Are You Wasting Your Time With Free Ezine Ads

Writen by Michael Hopkins

There are lots of ezines (newsletters) out there that offer free classified ads to new subscribers (and many even offer free ads on an ongoing basis).

This can be a nice little source of free traffic and exposure for your website/ebook/ezine but, if not handled properly it can have its downside.

The biggest problem is that, by joining a whole plethora of ezines your mail box risks becoming very crowded very quickly, and it's easy to become overwhelmed with it all.

This is especially true if some of those ezines send out messages every single day -- as many do.

To get around this, and to keep your free ezine advertising campaign under control, follow these steps:

STEP 1. Create a separate e-mail address for your ezine subscriptions (e.g. my_ezines@.....).

STEP 2. In your email software (e.g. Outlook Express) create a folder (directory) called 'free_ezine_ads'.

STEP 3. Using your e-mail software set up a rule that sends all mails that arrive to your e-mail address 'my_ezines@....' to the folder called 'free_ezine_ads'.

STEP 4. Prepare the free ad you want to place in the ezines and keep a copy of it handy in a text file.

Different ezines have different rules about the size of ad they will accept. Study each one carefully and be sure to comply with all their submission guidelines.

You may also want to consider the mood and tone of each ezine, and create different versions of your ad for each one.

STEP 5. Submit your ad to each ezine editor. Be sure to double-check that you've complied fully with their submission guidelines.

STEP 6. For those ezines which give you a one-off ad, it's time to re-assess their value to you. If you don't find the content useful or interesting, you should unsubscribe rather than let it clog up your 'free_ezine_ads' folder.

Remember, though, if the ad in that ezine drew a good response from its readers, you can always check out their advertising rates and see if it's worth paying a few dollars to place your ad again (or, if you're sneaky, you could try re-subscribing at a later date and doing it again, making some changes to disguise your wicked deception:-)

STEP 7. For those ezines that allow free ads on a regular basis, make a list of all the submission deadlines and make it part of your regular marketing routine to check that list and see if you're due to place an ad.

Finally, as you continue placing regular ads with those ezines, be sure to continue measuring their effectiveness. In many cases you'll appear in the middle of 20 other ads, so it may not bring in much of a response rate.

Likewise, the response rate from each ezine is likely to drop off over time -- especially if you don't vary your ads.

Decide for yourself whether it's worth your while continuing and be sure to try out different ads to see which ones work best with that readership.

And there you have it, a pretty straightforward approach to keeping on top of things when it comes to free ezine advertising.

About The Author

Michael Hopkins is owner of BizzyDays eBook Publications.

Download Brand New Original eBooks for FREE at:

http://www.bizzydays.com

Download The eBook Publishing Success Package at:

http://selfpublishing-ebooks.htm

contact@bizzydays.com

My First Anniversary On Ezinearticles

Writen by Aderemi Ojikutu

I was yearning for expression. I knew that I carried a treasure. I have been in some sort of way, a local, obscured, unsung and unknown fellow in the world of the pen, or should we call it now the world of the keyboard? After all, the buttons have replaced the pen in modern history of writers in the last 12 or so years internet growth worldwide.

Whenever you carry a treasure of inestimable value, you would naturally radiate an aroma of attraction, but that is to the noses that desire mutual accomplishment with your talent. To swines however, that fragnance became the invitation to attack and aggression. It is popularly known that we should not cast our pearls before swines, because they would trample it under-feet and turn around to tear you to pieces.

One month activity and eleven articles posted on ezinearticles.com was enough to launch me from obscurity to celebrity. The google-search results for my name shot up from only one to over 800 today just because of that encounter with destiny.

That search result has fetched me subscription and membership of the biggest and fastest health beverage company in the U.S. The Tahitian Noni International Inc. In 3 months my team made over 20,000 USD in turnover and we were all happy for the resulting bonuses, commissions and royalties.

My greatest gain however was the enrollment into the UNIVERSITY OF DESTINY- that is what ezinearticles.com truly is to me. (We were just a little over 9kilo authors then). Today, we have increased by an additional 17,000 "students". This is a good reflection and indicator for every web entrepreneur of the unending boom of our industry, particularly in the last 12 months. I have been schooled into exploits with all the varied lectures which I have received in the last 12 months. They have provided a "vehicle" that has begun to and would certainly take me to my divine destination.

I am eternally grateful to the "Vice Chancellor" of this "University"- Chris Knight and to my very many resourceful and dedicated lecturers, "Professor" Lance, and others too numerous to mention in this dissertation. A great and warm embrace to mentors and new friends that I have made in this one year. I have learnt and listen more than I have written on this platform of destiny. I pray that as I near my graduating year, I would become a contributor to this system and "university" that has made me. I pray I would be able to give more back, to this system as an expression of my deepest gratitude to the great resource that you have invested in me.

Mega Thanks to you all. Only God, the Almighty would reward you for your investment and faith in me.

Internet Marketing Idea Publish An Ezine

Writen by Jack Elmy

Chances are if you surf the net much you have noticed that almost every website offers a free newsletter or ezine in some form or other. Wonder why someone would go to so much trouble to publish a newsletter and offer it for free? The answer is because it is a brilliant Internet marketing idea. True, it does take some work to publish a quality ezine, however the benefits you can reap in sales for your main product or service is worth the time and effort.

What makes writing and publishing an ezine such a good Internet marketing idea is that it allows you to have direct contact with your customers and readers on a continuing basis. Even if they forget to visit your site again (and let's face it; with all of the work and family demands placed on all of us, no matter how good your site is, this is a possibility) if they are subscribed to your ezine you have a golden opportunity to remind them why your site is fantastic. Secondly, when done tastefully, it gives you a chance to earn a little extra through advertising. Finally, there are relatively few other ways you can build a relationship with your site's visitors. And as all good salespeople know, building a good rapport with your customer is key to making the sale.

There are a few golden rules you should understand before hurrying to write your first edition, however. While you may be able to convince a visitor to sign up for an ezine when they visit your site, your job as a publisher doesn't stop there. To get them to actually open it every time it lands their inbox and not hit the delete key, you need to develop a plan. At a minimum, keep these tips in mind in order for an ezine Internet marketing idea to be successful:

Take the time to include informative, interesting and entertaining content for your ezine. Give the reader a reason to want to read your newsletter and better yet, recommend it to others!

Reassure your readers. Always, always include a privacy statement and give them an opportunity to unsubscribe. Hopefully, if you provide relevant, original information you'll never have to worry about this; but doing so shows you care about your reader and that you produce quality material.

Once you decide to publish an ezine, be consistent about it. If you tell your readers it's a weekly publication, make sure it comes out weekly no matter what. Failing to abide by this rule tells your reader you're unreliable and untrustworthy.

Finally, remember that although writing and publishing an ezine is a fantastic Internet marketing idea, it is also a chance for you to have some fun and really expand your skills. Be creative and have fun!

Jack Elmy's web site provides information on the basics of creating business plans that get results and will help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.900-business-plans.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

6 Important Tips For Choosing Ezine To Advertise In

Writen by Erny Setyawati

Did you ever wonder why some business owners seem to be able to pull in all the business they want, while others – perhaps you –can't seem to get any momentum? More often than not, it is because the successful ones have learned from marketing experts what works and what doesn't work in their marketing and promotional materials. Some marketing secrets seem to be secrets simply because they're widely known or understood. Only from trial and error and ad tracking – combined with research on natural psychologycal predispositions – do marketing experts know what really triggers a sale.

To encourage readers to use the resources to learn more about triggers and improve sales and marketing techniques is very important to use. Wasting money online is easy to do and very frustrating!!! If you have experienced that frustating, you are going to love how hassle free it is to use and profit from ezine.

You and I suffer from the same problem ...... not buyers to our website... so they can buy your products and sign up for your information or offer. How to solve the problem. There are many ways folks do. One the best choise is ezine advertising. Yes !!!, ezine advertising is the way to go. It truly is. Here we'll show you what to look for in an ezine and how to know the ezines that are a waste of advertising money before you buy. There are few tips to follow to advirtise ad in ezine.

