A few years back, I tried Ezine advertising (once).  I paid for a solo ad in the Christian Times Newsletter.  Unfortunately, my experience was less than “christian”.  The individual who was managing ads for this newsletter was dishonest.

First, he didn’t send the ad on the date promised.  I emailed asking why it wasn’t sent and he said it was sent.  He was “sure”.

Turns out, he didn’t.  So he re-scheduled it.

Remember, I’m talking about a solo ad, so this is supposed to go out without any ads or any other information.. only my ad!

When the ad went out, it was NOT sent as a solo ad.  The subject line was one that referenced something like “this weeks ads” that obviously would have a horrible open rate.

When opened, there were many other ads and my “solo ad” was in the mix!

As you can imagine, I was extremely “ticked” to say the least.  I paid for the most expensive ad to be sent alone.

When I spoke to this guy, he was a total ass.  Denied it happened. It was a horrible experience!

So I didn’t try ezine advertising again untill this year.

This time, I decided to purchase a “sponsor” ad from HBAds.com from Al Freeman.  He also owns other ezine advertising sites like freeads4millions.com and ezineking.com

A “sponsor” ad is not sent alone but among 3 other ads in a newsletter.  If the sponsor ad tested well, I would consider a solo ad, or purchasing another sponsor ad.  So this was a test.

Al promised to send out to a database in the hundreds of thousands. Naturally, I’m tracking clicks to see how well (or poor) the results will be using my favorite tracking tool “covert affiliate links“.

After the first week, I didn’t see any clicks. Alright, since it’s one of 3 ads in a newsletter, I’m sure it may be another week before it gets ran in some of the newsletters on Al’s list of ezines.

So I waited 2 weeks, this time 13 clicks (and 3 of those were from me, testing the link to make sure it worked)!!

I emailed Al who was polite and understanding of my frustration and said he would run in an additional newsletter to make up for it.

Another week goes by.. no more clicks!

I’m writing this a few weeks later and maybe 5 more clicks.. that’s it!!

Bottom line, a complete a total waste of time and money.

Now, you might think..  “you must have submitted a crappy ad that no one was interested in and/or simply didn’t convert”.

I’m sure that happens the majority of the time in any advertising format because most people don’t understand copywriting.  But I do.  I’ve written copy that has converted well.

In fact, the ad I submitted had been used in recent ad swaps and converted at 60% (which is way above average) sending me hundreds of subscribers from other targeted lists.  So the ad was already proven.

So, based on my experience, these online “ezines” found in sites like Al’s and similar so-called directories are complete junk that people do not read!  And the only people making a profit have to be the people who run them.

While Al was nice enough to deal with personally, if I were him, I couldn’t rest at night knowing that my business was based on “snake oil” money.

FYI: every single ezine directory site I visited contained multiple listings of ezine websites that no longer existed; long gone and dead.  Didn’t matter what site I went to, the majority of links I clicked on, to find out more, went nowhere.

Lesson learned!

So your take away from this, is to steer clear of ezine advertising from these type of sites.

With that said, there are worthy “newsletters” online with very targeted and happy subscribers in various niches.  You may find them in Google by typing in a keyword related to your niche plus the word newsletter (ie, gardening newsletter).

The key is to do your due diligence and subscribe to the newsletter first to judge first-hand if it’s quality and if the information would make YOU a loyal reader.  If so, and advertising is offered, you may see great results with the right ad.

Have you had an experience, good or bad, with ezine advertising?  Feel free to leave your comments.

Dave

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Internet marketers love special reports. They’re quick to make and easy to sell, which means you can make money from them – fast. Plus, there’s more than one way to earn with special reports. In fact, I came up with a list of 30 ways!

But first, if you think you can’t possibly make your very own special reports, check out the Special Report Club – and use the code “save10” to get $10 off your first month.

So here it is, my super list of Top 30 Ways to Earn with Special Reports:

1. Sell it – and keep all of the profits. The most obvious way of making money with special reports is to sell them.

2. Sell it through affiliates – and keep some of the profits. This is the similar #1, but your affiliates lead buyers to your sales page and pocket a commission from the sale.

