Fake Subscribers Counts
The price of an ezine ad is based on the type of ad and the number of subscribers an ezine has. The biggest the number of subscribers, the higher the price.
Due to privacy policies, an advertiser is never supposed to have direct access to an ezine subscribers base. Since the advertiser cannot directly check the number of subscribers, some publishers are faced with a big temptation ... "What if I claim that I have more subscribers in order to charge more and get higher profits? Nobody will know the truth ..."
If you cannot check the subscribers base, then how can you detect such a sinner? By making some simple tests that I will reveal below.
First of all, let's make an assumption: we don't waste our time by testing ezines showing a small number of subscribers, right? Even if the number of subscribers is artificially increased let's say from 500 to 700, the difference in price will be insignificant. We have to look for the big sharks ...
Next assumption: if an ezine has tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers, then that means it is a popular ezine and there have to be a lot of traces on the Internet.
Action: Go to Google and type the ezine's name in inverted commas. If you get only a few results for that "popular" ezine, a couple of sites mentioning the ezine's name and some unhappy customers complaining on forums, then there is a big question mark. A popular ezine that almost no one talks about? To get a lot of subscribers you NEED to have a consistent online presence ...
Last assumption: if an ezine is popular, then it means that the publisher provides great content.
Action: subscribe to the ezine and read it. If the content is poor, if there are tons of ads, if you never see anything written by the publisher himself/herself, then there is another big question mark: why did so many people subscribe and then stayed subscribed? To get nothing? Come on ...
Ezines Not Published Anymore
This second sin belongs exclusively to ezine ad co-ops. Ad co-ops are groups of ezine publishers gathered under the umbrella of an ad co-op owner who sells to her/his customers ad space in all the ezines from the co-op. The ad co-op owner is a kind of ezine ad space broker.
From time to time, some ezines cease to be published, while other ezines just start to be published. Normal life. When an ezine having a big number of subscribers is not published anymore, the broker faces this temptation: "If I remove the ezine from my ad co-op, then the total number of subscribers is significantly decreased and I will have to reduce the prices. What if I don't remove the ezine?"
If you subscribe to all the ezines from that ad co-op, after a period of time you'll find out the truth. What if you're not required to subscribe and you don't subscribe to the ezines because you don't have time to read so many ezines as listed by that ad co-op? Well, that's the catch: this is what the broker hopes!
There is also a simpler way to catch the sinners without wasting too much time: you need inside information from this ezines world. The way is very simple but the information is hard to get.
Let me help you and offer you some information. Here are two really popular ezines, with responsive subscribers, that unfortunately are no longer published since 2008 because their publishers had serious problems in their life: BestNews Marketing Gazette and Boaze Publishing Ezine. Every time when you see someone trying to sell you ad space in these ezines (there are people out there doing it!), just run away. It's really a shame that these sinners profit like this from the hard work done by the publishers of these two ezines. [By the way, if you ever knew Cor, the publisher of BestNews Marketing Gazette, don't forget him in your prayers.]
Take care!
Adrian Jock
About the Author
Adrian Jock is the CEO of an that is quite small but it never makes his owner blush for reasons like the ones revealed in this article. If you're looking to improve the results of your ezine advertising campaigns, you don't want to miss Adrian's latest ebook .
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