Before delving into the money matters of ezines, I would
like to first discuss what ezines are. This is for the
benefit of those people who do not have a full
understanding of what ezines are.

Maybe it shouldn’t come as a big surprise, but most people
on the internet and some self-possessed ezine distributors
do not know what the word EZINE really means.

Ezines are electronic publications distributed by email or
posted on a website. Ezines are typically focused on a
certain subject matter. Ezines are just like your typical
magazine format of monthly or weekly topical publications
in an electronic format.

The title EZINE does not come from the phrase Electronic
Magazine, cause you might be thinking that the E in
electronic and the Zine in magazine are joined to form this
word.

Actually Ezine came from the word FanZine which was a
publication with a small subscriber base back then.
FanZines were targeted publications that were usually
geared towards specific topics like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and
Football clubs.

Those printed publications were called ‘FanZines’, but were
frequently referred to as ‘Zines’ instead.

Back to modern days, most Ezines are focused around
specific topics and interest groups, just like the way the
Zines once were.

Adding an ‘E’ onto the beginning of the much coveted
publication name “Zines” brings us to the word Ezines. This
offers a much more logical explanation of where the word
“ezines” came from.

Now that we know what ezines are, lets now discuss the
basics of creating and doing business with ezines.

Ezine publishing is a very important factor towards a
business’ success for many reasons. Basically, it keeps you
in contact with your potential customers. The relationship
between your clients is formed and that is what is needed
for trust and respect.

You can also profit by selling advertisements through your
own ezine publication. Ezines can be used both as an
advertising platform for your business as well as an
income-generating endeavor.

When starting out with your ezine publication, keep in mind
the basic and most important elements of a good ezine.

1. Keep your ezines clean, short, and full. Don’t add too
many unrelated decorations or pictures to your ezines.
Ezine page decoration sometimes makes it hard for readers
to read your content.

People are more drawn to reading short ezines than those
long ones that keep on making discussions that go on and on.

2. Minimal advertisement is a must. It is a good point that
publishers must advertise in their ezines, but always keep
it to a reasonable number of about seven or less, depending
on the length of your ezines.

3. Make it personal. When creating your ezines, add your
personality to it. Talk to your subscribers. Make it warm
and inviting. Let them get into you as you get to know them
better.

4. Put in some interactivity. Make your ezines fun as we
can all use a bit of fun. Put a form in there, some survey
questions, a bit of trivia, and other forms of interaction.

5. Put in quality content. If your ezines talk about
something that deals with paper crafts, then make sure it
provides information about how to make paper crafts. Tips,
articles, links, resources, products, tools, news, etc. -
these are all the things you can and should give your
readers.

6. Be on time and consistent. If you posted that you will
be sending out ezines once a week every Monday, then do it
that way. If ever something happens that is beyond your
control that might prevent this, just explain to your
subscribers in your next release and they will surely
understand.

7. Make it a priority to have original content. If you are
not sure about articles, then just write editorials or
short scripts with news updates, interesting tips, and
product reviews.

8. Always proofread your content. You don’t want your ezine
to look like a 10-year old child has done it.

But most importantly, enjoy your ezine, have fun with it,
be yourself, and wonderful things will start to happen. At
least they did for so many success stories - they met great
new people and their businesses flourished.

This can all happen for you as well with your very own quality
ezine!

Gilles Rais

In a hurry? Learn how to publish your own Ezine with my brand
new Ezine Publishers Manual.

Categories: Articles