keeping in touch you have the opportunity to promote affiliate offers or your own products. As long as you promote products that help your readers they’ll appreciate it.

You can also send traffic to your blog or site to keep them in the habit of visiting your site and of course to expose them to the monetization elements on your blog or site. In other words – show them your ads! That could bring in additional sales. One of the things we will send out broadcast messages from Marketing Insights is to let people know a new post is up. Like this one, maybe!

My top recommendation for an autoresponder service is GetResponse. They have been around longer than just about anyone else. They also make it very easy to get help. I know every time I’ve needed help someone has been there for me to connect with and get help right away.

My second recommendation is Aweber. I remember when they first came out. It took them a while to build up momentum in the market, but they have grown by leaps and bounds ever since. They have some great features, they are very popular with a lot of marketers, and there are lots of training materials available.

The bulk of my email marketing business is built on GetResponse. They’ve been my go-to autoresponder service for many many years.

In addition to the people we spoke of earlier that are afraid they can’t write well enough to publish their own writing, there are the people who don’t have time to publish a Newsletter or Ezine. Some people just say they don’t have time. Many of them are simply more interested in watching the latest talent show on TV or the newest movie on Netflix. They aren’t interested in putting in the work that is necessary to change their lives. Other people are in extremely difficult situations, living extremely difficult lives, often stuck doing extremely difficult (or extremely tedious) jobs for low pay. Don’t judge.

If you really don’t have time, all is not lost. You can outsource the creation of your articles. Yes, it does cost, but you have some control over the cost too. You could either go to a site like Upwork.com and hire a top-notch freelancer, or on a budget, you could use services like 99centarticles, and of course, you can go to Fiverr.com and do a search for “write newsletter” or “write email”. You’ll have some choices.

Another alternative is to use someone else’s article as the content for your publication. Although Google has downgraded its market value, aka page rank, sites like Ezine Articles are still around. You can use an article from there for free. Just be sure you follow the rules. Some of the main rules being to credit the author by keeping the author’s signature box intact, to keep any clickable links clickable when you transpose an article for your publication, and to credit Ezine Articles as the source. Other than that, it’s free. But do read the rules, I’m not taking responsibility if you do something stupid.

Another thing to remember, if you don’t feel like you have time to publish frequently, is that you don’t have to be on a fixed schedule. You can publish your Newsletter or Ezine whenever you want, or as seldom as you need. No one will chastise you for infrequent publishing. Well, your subscribers might, but that’s kind of a good problem to have – subscribers who are hungry for more information from you. But don’t leave them hanging too long or they will unsubscribe.

Hopefully, the prospect of starting your own Newsletter or Ezine is not as daunting as it may have been. So why not give it a try?

Till next time

This is Dave wearing sunglasses

Dave

Dave Hodges
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