1. Decide what your advertising budget will be for this campaign.
Generally, an ad will run a week or two after you place your ad order, so you might as well buy enough advertising to run a month while you're in the process of finding the ezines and buying the ads.

2. Your ezine ad campaign will get better as you buy ads, test them and start optimizing your results.

3. I recommend being unique to use the ads, because many affliate or MLM company have provided using special ads then be aware that lots of other folks are using them too.

4. Compare the number of subscriber Vs. The Start date of the Ezine.
Look at the number of subscribers vs the start date of the ezine. There are many ezine had have many subcribers for few months. As an example let's you find ezine with 5000 subscriber and today's date is 3/1/00, you then notice the ezine first began on 11/15/99. You now know that the ezine has been publication for a little over three months and already 5000 subscribers. This type of ezine may not the best for advertise in because likely the subscriber aren't all targeted. It also runs a higher risk of SPAM complaints.

5. Notice how many total ads are allowed in each issue.

If the publisher says " unlimited " or " as many as you pay for " then it may be a good idea for you to look at an on line version. Once you get your issue, you can see how many advertiser placed ads in the ezine . You may consider that there are too many ads to compete with.

6. Compare the price the Ad vs. The size of the Ezine.
Pay attention to the price of the ads vs. The size of the ezine. There is no set standard so you just need to compare. You may find an ezine with 500 subscriber charges $5 per ad, which is .01 per subscriber. Or you may find some that charge more. You 'll need look and compare before you can get a feel for it.

Erny Setyawati is an Editor and the author of Bali Global Market Ezine. Her Ezine give special information about Home Business Strategy and a little story about Bali Island which is very popular with BAli Bombing Tragedy. More detail visit us at http://www.baliglobalmarket.

Newsletters In Plain Text Or Html Which Work Better

Writen by Yaro Starak

A common question asked when you first set out to write an email newsletter is whether it should be a plain text email or HTML (web page style). This is an important consideration since your choice impacts on how many people read your newsletter and how they respond to it. Let's look at the obvious pros and cons of each format.

HTML Emails

THE GOOD

• Interactive - active elements can be inserted into emails limited only by what email clients can handle. May include movies, games, surveys or any active content.
• Metrics - Code can be placed into emails to provide detailed statistics on whether your email newsletters are read, for how long and which links are clicked and followed.
• Formatting can be controlled to the finest details including fonts, spacing, and design.

THE BAD

• Creating HTML emails take a lot of time and technical proficiency.
• Not everyone has an HTML capable email client in which case you will be excluding some people.
• Your basic message may be lost by the excessive content and "eye candy".
• The range of options available in HTML are extensive and can lead to what I call "TMOS" - Too Many Options Syndrome, which is the antithesis of the concept "KISS" - Keep It Simple Stupid. TMOS can stop you from functioning efficiently because you are bogged down with how many things you could do, you end up doing nothing.

Plain Text Emails

THE GOOD

• Easier to create - just type words.
• Less chance of formatting problems making the email display incorrectly.
• Less chance of a SPAM filter blocking the mail.
• Message will be easily digested by the reader provided you write it well.
• No distractions from graphics or over stimulation from too much content competing for attention.
• You sell with words, the most powerful sales tool available on the web if used correctly.

THE BAD

• Harder to capture statistics.
• Hyperlinks may not be active (most text based email clients convert HTTP links to clickable but some still don't).
• Limited to text to convey your message.
• No multimedia can be included.

Why Do You Have a Newsletter?

Let's cut to the chase here. Why do you have a newsletter? If you are running an Internet business your newsletter functions as a customer retention tool, sending out periodic reminders to pull your prospects/customers back to your site. Newsletters themselves also function as a direct sales tool. It doesn't matter if you are selling affiliate products, your own products, a service or information, your newsletter is meant to do one thing - illicit a response from its audience.

In order for your newsletter readers to feel compelled enough to take action your newsletter must clearly state it's message AND create enough of a pull, usually via emotional tugging, to get the reader to do something. The same rules that apply to websites and copywriting apply to newsletters except you have even less time to convince your reader to do something.

Newsletters fall into the domain of email, the most popular web activity. Email is mainstream, it has penetration and people of all ages and backgrounds know how to use it. Consequently the learning curve is a little higher and your readership knows how to at least complete the basic functions with email. This means that they are quite capable of giving each email about 1 seconds worth of attention before clicking that delete button. That's not a lot of time to convince them that your email is worth reading.

Should I use Plain Text or HTML Newsletters?

In my opinion, plain text should be your choice for email newsletter format. Why? Because of the numbers. Email newsletters are a form of direct response marketing and in direct response marketing the numbers matter.

From the point of view of a small business owner with limited time and resources you want to maximise the results you get from your newsletters. You want a lot of responses to whatever your newsletter is trying to do. You should be able to easily test different copy and see which works best so you can maximise the numbers. It's all about the numbers...

Your newsletter must hit the reader quickly and compel them to read on. Any delays or presentation errors are going kill your chance of capturing the attention of the reader. While plain text emails are not immune to display errors (more on this later) they are a lot more likely to be digested by the reader even if things don't format exactly how you want them to.

A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?

Words Sell

Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acquire newsletter sign-ups, you have the perfect vehicle to illicit a response using words that sell. Why dilute your message by wrapping it within colours and images or overstimulating your readers by providing too much information when a few paragraphs can create your desired results more effectively.

Why Not Use Both Plain Text and HTML?

Good idea! If you have the resources and skills to produce a quality HTML and plain text newsletter then by all means offer both to your audience and let them nominate which they prefer, or better still have the email automatically display the appropriate format by detecting what type of email client they have. If you offer both be sure to test to make sure it's worthwhile. Are more people responding to plain text emails? Well in that case send everyone plain text.

In my case I'm a small business owner and I'm going to be writing the newsletters myself. I do not have time nor the skills to create a new HTML webpage for every newsletter I produce. I could perhaps have a nice standard template designed which I use for newsletters but as I wrote above, I believe that is a waste of time. Words sell, so I'll focus on creating emotionally compelling words for my newsletters rather than waste time trying to get a box to align right correctly.

Tips for Better Plain Text Newsletters

TELL A FRIEND

Remember how I talked about the numbers? Your efforts should be focused on ensuring the maximum number of people are exposed to your email so your emotionally compelling and convincing newsletter can work it's magic. This doesn't have to be limited to just your newsletter subscribers -- your subscribers can be turned into evangelists for your newsletter. Make it easy for your subscribers to forward your newsletter on to friends and associates - suggest it to them at the end of the newsletter. Of course for this work you better be creating a damn interesting newsletter.

WORD WRAPPING

Plain text can format incorrectly and one of the most common problems is line breaks. Either lines breaking too early causing your sentences to look disjointed and clumsy, or no line breaks at all, causing one of those nasty horizontal scrollbars to appear and your reader to read off the page to finish a sentence. The screen resolution of your subscribers computers can also impact how your text wraps causing these problems.

You can't control the monitor resolution of your readers or what email client they use, all you can do is try and account for as many variables as possible. To compensate for this problem you have to set a characters-per-line limitation. I've researched into newsletter formatting and different people give different suggestions, from 68 characters per line to 63. I've decided to recommend to you the round number of 60 characters per line. This will give you nice compact paragraphs made up of nice compact sentences that are likely to avoid most word wrapping (or lack thereof) problems your readers might experience. On extremely high resolutions there will be a lot of white space and your email might look like one big long tower of text but that's still a lot better than broken sentences or horizontal scrollbars and won't be too common a problem.

How To Set Characters Per Line Limitations

You didn't think I would tell you what to do without giving you practical advice on how to do it would I?! Of course not.

Format Text provided by Web-Source.net will handle email newsletter formatting to any character width you specify. Better still it can even undo the current character spacing on any text you have so it's definitely a tool worth book marking.

