List Building Primer

Introduction

You have probably been to several websites that have a box that ask you to enter your name and email address. 

When you fill this box in, you’re adding your name and email to somebody’s opt-in list.  This is one of several ways to build your lists. 

These lists allow you to then market to your past traffic through email marketing.

Now, if you think that there aren’t many people on email – think again.  Email marketing is one of the most popular and effect ways to build a list and market to people. 

In fact, most people have at the very least a free email that they check occasionally.  There are even more people who check their email at least every ten minutes. 

In fact, in this day and age, a person without an email address is like a person who doesn’t have a home. 

Many people are also afraid of making people angry by sending them newsletters.  They are also afraid of being accused of sending spam. 

Well, this is where the “opt-in” part comes in.  You are asking people for permission to market to them by having them fill out the form. 

If they know that they will be getting a monthly newsletter when they put in their information, then you are free to market and email to them. 

Now, you do need to be sure to include an unsubscribe option at the bottom of your newsletters in case people decide they don’t want to receive it anymore.

The great thing about these lists is that you know these people are interested in what you have to offer. 

They have been to your site, they have seen what you are all about and they have signed up to receive more information and updates. 

By utilizing opt-in lists, you are opening yourself up to a world of people who are potential customers and that is what it’s all about.

In this report, you will learn the various different ways that you can build your lists and what you can do with them.

It’s All in Your Email

Email has taken the world over.  Individuals and people are utilizing email on a daily basis and most prefer it over postal mail. 

This is for a few obvious reasons such as it’s free and you don’t have to pay postage, it’s much more reliable than the post office and there are several services that allow you to send even the largest files much more quickly. 

Most servers are able to send emails in less than 5 seconds. 

Because of the flexibility of email, you can see why people are using it on a daily basis whether it is their personal email or work email. 

Marketing promotions are utilizing email as well.  You can send newsletters, promotions and a variety of other informational products. 

So, you may be wondering, how exactly you come up with all these names and email addresses.  That’s where the opt-in list comes in.

An opt-in list is essentially a list of emails that you can send your marketing materials to. 

Now, getting a whole bunch of emails is easy, but you also want to be able to target your marketing to the right group. 

You wouldn’t want to send cosmetic coupons to a bunch of men and you wouldn’t want to send tool coupons to a bunch of women.

A good list will also provide you with a profile of the email address owner so that you can easily target your promotions to your target audience.

There are several ways that you can begin to develop a list that is targeted and give you all the information to ensure that your promotions are as successful as possible.

Create Your Website

Obviously, if you’re selling a product or service online, then you’re going to need a website. 

You don’t have to go through the expense of having your site professionally designed, as there are several website services that offer hosting and a website designer as well. 

These have advanced drastically since their inception and you will be able to create a very nice website with them. 

On your website, you are going to want to have an opt-in form. 

In this form you are going to request the person’s name, their email address and a short description of their business.  This will help you target your lists. 

You are also going to want to have a lot of good content.  Good and useful content will attract the search engines to your site and will help you get indexed in them. 

With a website comes website promotion.  This is important because you need to generate traffic to your website so that people can sign up on your list. 

By promoting your site properly you will be able to increase your chances of attracting people to opt-in to your newsletter or other promotions. 

This means you will also need to look into traffic generation techniques such as writing articles over subject that relate to yours. 

You can then provide a link to your website in your articles so that people will be driven to learn more by going to your website and signing up on your list. 

With your opt-in, you also need to provide an opt-out.  Most people are going to want to opt-out eventually, and this allows them to have that out. 

People are also often very leery if they do not see a way to unsubscribe and they are less likely to sign up if they don’t see that they can get out somewhere down the road. 

In an effort to keep promoting, you can also look for other people who would like to share in on your list. 

This allows you to share your list and split the expenses associated with the list.  It is best to have a partner who has a business that is similar to your own. 

This will allow you both to profit from the lists.

You should never forget about the offline list building options that are available as well.  You can do small supermarket raffles or similar sign-ups for prizes at events. 

Simply have a field for an email address and you have just received permission to email these people with your future promotions. 

In most cases, you are going to know that the people who signed up on your list are interested in what you have to sell. 

