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While sending out a text e-zine may seem like a piece of cake, there's more to it than you may think. *Good formatting* is the name of the game. Here's a handy checklist I use to make sure each of my issues is in great shape BEFORE I send it out. Please be my guest and use it for yourself! Are all lines 65 characters or less? More than that and your missive may come through looking messy to many subscribers. End each line with a hard return by pressing the "enter" key. Have you made sure there's no auto-formatting,... Read More
One morning this past fall, I was going through my e-mail inbox, relentlessly deleting junk mail. As you're likely well aware, many spam messages are made to look like they're from a real person. One name briefly caught my eye: "Jeff Bezos." But because I was in furious deletion mode, I didn't recognize it. Also, it had a salesy subject line: "New Apparel Store Now Open." So I hit the delete key. A few minutes later, it occurred to me that I knew that name -- Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon.com. I rescued the message from my delete... Read More
There are two reasons to publish an ezine. 1.) Give people information about your site, your product, or your industry. 2.) Keep your website information in front of people for as long as you can without having to spend more money to do it. Really, when you sit right down to think about it... that's why we do it. But, are you getting the most out of your ezine? Is your ezine living up to it's full potential? Before Anything Else Your Ezine IS Your Business. When someone comes to me to for an advertising plan for their... Read More
The theory of writing for newsletters is very similar to that of writing for press releases and other media work, but with newsletters there is one crucial difference. Whereas with an external publication you're quality-controlled by someone outside your organization (the publication's editor) who is therefore independent and autonomous, the equivalent person connected with an internally produced newsletter is either you, or someone else who gets paid by your organization.Consequently newsletters have a sad habit of falling prey to the same self-indulgent and boring content as the misguided, subjective, self-congratulatory press releases so many organizations issue. Only this time, it's... Read More
What makes your ezine hot stuff? With literally thousands of ezines online today, how can yours stand out or is it doomed to stay in the junk mail folders??The first thing to think about is, what is your ezine about? Do you have a clue? If you don't know then you can bet a million dollars that your readers haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about.Define what your purpose is in the first place.Information, Advertising, Current Events, Reviews.The choice is yours and the possibilities are endless..One of the biggest mistakes I see a lot of people do is... Read More
What's the point in spending hours preparing a newsletter, message or report if it's automatically filtered into the junk folder before the recipient even sees it? Spam threatens to choke the communication channels promising global freedom of expression. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), corporate server administrators and end users are increasingly using new anti-spam technology to try to stem the relentless tide of junk email flooding the Net. The problem is: how can we prevent the dolphins from being caught along with the sharks? The origin of 'spam' SPAM is a pink canned luncheon meat immortalised in Monty Python's spam-loving Vikings... Read More
I sat here this morning, and decided to work out exactly how much time I use on creating my weekly ezine, and I almost kinda shocked myself. I`m not the ONLY publisher who refuses to automate, so please, after reading my hours, spare a kind thought for all those other publishers out there that do everything manually, and who really take the time to get down to a personal level with their subscribers.Typical daily hours for me as an ezine publisher- Reading other ezines/newsletters: About 4 hours per day. - Looking for the right content: 5-6 hours per day -... Read More
If you've been promoting your business on the internet you've probably heard how important it is to have a list. And that it's also important to publish an ezine.So are you publishing and ezine? If not, why? Is it because you are too nervous or lack confidence?I can understand how you feel. I've been there, even though I'm a journalist and published my own niche, non-profit newsletter for a year.But when I started a home business and realized I needed to write about internet marketing - a subject I was still unfamiliar with - I froze up.I simply could not... Read More
1. Give Incentives Give people an incentive to subscribe to your e-zine. Offer them a freebie if they subscribe. It could be a free e-book, free report, free advertising, etc. Make sure the freebie will attract your target audience. 2. Joint Venture Joint venture with a similar e-zine. Combine your subscriber bases together and publish one e-zine. Edit and publish each issue together. You both will be promoting the e-zine which means more subscribers. 3. Allow Archiving Allow your subscribers to archive back issues of your e-zine on their web site. They may need content for... Read More
You've convinced me that I want to sign up for your newsletter. Now that I'm ready, what do I do? I go to thesignup box on the current web page and complete the form.But wait... what are you asking for? If you're asking formore than my name and email address, I will hesitate. After all, if you're going to send me an email newsletter,why do you even need my name, much less my street address,city, state, zip, telephone number, number of people in myhousehold, etc. My email address should be enough. Now I'llgive you my name, because I understand that... Read More