Newsletters Are An Important Tool For Your Online Business

Many of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs are wealthy because they have massive (10,000+) lists of highly targeted subscribers that they have been building for years. One well written affiliate product email to a good list can create thousands of dollars of sales and you don't even supply the product.

Better still once you have a solid list you can contact similar focused online marketers and carefully select the right cross promotional activities that can double your exposure with one email to their list. Of course you have to have your own list to make available for cross promotions before you can expect to work with other people - the smart/persistent/rich help each other to get richer.

Even if you are using your newsletter as a step in the conversion process to generate sales of your own products or services it's a wise to stay up to date on good newsletter management techniques. By focusing on the numbers you can maximise direct responses that will lead to more sales as visitors become prospects and prospects become clients.

By Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Do you want to profit from your own successful home based Internet business?

Learn from Yaro Starak, a young entrepreneur from Australia. He works part time from home on several web based business that generate between $2,000 and $8,000 per month. Get your free articles and audio now - visit his Internet Business Blog.

Successful Ezine Advertising Techniques

Writen by Christos Varsamis

Ezines are highly effective advertising tool if done correctly. One of the most important advantage ezines have is the target group of people they refer to. Of course there are rules to be followed in order to succeed in ezine advertising.

1. Write Benefits Not Features.

It may sound cynical but most people are selfish. They don't care about your company or background but they DO care about the benefits they gain. So, instead of saying that the "A" software title contains these features, try to specify that it will save money and time in the exact amount. Be as accurate as you can on that.

2. Choose very careful the ezines you advertise.

An ezine of 150.000 subscribers may seem tempting but you should ask yourself, how the publisher got those subscribers? He bought the list, used FFA, or used similar methods? Does the publisher use contests for his subscribers in order to visit your website? If a subscriber visits your site because there is the expectation of gaining something how valuable this subscriber is for your business? Zero if you ask me.

3. Double opt-in much better than single opt-in.

Yes, if you find an ezine that builds the subscriber base with double opt-in method, it's highly possible that you have a goldmine here. A double opt-in ezine of 2500 subscribers has more value than a single opt-in ezine of 10.000 subscriber base. With double opt-in you can be reassured that you will have no spam complains and the value of the prospects is much higher.

4. Run you ads more than once.

This is important because prospects have to see more than one time to absorb your message. One thing you can do is to run your ad 2-3 times and if the first is not successful you can modify your copy.

5. The Headline is all the money.

People have their mailbox filled with emails and spam these days. Obviously they don't have the time to read every single email they get. So the screening process starts with the headlines. It's a simple as that, if your headline sucks your all effort goes in vain. They will just ignore the whole message.

6. Call to action – Create urgency sense.

This is a copywriting rule you must follow. You must use the time pressure technique to the readers in order to act now. You can use limited time discount offers. In that way you tempt the reader to visit your website which is your first aim.

7. Track your ads.

Do Not underestimate that factor. If you start to have sales, how would you know which ezines produce the results? You can't afford to miss that. With so many tracking software and services out there is no excuse to risk your advertising budget on guessing.

8. Focus on Top-Sponsor and Solo ads.

They are the most effective. Top sponsor ads are on the top of the publication and it is the first message the reader views. Solo ads are highly effective because the reader views your message alone with nothing else tracking his or her attention. Forget the classified ads, although they are cheaper. When you read a newsletter you focus on the content or the 15-20 displayed ads?

Finally, as a recommendation, you can start searching for effective ezines on the http://www.directoryofezines.com - it's the ultimate resource for tracking and advertising on targeted ezines.

Christos Varsamis is an Internet Marketer & Affiliate Marketing Specialist. You can check the latest resources and Product reviews on http://www.fastprofitbiz.com

Shape Up The Content For Your Ezine

Writen by Ken Mathie

We are down to the home stretch. You've got your Ezine laid out, you have gotten some good content for it and now you want to put the whole thing together in a nice neat little package with a pretty bow so that your readers will have an experience that they can honestly say was worth the zero cents they paid to subscribe. So just what does shaping up the content for your Ezine involve and how do you go about doing it?

Most of what you are going to have to do involves fitting pieces together and modifying things so that they look just right. You will be spending a lot of time doing this with the various articles that you get, either from the freelance writers you hired or the sites you downloaded the content from. Why?

Ever hear the phrase "Beggars can't be choosers?" Well, when you're downloading free content off of websites, you're not going to have a lot of control over the format of this content. It may be in simple Ariel 10 pt. font or heaven knows what. If you have an Ezine where you are going for a certain look, this can be a bit of a problem. For example, let's say you're putting together an Ezine on "Chinese Food" and you want to have an oriental look to the Ezine itself. It is doubtful the articles you download are going to be in fonts that support this look. You're going to have to reformat them with your own fonts. You may even have to download fonts from the Internet if you're going for a certain look that isn't part of the default font set in your word processing program.

Another part of the formatting, aside from the font itself, is how the article is laid out. When you download it or have it sent to you, it may not be 90 characters per line, or whatever line spacing you are looking for. For that matter, it may not be formatted at all. You may need to get a hold of a text formatter, which you can get for free just about anywhere on the Internet. This will reformat your text to however many characters per line you want. This is critical for sending out emails as some email programs will just display your paragraphs as one long string, making it very hard for your subscribers to read. If they can't read your Ezine easily they will most likely unsubscribe. You certainly won't make the sales you're counting on.

Another thing you're going to have to do, especially if you're putting together an Ezine with photos or graphics, is format the graphics around the word content so that it flows. You don't want your layout to be willy-nilly. If you need ideas for how an Ezine with photos should look, go take a peak at a few. Again, there is nothing wrong with getting inspiration from others. If you have doubts in your own ability, get a graphic artist to do it for you or at least look at your work.

If you're putting together a fancy Ezine with multiple sections, like a real magazine, make sure you have a table of contents inside the front cover. After a while, when you have developed a real following, you are going to have subscribers who will consistently look for certain features. By having a table of contents, you make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. They'll love you for it.

Finally, you want to be consistent. Once you have got a format, stick to it. Develop a routine for putting your Ezine together. Make a checklist of all the things you have to do each time you send out your Ezine, whether it be weekly, monthly or whatever.

After a while, when you have done this enough times, it will become second nature to you and the time you spend each day will become less and less and you'll have more time for actually running your business.

Learn more…

PMCezine" Internet Marketing Bulletins... Weekly up-to-date powerful marketing tips, strategies, and secrets to grow your online business. You don't want to miss this ezine... Receive 6 FREE gifts when you subscribe at our site! Yes! "Please Send My Gifts"

Copyright 2006 – Ken Mathie. Editor PMCezine... You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author's name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

21 Questions To Ask Any List Service Before You Sign On With Them

Writen by Alexandria K. Brown

If you publish an e-mail newsletter, or "e-zine," you'll need to sign on with a list service (or "listserve") to manage your subscriber list. There are many types of listserves out there, so here are some guidelines to help you choose one that's right for you.

1. Do they use MULTI-PART MIME technology?
   
   You'll need this if you want to publish an HTML newsletter. Otherwise you'll have to send out multiple versions for users who can read HTML, users who can't read HTML, and users on AOL.



2. Do they offer some type of ORIENTATION OR TUTORIAL?
   
   If you're new to the game and/or technologically challenged then you'll appreciate any type of help they offer for new clients.



3. What's their CUSTOMER SERVICE like?
   
   Are they prompt to get back to you via e-mail? Can you call them if you have a problem? Are they available more than standard business hours? What about weekends? Contact them and see how long they take to get back to you —- if it's longer than 24 hours, definitely keep looking.



4. Do they NOTIFY list owners if there's a PROBLEM with their service?
   
   If so, how, and how quickly?



5. Do they have CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS to share with you?
   
   Or even better, client references? Contact some of these folks to see how their experiences have been.



