Just as in life, there are three tiers of wealth in the ezine
industry. There is the lower class who have fewer than 500
subscribers. There is the middle class with 501 to 100,000
subscribers. And finally, there is the upper class who have
more than 100,000 subscribers. Some of the really rich have
a subscriber base in the millions!
70% of ezines will never escape the lower class. And less than
5% of the publishers will ever rise to the upper class.
There are some simple rules you can follow to get from the
lower class to the middle class, then from the middle to the
upper class. First thing you must do is understand the rules
and then make the determination as to whether you really want
to be in the middle or upper class. As in life, the middle and
upper class do not escape the bonds of the lower class until
they make the determination that they are willing to work hard
and do what it takes to succeed.
The basic formatting rules of a successful ezine are geared to
take you solidly into the middle class in the ezine publishing
world.
BASIC STRUCTURE: When I speak of the word "structure", I suggest
this literally. Your ezine must have a "structure" to it, and
this structure must be maintained from issue to issue. Your
readers come to understand your basic structure, and in this
understanding they take comfort. If your structure changes from
issue to issue, your subscribers will take the cue and change
to another more stable ezine.
HTML MAIL OR STANDARD TEXT: Some publishers like HTML mail,
while others prefer standard text. A few even provide their
readers a choice of formats though this requires more work.
Considering both formats are used among the really rich, I
cannot say one would be better than the other. There are
however three considerations for making a format choice here.
One, HTML mail can seldom be read offline. Two, HTML mail can
sometimes be difficult to load on slow machines. And three, if
you choose to switch from one to the other, you would be better
off offering both formats instead. (Hint: If you construct your
ezine in your email application, and you have the choice
available to you to set the font or color inside your email,
you are using HTML email.)
STANDARD FONTS: While you may read your own email in Times New
Roman for example, the majority of your readers may not have
your tastes or your settings. You should always use Courier or
Courier New to format your ezine. Why? Because Courier is a
fixed-width font, and Times New Roman is a variable-width font.
An ezine formatted in Times New Roman and read in Courier
always looks funny, just like this
sentence does. This makes the publisher look unprofessional,
which often causes people to unsubscribe.
STANDARD WIDTHS: Carrying on the idea with using Courier as
your standard font, let me emphasize the importance of putting
a hard carriage return (hitting the Enter key) at the end of
every line. Since you are already using Courier as your font,
this becomes easy. What you want is to set your standard width
between 60 and 70 characters wide. I tend to stick with 65
myself. The reason again here is that text email readers have
a setting inside of them to "Wrap Lines at X Characters". The
default setting is usually 65 characters. The easiest way to
assure the set width is to use this little trick to measure out
65 characters:
123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-12345
Though I write my ezine in Microsoft Word, I always copy and
paste it to Notepad before pasting it to my email software. The
reason I do this is because in Notepad, the standard font is
Courier. I maximize Notepad and turn Word Wrap off. In doing
so, now I can see the whole issue and know for a fact that I
have hit Enter at the end of every line. If I did not, then
the line will stretch across my screen to infinity!
SECTION AND ITEM DIVIDERS: Within the general formatting of an
ezine, you should always provide clear breaks between sections
and items. Your reader does not want to be confused as to which
section of the ezine he is in and does not want to be confused
about where one story ends and the next begins. If this happens
too much, they will simply unsubscribe to your publication.
There are several ways to go about defining clear dividers.
Some people use lines and some people use white space. I tend
to use a mix of both. White space is achieved simply by hitting
Enter a number of times to create several blank lines. Whether
using lines or white space for your dividers, you should always
make a distinction between a section divider and an item divider.
They should not be the same, but easily distinguished from one
another. A section is defined as a general set of items.
Another way people define section and item dividers is with
ASCII art which I am going to talk about next.
ASCII ART: Ascii Art is defined as a set of keyboard characters
used to make a picture. The most common of Ascii Art is the
Smiley :-)
A reader told me once that Ascii Art inside an ezine makes you
look like an amateur. He said that I provided good content and
the Ascii Art detracted from the overall quality of my ezine.
The issue came up because I had in place a questionnaire for
people who unsubscribed from my ezine. One person told me that
the extreme use of Ascii Art was the only reason they were
leaving, so I sent a poll to all of my readers. Over 60% of
my readership replied, and 99% of those people did not like
the Ascii Art themselves and asked that I do away with it.
The nasty thing about Ascii Art in an ezine is that in order
for it to look pretty, you must use Courier to format the ezine.
Then when the reader opens it in Times New Roman, it turns your
art into pure gibberish.
IN CONCLUSION:
In Part One, we have covered the basic structure, the use of
html email or standard text email, standard fonts and widths,
section and item dividers, and the use of Ascii Art in an ezine.
If you want to grow your ezine into the middle class by breaking
the plateau of your 500th subscriber, then you should take a
good hard look at your formatting points.
The whole premise of formatting and the individual points of
formatting revolves around one central issue. That issue is
simplifying the experience for your readers. If you make it
easy for your readers to read your publication, your readers
will make it easy for you to grow the size of your subscriber
base.
In Part Two, we will continue to move forward with a look at the
table of contents and static content, URL and email hyperlinks,
and advertising in an ezine.
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