Essential Ezine Questions Answered: #1 Why Publish an Ezine?
It seems as though everyone is telling you that you should have
an ezine for your web site, heck even if you don't even have a
web site! But why?
There are several good reasons to publish your own ezine, the
not the least of which is to keep in touch with visitors to your
web site. Here are several more reasons:
(1) Staying in contact with customers on a regular basis so they
remember your site amongst the billions of web sites on the
Internet today.
(2) Site announcements
(3) Staying in contact with potential customers (Maybe one of
the most important reasons)
(4) Updating your affiliates
(5) Sending information in the form of articles and editorials
(6) A mechanism to deliver results of a survey or contest
(7) Establish yourself as knowledgeable in a field
(8) Increase your Search Engine ranking
(9) Add content to your web site
(10) As an advertising vehicle
(11) Earn revenue through selling ads
(12) Gain writing experience
Those are a few of the main reasons that I can think of off the
top of my head. So let's discuss a couple of them, shall we?
It is very important to stay in contact with both visitors
(Potential customers) and current customers. The trick is
finding that perfect balance between being helpful and
delivering value and information with your ezine and being a
pest by sending too many issues, notices, ad sheets, and
classifieds.
On a side note:
Don't be a baby bird!
One of my pet peeves (And probably a lot of other people's as
well!) is the "You gotta try this!" email every single week from
some publishers.
Every week, sometimes several times a week, I get this
breathless email from some publisher that is extolling the
virtues of yet another "Joint Venture Letter Writer", "Make
Super Money as a Super Affiliate" ebook, or pop-up generating
software.
Enough already!
Just because the different affiliate programs you are a member
of all send you a new "Solo Ad", "Classified Ad", etc. doesn't
mean that it is the greatest thing since sliced white bread!
There is nothing that will make me unsubscribe faster than a
publisher that claims I "Absolutely can't live (Or do business)
without X, Y, or Z product every other day.
Especially when all of the products are just variations on a
theme and I see the same ad from 4 different people (Each
"customized" to make it look like it came from them!). Don't you
think your subscribers read more than one ezine?
Don't get caught up in this advertising frenzy or you will lose
that list of subscribers you worked so hard to gain the trust
of. Just because you reach that magic subscriber base # of 5,000
or 10,000 people doesn't mean that the focus of your ezine
should suddenly switch from providing information to being your
private cash box.
So, don't sit in your "nest" with your mouth continuously open
waiting to be fed like a baby bird chirp, chirp, chirping away
all day!
End of Rant :)
The main reason you are sending out your ezine is to showcase
your knowledge (Or humor, or artistic ability, whatever your
"thing" is) and as you provide valuable information, tutorials,
articles, resources, etc., every week you gain the trust of your
subscribers.
Then, when you mention that you use "X product" to achieve "Y
results", your subscribers will listen to you and if you provide
a link, they may even reward you by buying your product!
Some of the Less Obvious Reasons to Publish an Ezine:
Another great reason to write an ezine is to boost your search
engine ranking by archiving your past issues online. Later in
this series we will be discussing exactly how to do that
step-by-step, but for now, let's just assume you know how to add
your issues to your web site.
Search engines just love content. Instead of filling your web
with other people's articles use your past issue to boost your
sites value. I'm not saying their articles are bad or even that
having them is bad, but don't you think your visitors will be
more impressed with more content written by you in your site
than by others? Plus, you have the added bonus of looking
smarter!
Your past ezines are definitely on the same topic as your web
site which will make a search engine like Google very happy when
its spider finds that large group of web pages all on the same
general topic. Be sure they are all interlinked, to each other
and to the home page. Here's a couple of ways to link them:
1. List the "Articles by Title" down the left side of the page.
Link them using the title as the link. This is a much bigger
boost in page rating than the "next article" link. Keywords used
as the text of the link itself - it doesn't get better than that
- baby!
2. Have a navigation bar across the bottom of the page
3. Have "Next" and "Back" links, plus a little arrow icon
pointing left and right respectively. Use the "Alt" description
for the picture to stick a keyword in the page. Not a bunch, one
per is ok...
If you use FrontPage or other WYSIWYG editor, right click on the
picture, click on properties, then type in your keyword where
the space for the "alternate text" goes.
Include the word "arrow" too, in case your picture pulls a no
show or someone has their graphics turned off the text makes
sense. Like for our fishing magazine example (Article #2 in the
Series) you could use "click arrow for next fishing article" as
your alternate text.
We will cover this topic more deeply in the "How to Archive Your
Past Issues" Article further along in this series. But for
now,just keep it in mind.
And the final reason we will discuss in this section is writing
experience. What better way to gain experience and find your
writing "Voice" than to write an ezine every week? If you have
ever contemplated writing your own ebook, special report, short
story or novel, an ezine is great writing practice.
You have to do research, proofread, type, (Unless you have "you
talk it records" software that is!) and keep a schedule. All
great warm-ups for you true project, whatever that is.
So there you have it, a nice even dozen reasons you should get
up off your rear - or sit down on it as it were - and start
writing your own ezine.