SO, YOU WANNA PUBLISH?

By Ben Pedersen (c)2000

It's late (very late) and I sit in my office writing
another issue of my ezine, The Profit Quick eGazette. As
usual, it's Monday night and I have to get the ezine out by
Tuesday Morning for my ever-so-eager subscribers to read.
As usual, I'm running late. It's close to 2:00 a.m.

As I sit, I'm relieved the ezine is finally finished. It's
time to hold my breath and unleash the beast. I send the
ezine to my list.

As I sit exhausted, I ponder the ezine a moment. It sure
wasn't hard to do. Sure, an ezine is no walk in the park
but it's not the hardest thing I've done. Having a zesty
blend of original content and fresh guest articles, it
didn't take long to put together. Perhaps 7-10 hours a
week.

Hmmmmm........

I hear the gears between my ears begin to grind and the
aroma of light smoke fills the room. Yes, I'm thinking
again.

Even though ezine publishing is anything BUT
rocket science, although it only takes a few hours a week
to do, it's got to be the best, most powerful marketing
tool I have in my internet marketing tool box. My friend,
it's about time I told you about it. If you don't have an
ezine, get on the band wagon.

Now before you stand up and yell at me, let me assure you,
if I can do it, anyone can.

Here's what I'm NOT:

*An English major (If you read this ezine regularly, you
know that sometimes my bloopers sneak by.)

*A professional Arthur. I'm just a wanna-be :-) You won't
find me accepting any awards or signing any autographs.

*An outstanding writer. I believe that I'm a great writer
but I'm no Shakespeare. I believe that If I can write, you
can too. I don't believe that I'm any better than you are.

*A great speller. In fact, I'm a plain old LOUSY one.
Thank goodness for spell check or I'd be out of business.
My point: You have a spell checker too so don't worry about
it. Just use that.

*Super human. I don't have three eyes and my brain is no
bigger than yours. I'm just an average Joe that one day,
figured out this internet marketing thing and ran with it.

Okay, now that I've publicly executed MYSELF (there's a
first!), all I have to show is a bruised ego. But, my point
is this: ANYONE can publish an ezine...ANYONE. All it
takes is a little perseverance and planning.

In this article, I'll tell you how I started mine. I'll
also give you some great resources and guess what? If you
want an ezine I'll make it easy. I'll give you a template
that you can customize to give your ezine a great, clean
look.

WHY should you start an ezine?

An ezine is the MOST powerful marketing tool your online
business will ever have. With an ezine, you have an
audience to which you can send your message to over and over
again. Think about it, people give you PERMISSION to send
them your information. Don't get me wrong, your ezine needs
to provide your subscribers with value but you can (and
should) offer them valuable deals too. When (and only
when) you treat them right, this IS the best resource you'll
have.

So, here's what you must do......

1. PLAN OUT YOUR EZINE.

A. You need to design a template for your new baby.
Here's what to keep in mind.

Make sure you have plenty of white space. Nobody
wants to sit at their computer and squint to read a
'zine. Visually divide each section with a solid or
dashed line of some kind.

Speaking of sections......

Dedicate a section for each main part of your new
ezine. For example, CONTENTS, AD (OR ADS), ARTICLE(S),
ABOUT, HELP CENTER, ETC. Just look at this ezine for
example. Notice the sections here and how they're
divided?

Also, don't squish everything together. This will make
your ezine look cluttered. Space each section apart by
at least 3 lines.

Okay, I'll make this layout thing a snap......

Here's a freebie! If you want a ready to use template,
I've set one up for you. Simply send a blank email to
mailto:template@profitquick.net

B. Be sure to format your ezine at 65 characters or
less and end each line with a hard return. This will
insure that it looks great in everyone's email program.

C. How often should you send an ezine and when? I
find that weekly is just right and that's how often my
ezine goes out. That's because most publishers are
very busy and weekly affords them enough time to put
out a quality issue. For me, to publish more then once
a week would be too much.

What about when to send out an ezine? Well, this is
mostly a matter of opinion but some say that we should
publish on Monday or Tuesday.

Why?

It's said that readers are more receptive to receive
and read an ezine more thoroughly in the beginning of
the week. It's said that this is because they're fresh
from the weekend.

This of course is speculation and others will say it
doesn't matter. I for one, subscribe to this theory
and haven't had any problems.

D. Should you write your own content or use others'
content? Well, of course If you are an expert (or
knowledgeable) in your subject then write your articles
yourself. This is better because it will set your
ezine apart from the others in the cense that you'll
have "fresh" content that is original. Believe me,
this is great if you want to keep subscribers. If your
articles are great, you'll quickly gain the reputation
of an expert. This my friend is worth more than all
the money you'll ever make.

And if you cannot write articles for your ezine?

If you don't write for your ezine it's important to use
"fresh" content and not the same old rehash that
everyone else uses. There's a great place to find new,
hot articles that I'll tell you about in a moment.

E. Did anyone say ads? You want to make some money
right? Plan for ads in your ezine for some extra cash.
In terms of how many, one to three are fine. Anymore
than that are too many. People will unsubscribe and
the response rate will be too low to get any repeat
business. We'll discuss this more below.

F. Lastly but important, give your ezine a theme. The
theme of course should be the same of your web site. If
you're an internet marketer, publish internet marketing
related stuff and so on.

Also, go beyond that and give your ezine a personality.
Do something to give it something unique. This can be
a quote of the day, a slogan or anything. Just use
your imagination.

