Ezine publishers today throw any old thing in their publication to make it attractive for readers. In doing so, they often forget why they started their ezine in the first place -- to make a profit. You don't have to make that same mistake. Use these seven unique techniques to secure a CONSISTENT profit from YOUR ezine, and leave those other confused publishers in the dust:

1. Remember your goal with EVERY new change made to the ezine.

With EVERY change or new addition to your ezine, you MUST maintain your focus. That focus? To make a profit. I've made this mistake very, very often in the past with my own ezines. In the excitement of adding new sections, I'd often forget to ask myself, 'How will adding this new section help ME?'

Ultimately, changing your ezine's format should offer YOU one or more of the benefits below in order to justify that change.

2. Increased credibility. For example, you could introduce an 'Ask the Expert' column in which readers could have questions answered (by you) on a regular basis, thus establishing you as an expert in your field. This will happen gradually, but your 'expert status' will come even faster if you're sure to always give comprehensive, professional, and thorough answers to questions posed by your readers.

3. Enhanced understanding of your target market. For example, a poll can easily accomplish this. Polling your readers on issues relevant to your niche focus will give you first-hand insight on their likes, dislikes, wants, and needs. What a sneaky way to get the scoop on issues relevant to your target market!

4. Increased profit. You could feature a links section in your ezine that features resources targeted to your niche -- but that's not all. Let's say you also publish a paid Web magazine on several closely related topics targeted to your niche. You could then constantly update the links section with a small sampling of links from your paid newsletter.

   So, if the focus of your ezine and paid newsletter are both website promotion, you could extract a set of more specific resources (i.e. search engine positioning links) from the paid newsletter, and turn those into a feature of your free ezine. At the bottom of that column in each issue, let readers know that the info came from your paid newsletter, and include a link to ordering info for that product.

   Voila -- instant sales!

5. Repeat visitors to your website. Using the 'links section' example above, you could also feature links to your main website. You can't have this section filled ONLY with your own resources, of course, unless you have a massive website. But, at the END (or beginning) of this links section, you could feature the five most popular pages at your site to remind past visitors, (and encourage new visitors), to visit.

6. A constant, highly-responsive promotional tool. Don't be afraid to use your newsletter to promote your own products. In addition to regularly providing your readers with useful content, you should also use your ezine as a means of promoting YOUR goods. But, this doesn't mean bombarding your readers with 'special mailings' twice a day.

   It's okay to send out occasional offers to your opt-in subscriber list. After all -- they signed up to receive your ezine, and your special mailings ARE a part of that ezine. Just make it clear that they'll get those when they subscribe. Also, along with the occasional solo mailing, you should also use 'left over' ad space to promote your own products. Every once in awhile, reserve a top sponsor ad slot for YOU. You'll be amazed at the response.

7. A targeted list of pre-qualified buyers. What? Your readers aren't pre-qualified as your target market?? That was silly. What'd you do THAT for? ;-) Every subscriber to your ezine is automatically pre-qualified as a prospective customer as long as your ezine is closely related to your niche market. So ...

   Don't cry over unsubscribe requests; cherish them. I'm not crazy -- just think about it. Why do YOU unsubscribe from ezines? Most likely, it's because they don't fit your needs any more, or you fell out of love with the publisher's writing. In either case, losing a subscriber like this is GOOD for you. Why?

   Because they wouldn't have become a customer any way.

   If your ezine isn't fitting their needs, (and your product fills the same needs as your niche-focused ezine), that subscriber is no longer pre-qualified as a potential buyer. If they don't like your writing and you created a product that involved YOU writing for it, they won't like that product. Can you see how that makes sense?

Remember -- your main goal is to make a profit from your ezine in one way or another. Don't dilute your focus and hinder your success by forgetting that goal, or you'll be sorry you did. It takes a lot longer to fix up an ezine 'gone bad' than it does to simply stay on target with a successful, targeted, goal-oriented publication.

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