By obtaining lists of people who are interested in your products or services, you are opening yourself up to a word of boosted sales.

Building Your Lists – 5 Must Do’s

Online marketing is huge and most people are on the Internet, so it is safe to say that the Internet is one of the best places to market your business.

There are several ways to build an opt-in list, but you want to ensure that people are interested in your products. 

This means that there are several things that you need to do on your website to ensure that you are setting yourself up for success. 

1. Set Up a Web Form on Your Site

Place this form on the side of your site or directly at the end of your homepage’s content. 

If a person is reading through your site and they see something they are interested in, they are most likely going to go ahead and sign-up.  A good form is simple. 

It should provide a short statement about your newsletter and have a call to action. 

You should also tell them that they will be kept updated about the site and then provide an area for their name and email address. 

The form will automatically save and the send you the information.  This is by far the most popular way to build a website opt-in list.

2. Ensure that Your Website is Impressive

Your website, especially the homepage, needs to be impressive.  You will want to have content that is well-written and useful. 

You also want to let people know what your site or business is all about.  Your website should also be simple and not overwhelming. 

You also don’t want to overdo it with Flash graphics or photos that take a long time to load.  The longer they take to load, the faster your visitor will leave.

3. Provide a Useful Service or Product

If your service or product is useful, then you are more than likely going to make a sale.  You are also likely going to get return customers as well. 

Your customers are also more than likely going to recommend your website to someone else if they are happy with your service as well. 

As your clientele grows, so will your list. 

The more members you have on your list, the more likely you are going to have people take advantage of your offers in your newsletters and promotions.

4. Keep Your List Clean

Your list should be free of profanity, nudity and anything else that a child should not see.  You never know who will be checking the email in a household. 

You also do not want to send out something that is going to betray your customer’s trust.

5. Keep Your List Private

People hate receiving spam email.  This means that you should never share your list with someone who is going to spam your list and send out trash to your clients. 

This will make your customers angry and it won’t be long until your list has unsubscribed.

Easy Ways to Ensure Your List is Profitable

Many people have tried to start lists and failed.  However, even if you have failed in the past you can rejuvenate your list and start anew. 

Whether you have had little success in the past or if you are just starting, you can follow these simple tips to get your list up and going.

1. It’s All About Trust

It really is all about trust.  People tend to be wary of things on the Internet. 

They don’t want to get viruses, but they also want to explore things that will be helpful to them. 

Provide them with good and useful information on your website to start with. 

It’s always best if your business is over something that you know well and that you can write about easily. 

Be sure that you look like a credible and professional business, and people are likely to purchase your products and sign up on your lists. 

You can also gain trust by becoming friends with your visitors.  Implement a forum on your website that will allow you to talk and chat with people. 

They will also allow you to learn more about your customer’s wants and needs.  At the same time, you can join other forums and attract people to your site. 

The money will come when people know you and you show you are trustworthy. 

You need to hold up your end of the deal as well by providing your customers with products that are useful and worth their money.

2. Offer a Service that People Need or Desire

If you are able to meet the people who are interested in your website and what you have to offer, then you will be able to provide a service or product that people need or want. 

It is said that people come to the Internet for one of two things – information and to shop.  If you can provide both, then you are going to have a very useful site! 

Invest your time and money in providing excellent service, products and information. 

If you do this, then people are going to be interested in learning more about you and sign up on your list.

3. Become Friends with Others Who Have Been Successful

If you are in the process of building a successful list, it never hurts to learn from others who have been successful. 

Do some social networking and become friends with those who have become successful and remain successful.  There is nothing better than first hand information. 

Gaining the Trust You Need

In order to be successful with your list, one of the first things you need to do is gain the trust of your customers. 

There are tons of services that have been set up to keep email boxes spam free. 

This means that you need to set up your list so that your customers are willing to allow your email promotions to come directly to their inbox. 

At the same time, they are going to expect to receive emails on what your website is about. 

They are going to want to receive new information and updates on the products or services that they are interested in and it is up to you to hold up that end of the deal.

When your customers trust you, they will be willing to buy from you and your sales will see a boost. 

Because you are providing a useful service, people will be more than willing to allow your email promotions to come through to their inbox. 

This ensures that your email recipients are able to read and view what you have sent them without it being caught in a spam box. 

