Three E-zine Alternatives You May Not Have Considered

After my live talks, I always get a few people who say to me,"You know, publishing an e-zine sounds great, but I just don't think Ihave the time to do it on an ongoing basis." Or, "I'm not sure if I'llhave enough content to publish an e-zine."

If this is yourcase, you may want to consider one of these e-zine alternatives. Thesecan still help you achieve your goal of establishing credibility,staying in touch with your prospects, and capturing your Web sitevisitors.

For the first two alternatives, you'll need ane-mail autoresponder. This is like a fax-on-demand system that sendsout e-mails automatically when others request them. (I recommendQueenCart.com, which has a FREE 30-day trial.)

The great thingabout autoresponders is that you can set the timing of a series aheadof time. For example, you can schedule message 1 to go out immediatelyonce a person signs up for the list. Message 2 could follow two weekslater. Message 3 would follow two weeks after that. Get the idea?

Alternative 1: The "Evergreen" Newsletter

Ifyou don't foresee yourself writing fresh new content every week ormonth that you publish, why not make your newsletter "evergreen?"

Thismeans that you write all your content ahead of time, and none of it canbe time-sensitive. That is, it should be just as relevant today as itwould be a year from now.

Evergreen e-zines are brilliant andeasy to do. Here's how it works: Suppose you want to publish a shorttip every week. That means you'd need 52 tips for a year's worth ofcontent. Once you had these written, you'd just set them up on yourautoresponder and tell it when you want them sent out. (For thisexample, it would be day 1, day 7, day 14, etc. -- each reader wouldget a message every week.)

It's important to realize that whenyou use a sequential autoresponder, these are sent as a SERIES. Thatmeans everyone who signs up goes through the series in order, no matterwhen they sign up. For example, let's say you publish a weekly tip likein the example above. If I sign up today, I start with tip #1. And in10 weeks, I'll be on tip #10. But if Suzy Q signs up 10 weeks fromtoday, she starts with tip #1 just like I did. Get it?

[BONUSTIP: You don't have to write your entire series before you begin! Juststay one tip ahead of the first person who signs up for your series. :)]

Alternative 2: The Mini E-Mail Course Or Report

Theseare very popular right now. You simply create several e-mails' worth ofcontent to spread out over a certain amount of days, and set them up onyour autoresponder.

Many sites offer 7-day courses or reports,and quite frankly, many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOUto stand out. Make sure yours offers really useful or interestingcontent that's more helpful than salesy.

For example, sayyou're a small business coach. You could offer a course called "5 Waysto Make This Your Most PROFITABLE Year Ever!" Just sit down and listthe 5 ways, then write a few paragraphs of copy under each.

The Ezine Directory

Thenwrite one final sales message that you'll add on to the end of theseries as the 6th message. This should be a friendly invitationencouraging the reader to call you for a consultation, buy your book,sign up for your workshop, etc.

Paste all the messages into anautoresponder series, set the timing to what you want (e.g. every dayor every few days), and voila -- you've got an e-mail course!

Alternative 3: Promotions Only

If you offer products on your site that don't lend themselves well to creating related content, just offer what you've got!

Giveyour visitors the chance to rece1ve special offers that will save themmoney at your site. The trick to high sign-up rates is to make themfeel as if they'll be part of an exclusive group. Use words like"special, exclusive, limited, VIP, first looks, discounts, savings,club, and members-only."

For example, one site that I frequentsells discounted designer clothes and handbags. (Hooray!) During mylast visit, they invited me to sign up for "discounts, exclusiveoffers, and first looks." I jumped at the opportunity!

Don'tunderestimate your visitors' interest -- many of them WILL sign up fore-mail offers if you politely extend the invitation and make them feelspecial.

Just make sure not to overdo your messages to thiscrowd. Keep your blasts to a maximum of once a week. Otherwise yourreaders will get irritated and may unsubscribe.

10 Cool Ways To Attract People To Your Web Site
This excellent article give you pointers and leads on ways to attract people to your website. Easy to read and follow in simple language.
10 High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic
This well written tutorial gives you 10 truly high-powered ways to increase your traffic. Easy to understand and concise.
3 Instant Traffic Techniques for Mini-Sites
When building websites there are two main options: large content site or small mini-sites. Large content sites normally focus more on providing information. Mini-sites, however, normally have one purpose only, to sell.
Publishing E-zines Via RSS
Its clear that RSS and e-mail in fact need to be used together, as opposed to either one replacing the other.
While RSS might not be used by as many people as e-mail, you can be sure that those that do use it and subscribe to your feeds will get your content without fail. In addition, man....
30 Tips To Create A Profits Explosion On Your Website!
Can you relate to this scenario? You hear about how profitable internet businesses can be. So you sign on to the Internet and go on a quest for the Internet Profits Holy Grail...
Why Use Search Engines?
The best course of action to take sometimes isnt clear until youve listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.
How To Get Free Advertising By Giving Away Online Content
Giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. For example, give other people permission to use your article on their web site or in their e-zine. The resource box at the end of your article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising...
Get High Quality Traffic by Writing Articles
One of the best ways to promote your website is by writing articles that you can post in e-zines, and sites that provide free content to e-zine publishers. This will help you develop credibility and, with time, build a solid customer base. There are a few things to take into account to maximize the ...
Top 10 Ways To Get People To Link To Your Web Site!
Getting people to link to your site can be the key you need for success. This great articles will explain to you everything you need to know in order to get headed in the right direction.
Four Tips For Getting More Mileage From Your Articles
It has become common knowledge that the smartest and most effective free method of advertising your business and services is to write and submit articles to the over 400,000 e-zines currently on the net. There are even several e-books written on the topic, including mine, that will help you take a....