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Feb 16

Rounding Up Our Newsletter Theme

All this week, we focused on the intricacies of e-mail newsletters. Did you learn anything new? Will you start a new newsletter or revise an existing one based on this week’s information? Leave a comment and share your ideas!

-kk

Feb 15

Newsletter Tips

by Mark A. Abrahams

E-Mail Newsletter TipsWriting an effective newsletter is one of the most important skills that you need to master. You need to engage your subscriber. With some people receiving up to 500 emails a day you will most likely find your newsletter in the junk mail folder or deleted before even reading. Follow these newsletter tips to build a solid relationship with your subscriber so that you can monetize your email list.

An email newsletter is much cheaper than sending a magazine newsletter, postcard or flyer through the conventional mail. Also by formulating good quality content you build your credibility as an expert so that when you make recommendations your email list will buy from you. A very good way to market your newsletter is to use a squeeze page where you can collect a name and email address. In return the subscriber will gain instant access to a free report. You can use search engines, ppc, ezine advertising, banner advertisements and article marketing to market your newsletter.

I suggest you focus on a specific angle. It is always easier to provide relevant information from a unique angle. For example you could setup a newsletter about internet marketing and focus on list building. List building products you recommend will likely convert much better than general internet marketing products.

The subject line is the most important part of your newsletter. Without an attention grabbing subject line you are going to find that people will not open up your email. I suggest you write a blind subject line. If you put too much information in the subject line people will already know what it is about and will not be curious enough to open your email. e.g. "How many times have you made these mistakes in building your list?" makes a good subject line.

I suggest you follow the following layout for a newsletter as this has proven effective for me. Start with a header. This could be your company logo or a graphic for the newsletter that depicts the theme. Follow this with a table of contents so that your reader can easily glance at the content and go directly to sections that really interest the reader. Use a footer to indicate the end of the newsletter. Also try to keep the format to under 60 characters per line to make it easier to read in an email program like Outlook.

Before you can sell to your email list you need to build a relationship. Only once your subscribers trust you and you provide them with valuable knowledge will they buy from you. Using these newsletter tips you should be able to establish a good relationship with your subscribers.

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Download it free here: Secrets Of Internet Marketing

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_A._Abrahams
http://EzineArticles.com/?Newsletter-Tips&id=512594

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Feb 14

5 Secrets to Creating an Email Newsletter That Gets Results

by Donna Gunter

5 Secrets to Creating an Email Newsletter That Gets ResultsAt almost every meeting I attend in my city, I get really positive feedback about my email newsletter, Work Smarter, Make More. People generally tell me they love it, or they ask some question about something I’ve written about in a previous issue. All in all, it’s pretty cool–I kinda feel like a celebrity!

In everything that I do, my goal and my focus is to get subscribers to my newsletter. I’m not trying to sell them a coaching program, nor am I trying to get them to buy some product. I just want them to get my weekly email newsletter. That’s it. Just get a little dose of Donna on a weekly basis (pun fully intended).

My rationale behind this comes from my philosophy that people have to know, like, trust and respect you before they’ll decide to buy anything from you. I’ve finally acknowledged and embraced that I’m a pretty good writer and have decided to lead with that gift and use that as my marketing tool for my business.

Back in 2003, I decided that I made some serious changes to how I published my email newsletter, and I’m now starting to see the results of the writing I do each week. The results include readers calling or emailing me for coaching, to sign up for a program, to sit in on a teleclass, or to form a strategic alliance with them. Just exactly what I’d hope would happen!

Here are the five secrets to newsletter publishing that I learned through the "school of hard knocks" that have helped successfully market my business through email newsletter publishing:

1. Publish consistently on a weekly basis. I initially published my newsletter on a not-so-regular basis initially because I didn’t see my newsletter as a serious marketing tool (silly me!). I then went to a regular monthly publication about a year later and then to a twice-a-month publication, and finally ended up publishing weekly in 2003 Now, if I miss a week, I’ll get a couple of emails wanting to know what happened and where the newsletter is.

2. Let your "voice" permeate your newsletter. My first newsletters had some great resources that a busy business owner would find helpful in the management of his/her business. The only thing about me was a short paragraph about my business at the end of the newsletter. What I realized was that the newsletters to which I best responded were those in which I got to know the writer and liked what s/he had to say. Resources were great, but lessons through personal experiences were incredibly more valuable and were the things that I remembered about the newsletter. I definitely put more "me" into my weekly newsletter now.