For example, one of our subscribers owns an ezine
called "The Profit Zone" In the beginning he says
something like "Don't adjust your monitor - your
entering the Profit Zone." I love it - and I'm a
subscriber. His ezine has a unique personality.

The Profit Zone......
http://www.netmarketingprofits.com
Get it. It's a great ezine.


Now that we've got it all planned out, here are three
important areas explained in detail.

2. GOT CONTENT?

The content of your ezine is critical. In today's day and
age, there are millions of ezines and competition is rather
stiff. Without hot, fresh content you're washed up before
you even get started. Remember, although there are so many
ezines, only a small percentage of them are GOOD. Put some
effort into your content and you'll be one of the small
group of QUALITY ezines.

It seems simple enough but some do miss the boat here.
ALWAYS include content that is relevant to your web site's
theme. If you sell online marketing manuals, don't start an
ezine about fly fishing. It won't work out. Write about
online marketing issues instead. You know, it's that
"target marketing" thing we all keep screaming about.

It's also important to write your own content. There
are so many ezines out there that just reprint articles
that it's critical to your success to write quality,
original content.

Chances are, your subscribers also subscribe to many other
ezines. What do you think would happen if they subscribed
to your ezine to find out that your ezine is THE SAME as the
next one? Most likely, they'll vanish. By writing for
yourself, you keep your ezine fresh and your subscribers
will look forward to it.

If you're going to use others' articles, you can as long
as they're fresh. How do you know if an article is "fresh"?

You have to know where to find 'em!

I get mine at http://www.marketing-seek.com in the "most
recent 50" section. Between this site and the article
submissions I get from other marketers, I don't go anywhere
else to find content.

If you do decide to use other people's content, consider
combining it with your own. That is what I do. I usually
write one article in the form of a "Profit Tip" and then
include another article that I feel would best suit my
subscribers. This article is usually one written by
someone else.

3. GOT ADS?

Ads......

Why lie. The reason most of us publish an ezine is to
help our businesses profit. Don't get me wrong, I love to
help others and ultimately, that's why I chose this business
BUT I'm also making a living here.

One way to squeeze a few bucks out of an ezine is to include
ads. Although we're not talking about MAKING MONEY with
ezines in this article (that's another day's article) I will
say this: Don't get greedy.

Don't forget about your subscribers. They don't want to
sift through 10 ads to find your content and they won't -
they'll unsubscribe. Simply include 1 - 3 ads and no
more. When the time comes to sell ads, this will also
INCREASE response to ads because there are fewer of them.
You know what that means - repeat advertisers.

The moral......

Less is more. In the long run, your better off with only a
few ads rather than a bunch of them.

4. GET OUT THERE!

Unleashing the beast.

An ezine is sent (and subscribed to) using some sort of
mailing list service. Although there are software programs
and scripts available to help you manage your own list, I
use a third party "list host". I simply find that the
small fee these third party services charge is well worth
it.

What is a "list host"?

It's just like a web host except they don't host your
site, they host your list. Consider these facts......

A. Running a mailing list is COMPLICATED. Every time
someone asks to be removed, you MUST unsubscribe them.

C. Everyday you MUST add new subscribers (those who asked
of course!)

D. If someone wants their email address changed, you MUST
change the list to reflect their request.

C. There are other tedious tasks too. Tasks like deleting
bad addresses, undeliverables, etc.

Now, imagine you had a few THOUSAND of these subscribers.
(On the 'net, that's not hard to get), Can you imagine
the time this would take?

It would be a full time job in itself! I don't know about
you, but my time's money and I don't want to spend it
tinkering with a list. That's why I use a "list host."

A list host takes care of EVERYTHING. They handle the
unsubscribe requests, subscribe requests, removal of bad
addresses, deleting of duplicate addresses and change
address requests. Basically, they do it all. My
list is "maintenance free" because my list host does it all
for me. For the thirty dollars a month I pay, it's worth
it.

With a list host, it's also easy to send the ezine. In my
case, I log into my account (with the list host) and past my
ezine into an online form, hit send and bingo - it's done!

Depending on the host you chose, you may do it this way or
you'll send your ezine to a special email address to get it
to your readers. In either case, it's super easy.

Okay so now you're probably wondering "where can I get a
list hosting company to start MY ezine?"

I'll give it up:

1. GETRESPONSE. This is a great tool. Now before you
think I'm nuts, GetResponse IS an autoresponder service but
they have features that makes it possible to send your ezine
via a web based form in your account. This web based form
comes in handy if you don't have an email client yet or if
you have a free email acct (like hotmail, etc.). It comes
in handy because rather then sending the ezine in your free
email acct. and having their headers on it, you can use the
web based form.

GetResponse also keeps your list and handles all of those
tedious tasks like unsubscribe, etc.

You can also start for FREE! (If you don't mind an ad at the
top of your mailings.)

For the full scoop.......
http://www.profitquick.net/gr.htm


2. MAIL-LIST.COM I've never actually used this one but I
know some of our subscribers do and they're saying good
things about it.

I did go check it out though and they have a lot of good
features like address change, subscribe, unsubscribe and
more. Check it out at: http://www.mail-list.com

If you want to start for FREE go check out Topica. Topica
is one of the largest free list hosts out there.
http://www.topica.com


There you have it! With a little perseverance, you shall
succeed! Remember, If I can do it, you sure can!