In order to ensure that your customers trust you, then you need to do the following:

Show that you are legitimate.

Nobody wants to buy from a site they think is a scam. As a website business you need to show that you are legitimate.  There are several ways that you can do this. 

For example, you can sign up on verification services and offer security for purchases.  You can also offer live customer service or at least online customer service. 

These types of systems show people that you are trustworthy and you’re not going to be scamming them out of their hard earned money. 

Show your customers you are credible and professional.

Provide your customers with good, solid knowledge. You want to show people that you know what you’re talking about. 

If you have credentials in a field, ensure that they are prominently displayed. 

You can also provide them with helpful hints, articles and other resources to help them out. 

Remember, people are often on the Internet simply looking for useful information. 

If you can provide this, they will be happy and will be likely to sign up on your newsletter if they feel you will keep providing them with information.

Don’t be too salesy. Too much hype can work against you.  

There are some hardcore sales letters out there, but for the most part, the service or product should be able to sell itself.

If you do hype up your products, then you need to at least provide some sort of guarantee. 

The more satisfied customers you get from a simple service or product that sells itself, the more likely you are going to find that people will trust you and recommend you. 

Those people are then likely to go to your site, sign up on your list and look forward to the same good service you provided their friend or family member. 

This means that you need to gain their trust and keep it by providing consistency in your services. 

Always provide an out.

People don’t like to sign up for something they think they are going to be stuck with.

Always provide them with information on how they can get off the list if they decide that they want to.  Show your customers that you are not trying to trap them. 

You can also elaborate on how easy it is to get off the list if they decide to.  When they request removal – be sure to abide to their wishes quickly.

Making Money

One of the most important things to remember is that your list will be useless if the people on it are not responsive. 

At the same time, you are going to need to lure them into buying your products as well.  You can do this through a variety of ways.

• Use advertisements on your newsletters and promotions that have a call to action. Place banners and ads on the newsletters.  In fact, if you have a popular newsletter or website, you may have people wanting to purchase advertising space in your newsletters.  You can sell this space as a way to cover the expenses of running the list and some companies may also provide you with a commission.
• Place affiliate advertisements on your newsletters. Whenever someone buys a product through your affiliates, you will make a commission off of the sale.
• Sell products from other sites for a commission. Provide your readers with descriptions, articles and photos of the product.  If the product sells, you get a cut.
• Sell eBooks or other information on your newsletter. Manuals and how-to books are in huge demand and people love them.  Your products should be directly related to the type of business you are running.
• Keep building your list. Find other ways to get people to sign up for your list.  The more people you get on your list the more you will be able to sell.

Leads, Leads and More Leads

When you are building a list it is all about quality and not quantity. 

Sure, you can send out a newsletter every day, but soon people are simply going to begin deleting your emails. 

This is because they are being solicited everyday and they get tired of that very quickly. 

What you accomplish by doing this is you create a list that is unresponsive and that is not how you are going to make any money. 

Plus, you will eventually have a list with no emails on it!

The key is responsiveness.  It is much better to have a list that has 2,000 responsive customers than a list with 20,000 names and no responses. 

Once you begin building your list, you will begin making sales if they are responsive and that will begin to earn you money on a weekly basis. 

Now, you may be wondering how you are supposed to get these responsive people.  The answer is leads. 

No lead is a bad lead, although several Internet marketing gurus will deny that.  They do agree, however, that the money is in the list.

Why Do You Need Leads?

You need leads to make money!  You need people on your list to buy your products!  Now, there are several different types of leads and we will explore those here.

Low Grade Leads

These are leads that you purchase through a company.  You can pay $35 and receive 20,000 names. 

Now, the chances of those emails being good and those people being interested in your services are pretty slim. 

Also, even if you are spam compliant, you are probably going to get spam complaints on your emails.  What does this mean? 

This means you need to avoid these companies the same way you avoid a can of spam.  They do nothing but spell trouble for your list. 

Now, there are good lead companies that you may consider.  You may get a few spam complaints, but nothing that is going to put you out of business. 

Besides, if they’re not interested, you do provide them an out.  These companies get leads from running networks of free sites and classified sites. 

In order to place free ads, they have to provide their email address. 