6. Do other BUSINESSES LIKE YOURS use their service?
   
   If most of their clients are large corporations, small businesses like yours may not get the attention they deserve.



7. Is their interface EASY TO USE?
   
   Meaning is it easy for you to setup and launch each issue of your e-zine. They should offer a demo or let you access the 'mission control' area that you'll be using to test it out.



8. Can you MANUALLY ADD AND REMOVE people to and from your list if you want to?
   
   Sometimes you'll need to do this, so you'll want the answer to be "yes" —- especially if you're moving over a list you've already collected.



9. Can you access SUBSCRIBER REPORTS?
   
   How and how often? You'll want to know on a regular basis how many subscribes and unsubscribes you've had since the last issue.



10. What appears in the "FROM" field when subscribers get your e-zine?
    
    You want it to be YOUR name if possible. Some spam filters screen out e-mail that does not appear to come from an individual person.



11. What appears in the "TO" field when a subscriber gets your e-zine?
    
    You want it to be the person's name if possible. Along the same lines, some spam filters screen out e-mail that does not appear to be addressed to the individual person.



12. Who has ACCESS to their servers and your list?
    
    Anytime you hand over your customer list, you're taking a risk. You don't want your service or anyone else using your list for spamming purposes.



13. What happens if some addresses are UNDELIVERABLE?
    
    These are also called "bounces" or "bounce-backs." You don't want them to automatically remove names for "soft bounces," which are due to temporary conditions like full mailboxes.



14. How do users SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE?
    
    Do they have to visit a Web page or can they do it via e-mail (best if both options are available). Is the process single or double opt-in? (Double is better for more security — the user has to respond to a confirmation e-mail before she's added to your list.) Is the process kept simple?



15. Can you customize your LIST SERVER DOCUMENTS?
    
    This means messages like your subscriber welcome and goodbye messages. (You'll definitely want to be able to do this, since the prewritten messages many list services use are horribly cold and confusing.)



16. Can your e-zine give PERSONALIZED GREETINGS AND MESSAGES?
    
    Not necessary, but a very nice feature. For example, if your e-zine came to me, it would start off with something like, "Hello Alexandria!"



17. How often do they BACK UP their servers?
    
    It should be at least once every day. Also ask if you can download your lists to back them up on your own, as a backup to their backup!



18. Can you send a TEST MESSAGE out to yourself or another person before you send out each issue for real?
    
    You'll definitely want this because it's the best way to see how your e-zine looks on the recipient's end, do a proofread, and check all your hyperlinks.



19. Can you see stats on your CLICK-THROUGH rates?
    
    If you publish in HTML, you should be able to see how many people — and even exactly who — opens your messages.



20. Can they AUTOMATICALLY ARCHIVE your issues if you'd like them to?
    
    Some services will archive your e-zines at their site, others can configure it so they're archived at your own site (which is better).



21. Are they currently BLOCKED anywhere on the Web?
    
    If so, it may mean they've been reported for allowing spammers to use their network. You don't want to work with any list service that's been blocked anywhere, because it means that your e-zine won't reach all of your readers.

(c) 2002 Alexandria K. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/

Talking Pictures Are The Go

Writen by Michelle Tremolada

A Tokyo day care company has begun marketing a "talking picture," which can play messages for up to 12 minutes by holding up a pen-shaped scanner on the photograph. The scanner uses invisible barcodes to activate the sound.

"The pictures would be useful for those who hope to hear the voice of someone living when they are far away; maybe they have passed on, or maybe they live on the opposite side of the globe. Either way, it brings loved ones closer together more often by "seeing them" and "hearing them".

There is no point in having a talking picture if you can't see the picture clearly. Make sure you have saved the picture in the correct resolution. Ensure that the color model used is the right one for what you want to do with your picture. All these things make a difference.

Assuming the audio attached to the photo is of good quality, one drawback of this new technology is that the photo may not be of the best quality or has some imperfections. One could very easily remedy this by learning how to edit a photo to your satisfaction; make it look right! Go to http://www.abcphotoediting.com to learn the simple easy to follow steps to make your photos look great!

Learn The Five Facts Why Ezine Is The Ultimate Promotion Tool

Writen by John Navata

What you are about to read will change your way of promoting your products or services. Now that I got your attention, I will share to you six facts why ezine is the ultimate promotion tool.

Most of the people that promote a product or service doesn't make money online. Even if you promote to millions of people that opt-in on safelists, ffas, or email blasts. Majority of the times, they will just delete your message and consider it as junk mail. I have tried them all. There is only one technique that is very effective "Ezines or Weekly Newsletter Marketing."

1. An ezine is the perfect way to stay in touch with your clients and prospects on a regular basis.

Unless you continually follow up with clients and prospects, they'll soon forget about it. But imagine calling or writing each and everyone of your clients and prospects every week! That would be nearly impossible to pull off.

Well, an ezine achieves the same goal. Keeping you on their radar screens, but in an unobtrusive way. This constant contact makes these folks more likely to think of YOU, not someone they heard about yesterday, when they need to hire a coach.

2. An ezine allows you to effortlessly spread the word about you and your business.

If you write a decent ezine, your readers will be very likely to pass it on to friends and colleagues. Have a "tell a friend message" on top of your ezines or a pop up saying, "if you think that this newsletter benefited you, please tell a friend and send to visit...(your website)." This is called viral marketing.

Most publishers begin with only a few dozen subscribers who are their clients and associates. But after several months, you can have thousands of readers on your list.

3. Publishing an ezine positions you as an expert in your field.

By showing your knowledge and skills, you're likely to attract more and better clients. And by sharing what you know well. Sharing information to your clients about your products or service will give them more reasons why they should order from you and willing to buy from you in the future.

4. An ezine is the ideal way to capture the email addresses of your web visitors.

If I visit your site today but aren't ready to buy from you today, you've likely lost me forever when I click away. But if you invite me to sign up for your free newsletter that features helpful information on the topic at hand, I'll be happy to sign up. There are so many newsletters that I can sign up to that offer the same service. But if you have a good reason, like "If you sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter, you will receive tips, techniques, and easy ways to help your business make money from internet marketers. And if you sign up today, you will receive a free ebook on ......."

Now you've got me to market to, over and over, as long as you continue to give me the practical content you promised. This is especially powerful because statistics show that consumers don't usually purchase a product or service until after they've seen multiple messages about it.

5. An ezine is cheap and easy to publish - especially compared with a print newsletter.

If you were to produce and mail a snazzy looking printed newsletter, you could easyily spend thousands of dollars each year. But an ezine is essentially FREE to put together and publish. It just takes a bit of your time.

You can make it as long or short as you'd like. Some of the best ezines, I get feature with only one tip per issue. Make sure it's simple.

If you want to learn ways to promote your business the best way, it's publishing an email newsletter or also called ezine. I recommend this ebook called "Mining Gold on the Internet" by Shawn Casey. He will show you ways on how to promote your business with zero to little investment. Subscribe to his FREE newsletter mini-course at http://tinyurl.com/8f7nv

How To Write Search Relevant Ezine Articles That Get Published

Writen by David Petrich

A good ezine writer can become a star in their field when widely published. Those who provide great content and (who make it easy to publish), can escalate their writing careers. Organizations who publish quality content in trade for publicity can achieve maximum exposure if they follow some simple guidelines.

As an ezine editor, my job is to filter and present interesting and compelling content to our visitors. I frequently visit the free article web sites and find a wide variety of article ideas. Often, I am disappointed. - Many articles have sound merits, but are either poorly written or formatted in a manner that is not compatible with our page layout." The latter is the most frustrating reason to reject articles. - "It may have been a great piece of writing, but the author chose to clutter it up with excessive self-serving ad copy and URLs."

A good article is one that takes an objective view of a subject. This approach will better engage the reader, as it possesses a higher degree of believability. Just like in verbal conversation, the listener (reader) backs away in a defensive posture when someone is being pushy. The reader is less likely to believe all that is said because they detect an ulterior motive of the author. For example, biased, one-sided reporting has less value to the reader than detailing a rational argument addressing both sides of an issue. -Even if the author is clearly biased, they can still address the subject from the reader's point of view.