Are You Ready For The Publishing Revolution?Writing has traditionally been considered a solitary craft. You wrote you article or book in seclusion. You submitted it to an editor or publisher and prayed it would be published.Along comes the Internet and the monsters out of the cage. You now have the ability to self publish your work. You can throw up a Blog, hook up to an RSS feed and syndicate your writing.You can form online communities with other writers. Readers can give immediate feedback on your work. You can promote your work in the virtual book stores such as Amazon.The... Read More
Have you been publishing an e-mail newsletter for at least six months but still aren't seeing real results (read: revenue) from it? Don't fret - you may just need a tune up. Here are five ways to kick your e-zine income into gear this year: TOOT YOUR OWN HORN MORE The adage goes, "If you don't blow your own horn, someone else will use it as a spittoon." If your focus is providing your readers with useful information that enriches their lives and businesses, bravo! That SHOULD be your focus. But now I want you to look out for yourself... Read More
We all know that an e-zine won't attract and keep subscribers without offering insightful, practical content. If you only drone on and on about how wonderful you and your services/products are, your readers won't stick around for long. But let's think about WHY you began your e-zine in the first place. It was likely to use it as a vehicle to promote you and your services/products, right? You have every right to toot your own horn in your e-zine, as long as you don't drown out the useful content your readers are looking for. You work hard on your e-zine,... Read More
If you publish an e-mail newsletter, or "e-zine," you'll need to sign on with a list service (or "listserve") to manage your subscriber list. There are many types of listserves out there, so here are some guidelines to help you choose one that's right for you. Do they use MULTI-PART MIME technology? You'll need this if you want to publish an HTML newsletter. Otherwise you'll have to send out multiple versions for users who can read HTML, users who can't read HTML, and users on AOL. Do they offer some type of ORIENTATION OR TUTORIAL? If you're new to the... Read More
Are you doing "the bounce"? No, it's not a new hip-hop dance. A bounce, or bounce-back, is an e-mail that is returned to you because it cannot be delivered for some reason. You've probably gotten bounces on your own personal e-mail program, when you send an e-mail and then receive a response saying it was undeliverable. These get to be more of a headache, however, when you publish an e-zine. Sending e-mail to more people means more bounce-backs. And too many bounce-backs can cause your mailings to be blocked with certain Internet service providers, meaning many of your e-mails won't... Read More
While I run my business completely online, I really enjoy attending in-person events and seminars here in Los Angeles and around the country. I'm sure you find these events valuable too. The problem most of us have with networking, however, is following up with the people we meet. An easy way to follow-up powerfully and automatically is to turn these folks into e-zine subscribers. This ensures that you'll have the chance to repeatedly teach them how great your products/services are while building their trust in you. But how do you "capture" people in person? Remember, you can NEVER sign someone... Read More
I get many e-zines in my inbox every week, and they all offer useful information. But there are some I enjoy more than others. What do the ones I love have in common? They feel like they come from a REAL person. These publishers put some heart-and-soul into their e-zines. They share information about themselves. And because I feel like I know them personally, I'm more likely to buy from them at some point. I can also share with you that once I began sharing a bit about ME in my e-zine, my response rates increased dramatically. More readers... Read More
A few years ago, when I first started seeing HTML e-zines in my inbox, I admit I was jealous. They were attractive, attention getting, snazzy. They made my text e-zines look boring. But my mind fought the idea of upgrading my own. "My readers appreciate my e-zine for its content," I told myself. "They don't need some slick design to get their attention. They just want my information, straight up. Publishing in HTML won't make a difference." I was wrong. Well, I was right that my readers receive my e-zine for its content. After all, that's why they subscribed -... Read More
While many new e-zine publishers are anxious about developing good content for their e-zines, many of them seem to have more trouble simply deciding on a schedule and sticking to it! It's smart to tame the schedule beast right from the start. Here are a few tips to help you. Realistically consider how much time you want to spend on your e-zine. For your beginning stages, plan on at least five hours to develop each issue if you're developing your own content. This includes time for researching, writing, formatting, proofreading, and publishing. And this estimate is for an e-zine featuring... Read More
Do you place back-issues of your Newsletter onyour website?There are two good reasons why you should:(1) It shows potential subscribers that you'reserious about your Newsletter(2) Newsletters are rich in keywords, so it'sa very good idea to turn back-issues of yourNewsletter into HTML documents and then submitthem to the major Search EnginesHere's a little trick that will help you formatyour Newsletter as an HTML document:Copy the text of your Newsletter into a text editorsuch as NOTEPAD.Then copy the text from NOTEPAD into Microsoft Word.You'll notice that in your Word document, each lineends with a Paragraph Mark.Now go to EDIT | REPLACE.Place... Read More
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