List Building, Email Marketing And Ezine Publishing

Starting Your Own Ezine

So you want to start your own ezine. Great. You now need to ask yourself some questions and come up with firm answers.

• What are you good at?
  
  
• Whom are you aiming your ezine at?
  
  
• What is the purpose behind creating your ezine?
  

Without definite goals or targets, your ezine will flounder and drift. With a firm objective and a concrete game plan, you can soon be in the big leagues.

Your Ezine Topic - What are you good at?

Nothing? Think again. Everyone has something they love, which they know well and enjoy doing, which is a hobby or a passion.

It may be something as technical as writing smart Java applets for websites.

Or it may be a more emotional issue like raising children with special needs.

Or it might be mundane (peeling potatoes), esoteric (searching for creatures in outer space) or romantic (choosing honeymoon spots).

Whatever it is, by publishing your ezine on those topics you're good at, you stand the best chance of being successful.

Get Passionate About Your Ezine

Find a topic that's your passion. Whatever it may be, it should make you excited, energized, engaged. Choose a topic for your ezine that you are PASSIONATE about, which you ENJOY writing or talking about.

I don't mean you need to be an EXPERT (though being one would be great). You don't even need to know a lot about it. You simply need to be enthusiastic about it.

That positive energy will convey itself to your readers, get them involved and interactive, giving your ezine a spirit and life of its own. So think long and hard before fixing on a subject for your ezine.

Who Will Read Your Ezine?

Whom are you aiming your ezine at? It always helps to define your target audience. This will determine:

* the content of your ezine, which will be tailored to meet their needs.
* your marketing efforts, to get your ad or announcement in front of them.
* the products or services you will offer through your ezine.

Try and be as specific as possible. It is best to write down the characteristics of your intended audience.

What interests do they share?
How old are they?
Where do they live?
How much do they earn?
Spend?
On what items?

What is your ezine's purpose?

This is perhaps the most important question to answer. Define your most desired target response, or two.

Is your ezine a vehicle to advertise your own business to readers? Is it a way to bring them to your website, or request your brochure, or contact you by phone or fax or email?

Is it to announce new additions to your site, or special offers and discounts, or a new product launch? Do you want to instruct and educate (articles, news updates), entertain (jokes, riddles), inspire (quotes, advice) or sell (products, services)?

Your Ezine Content

It doesn't matter

* what your e-zine is about
* or how well formatted your ezine is
* or that you administer your e-zine excellently
* or that you are the top expert in your area
* or that you have a ezine subscriber list of many thousands

The Most Important Thing About Your E-Zine Is Its CONTENT

With every single ezine issue, you'll be judged harshly by your readers, many of them receiving your e-zine for the first time. And impressing them with exceptionally good content is the only trick in your bag!

What forms of ezine content should you use ?

It's your e-zine. You know best - or should - what your audience wants. Here are some suggestions:

* editorials
* feature articles
* news clips or stories
* aggregating the best content
* reviews
* announcements
* website updates
* interviews
* interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat

Ezine Content : Editorials

As an e-zine publisher, you are perceived as an 'expert' in your field. Over time, your readers will begin to trust your opinions and views on issues.

You can leverage that into e-zine content by writing editorials. Use an editorial to share your viewpoint on a topical - maybe controversial - issue in your ezine.

There is an added benefit to this strategy. Ezine readers will respond to your message, either endorse it or oppose it. Their feedback can be incorporated into a follow up article in a future issue of your ezine !

E-zine Content : Feature Articles

A feature article is the most common - and one of the best - forms of content in most ezines. Here are some ezine publishing tips for writing good feature articles for your e-zine:

* Articles shouldn't be too lengthy. Keep feature articles in your ezine content below 1200 words long.
* Articles should be relevant to the topic of your e-zine.
* Articles should educate or inform readers of your ezine.
* Articles should be original.

Be Original With Your Ezine Articles

Original means not copied, rehashed or reworded from somewhere else. It means adding something of unique value that only you can!

The originality should preferably extend to the idea, the concept behind the ezine write-up as well. Don't simply rehash an article you've read elsewhere. By publishing an article that hasn't been already featured in many other newsletters, you enhance the value of your own e-zine.

How To Create Original Ezine Content?

* Write your own ezine feature articles: It's hard work, but rewarding. And it assumes you can write reasonably well.

* Get someone to write e-zine articles specifically for you: It's difficult to arrange, but the long-term benefits are enormous.

* You could offer to pay guest authors for their ezine article or contribute an ezine article of your own to their publication in return. A fringe benefit is that you might hook some new subscribers to your ezine from your guest's list!

Keep Your Ezine Content Exclusive

Your Ezine Articles should be exclusive. If someone else writes for you, make sure the same article won't be submitted to dozens of other e-zines. Benefits from publishing exclusive content include

* syndication opportunities in other publications, online and off
* no risk of readers leaving you to find your content elsewhere

Reprint ezine articles only if you have to. Even then, add value by putting your own 'spin' on the content.

List Building and Ezine Marketing

So you've decided to start your own ezine. You've found out what you are going to say on it. You've determined the characteristics of your readership. And you've defined the purpose of your ezine.

Great. Now how do you proceed? You start list building. Get subscribers to your ezine. That's called ezine marketing.

Getting subscribers needs the old one-two - define your target audience, get your ezine's name in front of them, with a compelling offer to sign up.

