When it comes to marketing online, if you do not have a list you are lost. To build a list is, and will continue to be, the major theme for all online marketers. Without a list, you do not have the ability to send "solo ads" or broadcasts to anyone other than your friends and family. Your only other option then becomes the use of expensive pay per click campaigns - and those dollars do add up and add up quickly.

Another option you might use is featuring yourself and/or your product as its own video solo ad which you can post on YouTube or even Viddler. This option, too, can be expensive and time consuming if you do not have the equipment and software, nor a script and images to record.

However, all is not lost. Luckily, for more than 10 years, that most sought-after form of advertising, the ezine solo ad, exists. I have heard program owners call it a standalone ad, but it means the same thing. An ezine solo ad makes use of other people's lists to get your message out there.

Now for the words of caution. Most people, when they find something new to promote are very excited about finding it. They also tend to assume they have been the first to stumble across this jewel, and react as if it really is "new, new, new!" when in fact the program, product, or service may have been around for several months (or longer). Solo ads provided in the back office of many of these types of programs have, by now, been used repeatedly by other affiliates; the same people who signed up thinking the same thing you are... "Ah, someone has written something for me, I'll just use that!"

This can, and often is, your fatal mistake. While I wish I could tell you that life is a bowl of cherries online, that wealth awaits you in just a few seconds time, that is not the truth. It does not matter whether you start from scratch and build your own web site or use the pushbutton programs so many of these affiliate services have, you will still run up against the dreaded, "I have no list to send my solo ad to... how am I going to get noticed?"

The thoughtful program owner provides easy access spots usually in their back office area. These third party go-to places are often a good place to start. Listings of ezine advertising and ezine solo ad "co-ops" or individual ezines are well worth investigating. I say investigating because there is no assurance that the program owner has tried or tested them all to see how (or if) the service exists or performs its job (which is, of course, getting your solo ad message out to the public).

Learning to write your own, or having them written for you, or figuring out how to modify and create new and exciting works of art from pre-existing solo ads should be your goal.

A solo ad is comprised of the following parts:

o Your subject line

This little gem is the only thing standing between you and the person receiving it. Your solo ad must be opened to begin to do its job. Since a solo ad arrives as a piece of mail into an inbox (or spam folder if you do not carefully check it first for spam-like trigger words), your shot at getting someone to open and read lasts just seconds. It is either opened or deleted. End of story.

o Your message opening lines

Not introducing yourself is a big mistake. First, your solo ad becomes just another one in the crowd, and second, people do tend to buy from people they feel they know. Give them the chance to find out a bit about you (not your life story of course), but at a minimum introduce yourself - use your name.

o The message itself

In the full body of your solo ad you need to organize it in such a way that you use small paragraphs of text and lots of bullet points. You, yourself, must also find a way to "shine through." Think of the body of the message itself doing two things - giving them more of a feel for who you are (not what you get out of it but a sense of you) and more importantly be sure to answer (and create excitement about) the question of, "What's in it for me?" The "me" in your case is the person reading. It should create that "you'll never guess what" sense of excitement. It is this excitement (please do not think that using exclamation marks creates excitement, they do not) that creates the difference between action and inaction. If need be, start reading those emails you are already getting. You know which ones you dump into the trash, and you also know there is a flair and style to the ones that intrigue you enough to get you to the last part of your solo ad which is...

o The call to action

If you never tell them to go to the website, will they? Most likely not. Strangely enough, you would think that after reading the person would automatically know what you want, right? Never assume. Place clear instructions on what they should do now - the famous "click here for more information" can be used, or better yet, use your imagination. Remember even in the closing they must be excited enough to feel that "omg if I don't go see I'm going to really miss out!"

o Your web site sales tool

No matter how well you write your ezine solo ad, if your website just is not up to the task of closing the sale for you, all really is lost. There are no hard and fast rules about this - from the gorgeously professional to the downright ugly, the right words and message on your sales tool page (your closer) will be what matters. You rely on the fact that the program owner has done the job so that the web page itself converts to paying customers and clients.

All the above is the traditional look at ezine solo ad advertising. An ad it is, yet there are other ways of writing solo ad advertising that are not dependent upon "copywriting skills" as covered above. Remember, people come to the internet for information not advertising. This "information solo ad" will be covered in the next article. Be watching for it!

Theresa Cahill, May 5, 2009
  

Source: http://www.mywizardads.com

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