Essential Dirt Cheap Newsletter Methods That Will Create a Flood of Traffic to Your Business!

If you are going to use online newsletters to stay in touch with your clients, you’ll need to acquire the proper tools to run an online newsletter. In a previous section, we looked at two companies that were dirt cheap to start out with and you can read that information here:  Newsletters That Will Make Your Business Magnetic to Customers

A List of Autoresponder / Email / Newsletter Services

 Below is a reference list of some of the best email and newsletter businesses on the Internet.  Rather than listing benefits and prices to you, I’m just going to list them so you can go to their actual sites and check them out. 

The reason why I’m not going to review each one of these is because the pricing and features change so often that by the time this is written, one of them will have already changed their information.

Autosenders
Aweber
Constant Contact
Get Response
iContact
Iminiacamail
List Wire Mail Chimp 

Text Versus HTML

Many of these online companies offer two versions of newsletters and email that you can send: HTML and a text version.  I personally like the text version for a number of reasons.  For one thing, if one of the persons I am sending my

HTML Newsletters can look
very professional in color

newsletters to have a slower method of receiving their email, HTML will take more time.  With text, you aren’t relying on faster broadband speeds because text has no colors, borders, pictures, etc.

HTML has all of that stuff, plus the ability to embed pictures, video and use templates that look like websites.  In my opinion, HTML takes longer to format.  You have to make sure your text is lined up right as well as your pictures and other elements that are on the newsletter.

All you have to worry about with text, is that you format it a little to brand the name of your business on it.  However, usually that is a onetime set up.

Offline Newsletters

If you are creating an offline newsletter, use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher.  Both of these pieces of software require some time to learn, but almost everyone knows how to use Word, but if you don’t know how to create a cool looking newsletter with it, there are tons of online tutorials that’ll show you.

TIP: If you don’t want to do all of the formatting involved in producing a cool looking. newsletter, hire someone.  If you’ve already written the material, and want someone to turn it into a cool looking format that’s ready to print, you can always find someone on Fiverr to do that for you.

Fiverr is a site that only allows you to charge or pay $5.00 per job./  So you can easily get someone on there to format your material into a great looking newsletter for a mere $5.00!  Such a deal.  Here is Fiverr’s link: Five Dollar Gigs 

If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can always go to an outsourcing site and hire someone for more money, but then again, that wouldn’t be the Dirt-Cheap method I’m so fond of.

List of Outsourcing Sites:

oDesk 

Freelancer 

Warriors for Hire

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

                                                    

Dirt Cheap Web Savvy Newsletters That Will Make Your Marketing Magnetic!

If you are going to write a newsletter to run your Web-Savvy, Dirt-Cheap Internet business then you’re going to have to think of how to use it effectively ahead of time.  There are three key questions that need to be answered if you’re going to use this strategy:

What are you going to write about?

What is my scheduling frequency going to be like?

When am I going to sit down to write it?

Writing With Your Audience in Mind Using the Magazine Example

Just like blogging, writing eBooks, and all other forms of marketing messages, it’s not all about YOU.  You need to be more concerned about what your readers want to hear than anything else.  A good example of this is your standard magazine.  If you look through most magazines, you’ll see that they are targeted to specific audiences and of course, they serve a specific niche. 

So if you are reading Mother Earth News, you’ll notice that there are homesteading articles, articles about farming, raising domestic animals, etc.  Those are articles that people which are interested in that niche read.  Inside each of those magazines, there are advertisements.  Those ads are related to the niche the magazine is dedicated to.  You won’t see advertisements about model airplanes in a magazine about doll collecting. 

It’s the same with your newsletter. You can advertise your wares there, just make sure that you’re providing articles and ideas that your clients will find value in.  If you’re going to promote your business, just make sure that you don’t over hype it in the newsletter. People usually don’t like to be sold to when you are running your newsletter on the premise of trying to help them with free information.

So, if you are running ads, you want to make sure that you are not sending them an advertisement, but a newsletter that will help them.

How Often Should I Send Out A Newsletter?

There are no rules to this game, therefore you can send out your newsletter as often as you like.  I

think the main thing to worry about is the quality of your newsletter.  If you are sending out a poorly written, unorganized newsletter, then chances are you’ll be wasting your time.  So the frequency isn’t nearly as important as the quality of your publication. 

However, if you have to come up with a time frame, I’d say at least once a month will do it.  If you are sending out newsletters through email, you can send shorter versions of them alerting your readers to blog posts and videos of interest to them.  This way, you can write shorter and more frequent email newsletters. 

Tip:  Here’s a strategy for you.  I subscribe to Seth Godin’s newsletter and he has a clever method of writing his newsletter.  Just about every day, he writes a post for his blog, and that post doubles as his newsletter which arrives in subscriber’s mail boxes each day.  The posts are usually not more than a couple hundred words in length, but it is very well written.  There are never any advertisements, except once he sent a notice letting subscribers know that they could get a book of his on audio for free.

However, that is an excellent strategy.  Let your blog posts double as newsletter material, when you write them. 

But I Don’t Have Time To Write A Newsletter!

