Subscription swap strategy

By Terry Telford
Posted Wednesday, August 18, 2004

If you publish an ezine, you know that your success or failure is dependant upon your subscribers. Your subscribers read your ads and purchase your products. Your subscribers are also the reason you can sell
advertising space to other companies. Since your income is directly related to the number of ezine subscribers you have, it is critically important to build your subscriber base as high as you can, as fast as you can. Swapping ads for subs helps you build your database, fast and FREE.

Swapping advertising space for subscriptions is a fairly popular method for increasing your subscriber numbers. Each time a new subscriber signs up for your publication, you give them a free classified ad.

The trade off is, you end up with a large number of classified ads to publish in your ezine. Depending on the size and frequency of your publication, this can be a blessing or a problem. Make sure you have allotted enough advertising space to accommodate a lot of classified ads.

Here's how it works.

1. You list your ezine with ABC subscription company.

2. A potential subscriber/advertiser pays ABC subscription company $10 to advertise in 5 ezines. Yours is one of them.

3. ABC subscription company sends you the name, email address and ad of the subscriber/advertiser.

4. You send the subscriber/advertiser a confirmation that you have received their ad and sub.

5. You subscribe the new prospect to your ezine and run their ad.

If you are looking for some subscription companies, here are the ones that I have used. They are all quality companies and will send you advertisers/subscribers almost everyday.

2 Bucks an Ad
(http://hop.clickbank.net/?bridgeport/paaads)

My Wizard Ads

(http://hop.clickbank.net/?bridgeport/wizads)

EZ Ezine Ads

(http://hop.clickbank.net/?bridgeport/ezyads)

eBook Gazette
(http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?bridgeport/greggj)

This system works incredibly well. In fact it works too well. Here is what happened to me. I signed up with several subscription companies, expecting to get a few ads here and there. My ezine, The Marketing Pack Journal, has a total of 10 classified ad spots per week, so I felt confident that I could fill the spaces with ads and get free subscriptions too.

Instead of getting 10 new subs and ads each week, I got 75! OK that's great for subs, but now I had ads coming out my ears, so I had to cancel the service. In hind sight, it is better to sign up with one subscription company at a time and see how many subscribers/advertisers you get. If you can handle more, add additional companies.

To increase your advertising sales further, keep in touch with your advertisers. Remember, these people have paid money to advertise, so they are very good prospects. When you send them your confirmation message, make sure you let them know where to find your regular advertising prices. Occasionally run a promotion that is only available to those customers who have advertised in your ezine before. This one
method will build your income from your classified section of your ezine and develop a loyal customer/subscriber base for your publication.

If you are looking for more ezine subscribers, there are lots of ways to get them. Using a free ad for subscription swap is one of the quickest and most economical ways to build your subscriber base. Just be careful to make sure your ezine has enough space to hold all the ads that your
new subs bring with them. Now get ready for a subscriber explosion.

Good luck and God Bless.

About the Author
Vitals: Terry Telford is the author of the popular ebook, Website Ladder, and the founder of bpc publishing, where you can pick up your FREE and almost FREE website marketing and traffic tools. Visit (http://www.bpcpublishing.com) today!