From
BizWeb2000
Time for another peek into my email. Today's "email excerpts" include the inside scoop on...
- How and where to submit articles
- How to process ebook sales
- Ezine delivery options from cheap to simple
How
to start an online business and what to sell
REAL EMAIL #1:
From: Artie L.
Subject: Where to submit articles
Jim, I've just begun to write and submit articles to ezine editors
in hopes of drumming up some traffic to my stock market advice site.
So far I've submitted just two to a handful of ezine editors, and
I can see that this strategy really works! It's helping me get site
visitors and grow my own ezine list rapidly. Now I'd like to send
my articles to more editors but I need a list. Can you help?
jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:
Dear Artie,
Glad to see you taking advantage of an excellent internet marketing
strategy. The best thing about submitting articles is that it costs
you nothing except time -- and it really works if you write informational
articles designed to help each editor's audience.
Now it's time for you to step up your article submission campaign.
You do this by submitting articles on a monthly basis to your own
growing list of ezine editors.
Your next step is to visit a few ezine search engines and search
on keywords such as "financial", "investing"
and "stocks". A few great ezine search engines are at
http://www.ezineseek.com
and http://www.e-zinez.com.
Once there, start gathering a list of editors in your target area.
Be sure to get the editor name and email address and whether or
not they accept articles.
Next you'll want to get to know each editor you plan to submit to.
For this reason, steer clear of the typical "Dear editor"
submissions. You can address them personally each time you submit
by keeping your editor contact list in a program such as Swiss Army
App.
With this program you can grow, manage and mail to your list personally.
All the big internet marketers use email merge tools to stay in
touch with contacts personally. It just makes sense when trying
to stay in touch with growing lists.
This should help you get your article submissions into full swing.
Just remember, don't overdo it. An article submission or two per
month is plenty. Many ezine editors get a dozen a day, so make yours
stand out by personalizing the subject line in addition to the message
itself.
Thanks again for writing.
Best regards,
Jim Daniels
REAL EMAIL #2:
From: Martha M.
Subject: How do I setup to sell an ebook at my site?
Jim, I'm finishing up my ezine and want to sell it along with yours
at my site. How do I set this up?
jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:
Thanks for writing Martha. Here's a simple explanation of how that
is done...
For starters, you would upload the .exe, pdf or zip files (your
finished e-books) to a new directory at your website, then password
protect the directory. Next, you would set up a username and password
to access that directory. (I host my site at Virtualis and password
protecting a directory is as simple as a few clicks through a web-based
interface, with other hosts it can be a bit more difficult.)
When someone buys your ebook, this password protected URL along
with username and password, is then included in the email message
to your customer. You can send this "delivery" email manually
or automatically if you plan to use real-time credit card processing.
Regards, Jim
REAL EMAIL #3:
From: Candice C.
Subject: Delivering my e-newsletter
Well Jim, I've taken your advice and started offering an email newsletter
at my site. So far I have collected 390 email addresses. Now I'm
ready to start with my first issue.
Can you tell me the cheapest way to deliver my e- newsletter? Also,
as my list grows, what are the best ways to "scale up"
my delivery methods?
jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:
If your list is still very small and you want to try managing/mailing
to it without paying a penny, here's how...
- Get Eudora email program from www.eudora.com
- it is easier than Outlook for this task.
- As new subscribers sign up, use Eudora to filter the incoming
subscribe messages into a separate mailbox.
- Before you mail each issue, open the mailbox where all your new
subs are and select all messages. Next, click "special"
and then "make address book entry". (name it by date)
- Then you'll find all those addresses under one listing in your
address book.
- Simply open that listing then click BCC and all the addresses
will be in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field of a new outgoing message.
Next paste in your newsletter, a subject and a "to address",
then send.
As you can see, this can get time consuming as your list grows,
since you'll have to do it multiple times and wait for each list
to mail out.
This method is also subject to your ISP -- some will not allow BCC
recipients totaling over 25. Check with them.
You may also want to get a free demo of Juggler,
a tool that can help you manage your list as it grows, including
merging two lists, subtracting one from another and purging duplicates.
Yes, this ezine management and delivery method is more time-consuming
than others but it is virtually free. And it works. I used this
simple method even as my list grew past a few thousand subscribers.
Once you get to a few thousand subscribers delivering manually can
be time-consuming. To scale up your email list management and delivery
you can do one of two things. You can get a script installed at
your site or use an email list service.
A script like SubscribeMe found at http://cgi.elitehost.com automates
just about everything and is a fine solution until your subscriber
base grows to several thousand.
Once you hit the 6, 7 or 8 thousand subscriber mark, you may find
that many script based solutions become troublesome. Your next scale
up move would be to use the services of an email newsletter hosting
company. There are plenty available on the web and although this
is more costly than the previous solutions it's the way to go when
your list gets large. I use a company called SparkList
and their service pretty much does it all for me.
Well, I realize this was quite a long reply but I wanted to cover
all your bases. Have fun publishing!
REAL EMAIL #4:
From: William D.
Subject: How to start and what to sell?
Hi Jim,
I'm taking the plunge! I've managed to sacrifice three hours of
TV time every night and found 15 hours a week to start my own business
online. Please help me get started! I've watched you for a few years
and if anyone can help it is you! What's the best way to get started
and what should I sell?
jim@bizweb2000.com wrote:
Hi William,
Good for you. I started the very same way. I missed Seinfeld on
Thursday nights but it was sure worth it. ;-)
Anyway, I'd like you to download my free
book - it will give you lots of the information you need
to get started. (The price is right too... free!
Once you decide on a product, service or opportunity spend some
time at our private
site and give some serious consideration to joining. When it
comes to growing a business online (especially from scratch) you
won't find a single source for better assistance.