Everybody can start a newsletter or ezine but not everyone can succeed or make money from it. Before you start a newsletter or ezine, you need to take a few steps back.
Who will get your newsletter or ezine?
You might want to send tips or updated information about your products or services. But if your don't have a product or service, you could also want to send information to your subscribers.
For a product or service, you should send the bare minimum. Once per month should be okay if you need feedback or announce an update. Once you have found your target, don't start sending unrelated offers to them(garden offer to car subscribers). Be respectful and don't spam them or they will unsubscribe.
From now on, I will suppose that you are sending information about a subject.
What about your domain name, hosting?
To get subscibers, they need to enter there information somewhere. You will need to get a domain name($8.99/year) and a host for your site. You don't need a lot of money to start a new site. Later, you can always upgrade to a bigger hosting package if it's needed.
You can register your domain name with both hosting companies but it will cost more thus why I use this one.
Is your newsletter or ezine going to be free or paid?
This is tricky because you need to make money either directly or indirectly. You will get more subscribers if it's free but more interested subscribers if they pay for to receive your newsletter. When they pay for a newsletter, then they are more incline to buy other related products.
For example, you could offer both options. Free subscribers get a few ads(sponsors) while those who have paid might get more advanced information and be ad free.
If they do pay, it could be monthly, every 3 or 6 months, 1 year or a one time payment.
How to make money from your newsletter or ezine?
If your goal is to make money from your newsletter, then you have many options.
Like I mentioned above, you can earn money from fees or money from ads. You could also offer related affiliate products or services within your newsletter text. For some, this will help to cover for the time to write the content and other related cost.
I am using CB and NB for my affiliate offers. Plus, I got paid many times and it's free to register. You should have your domain setup first before applying.
What about the content?
The content can be original or it could be based from other sources like article directories or private label rights(PLR). You can rewrite them to fit your own style of writing.
What about the longevity?
Depending on the type of newletters, it could last for a very long time or be a limited edition. For example, a general sport newletters will last very long.
On the other hand, using this service, you get 10 new niches(subjects) with 25 texts per month. So, your 10 newsletters could last 25 weeks or months. You could then convert the content of the newletters and sale it as an ebook for those willing to pay.
Where to get new subscribers?
One method is do to search engine optimization(SEO). This method will need time but it's free.
A faster but paid method is by doing Pay-Per-Click. Be warned that it may cost you more if you never done it. You can alway limit your budget to $2/day at first. If after a few days you don't get a good return, you can always tweak your home page.
How to manage subscribers?
You can host the newsletters on your site, using your host system or use a third party services. Each method offer positive and negative points.
Hosted newsletter:You can install a newsletter script on your site. On the positive side, you won't pay a monthly fee and have unlimited subscribers. On the negative side, you will need technical knowledge to install/maintain the script . Also, your emails may get banned by some ISP thus having to deal with subscribers not receviing their newsletters.
Newsletter from your hosting service:On the positive side, you won't need to deal with the software side. On the negative side, you may have to pay for extra subscibers and be dependent on them. Also, your subscribers newletters might get caught by ISPs too.
Newsletter from a third party service:On the positive side, again, you won't need to deal with the software side. Using a well known service will let your newsletter pass the spam filters more than the other 2 methods. On the negative side, you may have to pay for extra subscibers.
What format text, HTML
You might want to consider in what format you will distribute your newsletter. For most, using a text format will be simpler. You can also send it in a HTML to make it more beautiful.
What about using a blog to keep an online version?
If you work on a limited newsletter and not having new subscribers for a few months, you could create a simple blog using the content of the newsletter. The blog could be index in search engines thus bringing new targeted visitors.
You could also delay the online publication by 1-3 months thus having both subscribers and visitors.
Services:
Newsletter Service
Private Label Rights
Domain Name
hosting: Primary (Use Coupon for $9.94 off: STARTSMARTZ)
Affiliates networks: CB and NB
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