Your subscriber base is your lifeline to a steady online cash flow. The more people who read your publication, the more sales, referrals, and website traffic you'll generate. To grow a large ezine, use *all* of the tools available, and test constantly. Here's a list of 12 resources that work:

1) Use Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth advertising is the *most* powerful method to market anything, even your newsletter. Your current subscribers are your best bet for gaining new ones.

To really get word of mouth working for you, follow these two simple steps:

A) Publish a top notch newsletter with lots of great content - (see step 10).

B) Tell your subscribers to send your newsletter to their friends and business associates.

I recently started putting "Tell Your Friends About our Ezine!" on my site and in my newsletter. Results: My subscription rate has risen dramatically.

Use a referral form on your website. There are several free referral scripts available on the Internet. My favorite pick is the 'Tell-a-Friend' form. You can use it for free on your own website. To learn more, visit:

http://www.ubrande.com/gaintraffic/

(Subliminal hint: The best place to use this form is on your 'Thank You For Subscribing' page. Once someone subscribes to your newsletter, ask them to recommend your newsletter to a friend.)

2) Write and publish articles.

FACT: Articles are read more than ads. When you buy a new magazine, did you buy it for the ads or the articles? Publishing your own articles in a successful newsletter adds instant credibility to your name and your product, service, or website. The click through ratio for articles is much higher than regular ezine ads.

I've recently written a free article called "Writing Articles Can Pay BIG Money." Receive this article via autoresponder by sending a blank email to: notify@ubrande.com with ARTICLE1 in the subject, or use this link:

mailto:notify@ubrande.com?subject=article1

3) Place your sign-up form *everywhere*.

Include a newsletter sign up form on every page on your website. Place your subscribe form at the top of each page where it's draws more attention.

4) Place ads in other ezines.

Placing ads in targeted ezines is a popular way to gain new subscribers. Don't try to directly sell your services or products in your ad. Instead, grow your own opt-in list by creating ads that promote your newsletter. You can always offer your products and services to your potential customers *after* they've subscribed.

Many ezine owners are also willing to swap ads with you. Troy MacDonald has a free service to help you find other ezine owners interested in swapping ads. Use Troy's free ezine swap service at:

http://www.HomeBasedProfit.com/east/swaplists.shtml

5) Ezine Announcement Lists

An ezine announcement list is a moderated ezine/list that announces new ezines. Most announcement lists allow you to submit your info only once per week. I find ezine announcement lists to be extremely effective. I receive a spike in subscribers within 24 hours of posting my info.

Two excellent ezine announcement lists are:

AAnnounce
http://www.onelist.com/community/AAnnounce/
or: aannounce-subscribe@onelist.com

Ezine_Announce
http://www.onelist.com/community/ezine_announce/
or: ezine_announce-subscribe@onelist.com

6) Multiple Ezine Subscription forms

This is an excellent joint venture opportunity for ezine owners who have similar markets. Each newsletter owner agrees to promote the other owners' newsletters by offering a subscribe form on their website. Usually, ezine editors/moderators will only agree to do this *if* the form is placed on the "Thank You" page.

For example: If someone came by Ubrande.com and signed up to receive our newsletter, my thank you page might have a list of 3-4 other top quality newsletters that are related to our ezine.

7) Online Ezine Directories

Although ezine directories won't grow your newsletter as fast as some of the other methods mentioned, they're excellent for gaining long term exposure. There are dozens of ezine databases, but very few are top notch. Submit your ezine to these directories just like you would submit your website to search engines. Each directory follows a slightly different format, so read the submission info for each directory. Here's a short list to help you get started:

EzineSeek - http://www.ezineseek.com/
Liszt.com - http://www.liszt.com/
'Zine World - http://www.oblivion.net/zineworld/
Directory of Ezines - http://www.lifestylespub.com/

8) Swapping Autoresponder Ads with other ezine owners.

When someone subscribes to a newsletter, they receive an email that confirms their subscription. Find ezines with a target audience similar to yours, and request an ad swap with the ezine owner. Ask if they can place a small blurb about your ezine in each subscribe confirmation email they send out, in exchange for you doing the same. This is very similar to technique #6, but it's the non-technical way to go.

9) Free gifts for your subscribers.

Nothing draws subscribers like the word *free*. Offer a free e-book or other bonus as an incentive. Although your subscribers didn't purchase from you, they will feel more obligated to stay subscribed because they received something for nothing. Sounds strange, but it's true.

10) Quality Content is a *Killer* Tool. Use it!

Although the other nine tips will help you gain new subscribers, you won't be able to keep them unless you offer quality content. This includes creating an easy to read format with lots of white space between paragraphs and sections. If possible, use original content instead of reprinting the same articles that other newsletters carry. You'll create a loyal following.

Also, don't overdo the ads. When I tried to "get greedy" by increasing the number of ads in my ezine, my subscribers started leaving the list. I learned the hard way. Learn from my mistake.

I don't recommend using over 4 ads per issue. Yes, 4 ads - One top sponsor ad, and three additional ads. This decreases the "signal to noise" ratio, and keeps your subscribers happy. Spread your ads out between sections of your ezine to give the advertisements more chance of being seen.

11) Use a free Contest.

Many online companies will give away merchandise for you to use as prizes in your own contest. Make your contest simple and effective. If you don't want to search for prizes to give away, use your own ad space.

An example: Give away a free ad in each issue of your newsletter to the subscriber who refers the most people to your list.

12) Focus!

Tightening your ezine's focus is a key to success. Reading a book by Seth Godin recently, I realized that my own newsletter was poorly focused. I was publishing information on Internet marketing, newsletter promotion, and software reviews - all in the same ezine! My readers were not expecting a clear cut publication that specifically met one of their needs. I was vainly attempting to be "all things to all people."

I stuck with what I knew my subscribers wanted. I reviewed hundreds of emails I'd received over the past few months. Most emails were from customers asking me for advice on newsletter promotion.

Since I had already published a book, secret site, and dozens of articles on the subject of ezine promotion, I was already viewed as an expert. By focusing on this one area, I have narrowed my area of expertise, and the focus of the Gold Mine Ezine. This makes my job of targeting my potential subscribers much easier.

Finally, work at it. No one ever said publishing a top quality ezine was easy. When I started out on the Internet years ago I was frustrated with my first newsletter. I spend lots of hours working on it, and I had a total of 120 subscribers after a month.

I realized that my methods didn't produce results, so I spent a month reading everything I could find about newsletter promotion. As a result, I was able to *quadruple* my newsletter in size in less than 48 hours. Find a technique that works, and stick with it.

Good luck!

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Rob Willmann publishes the free weekly "Gold Mine Ezine."
Visit his Web Site at http://ubrande.com/goldmine.php3
to subscribe and download his FREE e-book.
mailto:goldmine@ubrande.com?subject=subscribe