The reason why most profit-based ezines will publish your article is to build traffic. Just like print magazines, readership drives the business model. - The more readers, the more advertisement exposure. Most ezines are in business to provide a service to advertisers. This is widely true with most print magazines and newspapers as well.

Ezines generally hope that your article will have a ready made answer for someone conducting a specific internet search on Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search engines. The text of your article will be indexed into these search engines so that the public can find your article. With Google, their page order ranking system is forever changing. The Google system for instance, (today fielding the majority of Internet searches) is based on "degree of relevance". Google measures relevance not only by the specific content in your article, but also by the related subject matter on the host ezine web site, as well as the number of links pointing to the page and host site. That's why your article may rank higher on one site over another based on the specific search criteria. Just remember that the search engines are getting smarter every year. They are getting better at detecting quality over quantity.

Here Are Some Dos and Don'ts From an Ezine Content Editor's Perspective:

Write a Good Lead-in:

Make sure the first two lines of your first paragraph are very appropriate to your subject. Write catchy descriptive titles: no more than 65 characters. - (You will notice that there are about 65 characters that show up on the title line of a Google search result page). Try to write like a news writer. - Most important information up front, with the supportive data towards the end. Your whole article should be generally written with this rule in mind as well.

Be Original.

Have a unique perspective on your topic. Too often I see very general subjects that will never stand out from the sea of content on the Internet. - And thus never come up when searched. If you are going to spend the time to write something, try to narrow the focus and answer a specific topic for a specific reader. This approach will allow you to "work and turn" or tweak the article with a different angle and different audience with little effort. - Resulting in more exposure with less work.

Don't Write a Blatant "Advertorial".

Don't write overtly self-serving advertorials unless you just want your articles to only appear on the come-get-your-free-content web sites. Remember, your articles will have the best chance of being seen if it is associated with other similar content.

We all know the reason why most people are writing and distributing free content, but don't make it so obvious that you loose credibility with the reader. Intelligent readers will know when they are being "sold to" and will stop reading before they get to the end of your article. Most quality ezines (ones that readers respect and come back to), don't want to publish a pushy sales pitch. -It will just make their readers not want to come back. There are a lot of ways a good writer can cleverly disguise their motives. The easiest way is to be complete, truthful and objective so that you gain the trust of the reader. Put your sales pitch on the your page link in your byline. This way, readers will be more ready to accept your sales pitch since they specifically requested information about your product or service.

Don't Write About Something You Don't Know.

Put some meat into your article. The reader should walk away with something useful. I see a lot of articles that are simply a regurgitation of widely known information. As a publisher, I will remember your name and avoid your work if it is sub-standard, inaccurate, or immature. Expect excellence in yourself. If you are writing about something you don't know, do the research and become an expert. Your goal should be to give the reader something they probably did not previously know about.

Don't Overstate Your Keywords.

Redundancy can be boring to read. I often review articles that make such an obvious attempt to repeat specific keywords or key phrases that the writing is almost useless in conveying the subject matter. Search engines will detect and reject this belligerent abuse of the Internet and so will most readers. It is best not to make a conscious effort to boost keyword count in your article. Your subject is what it is. It will be recognized as relevant when your keywords and phrases are found in a natural, common and organic manner.

Don't Write Over the Top of Your Readers.

Write in plain English (or French, German, Japanese, etc.) so that your target audience will quickly understand what you are saying. If you are presenting a highly technical subject, work from the lowest common denominator. If your lowest common denominator is a lawyer from Harvard, then your writing can be a bit more complex than if your audience includes high-school dropouts. However, technical people enjoy easy reading too.

Please Check Your Spelling.

If I see blatant spelling errors, I will also assume that the author is not credible and reject the article. If I get to know your name as a writer who does not check spelling and grammar, I will avoid looking at your articles. Most editors don't want to waste time and spell check your work. More importantly, some of the free article distribution sites specifically state that the articles cannot be altered. Don't let bad spelling and grammar keep you from getting your work published.

Keep you Bio Brief and to the Point.

You want your bio to be short and to the point. Your URL link should be aimed at a specific page that supports the purpose of your article. I reject a lot of articles because the bio reads like an in-your-face advertisement. This is fine if you do not want to see you work on high quality sites. It is best to keep the URL's to a minimum (no more than three). You can always make a special destination page for your article and place all the copy and URL's you want. Eliminate redundant copy such as "come visit our web site" or "click here for more information" And don't make clever formatting like "F-R-E-E N-E-W-S-L-E-T-T-E-R" or "LOWEST PRICES!!!" unless you only want your article to appear in low end ezines and spam sites.

I once had an e-mail complaint from an irate writer who wanted their article formatted with a lot of "all caps" statements and to stand out from other writers. I quickly e-mailed her back with a short note: "No problem. It's fixed!". She emailed later complaining that she could no longer find any of her articles on our web site. My point is that there are a lot of cooperative writers out there and it should be looked as a cooperative effort between the writer, publisher (and yes, sponsors) to deliver compelling and worthwhile content to the reader.

I review countless great articles with incompatible bylines; as a publisher, I want to respect the wishes of each writer by including all information they provide. Too often, I reject articles because the writer feels it necessary to include excessive information about their services or products. The worst thing is pushy sales pitches and cute call-to-action statements that were all the rage in those 1970's marketing seminars. As a reader, I find this barrage of ad spam to be confusing clutter that is a distraction and worse, a way to discredit the article information I had just read.

In the long run, you will find your efforts to have the most value if they are published on web sites offering cohesive and quality subject matter to a specific audience. When your article is published along with other articles within the same subject grouping, it stands a much better chance of being found and read. It is important for you to get good quality links from your ezine articles so that it builds relevance for your target web site and cause. Make it easy on us editors by making your great writing easy to publish!

David Petrich is senior editor for http://www.JustChange.net -an ezine dedicated to helping people accomplish positive changes in their lives. He is also a copywriter for http://www.JDEZ.com - a manufacturer of chic yoga apparel for men and women. David has more than 25 years experience in helping businesses with market communication strategies.

(c) 2005 D. Petrich. (This article may be freely published on your web site provided it is left unchanged including the authors bio with clickable URLs. This article may not be used in conjunction with SPAM email.)

A Brief History Of Ezines

Writen by Lance Winslow

There are a many Ezines specializing in nearly every sub-sector of our economy and almost every interest of human activity today. But how did it all begin and what is an Ezine anyway? Well many who specialize as Ezine Publishers believe it is an electronic magazine or newsletter sent out by email to a subscription list.

Others say that an Ezine is an electronic newsletter or magazine, regardless of the method of electronic distribution. They say that an Ezine could reside on a website, intranet system or be sent throughout any network, including the largest network of or a network of networks; the Internet. Indeed we could disagree on the definition for a moment.

If my history is correct ARPA contracted Bell Labs and Xerox park to come up with system of communication and they were the first people to call something E-Mail or electronic mail. But even before that, they were sending out correspondence- online network newsletters, announcements and notifications of discoveries in the same exact general format of many of the online newsletters or Ezines, which is what we would call them today.

So, even though back then it was not called an Ezine, because the term had not been coined, it was an Ezine, but email did not exist quite yet. Even the Internet did not exist, yet it was an electronic newsletter. As things progressed, it would not be important which came first. And with regards to that, there will be further evolution of both the chicken and the egg as the fine feathered friends of distribution still have to cross the road to get to the other side and will figure out how the road ahead (and it might be a runway) might be re-surfaced in the future. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Comment Option For Online Article Submission Sites Discussed

Writen by Lance Winslow

Should online article submission and Ezine content websites have sections for comments from readers of articles like Amazon.com does? Well, it just so happens that many of the top online article submission Internet content website providers do indeed have sections to rate and or comment on the articles that the reader reads. Many online article writers like this and some authors do not and often there are mean spirited folks who post negative comments for really no reason at all or maybe they are a commercial competitor of the author and the article itself is indeed industry related to the writer's work.