3. Show how you can help clients resolve problems. I could just kick myself for letting almost 3 years slip away by doing such a slip-shod job in demonstrating my expertise. Again, resources are useful, but stories of what I’m experiencing or what clients have experienced in their businesses and decisions that have been made to change the way we’re doing business are much more helpful to my readers. Hence, in every newsletter, there’s now a "Business Gym" article in each issue to help my readers run a better business.

4. Set aside time to write your newsletter. Finding space in my calendar to set aside time on a weekly basis exclusively for this marketing activity isn’t always easy. There are many times I want to fill that time with "profit generating" activities (i.e. work with clients) rather than holding onto this time as a business development activity. Since I now publish weekly, it takes me about 2 hours to write the main article for the newsletter. I now set aside time from 9 AM – noon each Wed. morning and knock out the newsletter copy. Some weeks the process flows more easily than others.

5. Repackage and re-purpose your articles. One of my primary motivations now for doing my newsletter is that I’ve now got a personal article bank of roughly 50 articles that I can reuse, tweak or re-pupose when I need to. I submit my newsletter article each week to various online article banks through an article distribution service, place it on my website, and have it available to use to create a special ebook or report that I can sell as another income stream, or re-purpose as a special report for a give-away on my website.

What I’ve now discovered is that by having this client “reservoir” in place (my email newsletter subscribers that I go out and “tickle” on a weekly basis), my marketing has gotten so much easier. On a regular basis one of my readers will wake up and decide that they’ve had enough and can’t do it this way any longer and decide to hire me.

If you don’t currently have a newsletter in place that permits you to reach out and "touch" potential clients regularly, I encourage you to start one. I realize that not everyone likes nor enjoys writing. Perhaps there’s someone you can team up with who could ghostwrite for you based on some conversations you’ve had or on some training or other kinds of workshops you deliver. If you currently have an email newsletter, pay more attention to its care and feeding so that it grows a healthy prospective client base for you. It’ll be one of the best investments you’ll make for your business.

Copyright 2005 Donna Gunter

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donna_Gunter
http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Secrets-to-Creating-an-Email-Newsletter-That-Gets-Results&id=96210

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Feb 11

Article Challenge Success Story From Fall 2007 Winner Diane McLain

Diane McLain completed the Fall 2007 LK Article Challenge and recently had this to say about her experience:

I have to tell you a wonderful outcome of the fall challenge. When I wrote for the fall challenge I was inspired to do a blog and website about changing the world. My job got even more stressful after that time and I did nothing with the idea. I met an IT man recently and told him my idea. He liked it so much he said he would help me put up a blog. He thinks the world needs something like this to inspire them to take action. Anyway, I am going to an internet seminar on the 21st and I would like to promote my blog and website there. If it had not been for your fall challenge to inspire me to write, I would have not had enough time to get it all together. Because I had it all written, I will have enough time to be prepared for the seminar. I owe you a huge THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay, Diane! Thanks for sharing with us. :)

- Kristen

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Feb 11

Email Marketing 101: Creating an Effective Newsletter

by Jennifer Marah

Email Marketing 101: Creating an Effective NewsletterE-Newsletters can be an inexpensive and convenient way to keep current clients up-to-date with your business, or easily convert potential customers to new ones.

Format Options

There are several different formats that you can use to send your newsletter.

Text

This format is the good ol’ reliable method. Many individuals prefer to send their publications in this format. Why? Some see it as more personal. Text newsletters will look like a personal email specifically targeted to an individual person.

Unfortunately, some of the bonuses of the following two formats are not available (i.e. photos, video & logo insertion).

PDF

Do you send your newsletter via mail and email? PDF may be a viable option for your company. Design the newsletter in desktop publishing software and then create a PDF version of the file, and send as an attachment. You can include pictures, and links in your PDF for your sited resources.

Remember to create a subject line that will remind individuals you are sending your newsletter, or you risk your PDF being deleted.

HTML

This format is growing in popularity, when once considered taboo. HTML newsletters can be designed to look as graphically enticing as some websites. When using this format, it makes it very easy to include photos, video streaming, and link potential clients to your website to find out more information about your business, (which increases your website traffic).

