When it comes to advertising, I've tried just about everything. I tried free classified ad sites, I tried FFA sites, I tried banner exchange programs.

The results? Not much.

I was tired of hearing that the Internet is the largest market in human history. Maybe so, however how could I reach those millions of people?

The answer, I discovered, is ezine advertising.

Ezines are sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone who receives an ezine has chosen to do so.

And that is why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezines also they'll read your ad. And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience.

There are currently around 90,000 ezines being published every month. So whatever you're selling, there's more than likely an ezine that will take your ad straight to the audience you want to reach.

Ezine advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as well. A five line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between $5 also $20 per issue.

As a general rule, you will always get back at least the cost of the ad, also usually much more. So there's very little risk.

But there are some tips for successful ezine advertising. Here they are:

1. The first also most important rule is: "Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in five different ezines also get a hundred responses. If you don't track your ads, you will not know which ezines were pulling responses also which were not.

But how do you track your ads?

The simplest method is to place a key or a code at the end of your email address:

yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=ezineA

Then, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the subject field, you will know which ezine it came from.

For a URL, it's the same principle:

http://www.yourdomain.com?ezineA

However, if you're going to code your URLs, you will need a good webstats program to track the coded URLs. These two programs are excellent also they're both free:

Here's another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create a duplicate of your homepage also name the page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA, this is the URL you'd place in that ad:

http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA

2. Target your audience. It may seem obvious however some advertisers overlook this. If you're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertise in an ezine that deals with stock options; they probably will not be interested.

Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to find ezines that relate to the product you're selling. You can find a list of 56 ezine directories in 'The Free Directory of Ezines' at:

3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience, subscribe to them also examine the ads closely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue after issue, you can be pretty sure that it's getting results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.

4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You probably will not get much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads per issue. Readers of those ezines have become hardened to the ads also have learnt to skip them.

5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of never running ads for two similar products in the same issue - your ad will be much more effective if it's the only one of it's kind in that particular issue.

6. Small ezines Vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always better. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tend to have more ads than the small ezines. Also, small ezines with only a few hundred subscribers often have a much more targeted audience than the big ezines.

7. Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web, an ad has to be seen about 21 times before someone acts on it; on the Internet it's about nine times. If your budget allows, try also have your ad repeated at least three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offer discount packages for bulk advertising.

8. Email address Vs. URL. The advantage of giving an email address is that it gives you the opportunity to send a powerful sales letter to the person who responded to your ad. It is or else much easier to track your ads with an email address than a URL.

9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often tip the balance between a response also no response.

10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the number of words you're allowed. Short ads are more likely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; they pack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don't describe your product however tell the reader what your product can do for them.

Michael Southon is the publisher of 'The Free Directory of Ezines' http://www.netmastersolutions.com/ He is or else the Editor of 'FreeZine Express', a twice-monthly newsletter that brings you details of new Ezines added to the TFDE as well as Articles also Tips on Ezine Advertising also Ezine Publishing. To subscribe, send a blank email to: mailto:FreeZineExpress-subscribe@topica.com