Marketing Your Ezine

GET-'EM JOINT VENTURE PROGRAM

GET-EM : THE FOURTH HOUR

There are two ways to go about GET-EM now. You could stop your introductory message here, and ask the list-owner to contact you if he/she is interested in pursuing the joint venture. Or you can spell out the terms of the joint venture in the original message itself - this is what I did. The downside is that you'll be sending a LONG email as the FIRST contact, but it might work for some. You be the judge !

In this step, you need to SPELL OUT the terms of the joint venture. This hour is spent drafting and re-writing and then again re-writing your offer letter. Make it crisp, short - and remember the offer must be attractive to the OTHER LIST OWNER.

Here are some ideas you could implement - I'm sure there are many more you can think of. If you do, please run them by me (drmani@vsnl.com), I'm always looking for new promotional ideas.

IDEA 1 : WELCOME MESSAGE

You could ask the list owner to include a brief note about your ezine in their welcome message to new subscribers, along with instructions on how they can subscribe to your publication as well. In return, you could include a short spiel about their ezines, and offer it in your welcome message to your new subscribers when they join up.

This is one sure-fire technique to net new subscribers. The magic behind this is that the new registrant is in what I'd call "SUBSCRIBE MODE". He or she has just subscribed to a new list or ezine. He or she is ready, primed, to subscribe to one more - provided it is of potential interest ! This is where targeting ONLY lists and ezines similar to your topic pays off.

IDEA 2 : A PERSONAL ENDORSEMENT

On your list or ezine, you could include a new section called SOME MORE EXCELLENT LISTS YOU SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO. In this you could spotlight their list, along with a personal endorsement (from YOU) in the form of a short note listing its merits and benefits - and including instructions to subscribe to their list. You could leave the option of drafting this note to the list owner, or write it yourself based on a sample of their list's content.

In return, the list owner would promote your list or ezine in his/her publication. You must keep ready a short write-up (around 25 to 30 words) of your list for this purpose (in case the list owner prefers to leave it to you to write your own review). But sometimes, it just might be better to get the other list owner to do the writing. I was pleasantly surprised to read one such review of my site - it was better than any I could've written myself !

I hear you wail "But this is only an AD SWAP !"

No it isn't. Its called ENDORSEMENT MARKETING. And it works better than an ad swap. Because it has the LIST OWNER'S personal endorsement. Over time readers of a list or ezine have developed respect and regard for their list owner or moderator or editor. When a review comes with his or her personal endorsement, it generates a MUCH HIGHER response rate.

IDEA 3 : AN AD AFFILIATE PROGRAM

This is an idea some of you might not find acceptable. But I suggest it for smaller and newer ezines and lists which haven't yet been swamped by requests for paid advertising - Hey, don't worry guys - You soon will !

You offer (or can begin to offer) advertising space on your list or ezine. Let's say the owner of the list you are proposing a joint venture with also runs ads, and already has some paying advertisers. And those advertisers are always looking for new targeted audiences to display their offers to.

You propose a revenue sharing arrangement with the list owner. Tell them:

"If you have "paid" advertisers who want to place their ads in my ezine, YOU can finalize the deal with them directly - and pocket 60% (Note: replace this figure with any other percentage you deem fair and fit) of the ad revenue ! Just send me a check for my 40% and the text of the ad by email. If this appeals to you, please write to me requesting my rate-card."

This is a classical win-win-win situation. The advertiser gets a new audience. The list owner gets a finder's fee for referring the advertiser to you. And you get the best deal - a paying advertiser when you had none, and who might continue to make direct deals with you in the future for other ad runs.

GET-EM : THE FIFTH HOUR

Ever heard of the Boy Scout's motto ? Be prepared. It applies to you too. Many things need to be checked now, before you start getting a response to your offers.

Keep a copy of the welcome letter you send out to new subscribers of your list handy. Re-write it if necessary. As and when the list owners reply positively to your joint venture proposal, you must add their information into the welcome letter. This avoids delays, and spaces out your workload.

Inform your current list members about the forthcoming addition of the new section on OTHER EXCELLENT LISTS THEY SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO. Preparing them in advance for this new feature will build up eagerness and curiosity, and this translates into a higher response rate. Create a new template for your ezine or list to accomodate this section.

Prepare to accept payments for any ad referrals from your joint venture. Ideally, you need to be able to accept credit card payments online. Having other methods to receive payments is an added bonus. However, you could manage by asking the advertiser to snail mail a check to you - but this will lose you some potential advertisers.

GET-EM : THE SIXTH HOUR

Boy, aren't you tired after doing all this hard work ? Thought you could now stop even THINKING of this Joint Venture thing for another week or so, right ?

WRONG.

The mail will come flooding in. If your offer is attractive enough, you will get atleast a 50% response rate. Many of these list owners will have already taken up your ideas, and made the changes you are still thinking and talking about. For instance, within a day of sending out my first offer letter, three ezine owners had included my short write-up in their list's welcome letter. I couldn't delay adding their information on my welcome note any longer without seeming selfish and insincere.

So get prepared to make changes to your existing structure atleast once daily. For the next few days. Until the mail in response to your offer stops pouring in. And of course, that means it is time to send the offer again to the next batch of prospects ! I never said this was going to be easy, now, did I ?

GET-EM : THE SEVENTH HOUR

So now that you've gone through all the steps discussed earlier, what should you be doing next ?

Tracking your response rates.

What does this mean ? Well, you've put in a lot of time and effort into this Joint Venture. So you should now determine how this has affected your bottom line.

• How many new subscribers did you get ?
• Where did they come from ? Which list netted the most ?
• Which ad worked best ? You should try different ad copy to see which pulls best
• How many new advertisers wanted to place ads on your list ?
• How did your present list members react to the new changes ? Ask them. You don't want to antagonize and/or lose them !

  There are many ways to do this tracking.

  1. One way is to direct new subscribers to a distinct web page for each Joint Venture partner. For instance, if the URL at which people subscribe to your list is

     http://www.mylist.com/subscribe.htm

     then you can set up separate (similar) pages and name them

     http://www.mylist.com/subscribe1.htm
     http://www.mylist.com/subscribe2.htm
     and so on, and give each Joint Venture list a unique site to subscribe at.

  2. Set up a brief form or questionnaire on your subscription site and ask new subscribers where they found out about your list.

  3. Code the subscribe email address with a unique identifier for each Joint Venture. For instance, your subscribe email link would look like this:

     drmani@vsnl.com?subject=subscribe-JV1
     drmani@vsnl.com?subject=subscribe-JV2

     and so on for each separate JV partner.

  
  And what to do next ?

  Well ..... Laughing all the way to the bank isn't such a bad idea, now, is it ?!