I keep getting asked week after week from individuals online exactly what my key is to internet success. How can they duplicate my business in a few easy steps?

To their amazement, my answer is ALWAYS the same. If you want to follow my success and the success of many of internet marketers, you absolutely must have your own ezine.

Whereas I used to suggest that you have an ezine...I now see a day coming where you will be absolutely creamed by your competition online if you don't publish one! It is a requirement to success online. 

"What is an ezine?"

An ezine is simply a newsletter which you publish online and send out to your subscribers by email. Some are published monthly. Others are sent out weekly. A few committed souls publish their ezines every single day!

It can be about any type of industry, but it must focus on some aspect of your business. If you sell Web Hosting Services, you need to do one that has something to do with that aspect...maybe Web Design, Traffic Building Tools, etc. If you sell mailing lists, do a newsletter on how to choose effective mailing lists OR on how to prepare direct mail packages. Do one that focuses on your business.

In general, ezines are published with a main article (And sometimes a second article or section), classified ads, and then specials available only from you the publisher. The principle reason you must own your own ezine is the fact that if you are giving GOOD quality information every time your newsletter comes out, they will begin to get to know you and be willing to purchase products or services from you.

You might say, "But Terry, I can't write!"

This is NOT a good enough excuse to allow your online business to fail. Hundreds of writers on the internet are looking for people to publish their articles! All you have to do is find them...Let them do the writing and you take care of the publishing (simply sending an email to a listserver)!

It is Easy to Publish a Newsletter...

Publishing your newsletter/ezine is a piece of cake. All you do is set up a listserver. You can get a small one that only holds 1,000 names from Listbot at http://www.listbot.com for Free to start you off.

Once you have your listserver in place, all you do is send an email to the listserver address and it distributes your newsletter out to all of the subscribers. It also automatically stores your Opt-In mailing list and removes undeliverables for you without you even having to be involved.

How to Add 500 Subscribers to Your Ezine This Week...

Having your own ezine doesn't do you any good if you don't have subscribers. So, here is a quick formula to get you started off adding new subscribers quickly from day one. 

1) Write a Good Description for Your Ezine

You will need a 15 word description, a paragraph description, and a full page description (This is use for NEW-LIST). Remember to use good ad copy techniques for writing these..."What's in it for Me?" are the 5 key words of advertising.

What will your subscribers get out of your ezine? Write good killer ad copy for this. Use bullets to describe the benefits people will be getting out of your newsletter. Don't just through together a quick ad to get one out there. Write Killer Ad Copy...(See the Killer Ad Bootcamp at info2@bizpromo.com for more information on a paint-by-numbers approach to writing good ads)

2) Place A Subscription Form on Every Page of Your Web Site.

Your subscribers should start here. Make sure that every page on your site gives them the opportunity to sign up on your newsletter. If you take a look at my site, NetBreakthroughs, you will find that my Newsletter subscription form is the first thing you see on my site. You should do the same for maximum subscribers!

3) Use NEW-LIST to get your first base of subscribers...

Subscribe to it first at http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/new-list/  and then read through their submission guidelines at http://SCOUT.CS.WISC.EDU/scout/new-list/format.html 

NEW-LIST is a mailing list dedicated to showing all of the New ezines which come out. By writing a killer ad for it, you can receive anywhere from 50 - 500 subscribers within a week. It should always be on the starting points for any new ezine.

The reason I want you to subscribe to the list first is because you will begin to get a good idea of how to create your ad for it by watching and reading through all of the posts. DO NOT take this list lightly, because a good Killer Ad can produce amazing results for you for FREE.

4) Submit Your Ezine to all of the ezine directories... 

Below is a small list of some of the directories which allow you to place your ezine listings. Make sure to list your newsletter in all of them using good descriptions full of benefits. This is by no means a complete list of every ezine directory on the web, but it is a good place to get you started.

http://www.newsletteraccess.com/database/reg.html  
http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/submit.html  
http://magazines.yotta.com/addfree.htm  
http://www.etext.org/services.shtml  
http://www.disobey.com/low/addere.shtml  
http://inkpot.com/submit/  
http://www.coalliance.org/  
http://www.lifestylespub.com/  
http://www.ezine-universe.com/ 
http://www.web-source.net/ 
http://paml.net/submissions.html  

5) Trade Ads with Other Ezine Publishers

Many of us have learned that the easiest and cheapest way to build our subscriber base is by trading ads with other publishers. Be aggressive in this. Constantly email other publishers and offer to trade ads with them. You can get FREE advertising to hundreds of thousands of prospects by simply trading advertising space among one another!

Currently, we are preparing a list of publishers who would like to trade ads in other ezines...If you are interested in being a member of this list, please email me at webmaster@bizpromo.com with "Ezine Ad Trades" in the subject and list your ezine name, email, and your number of subscribers!

It Doesn't Have to Cost You A Lot Of Money to Build Your Business

None of the techniques above will cost you money to build your ezine list, but they will produce results. You can build your list, but it will take you doing the steps above, plus coming up with some of your own ideas.

Internet Marketing Success is not magic. It is simply finding out the information you need to succeed and then doing it one step at a time. Will you take that first step today? 

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Terry Dean is the webmaster at NetBreakthroughs.  Visit today for turn-key web site solutions, turn-key products you can sell, and answers to all of your Internet marketing questions. 

Editor's note: Another couple of listservers/autoresponders you could check out are GetResponse (which I use) or AceResponse. They have both free & paid options.