Ezine signature file : Ezine Publishing Guide - How to publish an e-zine or e-mail newsletter and skyrocket your profits

Leverage Your Signature File

A method of gaining subscribers to your ezine that is still widely under-estimated is the humble signature file.

What is a signature file?

Everyone sends out email. Well, almost everyone . At the end of each message, we sign our name. If we hold a responsible position, say as VP at a company, we mention it. If we have a website, we include its URL. Some innovative people have a short quote, news tid-bit or something catchy too.

Signature files generate a steady stream of ezine subscribers.

All of these things together constitute your SIGNATURE FILE. A sig file is a short introduction to the personality that is YOU!

I'll show you a sample signature file, my own....


Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian, M.D.
   ...he heals hearts - your's too !
Heart Disease Online
http://www.DrMani.com

So how does a sig file help get subscribers to your ezine?

Simple. Just add a short blurb about your ezine to your sig file, with a brief note on how to subscribe to it.


You can live longer - just get your HEART in shape!
Subscribe FREE to Dr. Mani's The Heart Beat Healthzine
http://www.drmani.com/ezine/heartbeat.shtml
mailto:drmani@vsnl.com?subject=subscribeSig

Let's analyze this sig file.

The first line is an ATTENTION GRABBER. If the reader of your email is someone who is potentially a target for the subject matter of your ezine, he or she will be drawn by this line. It should be short, punchy and focus on the topic of your ezine.

Your sig file should reflect personality - your's and your ezine's.

The next line gives more details about your ezine. The trick here is to be descriptive without being elaborate. A sig file that is longer than your email message looks odd! As a rule of thumb, limit your sig file to 6 (at most 8) lines.

The third line mentions the webpage URL where the reader can register for a free subscription, if so inclined. Adding the "http://" prefix helps make the URL a clickable link in many email programs (those that support HTML mail).

The last line gives an email address to which a "subscribe" request can be sent. This option is very important, since many users - especially those outside the USA, who pay-per-minute for online time - read their email offline (after they have disconnected from the internet). If you offer only a website based registration form, the reader would have to re-connect, fire up their web browser, visit your site and then register. Guess how many of them will bother?! That's why adding the option to register by email helps you net additional subscribers.

The actual email link needs some explanation as well.

My email address is "drmani@vsnl.com". The "mailto:" before this again helps make it a clickable link in many email programs.

But what does the rest of the link mean? Adding a "?subject=" tag allows you to include some specific message or text or command in the SUBJECT line of the email message generated. I use "SubscribeSig" as this unique text.

Use links to sign up for your ezine in your sig file.

So let us see what exactly happens. I send out email with this sig file. The recepient sees my message, and decides to subscribe. He or she clicks on the "mailto:" link. This opens up their email program, with the "TO:" address filled up (drmani@vsnl.com) and the "SUBJECT:" line containing the words - SubscribeSig.

You may well ask "Why bother about all this anyway?"

Two good reasons are:

Tracking. By seeing how many "subscribe" requests you get for your ezine with this unique subject line, you can judge the efficacy of your sig file.
Automatic filing in your email program. If you use an email program like Outlook Express, you can set it up to file all email with a subject line that says "SubscribeSig" into one folder. This makes it easier to review and add these new subscribers to your ezine list.

How should you make best use of your signature file?

Simply by using it EVERYWHERE.

Add it to the end of every email message you send out. Many email programs allow you to automatically add a specific sig file to all outgoing mail.
Use it on any of your postings on bulletin boards, guestbooks, chat rooms and on other networking groups.
Put this information on material you send out OFFLINE too. Business cards, faxes, letters, invoices, receipts, thank you notes, greeting cards, bills - every one of these can be vehicles to spread the message about your ezine. And using your sig file on them is a very effective way to achieve this.

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How To Use Ezines To Skyrocket Your Profits

Marketing Your Ezine

Leverage Your Signature File

What is a signature file?

So how does a sig file help get subscribers to your ezine?

How should you make best use of your signature file?