It took me a long time to actually begin using ezine advertising for my business but once I begain cranking out ezine ads I soon came to realize that ezines are actually one of the most effective and affordable forms of website advertising for promoting your products and services and encouraging traffic to your web site.  
 
The number of ezines published on the net has exploded from several hundred in 1996 to literally thousands of publications today that cover a range of topics so they're a pretty good form of advertising for any online business.

You can find ezines that sell ads for as little as $8 an ad, however solo ads generally pull the best resonse. Top sponsor ads on the other hand allow you between 5 and 8 lines of copy and are included in regular ezine issues near the very beginning of the newsletter.

Here's a breakdown of the ezine advertising options…  

Classified Ads
Most classified ads are the cheapest type of ezine ad. Classified ads are usually about 2-3 lines and are typically placed at the end of the ezine.  For classified ads be sure your ad is in an ezine that has at least 30,000 subscribers or more otherwise your may get little response.

Sponsor Ads
These are the next most expensive ads, but they yield a much better response. Sponsor ads can be placed at the top, middle or bottom of an ezine issue and will allow more text in your ad.  Sponsor ads are a great way to test your ad before placing it as a solo ad.

Solo Ads
These are the best of all ezine ads because they will be sent exclusively to everyone on the mailing list and they get full attention of the subscribers, that's because a solo ad is sent just as it says, 'solo'.  There are no articles or other ads included.

A Solo ad is more expensive but you'll enjoy about a 20%-30% response rate.

So how do you find a good ezine to advertise in?

If I find an ezine that looks good, I simply subscribe to it.  This gives me the best feel for how the ezine works.  If I as a subscriber, like the publication, chances are others will too.

Here are the things I look for after subscribing:

1. First of all find an ezine that is targeted to your specific products.  Selling advertising for your pet care supplied in a fashion magazine is not likely to bring you much interest.

2. Once you find an ezine that relates to what you are selling check to see if the ezine has a website and if it offers opt-in subscriptions?  A publication that has a separate website is a good indication that the publication is a legitimate business and that they are serious about what they do. 

Look to see that they also have a clear opt-in form on the site.  After you subscribe to the ezine, be sure they send you an email that confirms your subscription.  This indicates that their readership is highly targeted and interested.

2.  Does the ezine accept all three levels of advertising, classified ads, Sponsor ads and Solo ads?
 
3. Check for an article archive and for how often they publish.  This shows you how long the publisher has been in business but it also shows how often the publications are published.    If you begin receiving ads on a daily basis, that's a good sign that viewers may be desensitized to this ezine and its messages. A weekly or bi-weekly publication is preferred.

4. How large is their subscriber base?  This is important primarily if you'll be doing classified ads for which you'll want a reader base of about 30,000 or more.  In general a good customer base should be at least a 1000 or more.

5. Test the publisher by asking questions.  Their response will indicate how helpful they are and how interested they are in your business.

Now let’s write your ad…

1. Create a captivating headline
Write a headline that gets attention and at the same time draws the reader into the body.  If you can think about who your customer is it will help a lot in determining what benefits appeal to them and why they would want to purchase.

2. Outline the benefits of your offer in the body.  Emotionally connect to the reader with benefits that appeal to their wants and needs. 

3. Create a call to action Tell the reader what to do next.  Things like 'click here' or 'take a look now'.  This step is even more effective if you create a sense of urgency — give them a reason to act immediately.

4.  Keep it short
Most ezine ads vary between 25 and 50 words, including your URL. This means that you have limited space to create maximum impact.

5. Test & Tweak
Create 5-10 variations of your ad. Test different headlines, bodies and different calls to action. This will help you see which ads get the best results.  When you know you've got a winning ad it will continue to work for you over and over.

6. Run ads multiple times
Running an ad once won't give you enough information about how effective it is.  The more the ad appears, the greater the likelihood that the ezine reader will take notice. Over time, you will begin to see which versions of your ad are more effective.

Writing ezine ads takes time so don't expect to crank out perfection right out of the shoot.  Remember to get into the head of your readers, figure out what it is they 'really' want in terms of making their life easier, getting it done faster, saving them money, making them look better, etc.  Then attach a sense of urgency to it. 

Writing an effective ad whether in an ezine, magazine or on your own website, writing copy that sells gives you a huge sales advantage over the competition. 

