Question: I’ve got a newsletter that just isn’t growing. I’m posting my site on free classified ads and I’m paying for advertising, but I’m just not seeing results. What can I do?

Signed, Nobody Loves Me

Dear Nobody Loves Me,

Let me start by saying you are not alone. I believe you are working hard. Unfortunately, just because you are working hard doesn’t mean you’ll have success. You need to also work smart and invest in long-term ways to grow your list.

Let me tell you about my favorite way to grow your list – giving away articles.

If you’re not familiar with using articles as a marketing method, then you’re in for a big treat. Website owners and blog owners are always looking for content to share with their web visitors. So, there are places called Article Directories (basically a library of free articles) where they can go to find articles that they can use – free.

All of these articles have an Author bio at the end. (See the end of this article for an example.). The author bio is the prime space where the authors get to talk about their business. Their brag space, so to speak.

What does any of this have to do with you? You can write and distribute articles to these article directories, too. And, in your author bio, instead of linking directly to your main page of your site, you can link to a page where you have a signup box for your newsletter. Voila. Everyone who clicks through that link will be taken to the page where you can offer them your wonderful newsletter (with a great incentive they can’t pass up.) Of course your page will lure them into signing up and your newsletter list will grow.