Last week, I received an email from someone telling me she would
like to start her own Newsletter, and asked if she could hope to
make a few hundred dollars a week by selling ads in it. She went
on to say that she subscribed to one of mine, and has seen it
grow over the years, and wondered if that was possible.
That's a tough question. In order to earn ad money from a
Newsletter, there are a lot of variables that determine its ad
generating capability. Let's examine a few.
First, and foremost, advertisers want their message to reach the
largest number of potential clients possible. Notice I said
"potential clients" and not just subscribers. The number of
subscribers you have however, will determine whether or not it is
worth their while. One with just a few hundred is not a strong
contender, unless it goes to an extremely small market.
It takes quite some time to build a substantial number of
subscribers, and in the beginning, you will probably earn little
or nothing from your endeavor. Once you have a thousand or so
subscribers, you can then begin to market your advertising space.
In order to do this, you must publish on a regular basis.
Newsletters that are published "when the spirit moves you" or on
a monthly basis are also not good contenders.
So how do you build your subscriber base? Many people start by
buying ad space from other publications. Some also send their
articles to other publications hoping they will be published with
their credits at the end. And others "swap ads" for their
Newsletters with other publications - all of these are highly
effective.
Some Newsletters claim to have several hundred thousand
subscribers, and they haven't been around that long. How do they
build their subscriber base? Spam - pure and simple. They
either extracted your email addresses from the web, or purchased
their list - yes some ISP's do sell their email addresses. They
then send you their publication, and make it virtually impossible
to unsubscribe. Larger companies are contacted to place ads with
them, and they are in business. Is this a viable approach?
Well, it must be as there are so many doing it, you might think.
Are they doing this with an account provided by an ISP (Internet
Service Provider) such as AOL? Of course not, they would be
dropped like a "hot potato". They own their own ISP and are
relatively "bullet proof" if complaints are received.
Forget spamming addresses. Building a subscriber base is a slow
process. If you can't dedicate at least a year to this process,
you will most likely be better off trying something else.
The very first thing you must do is identify a "niche" market, in
which you are knowledgeable. At first you will be the only
author. Spend some time on your articles, and try to make them
interesting. Watch your ratio of subscribes to unsubscribes.
Yes, even the best Newsletter will not appeal to everyone. If a
particular issue generates a large number of unsubscribes, try to
determine why.
Don't be pretentious with your writing style - write as if you
were talking with someone. Spell check - with the word
processing tools available, there is no excuse for a word that is
spelled incorrectly. Have someone proof read your Newsletter for
content before sending it out. Is it interesting to them?
Format your Newsletter - the best width is 60 to 65 characters
per line. This is readable by virtually all email clients
(readers). If you don't format the line length, it may appear
"choppy" when read by some. While it may look good on your
system, it may appear disjointed on others.
Can you make a few hundred a week with a Newsletter? Yes! But,
like anything else, it requires time and a commitment from you.
About the Author
Bob publishes the free weekly "Your Business" Newsletter
Visit his Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com/business to
subscribe and place a Free Ad for your business.