For a great reference I really liked the 'Copywriter's handbook' by Robert Bly.  Definitely a good read and it has everything you'll need for writing competitive ads that get the clicks.  

So what’s the secret to getting Adsense to generate enough income to make it worth your while?

Here are a few Adsense tips for higher revenue that have worked for me.

Niche sites produce higher Adsense payouts

Niche web sites typically generate more revenue simply because of the better search engine placement they get from being tightly focused.  But not just any niche will do.  The idea is to choose a niche that does well in the advertising market and that merchants are willing to pay more for advertising.  Finance and loans is one such example.

Target the right keywords

To complement the above statement you need to find the keywords.  High paying keywords will point you to the high paying niche markets.

So you definitely want to find the keywords that pay the most.  Overture use to have a nifty keyword bidding tool that told you how much was being bid for a keyword however that tool is no longer available, too bad because I really liked it :- (  But after searching around for some time I came across Keyword Country

I found it to be quite useful for finding keywords. I’ve used Wordtracker a lot and still use it for my websites, blogs and advertising but found that it doesn’t give me the CPC and the variety of the high paying keyword data that I need for using Adsense.

The problem is that a keyword may have a cost per click (CPC) of $50 or more, but its estimated cost per click (EPC) may only be $0.80.  Consequently the problem to overcome is finding keywords that have a high CPC but also offer you a high EPC; you also need to know that there are enough advertisers for keywords. So you need a good tool that’s going to give you this information accurately and Keyword Country does a great job of giving you thorough data.

Placement of Adsense Ads
Google suggests that the wider ads perform better and this is because of their reader-friendly format.

If you have an article page, placing ads directly below the end of the article typically perform better. That’s probably because when a visitor finishes reading an article they are thinking about what to do next, if there’s a compelling ad right there for them, they are likely to click on it.

AdSense blocks wrapped between the quality content also works well.  You can use the medium or large rectangle format and place it in the flow of your content or to the right or left of it for best results.

For the websites having poor quality content, placing the Ads before the start of the content works well, but keep in mind that if you have a poor quality content website, you might get a high number of clicks, but you will be getting low priced ads. On the other hand, if you have quality content that keeps the visitors interested you may get a low CTR, but you will be getting high priced ads and regular visitors.

If you have horizontal links at the top of your page or at the bottom of your page that look like this:

Home  |  newsletter  |  About  |  Free Ebook  | Archives |  forum

Try displaying one of the following Adsense horizontal link units directly under your horizontal links:

(468×15) Displays up to 5 links
(468x15_4) Displays up to 4 links
(728×15) Displays up to 5 links
(728x15_4) Displays up to 4 links

Blend your Adsense Ads for Higher Revenue

If you can blend your ads into your website so as not to make them look like ads you’re likely to get more clicks.  For example, removing the border and changing the background color so it blends with your sites background color is a popular strategy.

Use the same color schemes for you ad that your website uses. If your headline text color is green then using green for your ad’s title will help it blend better.   I like to keep the text of the ad in black and I use a dark gray color for the actual link color.  Some suggest that keeping the link color in blue is better, however preferences vary there and I haven’t experienced much of a difference in click through either way.

Blending your ads is pretty standard stuff but I’m amazed at how many people don’t do this.

Use the Adsense Heat map
Google’s done their homework in this area and based on tests and experience their Adsense Heat map illustrates the best locations on your web page to place your ads for higher click through.

It’s also a good idea to keep your ads above the fold of your website.  Keep in mind that this map is just a guideline and everyone will experience different click through rates, so it’s always wise to experiment and take notes on what works and what doesn’t.

Google Adsense Update:

Google Adsense just recently updated (Feb, 2008) their Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions located at:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms

If you use Adsense you would have received a notice to agree to the changes.  What you may not have noticed is that Google is requiring Adsense users to update their website’s privacy policy.

If you look closely at the terms and conditions under the ‘program participation’ section, you will notice at the end of the paragraph the statement that says:

“You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website.  Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.”

This means that if you use Google Adsense Ads on your website you must place a notice within your privacy policy that mentions the above.  If you need an example you can have a look at my Homenotion Terms of Use.

For a lot more quality professional tips, Joel Comm, the Adsense specialist, is practically giving away his Adsense Secrets

Best,
Elizabeth