Your Content

When developing content for your current and potential clients, make sure to have fun and maybe learn a little yourself!

Value

There should always be content that is valuable to readers. Many companies pack their newsletters with promotions and self-serving company information. However, by making sure your education and offering your readers information that they find interesting you are sure to have them coming back for more.

Spamming

How can your content affect anti-spam software? You would be surprised at what certain words and phrases will set off that magic trigger. Some third party email newsletter and promotion companies have a spam checker built into their programs. If you decide to develop your own newsletter by not using on of these companies, there are other programs available to you.

One of these programs is available from Spam Assassin. This company is an email filter company and has lists of tests on their website that you can access to run checks against your newsletter. You may not be able to conquer the full battle, but you can definitely wage a war. This information is available at http://www.spamassassin.org/tests.html.

Readership

Directory Listings

Ezine and article directories are one simple way to increase your subscriber lists, and give the opportunity for others to use your articles, with permission. This will increase your readership by peaking interest in your newsletters, and other articles you have produced. It will also redirect more traffic to your website, and may increase your sales, (another added bonus of these directories). If you would like to include an article that is listed in one of these sites in your newsletter you can. This can help speed up your publication process!

Frequency

Remember to keep your communications frequent. Many companies send their newsletters weekly, monthly or bi-monthly. The more frequent, the more the chance to eliminate the possibility of subscribers forgetting that the subscribed to your publication and sending it to the junk mail file.

Increase Conversion

One very important tip for securing that wavering subscriber on your website…have a privacy policy. Include this policy or a link to where they can find it on your website, in clear view on the subscription page. This will help eliminate any worries the reader may have of giving you personal information.

Most importantly…always adhere to your policy!

Third Party Sources

There are several things to look for when finding an outside source to host your e-newsletter. Constant Contact is a company that is everywhere these days advertising. A company like this offers it all, offering a trial period of 60 days or 100 subscribers. Once you hit 100 subscribers, they then charge amounts in increments of how many you have, (i.e. $5 per every 50 subscribers after 100). They manage your lists, opt-outs and “bounces.” You can store photos on these sites, logos, and several documents at one time. Reports are also provided on who opens your email, and who clicks on links.

In conclusion, you should consider several things before creating your E-Newsletter. The format, the frequency, and the content are several of the main elements. This may take some time to achieve this. You will also have to get a subscriber list ready for your first issue. You will have so much fun developing your newsletter, and if you would like to publish one, but don’t have the time, remember, “Your Projects…My Time.”™

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Marah
http://EzineArticles.com/?Email-Marketing-101:-Creating-an-Effective-Newsletter&id=358433

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Feb 09

How Did This Week Go for You? Share Your Thoughts!

This week, we enjoyed a fantastic teleseminar on how to monetize our articles while reading up on e-books here at the LK Article Challenge Blog. What new information did you learn this week? How will you work this newfound knowledge into your article marketing strategy? Leave a comment and share your ideas with the group!

-kk

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Feb 08

Why Sell E-Books and Other Information Products On E-Bay?

by Tracey Edwards

Selling E-Books and Other Information Products on EbayLately you might find that more and more sellers are turning to information products and ebooks to sell on eBay. Why are they doing this? After all each product only sells for a few dollars each, why would you bother?

We live in an age where people want instant access to information. Whether it is from TV or the Internet. If they can get the answer to their problem’s instantly for a few dollars then most people are willing to spend that.

Because of this eBay sellers have realised the potential of ebooks and other information products. Because there isn’t a physical product that you wrap, post and send off - essentially you have an unlimited supply of your product.

You could sell the same ebook over and over again as many times as you wanted and therefore your potential for unlimited profits is only limited by the amount of people willing to pay for your information.

Customers love to buy information products, especially those that tell you how to do something whether it is cooking a hamburger masterpeice to getting your baby to sleep. There is always a demand for an ebook to solve a problem.

And it’s not just ebooks these days, more and more video, podcasts and mp3’s are also being sold over and over again on eBay.

eBay itself has embraced digital products being sold in it’s marketplace and even have a special section for delivering your digital products directly to your customer as soon as they pay. Another reason that it is so popular with eBay sellers, they don’t even have to contact the buyer to let them know where the ebook is, eBay does the hard work for you.

