How To Start Your Own Ezine In Eight Steps
Copyright by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
Are you a writer? A business owner? A webmaster? Or maybe
someone with information you want to share? What better way
to promote anything you have than through a newsletter?
If "Information is King" on the Internet, then email is king of
all promotional media on the Internet. No matter how many
promotional strategies get developed for the Internet, email
is still going to rule. Why do you think email newsletters are
sprouting like mushrooms? They wouldn't be leaping by the
numbers everyday if there aren't any markets or audience
for ezines.
So how do you go about starting your own ezine or newsletter?
Here are the basic eight steps:
1. Know what kind of ezine you want to produce and why. Ask
yourself these questions:
=> Why would I want to start my own ezine?
=> What kind of information or content will I put there?
=> What kind of resource, knowledge or information do I
have that's uniquely mine; that which other people need?
=> How do I create a need for the kind of information I
have?
2. Know your audience. Once you have determined what kind of
ezine you want to produce, ask yourself these questions:
=> Will my ezine have a target age range?
=> If my ezine is for writers, what kind of writers will they
be? Freelance? Beginners? Technical writers? Working
writers?
=> If I'm going to promote my products and services in the
ezine, what other outside information can I add to keep
my readers interested?
=> Is my ezine going to be region-specific or global?
Subscribe to ezines similar to the one you are planning to start.
Observe what articles are published, how the ezine is presented,
how advertisements are written and how all these are presented
with the ezine's audience in mind.
3. Once you've identified your readers, know where to find them.
Before you even start your ezine, have an ezine promotion plan
ready. Know where you'll be promoting your ezine.
If you're starting an ezine, go ahead and sign up for these
announcement lists:
=> Get More Subs
mailto:getmoresubs-subscribe@egroups.com
=> Sites and Zines
mailto:sitesandzines-subscribe@egroups.com
=> Smart Announce
mailto:smart-announce-subscribe@egroups.com
=> Announce List
mailto:announce-subscribe@egroups.com
=> Ezines Today
mailto:ezinestoday-subscribe@egroups.com
=> Zine Directory
mailto:ZineDirectory-subscribe@egroups.com
For an even more comprehensive list of where you can announce,
promote and find subscribers, send an email to
mailto:FreeAdsReport@fastfacts.net
, the List Announcement
Report by Angela Giles Klocke. This report is updated, with new
announcement lists added on a regular basis.
You can gain subscribers by joining discussion lists too.
Participate in discussions. Take advantage of your signature
file. Put your ezine's info and subscription email on it. The
more active you are, the more people will see your sig file. Even
if you've not set the date of your ezine's first issue, it's
never too early to promote your ezine and make people aware of
it.
Since you're observing all those other ezines you've subscribed
to, you might as well contact the owners and find out if they put
out free ads. Also, it won't hurt if you submit free articles for
publication. Most ezines are non-paying but they pay writers
another way: free advertisement in exchange for an article. This
will help you attract more subscribers.
4. Decide how frequent you'll publish and send out your ezine. If
you decide to publish it on a monthly basis, then be sure to send
it on time. Be prompt. If you decide to send out your ezine every
month, stick to this.
Avoid sending out separate announcements. Your subscribers will
be subscribing to your ezine with the knowledge that they'll get
it *once* a month, so think twice before you send out short
emails, no matter how urgent they are.
However, there'll be times when you won't be able to meet your
deadline. Don't leave your subscribers hanging. Inform them that
you will be unable to come out with an issue.
5. Decide on your ezine's content. You can write original
articles for your ezine and you can also consider using free
articles.
A number of places on the Internet offer free articles. Using
articles freely provided by their authors is a good way to create
an image that you have contributors. Some writers are willing to
have their articles published for free in exchange for having
their resource boxes published along with their article. It's a
win-win situation between you and your guest writers.
Here's a list of where you can look for free articles:
=> Ezine Articles
http://www.ezinearticles.com
=> Publish In Yours
http://www.mediapeak.com>
=> Free Content
http://www.ideamarketers.com>
=> Worldwide Information Outlet
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
=> The Internet News Bureau
http://www.newsbureau.com
=> Internet Wire
http://www.internetwire.com
However, never depend on free content to run your ezine. Make
sure you publish one or two original articles you've written.
6. Decide if you will completely be email-based or you will have
a complementing web site. If you decide to have a web site, be
sure to update it and work on it on the same frequency as you
will work on your email newsletter. You will need to know some
HTML in order to do this. There are several web sites that offer
free tutorial on web page building.
7. Using a list manager can help you with your subscribers list.
There are a list management softwares available for a fee.
However, if you are on a shoe-string budget, you can use the free
web-based list management services of
eGroups/ONElist
http://www.egroups.com
Topica
http://www.topica.com
and Listbot
http:file://www.listbot.com
If you're new to the concept of how mailing lists lists work, the
article Email Lists: Lurk, Speak Up, Jump Right In! explains how
lists works, the types of lists and how you can sign up and start
your own list. It's available by autoresponder. Send an email to
mailto:elists@sendfree.com
8. Ok, so you now have your first issue ready to go out in
public. You've followed the first seven steps and managed to get
subscribers. The next thing to do is to list your ezine in ezine
directories. This will help you gain even more exposure.
Here are ezine directories you can list your ezine in:
=> E-zineZ.com
http://www.e-zinez.com
=> Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters
http://www.arl.org/scomm/edir/template.html
=> Directory Of Ezines
http://www.lifestylespub.com
=> Liszt
http://www.liszt.com/submit.html
=> Ezine Seek
http://www.ezineseek.com
=> eZINE Search
http://www.ezinesearch.com
=> Inkpot's Zine Scene
http://www.inkpot.com
=> E-Zines Today
http://www.ezine-news.com
=> Zine World
http://www.oblivion.net/zineworld
Getting that first issue out isn't the end of your being an
ezine publisher. If you want exposure, more subscriptions
and success for you and your ezine, you will need to continue
writing, promoting, writing, promoting, writing, promoting....
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Shery Ma Belle Arrieta publishes and edits four ezines:
the monthly W!Philippines
http://www.msc.edu.ph/wired,
the semi-monthly The e-Writer's Place Update e-Letter
http://ewritersplace.com,
the bi-weekly Sites, Biz and
Zines!
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/sbz,
and the
the daily Positive Quotes
http://positivequotes.homepage.com
Email her at mailto:iamshery@msc.net.ph
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