I Want to Do an Ezine! Part 3
by Terri Seymour
When you publish an ezine, you most definitely want to provide useful, and original content as well as promoting your business. Some things you might want to include:
* Original Articles/Guest Articles - If you are not writing your own articles, please try it. Although guest articles can be very effective, it is always a good idea to have some original content as well.
There are lots of places to get articles:
Article Announcement Lists:
Article Directories:
You could also ask for article submissions in your ezine and on your website. Provide a special email to receive the articles such as:
mailto:ter02@newnorth.net?subject=articles
* Freebies - downloads, tools, ebooks, and any other useful Freebie you can find. Freebies can be found all over as well. Do a search for Free Downloads, Freebies, Free resources or whatever type of freebie you are looking for. There are also freebie ezines and email lists you can subscribe to.
* A Forum for Your Readers - A place where readers can vent, question, complain, interact, whatever comments or feedback they might want to send in. This also helps in starting that all important connection between reader and publisher.
* Human Interest Items - Inspirational stories or poems, people helping people, survival stories, whatever you think your readers might enjoy reading about.
* A Little Fun/Humor - We all need to laugh, so why not have a little fun with your readers!
Note: I would put the last two items together in one section because you do not want to get too far off the subject matter.
* Editorial/Personality - This is where you can let your readers get to know you so they can begin to trust you. Talk about interesting news items, things you have learned or experienced, relate to your readers. You need to make a connection with your readers. Make sure your personality shines through in your ezine. Make your ezine warm, friendly, and inviting while being informative and helpful.
* Ad Swaps/Ezine Ads - You want to make sure and have a section for ad swaps. Ad swapping is a great way to get free advertising as well as making new contacts and friends! I have a Free Ezine section which I use for my ad swaps.
To start swapping:
* Thank You Section for Your Readers - Take a small section for your readers to get some free exposure as a "Thank You" for subscribing. Appreciate them as they will appreciate you!
* Resources - Of course you want to provide lots of good and helpful resources. There are lots of places to find resources.
Do a search at your favorite search engine. Mine is http://www.google.com/
Join discussion lists - I get numerous resources from email lists. I just save them all in an email resource folder.
Spam - Yes, spam. I have found lots of resources from spam that I have received. Sometimes the sender has some useful information to check out. ( Some spam is just plain junk) You can soon learn to tell the junk spam from the "might be useful" spam! ;-)
Announcement Lists - Also a good source for resources.
* Tips & Tricks - Provide shortcuts, helpful hints and ideas to save your readers time and money! Ask your subscribers to submit their tips and tricks and use your own as well.
There are so many things you can have in your ezine! You will learn to keep your eyes open for useful items for your ezine. They can pop up anywhere at anytime! Make it a habit to save useful things you come across in folders in your email or on your desktop. Keep them organized so whenever you need them, you can get to them right away.
Ezine publishing is not hard, but you need to be able to organize and provide a quality ezine for your readers to stick with you. Be available to help and support your readers if/when they need you. This will go a long way in strengthening the reader/publisher bond!
You will find publishing a quality ezine to be very rewarding, not only financially, but personally and emotionally. Good luck with Your Own Ezine! ;-)
In the next part of the series we will cover ezine promotion. See you next week!
About The Author
Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com
Learn to publish and promote your own ezine. mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com
For a complete list of my articles available for reprint please email: mailto:myownezine-index@getresponse.com
ATTN: Ezine Publishers, save hours of your valuable time! http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?710
ter02@newnorth.net
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Newsletter Marketing Articles
More By Developer Shed
 developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
This demonstration gives you an overview of IBM® Rational® Build Forge Express Edition, a global offering that provides a framework to automate and execute software processes. Rational Build Forge provides a software assembly line that can support all of your tools, technologies, and platforms so you can achieve a repeatable, reliable, and traceable build and release process.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Visit IBM developerWorks to download a free trial version of WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid, which lets you schedule, execute, and monitor batch jobs. Because online transaction processing and batch jobs execute simultaneously on the same server resources, you can avoid costly duplication of resources. Compute Grid supports job types of Java transactional batch, compute-intensive and a new type called "native execution", which enables non-Java workloads to run on distributed end points.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions help organizations evolve core IT systems towards modern architectures and technologies—reducing the burden of maintenance and freeing up resources to develop new business requirements and capabilities. With the IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z you can evaluate IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions focused on five key areas: Assets, Architectures, Skills, Processes and Infrastructures, and Investment. Each solution is based upon real customer experiences and offers a proven path to get you started with your modernization projects.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
As systems increase in complexity, communication between systems and software teams becomes more and more difficult. Now, there’s a way to improve product quality and communication.<br />Read the “Model Driven Systems Development” white paper to see how. Also included in this kit are more educational white papers, customer examples, tutorials, informative Webcasts, and best practices for designing, building and managing systems.<br />
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
This Fall, IBM Rational talks to you directly through a special teleconference series giving you access to the best minds in IBM Rational - product experts and market thought leaders who will answer your questions during these pre-scheduled telephone conference calls. Register today!
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Learn how to do more with your reusable assets with the free Rational Asset Manager eKit. The eKit includes demos on how Rational Asset Manager tracks and audits your assets in order to utilize them for reuse. Plus you’ll find white papers and a Webcast that discuss the challenges of a Service Oriented Architecture and how Rational Asset Manager can provide quick and effective solutions.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Express Edition offers outstanding online transaction processing (OLTP) database performance, while helping to simplify and automate many of the tasks associated with deploying databases for small business applications. IDS 11 further extends the ease of management and applications integration with the Admin API and Scheduler, high availability with Continuous Log Restore for backup server recovery in case of a primary server failure, and column level encryption to protect personal and company private data.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Get a free trial download of IBM Lotus Forms V3.0 (formerly Workplace Forms), which provides a zero-footprint eForms solution to help you automate and move forms-based business processes off the desktop and onto the Web. With Lotus Forms, you can extend applications beyond the firewall by creating a single electronic form document ready for use in both thick and Web 2.0 thin client format.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The discipline of assembling and delivering software is maturing beyond standard developer-centric compile/test software builds. The end-to-end software development lifecycle is emerging as the new focus moves “Beyond the Build.” Join this on demand webcast to learn about methods for streamlining software delivery and key capabilities of the IBM Rational Build Forge framework for automating build and release management in environments of any size.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Explore how Rational and WebSphere software enable enterprise documentation in SOA environments. Specifically, a new integration between IBM WebSphere® Business Modeler and IBM Rational® Method Composer software can help technical writers more easily keep enterprise operations manuals in sync with changes that are made to business processes, resulting in more accurate and timely documentation that benefits the entire enterprise.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
|
