List Building The Good Old Fashioned Way

© 2009 - Theresa Cahill

It wasn't that long ago when individuals realized the easiest, fastest, most efficient and worthwhile way to build a list was to start a newsletter - referred to online as an ezine. The simple process of providing weekly or bi-weekly information in whatever niche - free of charge for the most part - was the fundamental building block for building a list of active readers.

By using this simple yet effective method, thousands upon thousands of people entered into their own self-publishing business. Their visits to their websites grew, their lists grew, their relationships with their readers grew.

Today, 10+ years later, building your list the old fashioned way is still the surefire method for getting what you need - readers and clients - and providing what they need - information.

LIST BUILDING BENEFITS

There are numerous benefits to building a list by publishing your own ezine, including:

o Your ability to signup with ezine advertising agencies. Typically, this is free of charge. The agency or co-op adds your ezine to its list. When a client arrives needing ad space, you get the reader in exchange for publishing their ad in your "ad area" one time. That reader becomes yours for life - or until they unsubscribe. Provide interesting, informative, current information and they will stick around wanting more.

o You can swap an ezine advertisement for your newsletter (ezine or gazette) with other publishers. Everyone likes free promos, and this is a great way to expose your new ezine to existing readers of other ezines. In the meantime, of course, you publish an ad for the ezine giving your ezine announcement ad space. It's a win-win situation. The majority of established ezines are more than willing to extent a hand to help you get yours off the ground. Some ezine advertising co-ops even offer you access to their existing publishers - in essence doing the job for you - making this task a no-brainer and worthwhile.

o You decide on your subject material. While everyone is big on "internet marketing" realize that the term internet marketing is a huge umbrella. Maybe your talents bend toward a certain way of marketing (youtube videos for instance). You would make the theme of your ezine primarily about providing information on making, distributing, and pointing out successful youtube videos.

However, if you fancy yourself a chef (or are a trained professional even), then doing a cooking and/or recipe ezine would be right up your alley. Crafts? Family life? Entertainment? These suggestions are just the tip of the potential ezine publishing iceberg. People come to the internet for all sorts of reasons. You are most likely extremely knowledgeable about something of true interest to those searchers. They should find your ezine, newsletter or gazette, and - again with the help of ezine advertising co-ops - jump at the chance to sign up.

WHAT'S INVOLVED?

There are various ways to go about publishing. You could (and most likely should) spend $10/year (roughly) and buy a domain name targeting what your ezine newsletter is about - exercisewithjoanie.com for example (off the top of my head, it may already exist).

You could, but do not have to, host it very inexpensively and build a website around it. OR you could make delivery of your ezine strictly via autoresponder. While years back, many took their ezines, newsletters, and gazettes to an online format, inbox delivery in text or html or both remains a viable option. This way, at your leisure, you can start a website (or even blog if you want) to further enhance search-ability in the search engines, directories, etc., for what you are providing.

Just keep in mind that by offering a simple classified space (even The New York Times does it), you gain a reader. That subscriber remains yours. Provide information they find worthwhile, and you build a relationship. Building trust and a relationship can turn a reader into a buyer.

While so many things appear to change almost daily online, ezine publishing does not. It remains, to this day, a must-investigate way for you to build a list of your own (not for your affiliate program owner if you promote affiliate products) but for yourself.

Listing building made easy. The good, solid, old-fashioned ezine newsletter way!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Theresa Cahill has been online since the mid 1990s. She has published numerous ezines and blogs and is the owner of My Wizard Ads, an inexpensive ezine advertising service established in 2001. New and veteran ezine publishers are always welcome.