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.
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.
Willie Crawford has been teaching Internet marketing for
over 9 years. Take advantage of his uncanny insights and
experiences by subscribing to his free, information packed
newsletter at http://WillieCrawford.com/ezine.html
