How to Start your own Ezine Part I

We all know that to succeed online, you have to

have a list. Publishing your own ezine is probably the most effective way to do just that.

TOPIC

Your first step is to figure out what kind of ezine you want to publish. What are you passionate about? What about hobbies? What are your interests? Do you have an expertise in some area?

Let's say you are an avid hang glider. You can tell people all about hang gliding. What equipment is needed? Where are the best places to go hang gliding? Are there different types of hang gliding? You can also talk about your experiences as a hang glider. It is up to you... this is going to be your baby.

NAME

Next, you are going to have to decide on a name. Whatever you choose should correspond with the subject that your ezine is about. It should also be short, memorable and preferably 3 or 4 syllables. Let's use the hang gliding theme. You could call it... 'Fall' or 'Jump' or 'Wing and a Prayer' or something of that nature.

Now you have a good topic? A memorable, catchy name. So what's next? You will need a site for people to go to and sign up for your ezine. Your site is based on a template. IE... how it looks. Let's take a look at templates.

SITE TEMPLATE

How do you pick out a template? A template is basically a general layout of how the site will be set up. Not to be confused with the ezine template which is how the ezine will be laid out.

Set up a page with a description of your new ezine, graphics to make it appealing and a web form attached to an autoresponder (for people to sign up on). Then submit that page to search engines, safelists, forums etc.

EZINE TEMPLATE

This is how you are going to lay out your actual ezine that your subscribers are going to be receiving.

An example of a layout would be:

- Subscription information
- Top Sponsor
- Table of Contents
- Joke
- Sponsor ad
- Article 1
- Historical quote
- Sponsor 2
- Article 2
- Sponsor 3
- Advertising information
- Publishing information
- Unsubscription link

Now, you don't have to use this exact template. You set up your ezine the way YOU want it. You can add pictures, take polls, provide contests, whatever you wish.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Timing

Decide how often you are going to publish your ezine and when. Is it going to go out daily? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly?

Fees

Is your new ezine going to be free or will you be charging a subscription fee? Or, are you going to start out fr.ee and then go to a fee based ezine? Maybe have more than one membership type with added benefits for paying subscribers.

Format

Will you be sending it out via email or is it going to be web based (on a website)? If it's going to be email, will it be in html or text? If it is going to be web based, will it be open or log in?

ADVERTISING

For the first few issues of your new publication, you can use ads for something that you are involved with yourself as your sponsor ads or you can just simply put 'Ad Space Available' (not recommended) with a url to your purchase page.

In your 'Advertising information' area, list your ad prices and packages. There are many ezines available on the internet today. Research the fees charged by your competitors and price your advertising accordingly.

Once you have published a number of issues, you can expect that some paid advertisers will start placing ads in your ezine. Note: the larger your subscription base grows, the greater the likelyhood of advertisers wanting to place ads in your ezine.

CONTENT

This is going to be the meat and potatoes of your new ezine. This is what will draw subscribers and keep them subscribed. You want original, if possible, and interesting articles . Make sure that they are related to your topic. You don't want an ezine about hang gliding with an article about music as the feature article. Unless of course you are talking about hang gliding musicians.

Are you unable to write articles? There is a simple solution. You can just go to an article directory such as http://ezinearticles.com, http://www.articlesbasecamp.com, http://www.articledashboard.com/, http://www.articlegold.com/ or any number of different sites on the internet.

These article directories maintain and provide numerous articles on EVERY subject imaginable. You can copy, paste and give credit to the author of the article as content for your ezine.

If you intend to add miscellaneous content such as jokes, horoscopes, quotes to your ezine, there are many sites online that offer such content for f.ree to put on your site or in your ezine.

End Part I

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Michelle A. Hoffmann is a Work at Home mother of 4, author, website designer, internet marketer and ezine editor/publisher/owner. You can read more of her articles at www.24karatmarketer.com.