How to: Get more ezine subscribers

You have a website which offers a free ezine. Your visitors
are interested in the products and services that you offer.
So why doesn't everyone sign up to receive your free
information?

So far, internet professionals have been able to narrow the
reasons to fear of the unknown, extra work, no time, lack
of trust, and 'pain-in-the-butt' factor. What does each of
these mean and what can you do to ensure that you are
getting as many sign ups as possible?

Fear of the unknown. When a visitor fills out a form and
clicks on the submit button he/she has no idea where they
will end up. Some forms redirect them to another website,
some to a thank you page that leaves the visitor hopelessly
lost and others to an ERROR page. So why do some visitors
hesitate to fill out forms? Fear of the unknown.

Extra work. As a website marketer, I would like to know each
of my customer's first name, last name, email address,
telephone number, fax number, postal address, likes and
dislikes and lots of other information. This way I can
market to them more effectively. If I were to ask potential
subscribers to my newsletter for all of the information that
I would like, do you think they would take the time to fill
out a 50 part sign up form? Not likely. It involves too much
extra work.

No time. No one has time to waste these days. We don't have
time to sleep, don't have enough time for the kids, don't have
time for the spouse and certainly don't have time to fill out
a form to receive a newsletter that we don't have time to read
in the first place.

So our challenge as internet marketers is to persuade our
potential subscribers that this is 'must have' information
that is easy to get, and doesn't take a lot of time to read.

Lack of trust. The internet is a faceless, almost anonymous
way of doing business. You have to build a trust level with
your visitor in the shortest time possible. If your website
has minimal information about you, your location, or your
company and doesn't look 100% professional, it is hard to build
up a trust level with your visitor. They are not sure what you
will do with the information that they give you. You have to
overcome their lack of trust.

Pain in the butt factor. And after all that, there's still the
pain in the butt factor. It is just more convenient for a
visitor to sit on their butt and surf, not having to fill out a
form, think, or use their head for anything else except
relaxing. If they have to put some work into it, well it's just
a pain in the butt.

So how do we, as internet business owners, overcome all of
these objections and turn our surfer into a subscriber? Here
it is. The list of sure fire ways to get a respectable number
of your visitors to sign up for your newsletter.

1.Ensure your potential subscriber that they will be returned
to the page they are on, or at least be able to easily find
their way back. Tell them right there in your sign up area.
Give them a message such as "You will be returned to this page
after signing up for this newsletter"

2. Make your sign up form quick and easy. In this first phase
of capturing information, limit the fields to first name, last
name and email address. You will have plenty of time to ask
your subscribers for more detailed information as you build up
a trust level with them.

3. Give your readers high quality information. Make sure that
they feel you respect their time and are there to help them.
Keep your newsletter short and easy to digest at one sitting.

4. To overcome the surfer's lack of trust, ensure them that
you will not give out, sell, or trade their information with
third parties. Make sure you tell them this right in the area
where they are signing up for your newsletter. This helps
build their trust level and makes them feel comfortable in
giving you their information.

5. And then there are some things that none of us can
overcome. If you have done your best to ensure your potential
subscriber that your intentions are true, you haven't asked
for too much information and you've supplied them with the
information we've just covered, that's all you can do. Not
everyone will sign up, but you've given it your best shot,
the rest is up to your visitor.

6. And this may be the clincher. Bribe them to fill out the
form! Give them a FREE ebook, a FREE report, FREE access, or
whatever you have that can sweeten the deal. This is very
basic, but it is common internet practice and it works.

By implementing these six steps in your newsletter marketing
you will increase your number of subscribers which will in
turn increase your ability to sell more ads and thereby
increase your profits.

May you profit in all of your endeavours.