3. Sell it through affiliates – and give them all of the profits. How does this make you money? Well, you build a list of buyers plus you can earn money on the back-end, either by promoting other products in the report itself, or as part of the sales process, or both.

4. Give it away – and build your list. Use the special report as an incentive for people to join your list.

5. Give it away – and make affiliate sales. Embed affiliate links in the report, and you can earn commissions by giving it away. Just add a “Resources” page or sprinkle affiliate links where appropriate.

6. Break it up into blog posts. A blog needs regular content. Write blog posts easily from a special report.

7. Give it away as a bonus to a paid product. Increase the perceived value of a paid product by including a special report – or several – as a bonus.

8. Combine them into an E-book to sell. Turn each special report into a chapter, add an introduction, conclusion, new title and cover, and you’ve got a brand new E-book to sell.

9. Combine related special reports into an E-book, to give away. Same idea as #8, but you give it away for list building and/or affiliate sales.

10. Combine related special reports into a physical book, to sell. Turn the E-book from #8 into a book that buyers can publish-on-demand, such as on Lulu.com.

11. Use it as a basis for an article. Get the most actionable points from the special report, turn them into an article, and submit it to Ezine Articles or another online article directory.

12. Create an audio version to give away, or sell. Some people prefer audio products they can listen to while they’re on the go or doing other things. Give in to their demand by converting the special report into an audio report.

13. Use a special report as the basis for tutorial videos – to give away or sell. Videos are hot nowadays, so turn a special report into video format for increased value.

14. Combine the audio and video versions into CDs and/or DVDs – and sell physical products. Physical products don’t cost a lot to produce, but have higher perceived value than digital products.

15. Use the special report as the basis for a series of marketing videos to build your list and/or drive traffic to your site. Get 3-5 top tips from the special report and turn them into a video you post on YouTube and other video sharing sites, for instant traffic for your blog or site.

16. Use it as the basis for videos to promote affiliate products. Similar to #15, but use the videos to drive traffic to products you’re affiliated with, using your affiliate links.

17. Make it a prize on your Twitter giveaway. Want to get more Twitter followers? Offer a special report to all your new followers.

18. Give it away in exchange for answering an online survey to do market research. Set up an online survey and give respondents a free special report for their time.

19. Make it a surprise bonus for your customers or subscribers. Delight your existing customers with a free special report they didn’t expect to get and make them loyal to you, for life.

20. Create a teleseminar out of the special report. Create a list of frequently-asked questions the special report addresses, and set up a teleseminar.

21. Make it a monthly resource in a paid membership program. Add useful special reports in the members’ resource area, or make it the featured content of the month.

22. Break it up into an E-course, to sell or give away. Chop up a special report to create an E-mail course or pre-recorded audio course.

23. Use the special report to create free Web 2.0 sites, such as Squidoo and Hub Pages. Create content for Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages and other Web 2.0 sites that promote your products and/or services, or affiliate products.

24. Break it up into autoresponder messages for your subscribers. Use the special report to give your subscribers useful information regularly.

25. Rewrite it to cater to a different or more specific niche. With a few tweaks, you can make a special report appeal to a completely different niche or market. For example, turn a general business report into one just for work-at-home Moms.

26. Use the content to create a mini-site for affiliate marketing. Set up a mini-site (5 pages or less) to promote an affiliate product. Get content from a special report.

27. Create a podcast. Use a special report as the basis for a podcast, which can be in audio or video format.

28. Use it as an upsell or downsell to another paid product. Offer a special report to buyers of a related product.

29. Turn it into a brandable report for your affiliates to use to promote your product or service. Let affiliates give away a special report to draw leads to your site or list.

30. Cull out the most actionable tips from the special report and turn each one into a Twitter Tweet. Shazam, you’re an instant expert.

