Standardize Your Ezine Methods
Writing an ezine can take a lot of time - unless you are quite gifted. You should be a good writer in order
to stay fresh and unique - not rely on others to do all the writing for you. If you use other's articles,
mix them in with your own, or make sure you use ones that are not widely circulated .
Streamline your efforts by creating a template of the format you use. Just replace
the articles, ads, and other features over the top of the last issue. You may want to save the template on
its own, or overwrite a previous issue - if you overwrite, save a copy of all your issues in a file with
dates. You may wish to refer back to one at some point.
Keep a small memo book or notebook with you at all times, along with a pen or pencil. Jot notes as you
think of them. Perhaps you hear a great joke, or you think of a great article, or hear someone complaining
about a problem which may put an idea solution in your head.
Write your articles onto a Word document, or other work processing document, so that you can spell check it,
and look for other problems. Ideally, write it one day, and look it over a day or two later. Read it as if
you are reading someone else's work - and be critical. Proof it and make it better, stronger, and perfect.
If you are not a good writer, try to at least write some of your own thoughts into the ezine. Don't
merely use others' articles without adding some content of your own. People will trust you more if they
feel they know you or relate to you.
So You Want to Write an Ezine, Or You Got Tired of It
Yes, it is work to keep up an ezine or newsletter. You need to
constantly come up with new content – your own articles,
other people's articles, tools and sites of interest, new sales
and products. You need a way to send it out, to delete bad
addresses, to get past the spam filters – is it worth it? For
some, yes – for others, no.
If you are tired of writing an ezine, that is understandable –
the challenges have become great in publishing successfully.
You are not able to stay consistent with the schedule, or you
are having trouble thinking up new content. Or you haven't
been able to grow your list or sell advertising. The spam
filters have been bouncing back a high amount of your issues,
and when you ask for feedback, no one writes back to you
unless it says "remove." Frustrating.
If you are thinking of starting an ezine – think it over
carefully. Are you up to the task? Do you know how to
promote and to write, to get people to want to read what you
have to say? Do you have a program to use that will send out
your ezine for you? Can you manage your list of subscribers?
Will your ISP allow you to send out bulk emails? Do you know
how to find good resources to share?
Start with your site – is it a good one people want to look over?
If so, ask them to subscribe for new news related to the site
content. If not, fix your site. Make it one that people will want to
return to. If people see usefulness in your offerings, you'll get
them excited to see what new things you can show them and tell
them.
Think about ads – don't put many into any issue, and if yours
is new, don't sell ad space until you are past 1000 subscribers.
Make the issue one to give information and resources to the
reader – not to push ads and your newest program. That does
not build trust.
What is the content you will use? Your own writings? Other's
articles? Either way, you need to spend time either writing, or
reading the articles to make sure they are of appropriate content.
Keep each issue to a similar overall theme – do not scatter topics
that are not related, or that have nothing to do with the site that
people subscribed from – this is the information they expected to
target.
You will need to have a reliable program to send the issues with
or through – either a bulk mailer, such as WorldMerge, or a
list server, such as topica.com – and your ISP must support the
sending of bulk email on their terms if you send them yourself.
Email addresses bounce for varied reasons – people switch to
another email program, or have moved, or quit paying, or have
gotten canceled for spamming, etc. It is a chore to remove the
bounces on your own list – especially when the person set up a
forwarding address – which makes it hard to track down. When
this happens, I send a "test" email to all readers using their
subscriber addresses in the mailing – and bounces come back to
me with the subscriber address.
Each issue needs to be written, and proofread – then edited for
correct format. If you are horrible at grammar – get someone
else to check it for you – you do not build up credibility by
sending out issues full of errors.
You need subscribers – ones who will be READERS. The only
way to do this is to make sure they are targeted – interested in
the topic you will send them. That does not come from offering
free ads to subscribers, or from buying non-targeted subscribers.
It comes from promoting your site and signing up with programs
that target that topic, giving people a choice to ask to sign up for
your ezine. You need to give them what they want to read, so
they will open up your issues and read them.
Yes - it's a lot of work. You can make it work, though, with
some assistance, or with a lot of perseverance. You'll have
challenges, and be caught in spam-traps. You'll sometimes feel
you have to start your subscribers again from scratch. You'll
get frustrated – but keep your focus on each issue and it should
pay off. When things seem hopeless – send out a plea to your
readers to tell you what they want to see that you can change.
You can ask that of those who ask to be removed (by the way,
you have to "get over it" when you get removal requests – you
WILL get them). Hang in there or give it up – only you can
know what feels right for you.
~~~~~~~~~
P. Roe has been writing ezines since 1996 – and knows the
struggles. She can help any new or frustrated publisher put his
issues together – from proofing to writing articles to sending
out the issues to deleting bounces to fixing websites – at
http://doubleii.com/webservices.htm
More articles http://doubleii.com/articlesreports.htm
