Ezine publishers today throw any old thing in their publication to make it attractive for readers, or simply for kicks. And in doing so, they often lose sight of why they started their ezine in the first place -- to make a profit!

That's right. *Money*, Honey.

Armed with the 6 tips below, YOU won't make the same profit-lethal mistake. Use these six unique techniques to secure a CONSISTENT profit from YOUR ezine, and leave those confused, guru "wannabes" in your marketing dust.

TIP: Remember your objective with EVERY change or new addition to your ezine. In the excitement of adding fun new features to my own ezines in the past, I often forgot to ask myself, "How will adding this feature help ME?"

Ultimately, changing your ezine's format IN ANY WAY should be justified by *at least* one of the following:

1. Increasing Your Credibility

In other words, making you look like you know your stuff, and deserve to be "teaching" people on the topic of your ezine.

One example of this would be to introduce an "Ask the Expert" column, in which readers have questions answered (by you!) on a regular basis, thus gradually establishing you as an expert in your field.

"Expert status" will come even faster if you're sure to always give comprehensive, professional, and thorough answers to questions posed by your readers.

2. Enhancing Your Understanding Of Your Target Market

What do they love? What ticks them off? What do they want? What do they need? And more importantly perhaps, how much money do they have (or will they allow themselves) to spend getting it?

One way to accomplish this is to introduce a poll into your ezine. Polling your readers on issues relevant to your market gives you first-hand insight on the likes, dislikes, wants, and needs of your hottest prospects.

What a sneaky way to get the scoop on what matters most to your target market!

3. Increasing Your Profit

I say "profit" to mean more money, more ezine subscribers, more traffic, etc. ... anything that you're using your site and ezine to get MORE of.

For instance, say your goal was to profit by getting more members to your monthly membership site. You could feature a recommended resource section in your ezine that you update in each issue with a small sampling of links from the PAID site.

And since the focus of your ezine and membership site are loosely based on the same topic (i.e., website promotion), you could extract a set of *more specific* resources (i.e., search engine optimization info) from your members' site, and turn that into a feature of the free ezine.

Finally, at the bottom (and/or top) of the column in each issue, let readers know that the resources come from your members' site, and include a link that they can visit for testimonials from paid members, info on joining, etc.

Voila -- instant sales!

4. Securing Repeat Visitors To Your Website

Using the "recommended resource section" example in #3 above, you could also feature references to subsections of your main website in this column.

I doubt it's a good idea to have this section filled ONLY with those unless you have a massive site (think "about.com"), but at the beginning or end of this links section, you could feature the five most popular pages of YourSite.com to remind past visitors, and encourage new ones, to visit.

5. Creating a Highly-Responsive Promotional Tool

DON'T be afraid to use your ezine to promote your OWN products!

In addition to regularly providing your readers with useful content, your ezine should also be used as a means of promoting YOUR goods and services. (That's what it's for, remember?)

Although this doesn't mean bombarding your readers with "special mailings" twice a day, it's okay (and it's general practice) to send occasional solos to your opt-in subscriber list. After all, your special offers ARE a part of that 'zine.

I like to think of "occasional" SOLO offers to mean offers sent no more than once or twice a month. Even so, there should be a "not-so-SPECIAL-but-still-GREAT" offer mentioned in EVERY ISSUE ... preferably in your editor's notes for the *highest* response -- and profit.

And along with the occasional solo mailing, if you also sell ad space (which I don't particularly recommend unless you're in a super-tight spot and need extra income fast), you should ALWAYS use the leftover space to promote your own products or affiliate programs.

And every once in awhile, reserve a top sponsor ad spot just for your offers. You may be amazed at the response.

6. Building Your Relationship With Targeted, Pre-Qualified Buyers

(What'sat? Your readers aren't pre-qualified as your target market?? Well THAT was silly. :-P)

Every subscriber to your ezine is automatically pre-qualified as a prospective customer, so long as your ezine is CLOSELY RELATED to your niche market. So...

*Don't cry over unsubscribe requests; cherish them!*

Nah, I'm not crazy. Just think about it.

Why do YOU unsubscribe from ezines? Most likely, it's because they no longer fit your needs, you fell out of love with the publisher's writing, or you "don't have time" to read it.

In either case, losing a subscriber like this is GOOD for you ... BECAUSE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BECOME A CUSTOMER ANYWAY.

If your ezine isn't fitting their needs (and your products fill THE SAME NEEDS as your niche-based ezine), the 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.

If they "don't have time" to read your ezine, what they're really saying is that the content you're providing is NO LONGER WORTH THEIR TIME. In which case, they don't place a HIGH VALUE on your work, and will likely treat your products with the same disdain.

So again ... CHERISH those unsubscribe requests. Seriously.

Take it for what it really is -- your list going through some "self-cleansing" by naturally ridding itself of NON-BUYERS.

Make sense? :-)

And Finally...

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 refocus and fix up an ezine "gone bad" than it does to stay on target with a successful, laser-focused, goal-oriented publication.