These people are usually interested in some sort of product you have to sell if they are in your niche. 

Good Leads

These are leads those that you can get through Free Ad Programs, Co-Opt Programs and Giveaway sites. 

These are better than those that you get from companies because they have signed up through your squeeze page. 

Usually, you offer some sort of free gift if they sign up.  The bad thing is that they usually unsubscribe from your list after they receive the free gift. 

But, you will still usually retain some interested folk.

The Best Leads

These leads are those that you receive through paid advertising websites.  You can use sites such as Google AdWords or Bing to obtain these leads. 

They are targeted leads and they are usually in response to your advertisements, which means that there is some interest in your products there. 

These are also the most expensive leads you will get because these services are not cheap and you will need to be prepared to invest in this type of advertising. 

However, they are the best leads that you can get and worth their weight in gold. 

Landing Pages and Squeeze Pages

Now, you have probably heard of these things, but you may not have the slightest idea what they are exactly. 

These are perhaps some of the most important pages you can have on your website.  These are the pages that help to generate your good leads. 

This where you get the contact information of interested parties and add them to your autoresponder. 

These are sales pages, so you have to sell yourself.  This is  very important and there are two different categories that these fall under.

Gift Pages

These are pages where you offer a gift to sign up on your newsletter or mailing list.  You will provide some sort of free item. 

For example, if you are selling an eBook you may provide them with a free chapter.  If you are selling software, you may provide them with a trial version. 

The key is that they have to sign up for your newsletter in order to receive this free gift. 

Now, some of these people will only use you for your free gift and then unsubscribe, but if your gift is really good then they are more than likely going to stay on your list. 

Now, in order to keep people on your list, you need to keep selling yourself in all of your newsletters.

The Benefits Page

With this type of sales page you will sell the benefits of being a subscriber to your newsletter. 

You will tell your potential customers what exactly they will receive for joining your list.  This is also where you will want to sell yourself. 

You are going to want to tell people two things on this type of sales page:

1. What you can provide the reader
2. Why they should listen to you

On this type of page you have to bring out all the stops and really sell.  This is one of the hardest pages to produce because you have to be salesy. 

However, if they are done right they will bring you the best prospects.

Combining the Two

Now, there are some people who are able to successfully combine these two types of pages. 

You really sell yourself and get people to sign up and for signing up they also receive your free gift. 

When you are setting up your pages and sending out your newsletters, don’t be afraid to get personal with them. 

Let them know who you are, what your qualifications are and how you got involved in your business. 

You can even tell them what your goals are and people are really going to eat it up. 

The more that you are able to build trust in your list members, the more money you will be able to make. 

They will feel as though they are buying from a friend rather than just some stranger who owns the list. 

Finding Targeted Subscribers

After you have set up a list, you need to begin narrowing it down to targeted visitors. 

It is best if you can get these targeted subscribers right off the bat, that way you don’t have a list of 20,000 and only about 1,500 who are really interested. 

In order to do this you need to drive those targeted people to your sales page and talk them into signing up. 

There are several ways that you can attract your target market, including:

• Advertisement Swapping

This involves finding other ezines that are in your niche and then offer to swap advertising space with them. 

This is a win-win situation and its great if you already have some subscribers. 

• Barter with Other Ezines

If you are just starting out and you don’t have any subscribers yet, then you can always barter for advertising space. 

Offer the other ezine owner a free product in exchange for advertisement space. 

You can also make them an affiliate and give them a commission on sales of your product in exchange for advertising space.

• Give Away Ventures

Here you will sign up for a Joint Venture account with a Give Away website. 

After registering, you upload a free gift, such as a free report or eBook, to the website and provide a description as well as how subscribers can receive the free gift. 

These instructions will lead potential subscribers to your sales page and then they have to sign up to get the free report. 

With a Give Away venture a bunch of Internet marketers have free gifts available on the website. 

Each marketer also endorses the Give Away campaign to their subscribers.  These are usually free to join and can easily send you thousands of leads. 

• Blogging

Blogs are great because the search engines absolutely love them! 

They index blogs constantly and this provides you with a great chance at getting a great spot on the search engines for a variety of keywords. 