Personally I do not like the comments and yes I am an online article writer; although most of my comments are fairly nice ones. I do not wish to hear from anyone on the subjects I have written. You see I either have a strong opinion or I am so knowledgeable in a subject, I do not want to hear from those who speak before they understand. I also do not like the "star" system, as often someone will rate an article due to their political beliefs, religious beliefs or grading me for grammar. You see, this is just silly human petty crap. I want the whole thing turned off really on my articles.

Online article submission sites should be careful not to alienate their writers and should be weary that competitors might post negative or derogatory comments and thus comments on online article content sites will need to be monitored to keep the peace. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

How To Build And Manage Your Ezine Strategies To Develop Your Customer Base

Writen by Ken Mathie

Well, you have got your Ezine all set to go. The content is great, the look is great, and you're all pumped up to get everyone on the Internet to see it. That's when it hits you.

How do I do that?

Unfortunately, the old saying "Build it and they will come" does not apply to the Internet. The sad truth is, just building an Ezine, web site, or anything for that matter does not guarantee that anybody is going to see it. In order for that to happen, you need to go out and get the people to come. That leads us to the big question.

How do I do that?

Ah yes, we already asked that question, didn't we. Well, fortunately, there are a number of ways to develop your customer base to your Ezine. We will touch on just a few of them here so you can get an idea. There are many more than these.

One way to get the word out about your Ezine to a mass of people at once is to register with a safelist submitter service. This is a service that will allow you to submit an ad to hundreds, even thousands of safelists all at once. This has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people in one shot. The services are relatively inexpensive and many come with other benefits besides. Do some shopping around to see the best deals that you can get.

Another way to make your Ezine known to the Internet is through message boards and forums. This takes a little bit more manual work but is more of a personal approach. By going to these forums and letting people know that your Ezine exists, maybe even offering some incentives for them to sign up, you'll probably get a faster sign up rate than with most other methods. You can easily find a number of forums to visit through search engines.

Of course you can always go the route of submitting your Ezine to an Ezine submission service. This is a service that specializes in making the Internet know that your Ezine exists. Make sure you follow their rules when doing this because they don't allow any ad submissions. This is purely a news release to let them know your Ezine exists. The problem with these services is that there are so many Ezines submitted each day, it is easy for yours to get lost in the soup.

Whatever strategy you use for letting people know about your Ezine, make sure that you offer them some kind of freebie for, say, the first 100 sign ups. Maybe give away some software or an ebook you have written. Sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot. If people believe that they are getting something of value, they will be more likely to want to sign up with your Ezine. From there, as long as you keep providing them with good content, they will continue as subscribers and potential customers.

Learn more…

HBNezine.. Home Biz News & Tips. Weekly up-to-date powerful strategies to outsmart, out market and outsell even your toughest competition. Receive your free report "Fail Faster For Success" when you subscribe. Yes!' Please send my report!

Copyright 2006 – Ken Mathie. Editor HBNezine... You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author's name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

How To Format Your Email Newsletter

Writen by Robert Abbott

When subscribers' email readers (programs) receive your text newsletter, they will display it in all kinds of ways. Not only are there different programs, but each one has several customization options.

One of the problems arising out of this diversity is line length. In extreme cases, recipients will get one extremely long line for each paragraph, because their email programs have not wrapped the lines (ended each line after a specified number of characters and moved the text onto a new line). In other cases, the lines may be too long for comfortable reading.

How do you deal with this? Opinions vary, again. Some publishers recommend you hit the RETURN key at the end of each line (hard returns), to make sure the text wraps. Others advocate setting a line length (65 characters or less) in the Preferences section of your email program.

If you do use hard returns, use a fixed-space font like Courier or Monaco. That way you can simply set your margins to an appropriate line length and hit the return key at the end of each line. If you forget and use a variable-space font (like Arial or Times), your readers will get all kinds of variations, since many of them will use different fonts. You can also change your fonts back to something you like again after putting in the hard returns.

Apostrophes and quotation marks: Many of us use these symbols liberally when we write, and quite frankly they improve the reading process. But, be sure you use the appropriate versions of these marks, which means using the straight foot and inch symbols, rather than curled apostrophes and quotation marks.

If you don't do this, some of your readers will get a message in which all apostrophes and quotation marks have disappeared. It will look like you don't know how to spell, or worse. Overcome this problem by using the Find & Replace function in your word processing program to make the changes quickly and easily.

And, it may seem obvious, but if you send out a text email newsletter, separate the paragraphs with double returns. Don't try to use tabs or spaces to set off a new paragraph - in many cases the formatting will go astray and your readers won't know you're starting a new paragraph.

If your original document doesn't use double returns, you can change it over quickly and easily, using our old friend, the Find & Replace function in your word processing program. Put one return symbol in the Find field, two in the Replace field, and hit Change All (or whatever your program uses for these terms).

One thing you can generally ignore is the font or typeface (unless, as noted you're setting line lengths). Many readers will set their email programs to display all text messages in a font of their choosing, and likely won't see the font you use anyway.

After drafting your newsletter, email a copy to yourself before sending it to your list. Even better, send it from one program and receive it with another. If you're like me, you'll be surprised at the problems that pop out when you do this. Not only content, but also formatting and links may look different, and you'll likely find errors that were not at all obvious in the original version.

While we're on this subject, don't forget to test the links you place. Click on each one to make sure it takes you where you want it to send your readers.

Summing up, be conscious of your formatting techniques when you create a text newsletter. A little bit of extra attention will keep the text itself from getting in the way of your message.

Robert F. Abbott, the author of A Manager's Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results, writes and publishes Abbott's Communication Letter. Read more articles about Internet communication, as well as email and printed newsletters at: http:// http://www.communication-newsletter.com/ic.html

5 Ways To Make More Money With Your Ezine

Writen by Alexandria K. Brown

Have you been publishing an e-mail newsletter for at least six months but still aren't seeing real results (read: revenue) from it? Don't fret — you may just need a tune up. Here are five ways to kick your e-zine income into gear this year:

1. TOOT YOUR OWN HORN MORE
   
   The adage goes, "If you don't blow your own horn, someone else will use it as a spittoon." If your focus is providing your readers with useful information that enriches their lives and businesses, bravo! That SHOULD be your focus. But now I want you to look out for yourself as well: Take at least 25 percent of your e-zine space and make it all about YOU.
   
   Give promos for your services, products, books, workshops, etc. List raving testimonials from clients and customers who LOVE you. Weave your business success stories into your articles and tips. Share something funny about your weekend that makes me feel closer to knowing you personally. (For more self-promotion tips, see my article at http://www.ezinequeen.com/7ways.htm)



2. MAKE ME AN OFFER I CAN'T REFUSE
   
   Let's suppose I'm one of your subscribers. Even if I realize you offer wonderful products and services, I may need a kick in the pants to make a move. To entice me, offer me a special, l1mited-time deal. Examples: three months' of consultation for the price of two, a 20% discount on your latest book or newest service, or one of your usual offers with a few exciting bonuses thrown in. Make the offer obsolete within a few days or by next week. By putting a time limit on it, I'll be more apt to act now instead of later.
   
   Don't overlook how powerful this tactic can be. Some of my most profitable weeks have resulted from running a limited time, special pr0motion of this type in my e-zine.



3. PACKAGE IT AT A LOWER PRICE POINT
   
   This is a super strategy for service professionals such as consultants and coaches. As your subscriber, I know the way to get the BEST service from you would be to hire you one-on-one, but perhaps I can't afford that right now. BUT consider that I may likely be interested in lower-priced options such as group coaching, teleclasses, online seminars, or a manual/e-book.
   