If you are interested in selling ebooks then there is sure to be a topic that interests your buyers from making money online to the latest craft or scrapbooking patterns. All you need to do is stock your shop and wait for the dollars to roll in.

Now that you know why you should sell ebooks on ebay why not get a 25 Page Guide to Successful Selling on eBay for more great eBay selling tips.

Tracey sells ebooks on eBay and knows all the secrets! (Well most of them anyway). http://www.traceys-ebooks.com

If you liked this article, you might like another of my articles: Want to Sell eBooks on eBay? - Where to Find eBooks to Sell on eBay

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracey_Edwards
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Sell-E-Books-And-Other-Information-Products-On-E-Bay?&id=943158

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Feb 07

Recording of Last Night’s Teleseminar on Monetizing Your Articles

Teleseminar on Monetizing Your ArticlesLast night’s teleseminar with Jeff Herring was fantastic. We had a nice group with some good questions, and I think we all learned a lot. I know I did!

Highlights

  • Direct and indirect ways to make money with your articles
  • Three methods for creating an e-book
  • Turning e-books into teleseminars and e-courses
  • Overall tips for success in article marketing

Listen to the recording or download it to save for later. Be sure to stay to the end for a special offer from Jeff!

Thanks again to all who turned out. I hope we’ll see you at the next teleseminar!

And if you’re not yet signed up for the New Year’s edition of the LK Article Challenge, which runs to the end of the month, there’s still time. Just enter your info at in the handy-dandy form at the top of the page and you’ll be all set.

- kk

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Feb 07

Why You Should Write Viral E-Books

by Andy Machin

Why You Should Write Viral E-BooksWriting your own ebooks is arguably the best and most powerful thing you can do to publicise your web site and bring traffic to it with little effort. An even better tactic is to make your ebook viral. That does not mean your readers will catch a disease. Or rather they will of sorts but one from which both you and your readers can profit.

Making your ebooks viral simply means that you give your customer a reason to pass your ebook around to their friends, family, web site visitors, newsletter subscribers and similar. That reason is two fold. One reason being that the ebook you have written contains useful information and the other reason being that you have seeded the ebook with your affiliate links to relevant products while allowing some of your affiliate links to be replaced by the affiliate links of your customer.

Why would you do that - well you would do it simply because it creates a “win-win” scenario from which both yourself and your customer can potentially benefit for a very long time. Because you have made your ebook viral in the manner described each person who reads it is a potential earner for both yourself and your initial customer.

You have created a situation where your customer wants to circulate your ebook widely because he knows that he has the potential to earn a commission should anyone he circulates it to makes a purchase from one of the links you have allowed him to rebrand. You have the same opportunity because the ebook still contains some of your own affiliate links.

For example if you have written an ebook on say dog care you can easily insert affiliate links to related products - say dog training and dog food. If you allow your customer to rebrand the dog training links with his own then anyone he circulates the ebook to and buys the dog training product will generate a commission for your customer and anyone who buys the dog food product via your ebook will generate an affiliate commission for you because that is your link.

Giving your customers the ability to rebrand and the extent to which they can do so is something you control yourself. All you have to do is write the ebook. And that is not as hard as you might think either. You just need your imagination and typing skills. Do you think you could write a dozen or so pages on a subject you have an interest is. Of course you could. Especially with the internet available to you as an almost unlimited research tool.

All you need to do is take action. And you can start that right now. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and start to write down a list of subjects you are interested enough in to write a short ebook about. Pick a subject you would like to start with then map out the topics or chapters you think your new ebook should include. The next step is to research and write and you are on your way to your first viral ebook. What is stopping you?

Download your free page rank ebook and see how I have gained and maintained number 1 search engine positions regardless of google page rank. Visit http://www.pagerankparanoia.com today for your free ebook.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Machin
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-You-Should-Write-Viral-E-books&id=936029

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Feb 06

eBooks and Article Income - A Free Audio Gift for You

article marketing, ebooks, jeff herringOn a recent Article Guy TeleSeminar we focused on my “Create an eBook in a Day with Your Articles System.”

While it is now in the resource section for a fee, I’m offering it to you, the LK Article Challenge member, as a free gift today.

Click here to give it a listen, and I’ll see you soon on tonight’s free teleseminar on Multiple Streams of Article Income.

Jeff Herring - Internet Article Guy