| |
|
|
A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Publishing Ezines or Online Newsletters
by Bill Platt
Published on this site: April 19th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
All of the rich-and-famous internet business guru's tell you
that "the money is in the list."
Of course, when people talk about "the list", they
are talking about your list of email addresses of people who
have opted-in to receive mailings from you. In some cases,
people have simply opted-in to receive advertising from you.
In most cases, people have opted-in to receive a daily, weekly,
monthly or quarterly online newsletter from you.
The reason why "the list" is so important to your
goals of profit, is because most people will not buy from
someone until they have "heard of that person" or
"heard from that person" seven times. This is the
"Marketing Golden Rule of Seven".
What it boils down to is that people only buy from businesses
they trust. And in most cases, it is nearly impossible to
build that trust, except through repetition. Through repeat
contact with a potential customer, a business can build a
significant level of trust with their subscriber base.
This is why it is so important for an online business owner
to contemplate publishing an ezine. Even if you don't yet
have a live ezine, you should still put the systems in place
to build your "list". You can always start publishing
an ezine at some future date. So, it would be better to have
your list started when you are ready to put out that first issue of your ezine.
Designing a Winning Ezine Formula
When designing your ezine, there are several factors you
should consider. All of these factors could affect the profitability
of your ezine publishing venture.
Are You Going to Publish Your Ezine in HTML or Text Format?
Both formats have their advantages and disadvantages. The
biggest advantage to the HTML format is that you can make
your ezine visually appealing through the use of HTML. The
biggest disadvantage is that a lot of people still do not
have the mailing software that will allow them to view your ezine in
the same way that you designed it. In the past, a number of
people did not even have access to email software that would
allow them to view HTML email at all. This is the reason why
so many ezines got started in the Text format to begin with,
and they have just never changed.
The advantages on the Text format is the general feeling that
everyone who receives it will be able to read it. And, for
constructing a new issue, it is pretty painless to put everything
together. The disadvantage is that plain text is not nearly
as attractive as HTML formatting.
How Frequently are You Going to Publish?
Ezine publishers are sending their ezines anywhere from
once a quarter to five days per week.
For a lot of people, this is a really big decision.
When I was publishing my ezines, I would mail once every two
weeks. It felt as if it were not too much, and it were not
too little. That is always the balance you will have to seek.
You want to be frequent enough that people will pay attention
to your mailings. But, you must be careful not to go out too
frequently in terms of both your subscribers and yourself.
Some people don't have the time to read daily newsletters.
You must consider their needs too. You want to go out as frequently
as possible, without seeming too pushy.
The other side is according to your own schedule. For the
longest time, I felt that once every two weeks was not quite
enough... But then my business took off big. All of a sudden,
my business was steaming so fast and furious that I did not
have the time to publish. I had to take care of my paying
customers first and foremost.
Your Layout Is Important
Your ezine layout should be visually-friendly and easy-to-read.
There are two baic layout rules to follow.
First, you should use lots of white space between paragraphs
and sections to reduce reader's eye-strain. If your ezine
strains your reader's vision, your readers may quit reading,
no matter how good your content might be.
Second, you should use dividers between primary sections so
that people who like to scan can jump to what they are most
interested in reading.
Consistency
This next rule applies to both HTML and Text formatted
ezines. You should establish a set format for how your ezine
will appear to readers, and you should follow that basic template
with every issue. Having a basic template allows your readers
to learn what sections of your ezine they are most interested
in reading, then they can jump right to that section on cue.
Choosing a Topic
It is often best to examine the people who are the people
who are most likely to buy your products or services. What
are they interested in?
If you offer webhosting services, you should discuss in your
ezine things that are important to webmasters.
If you sell pet accessories, then you should talk about all
things dog and cat.
If you sell vitamins, you should talk about good health.
See how easy this is?
A Personal Touch
Every issue of your ezine should carry a personal touch
of you within it, unless you are a big corporation. Many people
don't fancy themselves great writers, so they turn to others
for the primary content in their ezine. We will look at that
next.
The personal touch that I speak of could be as simple as a
one-paragraph introduction to each issue. For that matter,
tell people about the latest antics of your dog. The important
point is to let your readers see a bit of you in every issue,
enabling your reader to feel that they know you one-on-one.