Two Essentials for Great Ezine Marketing

There are two issues facing a ezine publisher:

1. Getting new subscribers.

2. Retaining them.

The first concern - getting new readers - is a reflection of your advertising and marketing success. Retaining them as long term subscribers is a measure of the quality and usefulness of your ezine's content. Both are necessary for a great ezine.

Finding and attracting new subscribers

This is a dilemma facing many new ezine publishers. You look around, and see many other ezines who already have a forbiddingly high readership. And you wonder how on earth you are going to compete with them.

Believe me, you can do it. It won't be easy, but it is definitely possible. All it needs is committment, dedication and a lot of hard work. The returns, though, make it all worthwhile.

Study the experts. Try out new ideas. Keep the ones that work well, and replace the rest. Soon your list building efforts will pay off.

Reaching your target audience

If you have already defined your readership, getting subscribers is a cinch. Just get your ezine's name in front of this population.

Let them know about it - what is it about, why should they subscribe, what makes you qualifed to write it. Write with conviction and passion, and the enthusiasm will convey itself to the prospect.

Then invite them to subscribe to your ezine. Tell them how - by sending you an email, or by registering on your website, or any other way. Explain why they should do it, and how they will benefit from signing up.

Incentives Boost Ezine Sign Ups

List building can be speeded up by incentives, bonuses and gifts.

Try and give your prospective subscribers an incentive to join. A free report or book, an entry into a contest or sweepstakes, or access to a members-only service or website - as long as they are related to the topic of your ezine, hooks like these add to the appeal of registering.

If the offer is attractive enough, they'll surely join - atleast to see what you are offering on your ezine. And if they like it, they may even tell a few friends about your ezine!

Advertising on Ezine Directories

"Build it, and they'll come" is a cliche that is seldom true on the World Wide Web. It applies equally poorly to ezines. To get subscribers, you need to promote it aggressively, constantly.

There are many ezine directories on the web, on which you should get your ezine registered. There are two good reasons to do this:

1. Subscribers find your ezine on these directories.
2. Advertisers find your ezine on these directories!

These directories work like the web search engines. Your ezine will be placed in the appropriate category.

Prepare Your Ezine Listing

Before registering your ezine on ezine directories, you will need:

1. A short description of your ezine, 25 words or less in length.

2. Instructions to subscribe to your ezine. Tip: Use the "mailto:" tag to make the email address a clickable link on the email message.

3. A way to let your potential subscribers read a sample issue of your ezine. You may provide this as a

* link to the page on your website where a sample issue resides
* mailto: link to an autoresponder that instantly sends a sample issue by email to the prospect

4. Contact Information - Your name, address, contact phone/fax/email, company name and website URL are required often.

Search Engines And Your Ezine

Don't forget that many new subscribers will find your ezine from a link on your website. So register your site with the search engines (at the very least, on the top ones - Yahoo, Google, Ask, Bing).

In addition, register with other niche directories and search engines which cater to your ezine's subject area specifically. On all of these webpages, place a link to your ezine's subscription form.

Then track your subscribers and you'll be surprised to see how many of them find you through these listings!

Ezine Announcement Lists

Submitting your ezine to directories is a painstaking and time-consuming task. There is another technique though, that is simpler and generates a sharp burst of new subscribers - making an announcement on ezine mailing lists.

Why do it?

* It is a relatively simple way to get a batch of new subscribers for your ezine.
* Announcements are archived on the list's web site so you'll receive some extra exposure.

Ezine Announcement lists get you a brief, yet sizable, burst of new subscribers.

List Building With Signatures

A method of gaining subscribers to your ezine that is still widely under-estimated is the humble signature file.

Everyone who sends out email signs their name to the end of each message. So how does a sig file help get subscribers to your ezine? Simple. Just add a short blurb about your ezine to your sig file, with a brief note on how to subscribe to it.

Use this signature on email, forums where you post, and any communication that goes out of your business - and you'll get massive reach and exposure for your ezine rapidly.

Ezine Promotion With Website Forms

Another avenue to gathering more subscribers for your ezine that is often over-looked is to use a SIGN-UP form on your website.

Obviously, this method applies only to those of you who have a website. But if you don't have one yet, you should think of setting one up soon. Your website provides information. This information might include details of a product or service you sell. It might be about you, your qualifications, your experience, your business and so on.

Sign up forms open up communication channels with visitors to your website. This is why you should have a sign-up form on your website. To capture your visitor's contact details - name, address, email id, and other demographic data.

Where To Place Ezine Sign Up Forms?

On every page of your site! Yes, no kidding.

Put your sign up form on EVERY page of your website. Offer a sign-up form on EVERY page of a site. The response rate will be dramatic. You'll get 5 to 50 to 500 new subscribers every day from your website alone, depending upon how much traffic your site receives!

By not doing this, you'll miss out on a chance to reach and attract visitors to some parts of your website - and that's not maximizing your ezine marketing efforts.

How to create an ezine sign-up form?

You will need to put up some HTML code which will generate a form in the browser of visitors to your website. When the visitor inputs name and email address into the form and clicks on the SUBSCRIBE button, they will be automatically added to your ezine list - and receive future issues of your email newsletter.

To make your list building automated and easy, use one of the email list providers like Aweber. These services handle all the tasks related to list building and ezine marketing, leaving you to focus on the important work of creating great content.

The exact HTML code used to create a sign-up form varies depending on the nature of your ezine delivery system.