They are also free through WordPress.com or Blogger.com.  They allow you to set up a small website and keep it updated continuously. 

They are also great because you can strategically place your form throughout the blog, whether it is just on a page somewhere or every other post. 

Search engines send traffic to blogs all the time and the chances of getting leads are great, especially if your blog provides useful information that shows you are a credible business.

• Buying Advertisement Space on Other Ezines

In addition to bartering or swapping advertising space, you can also just purchase it. 

You can write an advertisement that will grab the attention of the other ezine readers and send them to your page. 

When you are looking at investing in advertising space you need to realize that not all ezines are regularly read. 

There are also a few questions that you will want to ask yourself, such as:

• • • What is the ezine about?
    • What type of people are subscribing to it?
    • How responsive is the list it goes out to?
    • How many subscribers are there?

Buying advertising space on an ezine is just like buying it in a newspaper or magazine. 

You want to be sure that the circulation is good and going to be responsive to your advertisements before you spend a lot of money.

• List Your Ezine in an Ezine Directory

There are tons of ezine directories and they are great places to promote your ezine. 

The best thing about them is that you can get really good, targeted subscribers through them. 

Be sure that you have a short and compelling description of your ezine before you submit it to the directory.  Here are a few directories that you may want to consider:

• • • www.bestezines.com
    • www.ezineaction.com
    • www.ezine-dir.com
    • www.ezinesplus.com
    • www.ezine-universe.com
    • www.ezinelocator.com
    • www.ezinesearch.com
    • www.ezine-swap.com
    • www.newsletteraccess.com
    • www.newsletter-directory.com

I Have My List – Now What?

Okay, so you’ve done a lot of promotion for your website and you’re getting people signing up for your newsletter or ezine.  Now, all you need is the newsletter! 

Here you are going to find a step-by-step guide to getting your newsletter or ezine set-up.

Create Your Free Report

You’re going to need a digital product of some form.  It can be an eBook, which is the best by far, or it can be another type of free report. 

Either way, they need to be full of real, useful information.  You don’t want to just send something to your people that is really vague and not helpful. 

It’s all about providing them with a good, free gift that is helpful to them.  This will keep them coming back for more. 

You will also be using this as something to get people to sign up on your list for, so it needs to be good. 

If they like it, they will send it to their friends and family and they are likely to sign up as well. 

The more people you are getting to sign up, the more money you will be able to make.

Now, a free report can either be sent as a Word document or a PDF document.  These are two file types that most people are easily able to open. 

If you are giving away some sort of software trial, then it will be a program in an .exe format. 

Because we are talking about free reports, we will cover how to create those.

Creating a free report is simple.  All you have to do is begin typing.  You will want an eBook to be laid out in a similar form as a traditional book. 

You will also want to have a cover page, preferably with a graphic.  If you are not a writer, have no fear! 

There are thousands of writers out there just waiting to write your eBook or free report for you.  Visit sites such as these listed below to find a writer:

• www.Elance.com
• www.iFreelance.com
• www.RentaCoder.com
• www.GetaFreelancer.com

At these sites you will be able to post a free project and then have writers bid on your projects.  They will place a bid and their price. 

When you are looking at your bids, remember that you get what you pay for.  There are thousands of writers and you are bound to find one in your budget. 

Be sure to be very descriptive in your project and tell them how many pages you need the book to be and what the subject is. 

Many of these writers will also be able to offer you graphic design for your covers and 3D eBook covers at an additional cost. 

If you are not a graphic designer, then you will probably want to pay the additional money to get a good cover.

Throughout the eBook, it is a good idea to use pictures and advertisements.  You can also have recommendations with your own links to your affiliates. 

This is a great way to profit off your eBook and your affiliates.

Once your eBook is complete, you will want to have it converted to a PDF file.  You will need Adobe Acrobat to do this. 

To do this cheaply you can sign up for Adobe’s program that allows you to convert them on the web for a monthly fee.  Or, you can purchase the program as well. 

If you’re not too concerned about getting the most up to date software and spending that much money, then it is a great idea to look on eBay for older versions of the software that will do the trick. 

There are also simple PDF converters available as well.  Also, MicrosoftOffice.com has a similar service available as well for a small fee.

