Whether you have just started you own ezine, or are dismayed at your rate of growth, then it is time to become pro-active about recruiting new subscribers. Stop sitting around waiting for new subscribers and quit wasting your time on ineffective promotions.

In the life-cycle of any new publication, there comes a time when all of the previous means of promoting your ezine becomes less and less effective. The time comes when you notice that your rate of growth is not what you want it to be. All newsletters and ezines meet this common fate. Some list owners throw their arms up and walk away, clouded by defeat. While others take a pro-active approach to promotion to find the next plateau of growth. Did you think that the big ezines got to be big by simple luck? Of course not, when you look at the person behind a large ezine, you can see a person who busted his behind to get big!

And that is exactly what you will have to do to get big, if that is what you really want. I know most everyone says that getting to be big is important, but how many people actually feel that way, and how many are just wishing upon the stars? Before continuing any further, you should decide which of these two categories best describes you.

If you decided that the first category applies to you, then we should continue our discussion. Pretty much anyone with a very little effort can grow a list to 20 people. Just go to one of the big list sites and look around at the numbers of subscribers to each list. You will find thousands of them with only 20 or so subscribers. At the next level, the list gets smaller, but there remains thousands of lists that have been able to generate a subscriber base of around one to two hundred. The vast majority of lists and ezines that you look at, will top out around three or four hundred.

The reasons for this are simple. In order to acquire a large list of subscribers in the thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, the list owner must exhibit 3 basic characteristics. One, the list owner must be willing to work harder than the average person to make it happen. Secondly, the list owner needs to be able to reach deep inside him or herself to tap into the creativity that is required to discover new and more effective methods of promotion. And finally, the list owner must be willing to try new things, adapt and change to meet the demands of reaching beyond the status quo.

I read a quote one time, long, long ago. I am not even sure of the source of the quote anymore. But the author stated that "in order to receive, one must be willing to give of themselves." He elaborated on that idea by saying that the level of success you will receive in life, is locked step for step in the value that you are willing to give to others.

Though this concept is true in everything you do in life, it is even more real in the world of the Internet. To the average surfer, the net is that mystical, magical world where everything is free. In order for the average surfer to be fulfilled in his quest, there must also be the person who is willing to give of himself to fulfill their dream.

I would like to briefly borrow a definition from the Abbott's Communication Letter at: http://www.topica.com/lists/abbottletter . They said the "Segmentation of populations according to values, lifestyles, or attitudes is called psychographic analysis." I contend that the population of the Internet can be broken down into two very distinct and independent psychographic groups. It is my contention that those two groups are the Givers and the Takers.

If there is such a thing as a magical formula for success on the Internet, it is in the understanding and practice of this idea. Be a giver and not a taker, and you will find your success in your willingness to give to others. Nearly every Internet success story, can be measured in these terms. First, the successful individual gave and gave and gave of themselves, then they reaped and reaped and reaped their rewards.

Once again, we have to come to a crossroads. If you are a taker, you may yet succeed in this wild, wild world of the Internet, but I will not be placing any bets on your success. If you are a giver, then it is time once again to move to the next step.

The hardest thing about running a newsletter or an ezine is in developing or finding good, original content to place in your ezine, to keep your readers attention. I know this for a fact, I have been running my own newsletter now for nearly a year. It is tough. There are two keys here you can use for your own success. Here is where being pro-active about recruiting new subscribers comes back into play.

The first key is in the fact that sometimes you will have difficulty in creating new materials to interest your readers. Don't sweat it. Hang out in mailing lists on a similar topic, and read the ezines put out by others in your genre. Once in a while, you will see something that is too good to pass up. Make a note of it, contact the author and ask his permission to reprint his words, and ask him for a signature tag to tell about himself.

Most of the time, especially if it came from a discussion list, the author will be flattered to give his permission since he was only trying to help someone in need in the first place. From my experience, these individuals whom I have contacted ended up becoming subscribers, and down the road recommended my newsletter to others. I have been recommended in at least 6 other ezines, and have had my links placed on several websites as a result of this activity.

In every case, it has been my willingness to give to others in the same business, the free press for their company or website, that returned to me the same dividend.

When this attitude of giving is expressed in actions, the rewards are manifold. First, your readers win because they have the opportunity to see fresh and interesting materials from other people on a regular basis. Secondly, your contributors win because they get free press for their business or website. And finally, you win because you aren't always under the gun for fresh materials, you get to solidify your subscribers faith in your publication, you get free press in return, and best of all, you will have made a new friend. Some of my early contributors are now regular contributors who go out of their way to help me provide additional materials for my website, and will help me whenever I am in a bind.

The second key to your success here is in helping other people develop fresh and original materials for their website and ezine.

First, create a signature file of no more than 4-6 lines. This is also called a resource box. It tells about you, your business, website or ezine. If it is for your ezine, then include a mailto: address to drop into your signature file. Do it just like this: mailto:WindstormComputing-subscribe@topica.com . If your list server requires a subject to be typed in to the subject box to work correctly, then put your subscription address in like this: mailto:WindstormComputing-subscribe@topica.com?Subject=Subscribe

Let me emphasize the point about actually typing the mailto: in front of the email address. By making this one small change in my signature file, my subscriptions from announcement lists jumped up by 300%. By making the subscription process easier on my future subscribers, I have made it easier for myself to grow my newsletter. That is another fine example of giving of yourself before you can receive.

Now it is time to fulfill the promise of the second key. Make the time to cruise around looking for other ezines with at least 50 subscribers. Make the time to browse their archives and get a feel for their publication. Once you have done this first step, then you will know whether you might have something of value to add to their ezine. If you do, spare some time and care to write a tip or a short article that will fit into their publication rather nicely.

Remember what Kate at ezinearticles.com says about articles: "Sales Letters are not Articles." If you are thinking about posting a sales letter at this point, you are a taker and not a giver. If that is the case, you should have quit reading this article several paragraphs ago.

If you have taken the time to review their archives, and you have taken the time to craft a good quality submission, then in all likelihood, the list owner who is struggling with Key #1, will be tickled to run your article in their ezine. Just yesterday, I submitted a short 5 paragraph article to a small Christian ezine at onelist. The list only has 200 subscribers, but the moderator of that list was pleased with my submission and will be running it in next week's issue.

Another thing, there is a myth running around that you will only find subscribers in lists similar to yours. BOGUS! I have found more subscribers in dissimilar lists than in my own genre. The best swap I ever did was an ezine that had absolutely nothing in common with my own list. I added 80 subscribers in one day. That was 2 months ago, I am going to be contacting him again later this month to arrange another swap.

See, it works like this: I have a computer newsletter, and well, Christian's use computers too. So do accountants, fishermen, and skaters. When you are cruising around checking out other ezines and wondering if there is anything of value you can add to them, simply remember, you have other interests too. Like me for example, I can't be a computer nerd all the time!

Stop sitting around waiting for new subscribers and quit wasting your time on ineffective promotions. Now that you know how to take the first steps towards becoming pro-active about recruiting new subscribers, it is time to get off your rumpus and get to work!