While there are many effective ways to get more traffic and build your ezine list, the one I’ve had the MOST success with is to submit articles for use on other people’s websites and in their ezines.

“But wait a minute,” you say. “Aren’t I supposed to be creating great articles for MY OWN e-zine?”

Yes, you are! And after your article appears in your OWN e-zine, you should then submit it to others. Over the past few years, I’ve found this to be the best way to get traffic, build my list, and increase my sales, for five reasons:

1) You can quickly gain FREE exposure to TENS OF THOUSANDS (or even HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS) of untapped prospects at a time. There are many high-traffic sites and ezines with high readerships that are looking for content from people like YOU.

2) Articles let you educate and share good information with your prospects. They also position you as an expert in their eyes, so they’ll think of YOU as the most respected resource in your field. (Traditional ads don’t do that for you.)

3) You have the right to promote yourself, your business, and whatever else you want at the end of every article. And anyone using your article must keep this information intact. (More on that in a minute.)

4) This is a tried-and-true method that will NEVER stop working, unlike the latest and greatest gimmicks to spoof the search engines. (Try one of those and see how quickly your traffic halts once the bottom drops out.) Search engines love real content and will always love real content.

5) It’s EASY, and anyone can do it!

HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED…

1. PICK A WINNER
Browse through your archives and pick an insightful article that really showcases your expertise. Or, if this is new to you, write a basic article on your subject of expertise. (Not a good writer, or need help? Hire a writer from Elance.com.)

2. POLISH IT ‘TIL IT SHINES
Publishers will not be interested in your article if it contains typos, misspelled words, grammatical errors, or inactive Web links — these goofs would compromise the integrity of their publications. So make sure it’s Kosher!

3. ADD A COPYRIGHT NOTICE
At the end of the article, insert a copyright notice, dated when you first published the article. Example: © 2005 Alexandria K. Brown

4. WRITE A JAZZY “RESOURCE BOX”
In exchange for your letting other publishers reprint your article, it’s customary to require they include the contact information you provide. This is usually called the “resource box” and it should come RIGHT after your copyright notice. Here’s where you can ham it up.

Don’t waste time promoting your actual business in the resource box. Why? Remember your #1 goal is always to get prospects on your LIST. You’ll gain MORE clients and customers by FIRST getting them to subscribe to your FREE e-zine or special report. THEN you’ve got them! You’ll be in front of them regularly, and that’s when they’ll understand why they should hire you or buy your products.

5. SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE TO ONLINE CONTENT DIRECTORIES
There are hundreds of ‘free content’ Web sites and announcement lists where you can submit your articles for other publishers to use. Some even let you include a picture and other information about your website. One of my favorites is EzineArticles.com.

6. SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE DIRECTLY TO APPROPRIATE PUBLISHERS
For best results, take the bull by the horns and contact publishers directly. But not just any publishers — ones with e-zines that accept articles AND whose readers are your ideal clients and customers. A great place to start your search and build your own list is Charlie Page’s Directory of E-zines.

7. AUTOMATE THE ENTIRE PROCESS

I know you’re probably thinking right now, “OK Ali, this sounds great, but isn’t this going to be time consuming?”

The answer is most definitely YES. In the past, you’d have to spend several hours a week just to get one article out there. It’s a lot of administrative work, requiring time that you probably don’t have.

But my friend Jason Potash has just released his brand new “ARTICLE ANNOUNCER” software that does all this work FOR you. It blasts out your articles to hundreds of directories, publishers, and other sources to help generate a slew of web visitors to your site, month after month.

My staff and I have tested Jason’s “Article Announcer” product and wholeheartedly recommend it. I urge you to see Jason’s information page NOW, and grab your own copy before the price goes UP in just a few days.

Remember also that if you don’t want to do any of your own article marketing yourself, it’s a perfect task to pass on to an assistant, intern, or freelancer. The key is getting it down to a SYSTEM, which is what this software helps you do.

© 2002-2005 Alexandria K. Brown

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is creator of the award-winning ‘Boost Business With Your Own E-zine’ system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to marketing articles and FREE audio class, visit www.EzineQueen.com

Remember that when you have new visitors at your website, your #1 goal is to get them on your ezine list! That way you have permission to contact them again and again, educating them about your helpful services and products that they came to learn more about.

But you can’t just put up a link that says “free newsletter”. No one cares! You need to carefully craft an opt-in box that works like a big net, catching the exact type of “fish” you want as your ideal clients and customers.

Also remember, don’t hide your box at the bottom of your web pages. Right now, most testing shows that the best place for your opt-in box is the upper right corner… loud and proud!

Here are six simple things you should have in your opt-in box that will help you get more signups than ever before.

1) An Attention-Getting HEADLINE

Remember that online readers SKIM copy - they don’t read it word for word. So the headline in your opt-in box may be the ONLY thing they read, which determines whether they sign up or not. So don’t waste this space saying something like “Free Newsletter” or even worse… “Sign up for our mailing list.” Ugh! Instead, tell me the MOST exciting thing your ezine will give me!

Examples:
“Are You Ready to Blast Off Your SALES This Year?”
“FINALLY: Learn How to Keep That Weight Off For Good”
“Insider Secrets to Writing Novels for Big Bucks”

2) A Raving Description of Your Ezine

Work hard at putting together a description of your ezine that gets prospects excited to sign up! Remember they’re tuned into station WIIFM (”What’s In It For ME?”). Tell them what your information is going to DO for them as well as everything they GET. Examples: How-to articles, quick and easy tips, free resources, insider secrets. Aim for your description to be between 15 and 30 words.

3) A Field to Enter Their FIRST NAME.

