You know that email marketing is one of the least expensive
and most effective marketing tools that you can use. That's
why you  work so hard to build your list!  Yet lately, it's
become harder and  harder to get your message in front of
people asking to receive  your free newsletter subscriptions.

Let me share with you a way that I effectively get my
message in front of hundreds of thousands... potentially
millions.

Like many online marketers, I publish an ezine. I work very
hard to make sure that it contains information of genuine
value to my readers.  Like many of you I still have some
problem attracting new subscribers and getting through to
them.

One of the problems you face in attracting new readers is
just getting them to try your publication. They have so many
choices, and they've been exposed to so much worthless
garbage, that they aren't anxious to have yet another
publication flood their inboxes.

A partial solution to that problem is to offer a short course
rather than an ezine. In this short course offer such
tremendous value that you sell your potential subscribers on
the value of information that you provide. During, and after the
course, ask them to join your regular newsletter list. If you
do provide information of genuine value and meet their
expectations, course subscribers will join your regular
newsletter list.

About two years ago, I noticed some newsletter publishers were
using the ezine-in-a-box concept. Their ezines were "evergreen,"
meaning that no matter when  a person subscribed, they received
their first issue immediately via autoresponder. Then they
received the  next 52 weekly issues that the publisher already
had queued up, via autoresponder, over the next year.

Publishers did the work once, posted it to autoresponder, and
then let it run. I'm not sure what happened after a year with some
of these... but it's easy enough to just add to the autoresponder
series.

I mention this ezine in a box because it offered a solution to
those who wanted a newsletter but don't feel capable of easily
producing a worthwhile newsletter. Other prolific writers and
publishers simply offered the use of their material... their
ezine-in-a-box,  for a fee.  They basically took their existing
material... their pertinent ezine articles, and turned them
into a marketable product.

Knowing how well the ezine-in-a-box concept works, and
knowing that my personal course was well received, my
tiny mind decided to do some thinking outside the box
recently. I began offering my client and subscriber-base
an e-course in a box... but with a twist...

As I explain this, I don't want you to copy my concept exactly.
I want you to take the basic idea, and improve upon it or
try variations of it. Realize that if you are doing the same
thing that everyone else is doing, it can at times be very hard
to get noticed, or to break out of the pack. I already consider
myself miles ahead of the pack, and so I don't fear people
stealing my ideas :-)  Since I enjoy helping you, I ENCOURAGE
you to steal my ideas, but to improve upon them.

Back to my course-in-a-box... I did not sell it. Instead I
offered it to others free. I had several reasons for doing this.
The first reason that I did this, was that by having others offer
my course from their sites I built customer loyalty by
actually giving them something of tremendous value!

My course is offered from my homepage at
http://WillieCrawford.com/ for free.  It's also available in a
PDF ebook for $9.97. Some people don't want to wait for
the twice-weekly lessons, so they have a choice. I also
offer the same material plus a few bonuses, packaged on
a CD for $19.97. Finally, I offer the printed course in a 3-ring
binder, along with even more bonuses for $39.97. This is
shipped via U.S. Priority Mail where available.

For those giving away my course from their site, I allow
them to offer the other options too... and earn 50%. The offer
of the up-sell is included in one of the early messages in the
autoresponder sequence.  So webmasters have more built-in
incentive to offer the autoresponder course.

For those who don't want to go through the trouble of
uploading my autoresponder messages to their system, I
make it a breeze. If they use the autoresponders offered
from http://ProfitAutomation.com  - I allow them to automatially
"inherit" my autoresponders.  That means, I have configured
the course autoresponders so that anyone with the right
information can log into their ProfitAutomation.com
autoresponder account and tell it to import my autoresponder
series over to an autoresponder series on their account.

To futher incentive people to use my course, I even give
them permission to change the resource box in some of my
copyrighted articles (used in the course) to incorporate their
affiliate urls for my products.

Do you see the beauty of such a simple idea?  Someone
offering my course from their site, now have a 20-lesson
course that:

- Builds their list of subscribers to the course, giving  their
subscribers a  tremendous amount of free information

- Builds their regular ezine list by inviting course subscribers
to join their regular list

- Has a built in backend profit stream

This article is not intend to have you offering my course from
your site.  It's intended to get you thinking how you can
adapt and modify similar ideas to explode your business growth.
If you do want more information on how to add the course to
your site you can get it from my autoresponder at:
tell-me-more@williecrawford.com

Imagine for a second that you have just 100 websites giving
away a similar course that you've created. Also imagine that
each website has jus 200 course subscribers. That's a
subscriber base of 20,000 people that will be exposed to
your message. In the case of my 20-lesson course, that's
400,000 potential free exposures for me over a 10 week period.

This is just one example of innovative ideas I've spawned largely
from brainstorming with other successful marketers. We
share with each other what is currently working best for us in
our online businesses.  We share  simple things that you can do
which offer a HUGE return for the time or other resources
invested.

Most of the people that I brainstorm with and share ideas
with are close trusted friends... friends whom I mostly met at
seminars and workshops. I also have a habit of looking at
the contact information on any webpage I am visiting. You'll
often be surprised to see how many online people live near
you. When I notice someone within an hour or two of where
I live, I often suggest we get together... perhaps for dinner...
and see if there is any opportunity for us to joint venture.

Take the ideas present in this simple article and see if you
can improve upon them  Also look for ways to meet and
brainstorm with like-minded business people. I'm hosting a
workshop that affords you one such opportunity in Florida,
April 30 - May 2nd, 2004.  You can read all about it at:
http://InternetMarketingHowToWorkshop.com/lets-roll.html