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How to
start your own E-zine in eight steps.
By Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
Are you a writer? A business owner? A webmaster? Or maybe
someone with information you want to share? What better way to
promote anything you have than through a newsletter?
If "Information is King" on the Internet, then email is king of
all promotional media on the Internet. No matter how many
promotional strategies get developed for the Internet, email is
still going to rule. Why do you think email newsletters are
sprouting like mushrooms? They wouldn't be leaping by the numbers
everyday if there aren't any markets or audience for ezines.
So how do you go about starting your own ezine or newsletter? Here
are the basic eight steps:
1. Know what kind of ezine you want to produce and why. Ask
yourself these questions:
= Why would I want to start my own ezine?
= What kind of information or content will I put there?
= What kind of resource, knowledge or information do I have
that's uniquely mine; that which other people need?
= How do I create a need for the kind of information I
have?
2. Know your audience. Once you have determined what kind of ezine
you want to produce, ask yourself these questions:
= Will my ezine have a target age range?
= If my ezine is for writers, what kind of writers will
they be? Freelance? Beginners? Technical writers? Working writers?
= If I'm going to promote my products and services in the
ezine, what other outside information can I add to keep my readers
interested?
= Is my ezine going to be region-specific or global?
Subscribe to ezines similar to the one you are planning to start.
Observe what articles are published, how the ezine is presented,
how advertisements are written and how all these are presented
with the ezine's audience in mind.
3. Once you've identified your readers, know where to find them.
Before you even start your ezine, have an ezine promotion plan
ready. Know where you'll be promoting your ezine.
If you're starting an ezine, go ahead and sign up for these
announcement lists:
= Get More Subs
mailto:getmoresubs-subscribe@egroups.com
= Sites and Zines
mailto:sitesandzines-subscribe@egroups.com
= Smart Announce
mailto:smart-announce-subscribe@egroups.com
= Announce List
mailto:announce-subscribe@egroups.com
= Ezines Today
mailto:ezinestoday-subscribe@egroups.com
= Zine Directory
mailto:ZineDirectory-subscribe@egroups.com
For an even more comprehensive list of where you can announce,
promote and find subscribers, send an email to
mailto:FreeAdsReport@fastfacts.net
the List Announcement Report by Angela Giles Klocke. This report
is updated, with new
announcement lists added on a regular basis.
You can gain subscribers by joining discussion lists too.
Participate in discussions. Take advantage of your signature file.
Put your ezine's info and subscription email on it. The more
active you are, the more people will see your sig file. Even if
you've not set the date of your ezine's first issue, it's never
too early to promote your ezine and make people aware of it.
Since you're observing all those other ezines you've subscribed
to, you might as well contact the owners and find out if they put
out free ads. Also, it won't hurt if you submit free articles for
publication. Most ezines are non-paying but they pay writers
another way: free advertisement in exchange for an article. This
will help you attract more subscribers.
4. Decide how frequent you'll publish and send out your ezine. If
you decide to publish it on a monthly basis, then be sure to send
it on time. Be prompt. If you decide to send out your ezine every
month, stick to this.
Avoid sending out separate announcements. Your subscribers will be
subscribing to your ezine with the knowledge that they'll get it
*once* a month, so think twice before you send out short emails,
no matter how urgent they are.
However, there'll be times when you won't be able to meet your
deadline. Don't leave your subscribers hanging. Inform them that
you will be unable to come out with an issue.
5. Decide on your ezine's content. You can write original articles
for your ezine and you can also consider using free articles.
A number of places on the Internet offer free articles. Using
articles freely provided by their authors is a good way to create
an image that you have contributors. Some writers are willing to
have their articles published for free in exchange for having
their resource boxes published along with their article. It's a
win-win situation between you and your guest writers.
Here's a list of where you can look for free articles:
= Ezine Articles
http://www.ezinearticles.com
= Publish In Yours
mailto:publishinyours-subscribe@onelist.com
= Media Peak
http://www.mediapeak.com
= Free Content
mailto:free-content-subscribe@onelist.com
= IdeaMarketers
http://www.ideamarketers.com
= Worldwide Information Outlet
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
= The Internet News Bureau
http://www.newsbureau.com
= Internet Wire
http://www.internetwire.com
However, never depend on free content to run your ezine. Make sure
you publish one or two original articles you've written.
6. Decide if you will completely be email-based or you will have a
complementing web site. If you decide to have a web site, be sure
to update it and work on it on the same frequency as you will work
on your email newsletter. You will need to know some HTML in order
to do this. There are several web sites that offer free tutorial
on web page building.
7. Using a list manager can help you with your subscribers list.
There are a list management softwares available for a fee.
However, if you are on a shoe-string budget, you can use the free
web-based list management services of:
eGroups/ONElist
http://groups.yahoo.com/local/news.html
Topica
http://www.topica.com
Listbot
http://www.listbot.com
If you're new to the concept of how mailing lists lists work, the
article Email Lists: Lurk, Speak Up, Jump Right In! explains how
lists works, the types of lists and how you can sign up and start
your own list. It's available by autoresponder. Send an email to
mailto:elists@sendfree.com
8. Ok, so you now have your first issue ready to go out in public.
You've followed the first seven steps and managed to get
subscribers. The next thing to do is to list your ezine in ezine
directories. This will help you gain even more exposure.
Here are ezine directories you can list your ezine in:
= E-zineZ.com
http://www.e-zinez.com
= Directory of Electronic
Journals and Newsletters
http://www.arl.org/scomm/edir/template.html
= Directory Of Ezines
http://www.lifestylespub.com
= Liszt
http://www.liszt.com/submit.html
= Ezine Seek
http://www.ezineseek.com
= eZINE Search
http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/
= Inkpot's Zine Scene
http://www.inkpot.com
= E-Zines Today
http://www.ezine-news.com
= Zine World
http://www.oblivion.net/zineworld
Getting that first issue out isn't the end of your being an ezine
publisher. If you want exposure, more subscriptions and success
for you and your ezine, you will need to continue writing,
promoting, writing, promoting, writing, promoting....
Shery Ma Belle Arrieta is a freelance writer. She publishes
3 ezines:
Sites, Biz and Zines!
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/sbz
WIRED! Philippines
http://www.msc.edu.ph/wired
Email Shery at
mailto:iamshery@msc.net.ph
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