In Part II of this series, we discussed the importance of a media kit and what to include in your online media kit.

A quick review:

An electronic media kit includes all the pertinent information that potential advertisers need to decide whether to advertise in your e-zine and how to place an order for advertising in your e-zine.

Remember that advertising is an industry with its own rules and jargon and you will need to learn both to sell ad space successfully. This aspect of publishing requires another unique set of skills that a successful e-zine publisher needs to acquire.

Step One: Research and Competitive Intelligence

1. Look at your competitors and identify who advertises in  their publications.

2. Review the ad rates for your competitors' publications. Use the Directory of Ezines from Lifestyles Publishing for the easiest and quickest way to gather this information.
http://www.lifestylespub.com

3. Determine how much money each of your potential  advertisers is already spending on advertising in your competitors' publications.

Step Two: Create Your Sales Budget

Selling advertising and developing solid relationships with your advertisers can be a time consuming project. Your sales budget should reflect that fact.

1. How much time will you spend to support your advertising services? Consider the following tasks when determining your time allocations.

• Receiving ad sales
• Processing financial transactions
• Follow-up: additional information, acknowledgment and receipt of ad
• Ad insertions
• Ad tracking
• Advertiser specials

2. How much money will you spend to support your advertising services?

Will you hire a sales rep or outsource any of the sales?

If you are selling the ad space yourself, remember that the revenue should justify the amount of time you spend selling ads. Is your time worth $50 an hour? If you spend ten hours on ad sales, you want to consider selling $500 worth of advertising to justify your time.

To increase your efficiency and effectiveness, automate your sales process through online media kits and online order forms.

3. Outsourcing your advertising sales.

Want to sell advertising but don't have time or the sales reps to do it for you? I asked Phil Tanny at Oaknet Publishing about his requirements for selling ads.

"Kate, we're purchasing $4000-5000+ worth of newsletter advertising every month for our clients. Their needs and budgets are expanding, so we're interested in finding more newsletter publishers to purchase this ad space from.

Our criteria are that we need to buy 10, 65-character line ad spaces at the top of professionally managed newsletters that have a circulation of 3,000 readers or more. We're flexible on pricing and are very reliable about sending payment for the ads the same day they are published."

If you want to sell ad space the easy way, and you meet the requirements listed above, contact Phil Tanny at http://www.oaknetpub.com/adinfo/welcome.html or write to him, Phil Tanny at: editor@oaknetpub.com. You can also use the order form at that web address to become familiar with the work they are doing.

Step Three: Develop a Potential Advertisers Database

Create a database of your potential advertising clients. Research all of your potential advertisers before contacting them. Your database should include name, title, company name, URL, email address, category, and where they are currently advertising.

Step Four: Make Contact

Now, write to the appropriate person at each company and introduce yourself. Give those advertisers reasons to advertise in your publication instead of one of your competitor's e-zines. Remember, you are trying to develop a relationship with your potential advertisers, so use their names, mention their web site, let them know you know who they are.

Then, read and analyze their responses.

Step Five: Prepare a Proposal and Close the Sale

Create an advertising proposal for your prospects. The proposal should include the ad size, frequency of publication and your price based on your rate card, plus any special offers you are making to them, such as buy two get one free for new advertisers. If you listened to their response and your e-zine addresses their target market, your proposal will probably meet with success.


Step Six: Keep Your Advertisers

Establish a relationship with your key advertisers. If you have found an audience that your advertisers want to reach, work to maintain a good relationship with your advertisers. It is much easier to keep than to find new ones.

Establish a long-term marketing plan to serve your customers and subsequently your advertising sales business will grow.