This is the best way to send your file because it will compress it and it also keeps people from editing the book.  That’s all there is to creating your free report!

Get an Autoresponder

An autoresponder is a program that sends out pre-written Email messages to your subscribers. 

You write out your ezine issues in advance and store them in your autoresponder system.  You can then set them up to send out at certain time intervals.

For example, you subscriber will receive the first email, which is normally a confirmation email that they signed up. 

The second and third emails are sent out by the system based on your schedule.  You can also set the system up to do the following:

• Thank your subscribers
• Send out ezine issues
• Send out endorsement letters
• Send out free reports, etc.

Once the autoresponder is set-up it does all of the work for you around the clock. 

Create Your Sales Pages

The next step is to create your sales page. 

Because you are giving away a free product, you want to be sure that you keep it salesy and really reinforce the fact that they are getting this valuable product for free. 

People love to see the word free, so you really want to play this up. 

If you are not a natural born salesperson, then you may want to hire a writer to do this for you as well. 

When a visitor comes to your page, you want it to capture them and then tell them about all of the benefits they will receive for joining your list. 

If there is nothing in it for them, then they are not going to want to sign up.

This letter is also your first chance to make money as well.  You may be selling a product that has a bonus that is completely irresistible. 

If he passes on signing up, he doesn’t get the bonus.  Or, you can be selling your product at a huge discount. 

If the pass on it now, they will have to pay the full price later.  Or, you could be offering a product or package that can’t be found anywhere else. 

At the end of your sales page, you want to give the reader two options.  They can either:

1. Buy your product
2. Not buy the product, but sign up for your newsletter to receive your free report.

These two options should be available at the bottom of your sales page.  If the subscriber buys from you then great! 

If not, he is still signing up on your newsletter to receive the free gift.

Thank You Page

This is the last page that your buyer or subscriber will see. 

This is where you will want to refer your readers on to your other products as well as thank them for signing up or purchasing your products. 

Your Ezine or Newsletter

Now, that you have all the main components in place, it’s time to start working on your ezine issues. 

The first thing you want to do is write a couple of letters that will allow your subscribers to get to know you. 

You want to tell them who you are and what type of information you plan on providing them.  You also want to let them know why they should stay on your list.

You will need to create another series of emails that will be loaded into the autoresponder. 

The repetition of receiving emails from you will keep you fresh on your potential customer’s minds. 

They should not be sales oriented, but provide valuable information.  If you sell too hard, they will end up unsubscribing. 

On your third email, you will begin to start sending out links to products or your affiliates. 

There are several products that you can sell that will allow you to keep all of the profits.  You can also continue developing your own products as well. 

You will also want to have an article in each issue.  This should have something to do with what you are promoting in your email.

It is very important that you are always building your credibility in your emails. 

You want to establish your credibility from day one and you will want to do everything that you can to keep your customer’s attention. 

You should always have personable and conversational emails and really write from your own perspective. 

You also always want to write as if you are talking directly to your readers. 

To learn more about your readers, you may also consider having a short survey in your email that people can send back to you. 

Not everyone will reply, but several most likely will.  This will be enough to give you an idea as to what type of people you are communicating with.

Ezine Theme

Before you start writing you are going to want to determine a theme for your ezine.  This is important because you want your ezine to be focused. 

You want to keep it consistent so that you readers will easily be able to recognize you when they receive your emails. 

With a focused ezine you are also able to offer and promote products that are targeted to your readers. 

It is also preferable that you focus your ezine on a theme that is in high demand or a growing market.  People tend to be very interested in the latest trends. 

Sample First Email Ezine Letter

Subject: (First name), Your subscription to (Your Ezine’s Name)

Hi (First Name),

This is (Your Name).

Thank you for subscribing to (Your Ezine’s Name).

You are subscribed as (First Name) at (Email).

If you don’t remember subscribing to this ezine, somebody may have misspelled his email address when subscribing.  In this case, please accept my apologies.  You can easily subscribe by clicking the unsubscribe link below.

Otherwise, please look forward to your first issue of (Your Ezine’s Name) tomorrow.

To help me understand more about your needs, I would love if you would introduce yourself.

1. How are you? How do you feel? Fantastic?
2. Please tell me more about yourself. What do you do for a living, for fun?
3. What do you need for you (insert anything that has to do with your business) at the moment?

