Solo Ezine Advertising Versus Safelist Solo Ads
Solo ezine advertising refers to ads that are sent alone (with no other ads or content) to an online magazine’s (ezine’s) subscriber base. There are really two types of solo ads: those that are sent to the ezine subscriber base as described earlier or those that are sent out to safelist members.
Safelists are comprised of people who sign up in order to advertise their own products/services and, in turn, agree to read other advertisements that are sent by other members. With safelists, you agree to receive all of these promotional ads in your inbox and, when you click on these ads, you earn credits to be able to send your own ads.
An advantage to advertising in ezines is that you will be sending out your ad to people who have subscribed to the ezine in order to get information, resources and updates on that particulare subject. If your product is very well suited to a particular ezine niche, you can get tremendous results. With safelists, it’s different. People do not subscribe in order to learn about a particular topic. They subscribe in order to be able to advertise. A completely different mindset.
The average ezine readers subscribes to more than one ezine. However, they are not bombarded with hundreds of emails every day because of their subscription. If someone is subscribed to several safelists, they will get hundreds of emails per day in their inbox. Again, the only incentive to read these emails is to gain credits. They are not seeking information or news. So, here again, solo ezine advertising is probably preferable to solo safelist advertising.
Ezine solo ads can vary greatly in price from one publisher to the next. Of course, the price depends on the size of the ezine’s subscriber base, the perceived quality of content, the frequency and perhaps days and times that the newsletter is sent out, etc. In any case, solo ads are not free. With some safelists, members can actually send out “free” solo ads. This is a little bit tricky because they aren’t actually free. You still have to earn clicks in order to be able to send out these ads. So, whether you pay in time or in money (because you have upgraded to buy your clicks), you are paying.
In the end, some marketers swear by safelist solo advertising. It often has a lot to do with the products you offer. If you are offering a product that will generate traffic or an e-book that will help with safelists, for example, safelist members will be more apt to click on that because those are the reasons that they are using safelists in the first place. However, if your product is in a different industry (health, beauty, etc), you’ll generally be better off by doing solo ezine advertising instead. This also works the other way around. Advertising your health or beauty product in a safelist will most likely not get much response.
