Savvy marketers know that the secret to online success lies in the quality and size of their subscriber list. In fact, if your list is highly targeted to your niche it can be worth up to $2 per month for each subscriber. 

The fastest method of building a high quality targeted opt-in subscriber list is to create a free viral report that your visitors can download as an incentive to join your list. 

A quality free report can be an automatic viral marketing weapon that can multiply exponentially by feeding on itself. It has the potential to multiply your leverage to unlimited proportions and to build a massive, highly targeted opt-in email list. 

Before you start complaining that you can’t write or you’re new to the Web and haven’t yet gained the knowledge to write a report, creating a free report is not as difficult as you think. You don’t need to write a 200 page novel that explains the virtues of your selected niche using detailed explanations. 

If you have the experience or the know how, then by all means do this. But there’s no real need to. All you have to do is write an informative report or ebook of approximately 3 - 20 pages that focuses on a simple solution to a problem within your niche. Then simply compile it into an ebook format or PDF document and offer it as a free download for your visitors. 

But here’s the kicker...

To download the free informative report your visitors have to first sign up to your list. Can you see the potential? What if you contacted an ezine owner who had a list of over 20,000 subscribers and offered them their own free copy of your report that they could customize and rebrand with their own details and affiliate links as an incentive to offer it to their list? 

Imagine the huge number of subscribers you could gain using this tactic, not to mention the huge increase in website traffic and potential customers? If only 5% of their subscribers downloaded your report it would amount to a massive increase of 1,000 subscribers virtually overnight. 

Now, what if you did this with another 5 or 6 ezine owners that had similar sized lists? You could realistically build a massive opt-in list in a matter of a few months. If you’re just starting out and have a relatively small or inflexible budget, building your subscriber list using free methods is obviously the most inexpensive and economical option available to you. However, this can also be a double-edged sword. While using free methods is extremely economical, some methods can also be very slow, tedious and at times very frustrating. 

Placing free ads in ezines will gain you far less exposure than other methods, as you will not reach as many highly targeted prospects. Unless you have hours of spare time each and every day, it is not recommended that you go down this path. Not everyone has the funds to create a promotional campaign. Sometimes necessity demands that you have to use nothing but free advertising methods. 

If you have the spare time to do this, then that’s fine. Free is good in moderation and if you choose to use this method as your primary weapon of choice then we have previously discussed a number of excellent ways that you can use to build a highly responsive email list, such as creating reports, writing articles, visiting forums etc. Just be aware that time is your most precious resource and you’ll need to manage your time so that it doesn’t have a negative impact on your business by wasting your efforts on unproductive tasks. 

If you don’t do this it can, and will restrict the growth of your business. For those that can afford to spare some cash for an advertising budget, here are a few suggestions to get you started. TARGETED ezine advertising is a relatively underused resource that can have a major impact on the success of your business. Most people think of using ezine advertising to promote products or services, but how many times have you seen an ezine ad for a free product? 

Ezines give you an avenue to market to hundreds of thousands of people each week and yet only a very small percentage of marketers use them responsibly to grow their business. Most marketers just don’t understand how most people think. They’re only interested in making a quick buck by placing hyped up ads in front of as many people as they can, hoping that someone will click on their link and purchase their product or service. WRONG! 

Most people subscribe to an ezine or newsletter because they’re looking for information about that particular niche. They don’t subscribe with the intention of purchasing anything. They just want to fulfil their need to acquire information. If this is the case, then wouldn’t it be better to offer them something of value for free that will help satisfy their need? Wouldn’t it be smarter to offer them the opportunity to download something of high quality for free and then build a relationship with them before you try to persuade them to purchase your services or products? 

If you did this, do you think that you would get a higher conversion rate? Do you think that more subscribers would be willing to at least check out your link just to see what they can get for nothing? You bet. If you use an ezine that is highly targeted to your niche, and you have created a subscriber capture page, you can increase your list by hundreds, even thousands, of subscribers virtually overnight. 

So what options are available to you with ezine advertising? There are three types of ezine advertising: 

1. Classified ads 

2. Top sponsor ads 

3. Solo ads 

Classified ads are by far the least expensive alternative. They are normally 5 lines in length and usually will appear in the middle or towards the bottom of the ezine. The downside is that you may have to compete many other classified ads. Since your ad may have to deal with loads of competition you will need to make sure your ad stands out from the rest of the crowd. You can do this by working on your copywriting skills, and in particular - your headline. 

As with all ads your headline is the most important component of the ad. However with a classified ad it is even more important because of the competition. If you have a powerful headline that is eye catching and appeals to the needs of your potential subscribers, then your ad will produce good results. This is why if you’re inexperienced, the classified ad is the best place to start your campaign. It’s a great learning tool and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg if you get it wrong.

People are very reluctant to send an email to someone they don’t know, particularly from an ezine ad. Using a website link is a much more effective method of capturing new subscribers. Another similar type of advertising to that of the classified ad is the Top Sponsor Ad. This is similar to the classified ad, however the difference is that it is longer in length (about 10 lines) and is usually placed, as the name suggests, near the top of the ezine. 

As with the classified ad, you will need to make sure you have an eye catching headline and well crafted description to entice your potential customers to visit your web site. Because it has a more prominent position and is longer in length, it will normally cost a little more than the classified ad, but as a rule of thumb it normally receives a higher response rate. 

This brings us to the third and most effective type of ezine advertising…the Solo Ad. A solo ad is sent by itself to ezine subscribers without any competition from other advertisers. Not only this but your solo ad is usually an unlimited length, although there may be a limit imposed by some ezine owners. This by far can be the most effective type of ezine advertising. If done correctly you can literally increase your list by many hundreds of subscribers with just one ad. 

However the draw back in using this method is that be expensive and depending on the number and quality of subscribers, it can cost you anything from $10 to $600 for a single solo ad. With these costs if you place an ad in an untargeted or poor quality ezine it can be a very costly learning experience. So it goes without saying that you should only use this type of advertising once you have tested and tweaked your copywriting skills by using classified or top sponsor ads first. 

Once you are satisfied with the results you are achieving using this form of advertising, you can work your way up to a solo ad. Regardless of what type of ad you use it is imperative that you only seek ezines that are extremely targeted to your particular niche so that you concentrate your marketing on other highly responsive methods. 

If you actively and aggressively pursue these methods to start building your opt-in email list using targeted ezines, then we guarantee that you will see an immediate increase in the number of subscribers on your list. Once you have built a large list, it’s just a matter of selecting the right backend products and crafting good sales copy to entice your subscribers to purchase what you are promoting. 

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