WHAT'S MY SECRET?

Written by Michael LaRocca


I've been asked this question. My newsletter--let's be honest-- is just a sales pitch for fans of a nobody named Michael LaRocca. Here I sit, not yet published, with 421 subscribers. That's one heck of a fan base.

Okay, I've been published since making that statement, butrepparttar question remains. 421 subscribers in four months with no product to sell. What is my secret?

Let's look at what I just said. "No product to sell." I've been sending out newsletters for four months, and I've written about 20 of them. One issue had a product to sell. What could I possibly have written about inrepparttar 125193 other 19?

It doesn't matter. The point is, I wasn't "selling" anything. People do not want to checkrepparttar 125194 email box and find somebody trying to sell him something every damn time he writes. They want something that will help them, or something that's interesting, or something that's just plain funny. If you get someone to subscribe to your newsletter, andrepparttar 125195 newsletter gives him/her nothing but a sales pitch, he leaves.

Every time I send out a newsletter, I lose about two subscribers. Butrepparttar 125196 rest just keep reading. That'srepparttar 125197 first point. Make it a good newsletter. Otherwise, all those people who joinedrepparttar 125198 list "just to see what it's about" won't stick around. If that'srepparttar 125199 case, allrepparttar 125200 promotion inrepparttar 125201 world won't help you.

Okay, with that out ofrepparttar 125202 way, let's assume your newsletter totally rocks. Let's assume it's so well written that every person onrepparttar 125203 planet who sees it wants to bear your children. It won't do you a bit of good if people don't know your newsletter exists. And that's really what this article is about. How to tell them.

E-GROUPS AND NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Since you have a newsletter, you should start by listing it in allrepparttar 125204 newsletters that do nothing except announce new newsletters. Who would subscribe to such a newsletter? Not me. I presume thatrepparttar 125205 subscribers are folks with waaaay too much free time on their hands. Justrepparttar 125206 sort of people I'm after.

What I did was visit each ofrepparttar 125207 announcement lists, read their rules, and put together a single ad that is acceptable to them all. I savedrepparttar 125208 ad in a file along with their email addresses. As often as I'm allowed, I sendrepparttar 125209 ad torepparttar 125210 appropriate places and recordrepparttar 125211 date that I did it. Some are weekly and some are monthly. Here's my list:

ListBot has no searchable database, but they tell me it's coming soon. I will look for "announce" and "promote" and add some lists to my list.

SmartGroups - AAnnounce@smartgroups.com, AAnounce@smartgroups.com, misterlister@smartgroups.com

Topica - AAnnounce@topica.com, announce_lists@topica.com, FindLists@topica.com, List_Announcements@topica.com, List-Your-Lists@topica.com, List_Builder@topica.com, List_Of_Lists@topica.com, list-announce@topica.com, PromoteList@topica.com

Yahoogroups - 00-list-announce@yahoogroups.com, AAnnounce@yahoogroups.com, announce@yahoogroups.com, announce-lists@yahoogroups.com, ezine_announce@yahoogroups.com, getmoresubs@yahoogroups.com, List_Announcements@yahoogroups.com, List_of_Lists@yahoogroups.com, List-Your-List@yahoogroups.com, ListAdvertise@yahoogroups.com, listpromote@yahoogroups.com, Newlists@yahoogroups.com, promoteyourlist@yahoogroups.com, webbyweb@yahoogroups.com

As long as you're visitingrepparttar 125212 egroups, consider this. E-groups allow you to send a single email to everyone onrepparttar 125213 subscriber list. If you dive into every group you find and say, "Here's my site and here's what I'm selling," you're immediately identified as a spammer. People get pissed at you, and that's NOTrepparttar 125214 way to sell a book or a newsletter or anything else.

But here's what you do. As an example, let's say you wrote a book that's loaded with horse stuff. Findrepparttar 125215 groups where horsey people hang out. Joinrepparttar 125216 conversations. Don't spam! Just have some fun talking about something you love, horses. Be as helpful as you can. Atrepparttar 125217 end of each message, slip in your SIG. Your SIG will contain your website or newsletter address. You'll be surprised how many people "follow you home" and join your group.

Ask yourself why you're visiting my website or subscribing to my newsletter. (You are subscribing, aren't you? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/michaellarocca) It's because I'm providing content you want and need, and am genuinely nice and helpful. That's just how I am, but it also happens to be a great sales gimmick. Remember that. Provide something USEFUL in those conversations, and casually slip in your URL. Don't just go plastering everyone withrepparttar 125218 same spam or they'll never forgive you.

WEB SITE PROMOTION

If you have a newsletter, and you have a website, each can promoterepparttar 125219 other. Both are free, so if you don't have both, fix that right away.

Now if you have a newsletter but no website, you may be saying "I can't set up a website." Wrong! I'm not going to go into allrepparttar 125220 details because (1) There are too many and (2) There are far too many people more qualified than I am. But if you want some help getting started, visit http://readers.freeservers.com/bookpromo.html

The site mentioned above is my own. It's where I put info and links aboutrepparttar 125221 places that I've learned from. It'll get you started. What you want to remember is this. Don't go after writers. Yes, I did that, but don't follow my example. Go after readers. Always remember that when you market. Readers.

How-to use Holiday Events For Extra Promotion

Written by Pamela Heywood


If you run an ecommerce site especially, then just asrepparttar stores do, you should do something different to attract shoppers each time there is a major (and minor) holiday event. There are many events throughoutrepparttar 125192 year that offer you a multitude of new opportunities.

What you need to do for each event is to make a special page, optimiserepparttar 125193 META tags forrepparttar 125194 holiday in question and submit it torepparttar 125195 search engines. How many thousands of people are going to be looking for special stuff onrepparttar 125196 day or just before?

I was readingrepparttar 125197 front page of http://www.lindacaroll.com/ (a personal favourite of mine) and Linda makesrepparttar 125198 point thatrepparttar 125199 stores decorate. Do you? You should: every one of these occasions offers you an ideal and relatively easy opportunity to add something topical, new and different to keep your site fresh and get an additional promotional boost.

In a similar vein, Boogie Jack http://www.boogiejack.com suggests writing a news item, uploading a page and submitting that torepparttar 125200 search engines whenever there is something really big happening.

Keeprepparttar 125201 page targeted onrepparttar 125202 matter in hand. Of course have your regular site logo, header and at least a link to your home page, even proudly announce that "This is a XYZ Special brought to you by Acme Widgets ..." but keep it simple, or you'll overdo it.

Don't forgetrepparttar 125203 CONTENT!

=> You need some actual text, item of interest and value aboutrepparttar 125204 event. You can research this easily onrepparttar 125205 net - start at Holidays onrepparttar 125206 Net http://www.holidays.net/ or your favourite search engine

=> Offer one really good temptation - a topical freebie or a discounted product. Depends what you sell of course, but if you can matchrepparttar 125207 offer torepparttar 125208 event: golf clubs for Dad's Day or whatever, even better.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
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