Top 10 Ways To Get More Subscribers To Your Ezine

By Jim M. Allen
Posted Sunday, January 16, 2005

1. Plan

Before you start publishing your ezine, create a plan: Who is your audience? Where can you find them? How will you market to them? The more specific, the better.

Depending on the planned frequency of publishing (daily, weekly, monthly), you should have between two and four months of newsletter material material written BEFORE you start publishing. This gives you plenty of lead time to work on other articles and prevents you from having to come up with

material at the last minute.

2. Content counts

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him read a dry, old newsletter. Quality *original* content is important. It's fine to reprint an article from another source, but the bulk of each issue's material should be original. So, make it your own, make it unique, but most of all, make it good.

3. Brevity!

Make your ezine only as long as it needs to be - and no longer. People are inundated with ezines these days. The more "to the point" your newsletter is, the more it'll be read and appreciated.

4. Minimize marketing

If your subscribers feel like the newsletter is nothing more than a big advertisement for you, you'll lose them quickly.

Keep obvious hard-sell advertising to a minimum. Attract people to your business with the quality of your ideas, not with advertisement after advertisement.

Rather than a long list of classifieds at the beginning or end of your ezine, try for fewer ads each issue but put them in between individual articles.

5. Request referrals

Ask your subscribers to recommend your newsletter to their friends and family. Encourage them to forward your newsletter to people they know who might like it. A good number of those who receive it *will* subscribe.

6. Cross-promote

Put notices about your newsletter on your web site, business cards, up in your office, on your invoices, everywhere.

7. Announce, Announce, Announce

There are many, many announcement lists that inform readers about new ezines each and every day. Routinely submit your newsletter info to as many of these lists as possible... and do so at least once a month.

8. Ad-Swaps

Is there a ezine that you subscribe to that you like? Contact the editor/publisher and see if they would be willing to publish an ad for your ezine with one of theirs. Chances are they're as eager to grow their ezine as you are to grow yours.

9. Give Articles Away

Just like yours, there are a lot of other ezines out there that need original, high-quality content. So help them (and help yourself) by sending them some of your original articles. Most newsletters will give a short byline and include a link to your website or ezine subscription address.

10. Make it easy!

Above all, make it easy for people to subscribe. Include subscribe instructions in each issue, on your website, in you place of business, etc. The more difficult it is for them to subscribe, the greater the chances are that they won't.

About the Author
Jim M. Allen, business coach, speaker, & publisher of a popular bi-weekly ezine. Visit (http://www.CoachJim.com) or subscribe by sending a blank email to: mailto:Subscribe@CoachJim.com