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, but 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’s why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezines and 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 5 line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between $5 and $20 per issue.

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

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

1. The first and most important rule is: “Track your Ads!” Say you place an ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundred responses. If you don’t track your ads, you won’t know which ezines were pulling responses and which weren’t.

But how do you track your ads?

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

For a URL, it’s the same principle:

However, if you’re going to code your URLs, you’ll need a good webstats program to track the coded URLs. Here’s another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create a duplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA

2. Target your audience. It may seem obvious but 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 won’t 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 and 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 won’t 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 and 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 its 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 9 times. If your budget allows, try and 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’s also 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 and 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 but tell the reader what your product can do for them.

The sky is the limit to make money at home

There are endless opportunities to make money at home. There are different jobs available which can be done from home, home based businesses and online work which you can do from home. You will have to see what is of interest to you and what you will be able to do without any problems.

The first thing that you will have to think about is whether you know how to go about the work that you have decided to proceed. With the many options that are there to make money at home, you should have no problem in zeroing in on any one of them.

You could either opt to work from home or run a home based business. If you are competent at administrative work and would like to start a home office, you could do this and assist clients with several issues.

A Home Based Business

To run a home based business, it is preferable to set apart a room or a private area where you could work peacefully. It is always easier to concentrate on your work if there is a sort of professional and well maintained atmosphere about it. An airy well lit room will make you more comfortable and help you to go about your work peacefully.

To make money at home through a home based business, you would have to have a client list and also a computer with an internet connection. This basic requirement will be needed for any kind of business that you plan to do.

You could take to marketing and advertising online, ecommerce business, buying and selling, doing online work, doing a travel related business and assist in relocating clients to your city, Other options are medical transcription, web designing, and many other IT solutions with which you could assist your clients and this will get you to make money at home.

Another profitable and interesting business is to manage events and make all the arrangements for such events. This can also be done from your home office. You would need the contacts to source all the things you need for the event and organize it from your home base. The contacts that you would need are caterers, florists, some music providers, photographers, maybe car rental services. If it is for a children’s party then you would have to have someone to organize games, magic shows, a clown and other interests that kids have. What would be a big event to organize would be a wedding where you would have to start from the printing of the wedding invitations and help the bride and groom in choosing the dress designers, their accessories, and all that goes in a wedding.

Your telephone book and email contacts are the only paraphernalia that you would have to have on hand, everything else you would have to just delegate to the various service providers.

Well now you have most of your information and all you have to do is to decide on what is you area of interest and expertise to start to make money at home.

“Make money online.” These words have the mysterious power to unleash your dreams and hopes! Making money online is a fascinating idea very similar in spirit to the Gold Rush 150 years ago. Both share the dream of changing your life by becoming rich quickly. Instant wealth is here for the taking! All you need to succeed is an entrepreneurial approach and the courage to think out of the box.

This idea is fascinating because it carries a wind of freedom. It opens new opportunities for people like you and me. Its essential message is: “You don’t need to be born rich to be rich! You too have a chance to make big money, or at least to achieve financial autonomy and be your own boss”. The beauty of the Internet is its democratic spirit that offers a renewal of chances for all. On the Web, success isn’t only the lot of an elite blessed by birth but an opportunity for “ordinary people” to achieving extraordinary results in their life and with very limited financial resources.

I caught the Internet bug several years ago. I was almost hypnotized by the idea of making an income online and changing my lifestyle so that I can do what I want, when I want, and where I want without having to worry about money. During that time, I spent hours, weeks and months scrutinizing web opportunities and trying to answer this question: How is it possible to make money online?

I was frustrated with not knowing how to answer this question for the longest time. The Internet was like a maze and I was erring in its endless corridors without finding the exit. Today I know that the challenge for anyone trying to make money online is figuring out what opportunity can make a difference for him. It’s a tough one! How not to be confused with so many opportunities claiming to hold the keys to online success and promising amazing shortcuts to wealth?! Which ones to believe? Is it really so easy? Are you really the only one who is left out when everyone else is enjoying the online money making party?

To help you take a jump-start, I present here a model which you can use to map out opportunities you encounter on the Web and to screen them before you give them a chance.

First let me ask you a few questions. Do you think it is easy to make lots of money on the Internet? Do you believe you can easily earn several thousand dollars a week with a secret formula developed by an Internet guru who reveals the most guarded secret in the world to you

Consider these ads:

Cool, isn’t it? It seems you too can make a blast and it doesn’t require any real effort on your part… What are you waiting for? You should already be rushing to your Internet gold mine!

Such offers are seductive because their melody plays on the strings of laziness (we are all lazy to some extent) and wishful thinking (what if these promises are true?).

If you are inclined to believe such statements, you may learn the hard way that “all that glitters isn’t gold!”

Sorry to rain on your parade but the first thing you need to know if you really want to make money online is that you will need to roll up your sleeves! I know it’s disappointing. I would also prefer to make millions in my sleep but it doesn’t work that way. Making money online requires some time and effort, even for the easiest and best opportunity. To succeed you need an attitude involving curiosity, courage, and the readiness to learn and work. The first step in this journey is to put aside “get rich quick” dreams and to skip programs that come with such a claim. To spot the real opportunities, free yourself of such illusions, use your common sense and develop a proactive approach involving knowledge acquisition, skill development, and work.

Step 1 is cleaning the ground you walk on and getting rid of seductive promises that will reveal themselves as deceptive scams.

Step 2 is focusing on real opportunities that can fit your goals.