In affiliate marketing, the affiliates are looking into ways in which their chosen products can be promoted more effectively. One creative and effective way is the use of e-zine advertising. To use this tool for promotion, the affiliate must first know what e-zine advertising is all about.

An e-zine is a newsletter sent to subscribers. It is a coined term for magazine which is published in the Internet. The core subject or theme of the newsletters can be anything. And when a newsletter has been around long enough within cyberspace, the number of subscribers of the newsletter will reach a point that it represents a considerable percentage of the global market.

And when the number of subscribers is large enough, the publisher of the e-zine will be selling space in it to online businessmen and to affiliates. Such is the beginning of the publisher's e-zine advertising. To acquire the maximum benefits of e-zine advertising, here are some tips that an affiliate may keep in mind.

'Some e-zines are simply paragraphs sent in an email, while other e-zines provide links to other websites. The affiliate should choose e-zines that have these external links. If the affiliate has signed-up with a pay-per-click program, he can arrange the link to be directed to the merchant's website. Otherwise, the link could lead to the affiliate's website. What is important is that the e-zine should encourage its recipients or subscribers to have a more active role.

'One type of e-zine ad is similar to a banner ad while the other type is called a solo ad. The former is cheaper while the latter is more expensive. But the solo ads take the complete attention of the reader, while the banner-like ads will be competing with other banner ads. The affiliate must look hard into his budget and decide which type of e-zine ad will work best for his affiliate marketing business.

'The placement of the e-zine ad is important. The top sponsor ads are better than ads placed in the middle of the newsletter article. An ad placed right in the middle will most likely be skipped by the reader. While the ad placed at the top will surely be read first. The top ads are, of course, more expensive than the middle ads. But what good will a middle ad do when it cannot even get one visitor? Next to top ads, the bottom ads are effective. When the article of the newsletter is engaging, the reader will reach the end and find the bottom ad. Since the recipient is through reading, he is more inclined to click on the link of the bottom ad.

'A targeted niche is better than a generalized approach. To have an e-zine ad that targets a specific audience, the affiliate must find out from the newsletter's publisher the topics of the next issues. Once the next issue is known, for example 'vintage cars', the affiliate can choose among his products which is most related to the issue, for example, 'car parts'. An e-zine ad about another topic, such as 'computer software' will be ignored by the reader.

By using the above e-zine advertising tips, the affiliate can avoid spending for advertisements that are ineffective. And he can focus on ads that will easily translate to sales.