Well, if you want to have a monthly newsletter, a good way to do that would be to plan 12 newsletters all at once.  Sit down for a few days, and plan out a table of contents for all of them. 

Then you could do one of several things:

Idea 1 – Use your Table of Contents for each newsletter and record your articles into a digital audio recorder.  Then send them to an online transcriber so that they can type them up and send them to you in a word processor format. 

Idea 2 – Using the table of contents above, use voice recognition software to write your subjects quickly using your voice.  I have used Dragon Naturally Speaking and it is EXCELLENT!

Idea 3 – Hire a ghost writer.  Give them the table of contents and tell them to go to town on it. However, you will have to hire and pay someone to write your newsletters.  This may not be seen as a dirt-cheap method, but when you add up your precious time that you’d have to spend writing your own, the money you may have to fork over to have them written is well worth it.

Putting a Subscription on Your Newsletter

If your newsletter ever gets real popular, you can actually start charging a monthly subscription. Dan Kennedy has a monthly newsletter that’s known world-wide and is world-class!  It will run you pretty close to $30.00 a month, but it is loaded with all sorts of goodies, to include CD’s and marketing tools you can use right out of the box.  But, once again, that is a high-end newsletter.

Yes, you can charge for an online newsletter, but you’ll have to produce excellent material for it.  But, people do make money from their newsletters and get marketing value from them at the same time.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Use the Power of Newsletters to Magnetically Suck Web Savvy Traffic Into Your Irresistible Offer!

People that use newsletters will tell you that it is one of the most powerful ways to stay in touch with their clients and customers.  

Whether you have an Internet based business or a regular bricks and mortar company, the newsletter can act as a viral vessel that can get your message into the hands of the people you already do business with.

There are two flavors of newsletters: One sent through your email service and the other through the regular postal service and into the mail box of your subscribers. 

Snail Mail VS Email – Which is Better?

As usual, some people will tell you that the email version is better than the snail

 

mail version, and vice versa. In my humble opinion, they both have their pros and cons. 

Email newsletters are obviously cheaper and easier to send.  You don’t need to spend money on postage stamps or spend gas going down to the local post office to drop them in the mail.  (Unless you can hand them to your postal carrier, and that depends on how many you have to give him or her.)

However, if you are going to use the email route, you’ll need to get a monthly subscription to an email service.  Email services of this nature are like any other business, so you should look around on the Internet to see which one you can afford. 

Most of the good services I've seen online will run you in the $30.00 a month area.  If you add up $30.00 a month times 12 months you’ll get $360 a year.  So much for it being as cheap as you probably thought.

TIP: Don’t get an expensive auto-responder subscription right off the bat. It takes time to build a list and there are plenty of cheap to almost free email/auto-responder programs that will get you started.  You don’t want to start your business with all kinds of money going out the door.

In the past I've used two businesses, one was called “SendFree” and the other is “MailChimp”.  Both of those businesses will allow you to use their services for free up to a certain limited number of email.  When I last checked, MailChimp let you send up to 1000 email addresses at once. So, you are better of getting started with a service like this.  

One Major Advantage of Snail Mail Newsletters

One of the big advantages of snail mail is that the people that you are sending your newsletter to will actually have it in their hands.  With email newsletters, you’ll have to compete with all of the other email and newsletters sent electronically.  One click and you’re gone. 

However, if you make your snail mail newsletter interesting and something your target audience looks forward to, then you’ll have a much bigger chance of them actually looking at it. Not only that, physical newsletters can be shared off line as well.   You can also use a physical newsletter like a business card and hand it out to potential clients. 

The Ultimate Newsletter Tactic

What’s better than sending a newsletter by email electronically or by snail mail? BOTH! If you so desire, you can send out your email using both methods, because there’s no law against it.  You can use the exact same message in both venues and you’ll have an even bigger chance of getting your message in front of your audience. 

TIP:  Use the material that you would normally use in your offline newsletter in your online newsletter!  Actually, if you have a Blog, you can use the material in your blog for your online and offline newsletter! Wow!  Now you’re a three-way winner! 

But Wait, There’s More!

If you write a blog regularly, you can not only use that material for your newsletters but you can compile all that information and use it to make an eBook too. Now you’re a four-way winner!   But seriously, you can easily leverage writing and information in this manner if you’re smart.  

When you do crank up your newsletter machine, there are two or three things to consider.  First, you need to think about whether or not your newsletter will be something that your readers will want to look at.  If you’re sending out newsletters and people aren't reading them, it may be a waste of time.  If your readers aren't excited to get your newsletter and eager to share it with others, it isn't worth writing and sending out.

Another thing to think about is whether or not it’s profiting you to put the time and money into it.  If you aren't getting more clients, prospects, or sales from it, chances are you are wasting your time.

The last thing you might want to consider before you even start a newsletter is to ASK or SURVEY your target audience on what they are interested in reading about. Come right out and ask them what they’d like to read about in your industry and how it would help them. 

This way, you’ll know for sure you are hitting subjects worthy of your time and your newsletter will have a much bigger chance of getting read.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com