Surprise! I actually came up with 31 ways. Here’s the bonus:

31. Turn special reports into hand-outs, checklists or even main resource materials for a coaching program.

Ready to make money with special reports? You can jump-start the process with a special report, sales page, e-cover and more done for you month after month. Find out how at the Special Report Club. And don’t forget to use the discount code “save10” (without the quotation marks) to get $10 off your first month with Special Report Club.

Then all you’ll have to worry about is which of these 31 ideas you will do to earn from special reports!

Yep, it’s true.  Get all 3 for just $9.82 for a limited time!  Here’s how..

Step 1

Use the coupon SUMMERTIME (or click here for latest coupon) and go to NameCheap.com (my preferred registrar) and snag a discount (normally 9.69)

Click here to apply your NameCheap coupon

Step 2

Use Host Gator (new customer) coupon code hgc25 to get $9.94 off the “baby” package.  It’s the package I recommend.

NOTE – The coupon SPRING will be entered by default when you get to Step 1 (at bottom of form). Just delete it and paste in the code above!

Click here to sign up with Host Gator for just .01 cent!

Choose the “Baby” package, then on the next page at the bottom, enter the coupon code hgc25 to get started for just… 1 cent!

Step 3

Build and manage your opt-in lists and newsletters with the #1 rated  autoresponder service, Aweber, for only $1 dollar!

Click here to get an Aweber autoresponder account for just $1!

So let’s add this up..

Only $9.82 to get started with domain, hosting and autoresponder!

It doesn’t get any more affordable to get started.

So if you’ve been putting off getting these things for your business (or you’ve been thinking of switching to new service providers), now is the time.

*These coupons may expire anytime.

Enjoy your savings!

Dave

P.S. Click here to download your Business In a Box and use the savings above to get up and running ASAP for the lowest investment possible.

Auto Article Profits is a short report written by John Thornhill that shows you how you can become a success with article marketing.

The product claims it can show you how you can earn anything between $10 and $500 per month from a single article.

I must say I was quite skeptical at these claims but I decided to check it out anyway.  The report only cost $10 and had a 60 day refund policy so I knew I wasn’t taking a big risk.

The report itself is only a few thousand words long but I was pleasantly surprised to that it was full of golden nuggets, no fluff.  It only took me 10-15 minutes to read and the information is straight to the point.

As with most stuff written by John the content is solid and your head will be spinning with the ideas the report generates. In my opinion, most of what you think you know about article marketing will be dispelled once you read this report.

What’s in it?

It covers a technique that involves no capital outlay. Without giving it away, you could read this report and be putting the information it contains to good use within a matter of hours at no cost. How many products can claim that?

Is the information contained in Auto Article Profits “life changing”?  Perhaps not.  But for a $10 investment you really can’t go wrong.  I have seen products that charge a lot more and contain less information.

Who’s it for?

Anyone who has tried and failed at article marketing and/or wants to boost their click-through conversions for generating more leads and sales.

Recommended?

Yes.  I highly recommend you check out Auto Article Profits if you want to improve your article marketing campaigns.

Visit Auto Article Profits to learn more and pick up a copy for yourself.

Hope this helps!

Dave

Depending on your skill level, you may already know how to promote affiliate products using the ‘review’ business model.

But for those that don’t know, let me go over it in 5 steps..

1. You pick a product you’d like to promote.
2. You identify the keywords/key phrase you want to target.
3. You build a review site with content based around your keywords.
4. You send targeted traffic to your review site.
5. You rinse and repeat the process.

That is the business model in 5 simple steps. And if you get step 2 right from the start it will work in any niche and in any market no matter how ‘crowded’ you think it is.

Don’t worry, everything has been laid out in a 50 page PDF which walks you through the 5 steps in much greater detail with diagrams and pictures so you can see things clearly for yourself.

Even though the guide is titled ‘$100 Dollars Made Easy‘, it’s about much more than just the 100 bucks.  It’s about being about to master steps 1-4 so you can focus on step 5 again and again and again.

This is a PDF that most people would charge for, but you can grab your copy absolutely FREE  from the link below (requires an opt-in to receive follow up tips and training)..