By Cathy Qazalbash

Your opt-in or business list is the most valuable asset to your business. Your subscribers have made a positive decision to voluntary subscribe to your free newsletter. Subscribers to your newsletter are potential customers for you and deserve to be treated like the VIPs they are. Before advertising to them in the form of Solos and other ads in your newsletter, keep a few points in mind:

1. Create trust -credibility

2. Do not over advertise

3. Do opinion Polls/surveys to find what subscribers like

4. Target your advertising

Create trust -credibility: Good content in your newsletter will do this. Info articles and tips are the main source of content. If possible use either freshly written articles or write your own. Tips are always popular, small jokes and sayings are often used to lighten up the newsletter. All these things will help your readers enjoy their newsletter and when you publish a good quality newsletter it will boost your credibility and create trust with your subscribers.

Do not over advertise: This is a common mistake with publishers. A little advertising in the newsletter and not too many Solos will make your readers more responsive and less likely to unsubscribe. Too many ads in the newsletter and sending too many Solos will cut down your subscribers and less people will actually read your ads.

Opinion polls and surveys are useful for finding out what your subscribers are interested in. Make these short and simple and always respond to those who take the trouble to fill them out. Surveys are a very valuable way of keeping in touch with your readers and builds rapport. This means you can advertise what they need and get a better response, and sales.

Targeting your ads. Advertise according to your topic. For instance if you are a marketing home business newsletter try to keep your ads in this topic, do not advertise gardening things. Your readers will expect to be offered tools, products and services specifically designed to help them in their businesses.

Fine-Tune Your Advertising To Ensure Success

Advertising your business is more than putting out a few ads and hoping for the best. Your advertising campaign needs constant testing and monitoring, to ensure success. Here are some of the ways you can do this.

1. Monitoring (tracking)

2. Testing

3. Researching publications

4. Keeping Records

Monitoring: It is critical to your advertising campaign to monitor and track all your ads. In this way you can tell exactly which ones are working and those that that are failing. This will save you a lot of time and money. Here is a good ad tracker http://www.adminder.com/go.cgi?id=cathyayb

Testing: Testing ads will ensure you have the best ad for your market, Split test 2 classifieds 1st, then take the best performer and expand into a Solo. You will save money by testing cheaper ads before you send out expensive Solos.

Researching publications: When advertising in publications do your research before placing your ad. Subscribe to the ezine/newsletter and see what sort of readers they are targeting. You will be able to assess this by the type of ads they run on a regular basis, and the articles they publish. Check out the amount of ads and how many are in the publication (less ads equals better response)

Keeping Records: Note which ezines were successful and the ones that produced little or no results. Bigger lists are not always better. Record and note all your ad results. You can use Excell for this as it provides columns, which are easy to use. Note where you advertised, how much they cost size of list, and what success if any you had with the publication. Do not expect stunning results from a publication, that will rarely happen but even if you get a small response repeat the ad for at least 3-4 times, to properly assess the results.

When you fine tune your advertising you will get the maximum "bang for your buck." You will continue to improve your campaign and build your successful business. Not all advertising will work and you may have only small results at 1st but always continue to advertise products/services and you will build your business and expand your clientele.

Keep these points in mind and you will ensure your maximum response to your advertising and even some sales from your readers. Your newsletter is a business tool and your subscribers will expect some advertising. However remember your subscribers are not just dollar bills and should never feel you are using them. The old cliche "look after your subscribers and they will look after you," holds true for your advertising as well as your newsletter.

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