Getting people’s names along with their e-mails allows you to personalize your ezine for them. For example, if I was on your list, your e-mail would come to me saying, “Dear Ali…” The subject line could even say, “Ali, here’s your free tip”. Why do you want to do this? Studies prove that having the recipient’s name in the subject line of your e-mails can increase your open rates by 60%!

The problem is, many people value their privacy and are hesitant to give you their full name. For this reason, just ask for their FIRST name. It’s been proven that you’ll get MORE names from people if you only ask for the first name. (And their first name is generally all you’ll need anyway.)

4) A Field to Enter Their Primary EMAIL ADDRESS.

Many people have a backup or personal e-mail address that they use just for receiving newsletters and promotions. The problem is they are often from free e-mail services like Yahoo or Hotmail. These services filter e-mail like crazy, and their mailboxes fill up quickly, so there’s a good chance your e-mails won’t even reach these recipients.

The solution is, simply ask for their primary e-mail. It’s amazing, but simply ASKING them to enter their primary e-mail will get you more quality e-mails on your list! (You’ll also get less bounce-backs from undeliverable e-mails. If you get too many of those, it raises a red flag to some spam filter programs.)

5) A BUTTON That Says “Subscribe” or “Sign Me Up Now”

Make it very clear what they should click on to activate their subscription once they type in their name and email. Don’t use something confusing like a link that says “submit form”.

6) Your PRIVACY POLICY, right then and there.

Everyone’s scared to receive more spam these days, so put your prospects at ease. Don’t make them wonder what you’re going to do with their e-mail addresses. State right next to or below your opt-in form what your policy is. Mine is, “We will never sell, rent, trade, or share your e-mail with any other organization.” (Feel free to use that yourself.) DON’T make people click on a link to read your privacy policy - it looks like you have something to hide. In fact, in some U.S. states, it’s now required that you state your privacy policy right at the point of opt-in, so it’s a good idea no matter where you do business.

Want to See a Sample of This in Action?

If you’d like to see many of these components in action, see my pop-under box at www.ezinequeen.com/popup.htm.

And if you’d like MORE step-by-step instructions on how to get more signups at your website (and beyond) and build your list bigger than ever before, see my SPECIAL REPORT: “101 Simple, FREE and Low-Cost Ways to Quickly Build a Massive EMAIL LIST”, which you can learn more about here.

© 2005 Alexandria K. Brown

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is creator of the award-winning ‘Boost Business With Your Own E-zine’ system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to marketing articles and FREE audio class, visit www.EzineQueen.com

One of the questions I’m asked the most by my clients is, “How can I most quickly build my e-mail list?”

My answer is, find someone who’s already reaching your target market in droves, and use THEM to build your list! How? With these three easy steps:

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STEP 1: Determine exactly who your ideal client or customer is.

The more descriptive you can be here, the better. For example, don’t just think “men”. Think “men ages 18-40 who like sports and working out”. Don’t just think “small business owners”. Think “women owners of professional service businesses that do less than $1 million a year”.

Can you take on clients or customers who fall outside of this description? Of course! But you need to know who you’re going after.

Example: About three years ago, I spent a romantic summer week on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. My beau was wonderful in letting me decide most of the activities we’d do each day. But there was one thing he definitely wanted to do at least once - go bluefishing!

Now I’m not sure if you could have guessed this, but I’m not really into fishing. ; )

But hey, I’ll try anything once, so off we went to the docks. Now, I figured we could go on any boat with any captain and do this. But no … we went with “Captain Dan the Bluefish Man” (who smelled like his specialty). Dan took us on his special boat to this special place off the island where the bluefish were, and we even used special bait that the bluefish liked. And we had great success - they just kept biting!

I realized that if you know exactly what you’re going after, you’re much more likely to get it. The same goes for reaching your target market.

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STEP 2: Find other people, companies, or websites that are ALREADY reaching your target market en masse.

Sit down with a cup of coffee this weekend and do some online research regarding your target market. What sites are they already visiting? What newsletters or magazines do they already read? For example, if your target market is stay-at-home moms, find the most popular sites they visit. Find the most popular e-zines they read.

Come up with a list of your top five websites and top five ezines that are already reaching your ideal client or customer.

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STEP 3: Contact these websites and ezines and see if they will:

–> REVIEW your book, products, services, or ezine for their readers. If so, send them a review copy and follow up a week or two later. Request that when they run the review they mention your e-zine and direct people to your website to sign up.

–> accept guest ARTICLES. If so, then submit one of your best, with a short bio that links people back to your website to sign up for your ezine.

–> SWAP ads or recommendations for each other’s websites, products, or services. If you have an ezine that reaches the same target market they want to reach, this is a great win-win.

–> do a CO-REGISTRATION deal. If you already have a good amount of e-zine subscribers and website traffic, they may be open to adding your e-zine to their ezine signup form if you do the same on your part. (Ideally folks should just check a box to subscribe to the additional e-zine automatically.)

–> run a recommendation or ad in exchange for a COMMISSION on resulting sales. For example, you give them the ad to run, tagged with a link that lets you know if any sales come from it. (This is easy for you to do if you have an online affiliate program.*)

–> accept PAID advertising. Banner ads, text ads, and other paid placements obviously cost you money, but if it’s your only option and you really want to reach these folks, go for it. But be sure to track your results so you can see if it’s working. (You’ll need a link tracking program to do this.*)

And these are just a FEW ideas to get you started!

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Remember, your #1 goal is to get people back to your site to sign up for your e-zine or other email list, because THAT is how you guarantee the chance to market to them repeatedly!

(*I use and recommend www.QueenCart.com for automating your affiliate program and tracking all your ad links.)

© 2004-2006 Alexandria K. Brown

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” publishes the award-winning ‘Straight Shooter Marketing’ weekly ezine with 17,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.EzineQueen.com