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, because 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 endeavour.
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 papercrafts. 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!
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