(You can add 2 or 3 more questions here.)

You can tell me more about yourself by simply replying to this message.

I personally don’t know of many Ezines that care about their subscribers and their needs, but I am here to cater to you.  I also invite you to ask me any questions.

Remember, (First Name), YOU are the reason this Ezine exists!!

Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

(Your Domain)

If you write your first issue in this manner, be prepared to get a variety of different answers. 

Some may not be so nice and it may be a good idea on your part to go ahead and remove those people from your list. 

There are many different people out there and many may not remember signing up on your list and may send you rude messages. 

Format of Your Ezine

There are two main types of ezine formats that are out there.  These are:

• Text
• HTML

Text is the most common form.  This is because not all emails support HTML emails.  If you write in text format, then your ezine is going to be in this format:

• Courier New Size 14 font
• 60 characters per line

This is due to the fact that all email programs will interpret these text messages in exactly this manner.  There are pros and cons to the text format as well. 

They are easy to write and everybody will be able to read them.  However, the cons are that people are more prone to follow through on HTML formats. 

Also, in text format, your URLs are going to be very long and you may have to see about getting shorter affiliate URLs.

The text format is good for you if you are not good with HTML. 

Also if you are not a good writer, you can source other writer’s articles and publish them in your newsletter with their permission. 

HTML can be used if you are comfortable working with it. These allow you more freedom in terms of color, fonts, sizes and graphics. 

This format receives higher response rates simply because they look more professional. 

PDF is another option.  They are similar to eBooks and you basically just release an email with a link to download it on a regular basis. 

These can be presented through a link in a text email, but they do require the reader to take the extra step in downloading the product from the email. 

The PDF is versatile because you can include more information, links, affiliates and products in this format. 

You can also make the PDF look however you would like it to.

Writing Your Content

Each issue of your ezine should provide some sort of good and valuable information. 

You also want them to be written with a lot of personality, especially since there are so many ezines out there that have stiff and boring messages going out. 

The more personality that you have the more likely you will see responses from your readers. 

When writing there are mistakes that you are going to want to be certain that you avoid:

• Don’t write from a perspective of “us” or “we.”  Always write as “I”. 
• Relate to your subscribers!  They are the reason your ezine exists!

How Often Should You Send Out Your Ezine?

You will want to decide the frequency of your ezine issues.  You will want to decide if you want them to receive them daily, weekly or monthly. 

It is up to you what interval you intend on sending them out.  If you are prepared to email your subscribers five days a week, then you can definitely do that. 

If you do not have the time to write that often, then you may choose to do once a week, every other or once a month. 

This will all depend on how often you will want to send it out and how much time you have to write.

What All Should You Include In Your Ezine?

Once you are sending your ezine out pretty regularly you will want to begin adding in your affiliates or your other offers. 

Here are a few ideas to help you begin profiting from your list:

• One Time Offers

When you have your reader fill in your opt-in form to join your list, they will receive your free report.  However, before doing so they will see your One Time Offer first. 

This can be something like a great deal on a package of products or an eBook. 

Your One Time Offer is a sales letter which pushes the reader to purchase your products. 

• Free Viral Reports

Giving something away for free always improves your credibility.  These also give them an incentive for signing up. 

In your report you will want to include affiliate links and other product links in your free reports.

• Back-End Links on Your Thank You Page

Once your reader subscribes, they will automatically be redirected to your Thank You Page.  This is where they will download your free report. 

At the same time, you want them to be enticed by other offers you may have on your site such as links to other products and affiliates.

On your Thank You Page you will also want to notify your subscriber that they will receive a confirmation email as well. 

While they wait for this confirmation email with their free report link, they will be tempted to explore your other products as well. 

Even if they are not interested in your One Time Offer, they may be interested in your other products.

• Endorsement Email Messages

The bigger your list gets the more money you can make.  This means that they are going to be more interested in your endorsement messages as well.

• Sell Advertising Space

Once you have at least 1,000 subscribers, you may want to begin considering your options in selling advertising space. 

You will want to contact other ezine publishers as well as place advertisements on your list that the space is for sale for advertising. 

You never know who may be interested.