   This is exactly how I became an e-book author. When I started my first e-zine, my main business was writing for corporate communications. After I gained a few thousand subscribers, I realized that my readers were mostly small business owners and entrepreneurs. So I began creating products and services geared toward them. And now I profit more from those each month than from my corporate work.



4. PROMOTE A PRODUCT/SERVICE THAT COMPLEMENTS YOURS
   
   Do your readers and clients often ask you about a certain topic that's related to — but not exactly — what you offer? Then resell a resource that you heartily recommend and would put your reputation behind.
   
   For example, while my specialty is e-zines, I get many questions about creating and selling information products online. So I continually research credible resources on this topic to share with my readers. Many of the creators of these products offer a handsome commission on any sales I refer to them. (I do this myself by paying out up to 25% commission on any referred sale. http://www.ezinequeen.com/affiliate.htm)
   
   NEVER recommend any service or product to your readers that you haven't personally tried and wouldn't back 100 percent. Otherwise you'll blow the trust that you've worked so hard to build up in your readership.



5. SELL AD SPACE AS IT SUITS YOU
   
   E-zine ads won't make you wealthy, but they can make for some handy extra c^sh. (I call it my "margarita money.") Most e-zines offer one sponsor ad at the top and several "classified" ads at the bottom. Sponsor ads typically cost three to five times more than the classified ad, but you'll see the ranges vary greatly.
   
   Start by offering ad specials to your own readers. Then also list your e-zine in the many e-zine advertising directories on the Web. These services help match advertisers with appropriate publishers just like you. (Need help? My manual gives step-by-step instructions on how to accept and profit from ads in your e-zine.)
   
   Remember that you have every right to be selective about the type of ads you accept. While your readers know these ads don't represent YOUR business, their quality will indirectly influence their perception of you.

REMEMBER THE *SILENT* BENEFITS OF YOUR E-ZINE

Keep in mind that even if you aren't getting direct business from your e-zine at this time, it's still delivering many benefits that may be less obvious. Your e-zine is helping to establish you as an expert in your field. It's giving you massive online exposure. You're gaining further credibility with your current clients and customers. And it's forcing you to package your knowledge into concise articles on a regular basis, which you can recycle for many other marketing uses.

(c) 2000-2003 Alexandria K. Brown. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/

Create An Immortal Ezine Evergreen Newsletters

Writen by Debbie Jenkins

This article is particularly for those people who want to communicate regularly with their readers and through this communication build up a strong relationship. If you've never considered using a newsletter or ezine to contact your prospects and suspects, then now is the time.

However, with almost every small business on the planet boasting that they have a newsletter, wouldn't it be great if there were some cheats and easy ways to use your newsletter to better effect?

If you've written newsletters for a while in the traditional "news" style, you'll know how frustrating it can be continually having to remind people what you do as you get new subscribers. In your first issue, full of enthusiasm, you might have told your readers that they can get a discount or sign up to another of your great services. However, by issue 10, you'd like to be strengthening that relationship.

The term "evergreen" when applied to articles means an article that can be read on any day in any year and still have strong meaning to the reader.

We want to make sure that everyone who signs up to our newsletter receives ALL the issues in the order that makes most sense to them and to us. So each issue is written in an "evergreen" fashion (ie nothing dates) and is set to be sent at intervals of 14 days.

A lot of articles that you read in magazines are topics that can be run again and again. These "evergreen" topics never go out of style - they never date. Here are some examples, bridal magazines use stories on planning your wedding, choosing a wedding dress, hairstyles and that all important honeymoon. Fitness magazines run articles on losing weight and exercising.

So, writing an "evergreen" newsletter means that you write all your content ahead of time and none of it can be time-sensitive.

Evergreen e-zines are brilliant and easy to do.

GOALS

1. To build a relationship with your readers, to inform them and provide them with useful content that they can use straight away.

2. To sell your products / services to them

3. To build a subscriber base (encourage evangelists)

4. To make the job easy for yourself ;-) (my favourite goal - remember we're Lean Marketers(tm))

Here's how to do it: Suppose you want to publish an article every two weeks - like Champions. That means you'd have to write 26 articles in a year. You write the articles and then add them to your autoresponder with day gaps of 14 - like day 1, day 14, day 28 etc. Each reader would get a message every two weeks and new readers would start at message 1.

RULES

1. Don't include time sensitive information. Unless you have a system that can manage multiple time sensitive offers (we might look at this in a later article) then ensure any information you include will last for ever.

2. The information must still be valuable - don't think you can get away with sending rubbish out.

3. You must include a proper opt in and out link in every message. Use an automated system for this, don't waste your own time trying to manage something so tiresome!

4. Check it's being read by asking for a response. Do you remember the pipeline we talked about in issue 3 (if you want to see a picture of a pipeline send a blank email to leanpipeline@aweber.com with "Send Me The Pipeline - I need to understand Evergreen Newsletters" in the subject line. We used this to check you were reading ;-)

5. Periodically check the system is working. Put your own email address in the automated system and read your own messages. This has a number of benefits - you get to see what your readers will see; you can make sure that the information isn't time sensitive (it can be a challenge at first!) and you get reminded of your own tips ;-)

6. Build the relationship. Take advantage of the opportunity to build a relationship, as you would in any other real world relationship, divulge a little more of yourself each time.

7. As people become more used to you and the relationship grows, expect them to start paying for your services / products. It might be a challenge to ask your prospects to part with their cash the first time your ezine pops into their email box, but over a period of time, say maybe 6 or 7 issues (by the way - this is your 7th newsletter from us) the relationship will have blossomed. This is when you can start to ask for the sale and expect results.

CLUES

1. Make an outline of the articles you're going to use for the next 6 months and ensure you have a progression of relationship building.

2. Don't leave writing the newsletter to the last minute! (like I sometimes do)

3. Use software that automates the process - remember Lean Marketers(tm) use technology where appropriate. We use aweber.com

4. Can't think what to write? Then you may use some of our articles - let me know if you want to use them and I'll send you my by-line.

Speak Soon,

'Dangerous' Debbie Jenkins
debs@debbiejenkins.com

(c) Copyright 2005 www.BookShaker.com

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rather than in it. Get 2 F'REE eBooks and prepare
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Pull Technology Takes Your Ezine Off Of The Spam Wars Battlefield

Writen by Bill Platt

THE SPAM WARS

I have been writing about the Spam Wars for more than two years now. Once, I had even predicted that the Spam Wars could lead to the death of email marketing. I hate being so negative, but the trends have shown many members of that anti-spam community to be blind to justice.

With the widespread implementations of blacklisting and filtering, the chances of an ezine of reaching its intended recipients is greatly dimished.

The person who has subscribed to an ezine very likely requested the subscription themselves, and in most cases, they verified their intent to receive the publication (double opt-in).

It is a fact that a person could verify his intent to subscribe to a publication two dozen times, and still the ezine they had subscribed to could be blocked from ever reaching their mailbox. That is the nature of blacklisting and spam filtering --- neither one cares if a person has requested to receive an email or if a current relationship exists between the sender and recipient. Both the blacklister and the spam filter will arbitrarily block a message from reaching its intended recipient based on a certain criteria defined by some system administrator sitting behind a keyboard somwhere else on the planet.

SPAM NASTY ENVIRONMENT

In this spam nasty environment, there are the spammers on one side of the isle, and the anti-spammers on the other side of the isle. Stuck in the middle are the ezine publishers who abide by all rules and guidelines for proper email publishing.

Some anti-spammers deliberately target ezines because the ezine publishers represent commercial interests.

Some people even use the anti-spam hysteria to settle personal beefs with others and also to attack those with whom they disagree.

IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS

Please note the adjective in use here, "some." This is an important distinction as others in the anti-spam community are folks like you and I, who are simply frustated with the level of email aimed to our mailboxes for the purpose of selling us access to p*rn or body enhancement products.

There is no doubt as to the existence of a problem each time I open my email software. Yet, it has always been my argument that some of the spam solutions are worse than the spam situation they seek to solve.

