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Sometimes you have to be willing to take trade offs or make sacrifices. I am
using my experience as an example, and you may have a better way to achieve
the success I've been seeing.
I signed up for Tucats Ezine Ad Co-op to send free ads to a list of ezines
accepting free ads. I knew what I was getting into because my newsletter is
part of the co-op.
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?IM8301_coop
I knew I would be getting confirmation of subscriptions, solo ads, and monthly,
weekly and twice weekly issues to my email address from over 100 newsletters
and ezines. It is my trade off to getting my free ad out to over 500,000 readers.
Updates from the Tucats Ad Co-op tell of people who have signed up to take
advantage of the free ads, then are mad about being spammed, or didn't realize
they would get so much email. Keep in mind, when you sign up for something,
you might want to do some reading first. You can't call it spam when you sign
up for it.
You can get a free web based email address to use to sign up for multiple ezines,
such as the one at PageCrafters.net Free Email Service.
http://pagecrafters.net/services.html#mail
By doing this, you keep your personal or business address from being bombarded
but two problems arise:
1) You have to constantly clean out the mailbox, because some of the ezines
will drop you if your email address bounces.
2) You miss out on some good information by not reading the ezines. Some of
these ezines require you to read them as they contain ad code that must be used
to get your weekly ads approved.
This is what I found that works best for me. I use OutLook, but OutLook Express
and any other email client can be configured just as easily. Set up the rules
in OutLook or your favorite email client. In OutLook, go to tools, then rules.
In most clients look for tools or options.
What you want to do is set your client up to filter words in the subject or
body of your emails. You can even filter by 'received from address'. Key words
to filter may be 'newsletter', 'ezine' or 'issue'.
I've made a folder I call Mags (short for magazines) to place the filtered
ezines into. I now have the option to read them later or look for ad codes when
I'm ready to submit my free ads. Some of the info I've collected is good stuff
and I archive it for reference later.
All of the newsletter and ezines you've just subscribed to offer at least one
free ad. Most offer weekly ads. Drop the newsletters you don't wish to continue
receiving, but if you take the one free ad, have enough netiquette to stay subscribed
until your ad is shown. If you drop them before your ad is shown, it may never
be shown.
This is the hard part. It took me about a week, and still some ezine confirmations
came in. Believe me, the process is worth it. I do get responses to my ads and
after I competed this part, the rest was easy.
Any one of these tools, or combinations of, work great for your free ad submissions.
Both organization and posting are made easy after the initial setup.
Below is the lowdown of each, listing strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion.
In all honesty I like them all, but read on, use them, and make your own decision.
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AI RoboForm
AI RoboForm is great for filling in forms. After you teach it how, it will
fill them in automatically when your browser finds one. As you go to a newsletter
form page, you can name the settings for the newsletter, then every time you
go to that site, AI RoboForm will fill out the form. All you have to do is hit
the submit button.
The free version can be used immediately. The way we are using this tool is
hindered very little in the free version, although the full version does have
some great features. There is no way to organize your ezines, but I find it
an excellent form filler.
http://pagecrafters.net/programs/AiRoboForm.zip
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AdWizard
One of AdWizard's better features is that it keeps a database that is easily
accessed and modified. It also lets you know when it is time to send your ads
again. AdWizard is a slower than AI RoboForm or EzineAnnouncer, but is the most
configurable of the three when filling forms.
AdWizard is usable immediately, but requires that you register it after 60
days of use.
http://hop.clickbank.net/?dsextonj/pbeuger
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EzineAnnouncer
Although I like all of these tools, the most versatile is EzineAnnouncer. Like
AdWizard, it will also let you know when to send your ads out.
Between AdWizard and EzineAnnouncer, the former is the most configurable using
forms, but neither AdWizard or AI RoboForm have the ability to send email to
ezines that require your ad to be sent via email.
The demo version of EzineAnnouncer is usable for 15 days. After that it must
be registered for continued use. If you use it, you might get addicted.
http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?354
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None of these tools are expensive. The cost is less than $150 if you were to
buy them all. Consider the cost of advertising and what a premium ad runs. This
now becomes a bargain.
The length of time involved is the setup of each ezine. It's not too bad unless
you have a hundred or so to do. After you've finished doing a bulk load like
at Tucats Co-op, onezies and twozies are easy and don't take that long.
Remember, don't blow off those ezines after you've subscribed. You could be
missing some good articles and might find an ad or two that you may find useful.
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Dale Sexton owns & operates 'PageCrafters.net', &
publishes 'Small Business Tools magazine'. Both
focus on tools & tips for small business.
mailto:pagecrafters@pagecrafters.net
Sign up for 'SBT magazine' at:
http://pagecrafters.net/newsletter.html
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About the Author:
Dale Sexton owns & operates 'PageCrafters.net', & publishes 'Small Business
Tools magazine'. Both focus on tools & tips for small business. |
