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.

* 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.

* 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.

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! ;-)

* 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! ;-)