One thing we KNOW that works is ezine advertising. But even ezine advertising, as wonderful as it is, 

will fail if you don't have a plan. So today I'm going to show you how I make an ad plan and how that 

helps me succeed when I advertise.

We've all heard that when you fail to plan you plan to fail. I hate trite sayings, but in this case 

it's right on. If you begin to buy advertising of any kind without having thought through what you want 

to accomplish, you'd better have a lot of money at your disposal. 

On the other hand, when you plan well you can make your ad dollars go incredibly far. Let's get to it.

The six steps of advertising success are:

1. Target 

2. Budget 

3. Copy 

4. Testing

5. Measure

6. Re-invest

Taking these steps into account, here's how I would make a plan. For this example let's say we are 

selling 'how to' information.

   NOTE: Any plan requires certain assumptions. In this example, I'll show you my assumptions as we 

go along.

Also, I'm going to start with a budget of $500.  

1. Target

Who is going to need this information? There are two broad groups on the Internet. People just 

starting out and people who have been online for a while. 

I'm assuming that people who have been online a long time have acquired much of the information 

they need, so I'm going to market to people who are new to online business.

Some people call that group 'newbies'. 

If they are just starting out I'm going to assume they don't have tons of money, need to learn 

some shortcuts, feel overwhelmed by information and don't have the skills that a veteran Internet 

marketer will have. 

Now I look for ezines that fit that profile. What ezines would I choose? SOME ezines that would 

fit are ezines that...

* Help people save money.

* Teach skills like HTML.

* Focus on Internet marketing.

* Teach time management.

* Teach 'home office' skills.

* Give free business advice.

These are some of the places I'll find readers who will be interested in my offers. 

2. Budget

I have only $500 to spend, so I'm *not* going to spend it

all in one place. I'm going to get pricing on top sponsor,

solo ads, and regular classifieds as well. I'm going to

spend my entire $500 testing to see what works, knowing I

can spend more IF I KNOW that my ads will work. 

I'll need to place ads in about half a dozen ezines to test

effectively. That means I can spend only an average of

$83.33 per ezine. This helps me because I can rule out those

ezines that just cost too much. I'm happy because I know the

DOE makes this super easy.   ;)

3. Copy

I want copy that creates a real curiosity about my product

and will get people to my web site to learn more. I take my

handy ad writing checklist and begin to write my

masterpiece.

Not sure you can write great copy? I wasn't either so I

sought the help of Charlie Page.

http://www.charliepage.com

No matter how you do it, make sure your copy grabs

attentions and creates curiosity. Remember, the job of the

ad is ONLY to sell the click, not the product.

4. Testing

I've written what I think are two great ads. I'm not sure

which one will pull best, so I'm running each of them in

three ezines. I'm using good old Hypertracker but I could

just create a unique URL for each ad (see message 3) so I

can measure results. 

Depending on how I spend my money, if I run ads in those

ezines twice I'll switch the ads to see if that creates

better results.

5. Measure

My ads have run and now I have some results to measure. But

what is important to measure?

First, did I make any money? For this I total all the sales

I made and compare it to the $500 I spent. Simple, but

effective. 

Next I want to know what every click cost me. I take the

$500 and divide it by each click. Now I have an overall cost

per click. 

Then I do the same thing for each ad. If an ad cost $44 and

I got 100 clicks, the cost per click is 44 cents. 

Now I can easily measure which ezine was most effective AND

which ad was most effective. While there are many things

that can be measured, these basic measures help me know what

will work in the future. 

Is this perfect testing? No. But with only $500 to spend,

I'm light years ahead of the people who just buy without

measuring. Most of all, I'm learning what works.

6. Re-Invest

Now it's time for me to make some decisions. I've made more

than the $500 I spent and I know which ezines worked best. I

also know which ads worked best. 

My next step is to take my original $500 and do it all over

again. This time I'm going to make my plan based on FACTS,

not assumptions.

I'm going to find more ezines, using the DOE of course, that

are similar to the ones that worked. I'm going to buy a top

sponsor ad and see if that pulls better. I'm going to take

the ad that worked best, polish it a bit and run it again.

The KEY here is this. I now have a PROCESS that works. If I

can advertise successfully, no matter how modest the profit,

I can refine that process and end up with a KILLER ad. I'll

also have learned HOW to advertise successfully. And I'm

making money in the process.

Let me encourage you to apply these six steps to your

product or service. It doesn't take long. It only takes

thought.  

Once you complete this process and create a great, profit

pulling ad, do it again and again. Soon, you'll have a

SYSTEM for ad success that will help you reach every goal

you ever set. 

----------------- Resources to help you ---------------------

I want to share with you the resources I use to ensure my

profits. Each of these products has competition and, yes, I

am an affiliate of each.

If you don't want to use any of these that's OK. I just want

you to have the information.

For easy e-commerce... PayPal

http://www.paypal.com

For Autoresponders either AutoResponse Plus (installs on

your server) or Get Response (web based)

http://www.getresponse.com  or

http://www.autoresponseplus.com

For tracking (I'll be you guess this one!)Hypertracker

http://www.hypertracker.com

For copywriting (To be fair... I own the DOE)

http://www.charliepage.com  or 

Yanik Silver's great site

http://www.instantsalesletters.com

For another type of ad that will blow you away with

how well it works, my friend Mike Glaspie

http://www.bannersgomlm.com

And last but not least, if your computer skills are not what

you want them to be, you need to learn the language of the

Net or you just need to know how to do a particular task

(like copy and paste or mail-merge) the Newbie Club is for

you. It's not just for beginners any more!

                 http://www.newbieclub.com