That can be a huge trust builder for you.
Locating Great Content
There is a type of content available referred to as Free
Reprint Articles. What this means is that you are free to
use the available articles without monetary cost, so long
as you agree to follow all other Terms of Use that accompany
the article.
In most cases, the most frequent term that writers are concerned
with is that you use their About The Author information without
change, and you hyperlink any URL's pointing to their websites.
The writer is willing to allow you to use his or her content,
provided you are willing to allow him or her to advertise
in your ezine through the About The Author information.
Websites Where You Can Search for Content
There are actually many sources you can go to to find
reprint articles. Here is a few websites where you can go
to search for reprint articles:
http://www.EzineArticles.com
http://www.IdeaMarketers.com
http://www.Isnare.com
http://www.SubmitYourArticle.com/articles/
http://content.thePhantomWriters.com
Mailing Lists that Will Send You Targetted Content
If you would prefer articles to be mailed to you on subjects
that you are most interested in, there are several resources
for that too. As far as mailing lists go, there are four primary
networks that serve the vast majority of article submissions.
All but one of the large article distribution networks are
powered by companies in the article distribution business.
Rather than to divide these article mailing lists up by topic,
I am going to break them down by network. Each network generally
serves a different set of writers. My own polling has indicated
that the average writer only submits articles to seven groups,
unless they utilize a distribution service.
All of the following article mailing lists serve a specific
niche:
All-In-One-Business.com Mailing Lists (No Distribution Services)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aageneral
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aahome
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aahealth
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aainet
SubmitYourArticle.com Mailing Lists
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-business
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-internetmarketing
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-finance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-legal
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-politicsandgovernment
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-homeandfamily
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-religionandfaith
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-referenceandeducation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-social
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-selfimprovement
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-healthandfitness
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-travelandleisure
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-artsandentertainment
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/submityourarticle-computersandinternet
Isnare.com Mailing Lists
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_business_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_marketing_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_internet_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_medical_business_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_real_estate_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_political_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_sports_articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_travel_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_parenting_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-dating-articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_gardening_articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-pet-content/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_automotive_articles/
thePhantomWriters.com Mailing Lists
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/realworld-advertising-articles
http://groups.google.com/group/spider-search-articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles-about-economics
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/real-estate-information
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sales-marketing-tips
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/leadership_training
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/employment-hunting-tips
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/photography-and-digital-images
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/improve-your-finances
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/self-improvement-reprint-articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/home-improvement-articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/automotive_content
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/health-and-wellness-articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/relationship-advice-contentS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nature-reprints
There are more than 300 article distribution mailing lists
available in the open market. Many of these lists accept all
content, but the vast majority tackle these individual topics,
plus a wide range of other individual topics.
It is simply a matter of searching out the mailing lists that
most closely represent the kinds of content that you would
like to utilize in your ezine.
Finding a Good List Server
There are many mailserver companies out there. Of the
free mailing list server companies, the three best in my preferred
order are:
http://groups.yahoo.com
http://groups-beta.google.com
http://lists.topica.com
A good mailing company will give you a simple and secure subscription
process. It will give you online archives. It will provide
traffic through their site to give you an additional source
for new subscribers.
With the free services, you have to endure some of the mailing
server company's paid advertising within your ezine issue,
but that is a small cost when you consider how costly some
of the paid services can be.
In Conclusion...
Once you have navigated the planning and design process,
the actual setup and delivery of your ezine is a pretty straight
forward process. Once you have developed your winning formula,
your largest commitment with every issue is in finding the
best articles to place into your ezine.
With this guide, it is my hope that you will discover the
perfect formula for your ezine and the perfect sources for
locating the best articles to include in your ezine issues.
Good luck in your ezine publishing endeavors.
.
Bill Platt is the owner of http://thePhantomWriters.com
He has been involved in ghost writing articles since 2000,
and he has been distributing client articles since 2001. To
find more mailing lists that are targetted to other specific
categories, you can check his list of 142 article distribution
mailing groups at:
http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/groups/management.html
|
| |
|
|
