In my last article, I explained why selling ads to your eZine can cause you to lose money. Now I want to look at an alternative that can increase your income far beyond anything you would receive from advertising. In just three easy steps you can, over time, create a newsletter that will produce 10-20 cents per subscriber every single month.
Step One: Focus Your Newsletter on Building Your Reputation
People buy from people they know and trust. In your newsletter you have to convey enough of yourself that your readers feel a kinship with you and trust your opinions. How can you accomplish this? Here are some keys:
1. Write at least one article per week. This allows people to see you as having solid and profitable opinions about the subject of your newsletter. Even if you are not an expert, they will begin to trust your opinions as “one who has gone before.”
2. Make sure your newsletter has a consistent focus. If your subscribers are expecting dog grooming tips, don’t send them information about starting a home-based business. Your newsletter should fit into a single theme.
3. Do it professionally. Every newsletter, no matter how professional, occasionally has a gaff. That is going to happen. But when I see a newsletter that has mistakes every week, I begin to question whether they really know what they are doing.
4. Don’t share every struggle an failure. This is a judgment call, but it is an important one. If you never share your struggles, people will not see you as “real”, if you share every struggle, people will see you as unprofessional.
Step Two: Send Out a Highly Targeted Personal Recommendation every 3-4 weeks.
This will be tough for those of you who are accustomed to a weekly or twice-weekly solo ad. Trust me, this is worth it.
Take your time to find a highly targeted product that will be of interest to your subscribers. Then, about once a month, send out a personal recommendation of that product to your list. Ask them for their feedback. Make it personal. If you have done your job well, 50-60% of your open rate will visit the site and up to 3% will purchase.
Just think about what that can mean for a 5,000 member list to which you offer a $100 product with a 50% commission:
5,000 mailed, 1000 open the email (20% open rate) Out of that 1000, 600 visit the site (60% visit rate) Out of that 600, 18 purchase (3% conversion rate) 18 sales x $50/sale is $900 from one mailing-or 18 cents per subscriber.
Step Three: Increase Your Subscriber Base by 10% each Month
This is key to continuing to make money from your opt-in list: Add 10% new subscribers per month. Here’s why…
You are going to lose subscribers every month. It is just going to happen. If at the beginning of the month you have 5,000, you will likely have 4,800 by the end of the month no matter how well you do things.
Even if you have to purchase subscribers, you need to make sure you are adding at least 10% to your subscriber base each and every month. If you have 5,000 at the beginning of the month, make sure you add at least 500 more. Sure, you will still have some people unsubscribe, but you will have a net increase in subscribers.
There are a number of places where you can purchase subscribers who are interested in your particular eZine topic. Some for as little as 2 cents, some for as much as 80 cents. Re-invest some of your profits into purchasing new subscribers and you will have an ever-growing monthly income.
Conclusion
How much time will it take to get your own newsletter producing a good level of income? That depends on you. Most newsletters, following this plan, will see their income grow to a 10 cent or more per subscriber level in just a few months. Trust me, it is worth the effort.
Kevin Bidwell is owner of
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/cg-bin/at.cgi?a=274293
Kevin just finished a complete report on building a passive
income. Grab your copy here:
http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/cg-bin/at.cgi?a=274293&e=/pi