Publishing
Your Own Ezine
Revised 2002 by Willie Crawford
I receive a lot of email from subscribers
wanting to start their own ezine. For those of you who
haven't discovered this "secret" yet, this is
one of the most effective online methods of marketing
there is. You have hundreds, and then thousands of
prospects invite you to place your email offerings
directly in their email boxes - week after week. If you
do a good job, they anxiously await each issue, and they
look over your offers. THERE IS NO MORE-EFFECTIVE
ADVERTISING MEDIUM AVAILABLE TO INTERNET MARKETERS!!! So
there is the why - now on to the how.
If you look at the abundance of ezines out there, you
soon realize that to publish an ezine all you need is: a
theme, ads, and articles. You need a theme to
differientiate your ezine from all the other ezines out
there. Readers certainly have a lot of ezines to choose
from - so you need to give them a reason to choose yours.
You also need to give them a reason to stick with yours -
OR THEY WANT!!
Next - you need articles. You can write you own, and you
can use other writers articles. Most of the writers who
have articles posted on my site gave me permission to
post them for two reasons. They hoped ezine publishers
will email them asking for permission to reprint their
articles - thus building their online image, and - they
know the more places their articles appear, the more free
publicity they get. Having their articles appear all over
the web establishes them as an expert. Visit my archives
for tons of great article on internet marketing that you
may be able to use in your ezines. You can literally get
a free marketing education by reading these articles.
Your second option for articles is to write them
yourself. One of the things that make an ezine a cut
above the rest is FRESH articles. So if you are a good
writer with a lot of experience or a good researcher, you
should write your own articles every now and then. I have
found writing ezine articles very satisfying. It's
especially satifying when you see you work translated
into another language or posted on someone else's
autoresponder. That tells you that you have produced
something of real value! But - I digress :-)
Now that you have your theme, and articles, you want ads.
You want to put your own ads in your ezine because this
allows you to present your wares to your target audience.
Make sure you offer your readers only reputable offers
and real value. If you do, many of them will become your
customers over time. If not, they will grow disappointed
and unsubscribe very quickly.
To gain more exposure, you may want to trade ads with
other ezine publishers. You publish their ad or press
release; they publish yours in exchange. You both get
twice the exposure, and at a fraction of the cost. Then,
you want to sell ad space. You need to build a large
subscriber base to be able to successfully sell ad space.
I know I only buy ads in the larger ezines. In fact, I
usually look for customer testimonials on the success
their ads have had in a particular ezine BEFORE I will
even consider paying for an ad in that ezine. From a
practical business sense, that is one of the criteria I
use, and one that you should use too. After you have
built up your subscriber base, look at what others with
similar circulation are charging and charge a similar
fee. The more methods of payment you accept, the more
customers you are accessible to!
So now that you have your ezine, you need subscribers and
you need to get it mailed out. To get subscribers the
simpliest way is to list your ezine on the many boards
and lists around the internet that offer to list a
complete description of ezines FREE. There are many lists
out there. They generally list a description of ezines
along with instructions on how to subscribe
and sometimes ad rates. Write me if you need contact info
on these site at willie@williecrawford.com. You can also
place ads in ezines offering a free subscription.
Finally, you can email all of the folks you correspond
with regularly telling them of your great ezine. If it's
any good, you will find your subscriber list growing
fairly fast.
Finally, you need to mail out your ezine. I have noticed
three routes here. You can mail it out yourself using
your email program. Publishers use Eudora Pro,
Pegassus,or even Outlook Express to mail out their ezines
with no real problems. Each of these programs has it's
plus and minuses and I have articles posted on my site
about them. I have tried Eudora Pro and Pegassus, but
found that I out-grew them for sending out an ezine to a
large subscriber list. I still use Eudora Pro to send my
basic email and to filter much of my incoming email.
A second option is to use a professional list management
program offered by your ISP or to use a professional list
management firm. If you'd like to know what service I
recommend, just drop me a line.
Two other issues you have to deal with are how frequently
to publish and what types of ads to accept. I recommend
publishing weekly because most publishers need this much
time to put together each issue. I also recommend that
before you send out each weeks issue, you email it to
both yourself and to a friend for proofreading. This way,
you will catch and can fix mistakes before presenting
them to a very unforgiving world. You friend will catch
mistakes that you didn't notice simply because you are
seeing what you meant instead of what you wrote.
On the issue of what ads to accept - realize that even
though these ads may not be your offers, if you publish
really questionable offers this will inevitably tarnish
your image. Also, limit the number and size of ads you
publish in each issue. Your readers are most interested
in the information packed articles you publish but may be
looking for a product to use or add to their line too.
The ads are a side issue in the minds of most of your
readers - remember this to keep subscribers.
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Willie Crawford has taught thousands the secrets of
operating
a successful on-line business through his free Internet
Business Success Course. It's more extensive than many
$197
courses. Sign up today and start building your
*successful*
online business: http://williecrawford.com/
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Note:
This article first appeared in our ezine, Limitless
Marketing Ezine. I publish original material
similar to this in each weekly issue. If you are not
a subscriber please sign up today using the form at:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
Feel free to publish this article in your ezine,
in your ebook or on your website. A note telling me
that you published the article would be appreciated.
My email address is willie@williecrawford.com
Thank you,
Willie Crawford
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