Ezine Publishing: On the Subject of Subject Line Dos and Don'ts

The dos and don'ts of ezine subject lines are easy to use. The problem is they are also easy to forget, resulting in getting caught in spam filters, leaving money on the table, and other undesirable consequences.

Subject Line Don'ts

1. Don't use all capital letters in your subject line. Instant spam filter purgatory. I recommend that you don't capitalize even one word.

2. Don't use the word free, unless you doctor it up a bit. My favorite way to do free to get past the spam filters is in honor of my favorite TV show of all time. See if you can guess what it is from this example of f*r*e*e.

3. Don't use exclamation points! Another instant trip to spam filter purgatory.

4. Don't list the title of your feature article for that issue of your ezine. Why not? If someone reads the title and decides they already know that or just are not interested, you have lost them before they even open the email. Trust me on this, I've tested it and there was significantly more income per issue when I did not add the title of an article to the subject line.

Subject Line Do's

1. Do always keep in mind that your subject line in an ezine is just like a headline in a newspaper. It's your chance to hook the reader.

2. Douse mail merge to personalize the subject line with a person's first name. Just make sure you leave a space between the arrow sign and the next word so they do not bump up against each other, like at the beginning of this tip. Looks very amateurish when that happens accidently.

3. Do keep it short. Make sure your subject line does not get cut off when it shows up in reader's email. Again, another way to look like an amateur if you get this wrong.

4. Do include the month and year. Gets you by the spam filters almost every time, as they see the current month and date, and the spam filters think "Oh, OK, this is a newsletter, let's let it through."

Make sure you spell out the month as well.

Example: September 2005, ParentingYourTeenager.com

Four don'ts and four do's for subject line success!

You are invited to visit Buildling Your Ideal Practice for 100s of tips and tools for creating and marketing the practice of your dreams.