A solution is not a good solution if it "throws the baby out with the bath water." Some in the anti-spam community believe that it is okay to sacrifice tens of thousand babies in order to empty a couple tubs of water.

My answer, "two wrong's don't make a right."

THE BATTLE FOR THE MIGHTY DOLLAR

Other commercial enterprises have arisen that purport to be possible solutions to the spam problem.

Whitelisting is a fairly recent entrant into the anti-spam enterprises. And yet, other anti-spammers think that even the whitelisting companies are an evil to be squashed. Of course, their reasons for despising the whitelisting companies are different from mine.

The anti-spammers who hate whitelisting generally hate it because corporations and others with deep pockets are being permitted to buy a pass to send unsolicited commercial email.

I am a person who is publishes an ezine and I offers support services to other ezine publishers. The people with whom I work are those who are publishing their ezines the right way, by making sure that all of their subscribers are double opt-in subscribers.

I find paid whitelisting offensive because the publishers who are using double and triple opt-in are being told that the only way they can assure delivery of their ezine is to pay some third-party company an extortion fee to get their ezines to the people who have subscribed to their publication. This applies not only to people who offer free ezines --- it also applies to publishers who offer paid subscription ezines.

You would think that if a subscriber has paid to receive the ezine, then that should indicate a serious intent by the subscriber to receive the publication in question.

Some are making a ton of money in the attempt to limit spam email. Yet many of their systems are so flawed that requested ezines cannot reach their intended recipients, paid subscribers cannot get the email they have paid to receive, and worse, people who have an existing business relationship don't always get their communications through to their business contacts --- sometimes ending up angry customers and in lost business.

Some of the blind to justice anti-spammers will read this and snicker, "Darn shame." What does that say about them?

TWISTED PERCEPTIONS

Although "some" anti-spammers have tried to twist the perception of my Spam Wars commentaries into a pro-spam ideology, they have never been right in doing so. I do not support spam, and I find the hundreds of p*rn advertisements to be something I do not want in my email box. I also do not want to learn how I can grow my phallic unit or my breasts to unnatural sizes.

Instead, my argument has always been that there absolutely has to be a better way to stop spam. I think highly upon the skills of the programmers who have brought us this wonderful world of the Internet. I just wish someone could come up with a better solution to combat spam --- a solution that does not penalize those who run their commercial online enterprises with the highest integrity.

FINALLY, SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT

After all of these years, someone has granted to me my wish. Would you be at all surprised if I told you that for the first time in years, I am very excited about ezine publishing again?

Someone has brought a number of existing technologies into an umbrella operation which uses "pull technology" rather than "push technology."

PUSH AND PULL TECHNOLOGY

Email is a "push technology".

Quikonnex is a "pull technology."

Through the Quikonnex system, you can subscribe to certain "channels", kind of like channels on your television. "Channeling" (pull technology) allows the subscriber to receive materials in straight text, full html, voice, video, or interactive media.

Subscribers are notified directly --- desktop to desktop --- when new materials are ready. Notification comes through the Awasu software, which is an RSS reader, and utilizes a technology very similar to the Yahoo! or AOL IM.

Within the Quikonnex system, subscribers do not pay to use the software or to receive information. Publishers do pay to use the service, but compared to other distribution systems, the cost to operate up to 100 channels is dirt cheap at $19.95 per month, and it is all spam-free.

Copyright Bill Platt - All Rights Reserved. Reprints allowed with article and resource box unedited. If you post this article on a website, you must set the links up as hyperlinks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

• When you are tired of the struggle of the link building process, it might be time to consider our "Links And Traffic" services.

• When you are ready to employ more Natural Linking Strategies in increasing your link popularity, "Links And Traffic" can help.

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This is not a link rental system or a reciprocal linking scam. We Guarantee our results.

An Embarrassment Of Riches Part Ii

Writen by Sam Vaknin

The DOI Foundation has unveiled the DOI-EB (EB stands for e-books) Initiative in the Book Expo America Show 2001, to, in their words:

"Determine requirements with respect to the application of unique identifiers to eBooks

Develop proofs-of-concept for the use of DOIs with eBooks

Develop technical demonstrations, possibly including a prototype eBook Registration Agency."

It is backed by a few major publishers, such as McGraw-Hill, Random House, Pearson, and Wiley.

http://www.doi.org/

This ostensibly modest agenda conceals a revolutionary and ambitious attempt to unambiguously identify the origin of digital content (in this case, e-books) and link a universe of information to each and every ID number. Aware of competing efforts underway, the DOI Foundation is actively courting the likes of "indecs" (Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce System) and OeBF (Open e-Book). Companies ,like Enpia Systems of South Korea (a DOI Registration Agency), have already implemented a DOI-cum-indecs system. On November 2000, the APA's (American Publishers' Association) Open E-book Publishing Standards Initiative has recommended to use DOI as the primary identification system for e-books' metadata. The MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) is said to be considering DOI seriously in its efforts to come up with numbering and metadata standards for digital videos.

A DOI can be expressed as a URN (Universal Resource Name - IETF's syntax for generic resources) and is compatible with OpenURL (a syntax for embedding parameters such as identifiers and metadata in links). Shortly, a "Namespace Dictionary" is to be published. It will encompass 800 metadata elements and will tackle e-books, journals, audio, and video. A working group was started to develop a "services definition" interface (i.e., to allow web-enabled systems, especially e-commerce and m-commerce systems, to deploy DOI).

The DOI, in other words, is designed to be all-inclusive and all-pervasive. Each DOI number is made of a prefix, specific to a publisher, and a suffix, which could end up painlessly assimilating the ISBN and ISSN (or any other numbering and database) system.

Thus, a DOI can be assigned to every e-book based on its ISBN and to every part (chapter, section, or page) of every e-book. This flexibility could support Pay Per View models (such as Questia's or Fathom's), POD (Print On Demand), and academic "course packs", which comprise material from many textbooks, whether on digital media or downloadable. The DOI, in other words, can underlie D-CMS (Digital Content Management Systems) and Electronic Catalogue ID Management Systems.

Moreover, the DOI is a paradigm shift (though, conceptually, it was preceded by the likes of the UPC code and the ISO's HyTime multimedia standard). It blurs the borders between types of digital content. Imagine an e-novel with the video version of the novel, the sound track, still photographs, a tourist guide, an audio book, and other digital content embedded in it. Each content type and each segment of each content type can be identified and tagged separately and, thus, sold separately - yet all under the umbrella of the same DOI! The nightmare of DRM (digital rights management) may be finally over.

But the DOI is much more than a sophisticated tagging technology. It comes with multiple resolution (see "Embarrassment of Riches - Part I"). In other words, as opposed to the URL (Universal Resource Locator) - it is generated dynamically, "on the fly", by the user, and is not "hard coded" into the web page. This is because the DOI identifies content - not its location. And while the URL resolves to a single web page - the DOI resolves to a lot more in the form of publisher-controlled (ONIX-XML) "metadata" in a pop-up (Javascript or other) screen. The metadata include everything from the author's name through the book's title, edition, blurbs, sample chapters, other promotional material, links to related products, a rights and permissions profile, e-mail contacts, and active links to retailers' web pages. Thus, every book-related web page becomes a full fledged book retailing gateway. The "anchor document" (in which the DOI is embedded) remains uncluttered. ONIX 2.0 may contain standard metadata fields and extensions specific to e-publishing and e-books.

This latter feature - the ability to link to the systems of retailers, distributors, and other types of vendors - is the "barcode" function of the DOI. Like barcode technology, it helps to automate the supply chain, and update the inventory, ordering, billing and invoicing, accounting, and re-ordering databases and functions. Besides tracking content use and distribution, the DOI allows to seamlessly integrate hitherto disparate e-commerce technologies and facilitate interoperability among DRM systems.

The resolution itself can take place in the client's browser (using a software plug-in), in a proxy server, or in a central, dynamic server. Resolving from the client's PC, e-book reader, or PDA has the advantage of being able to respond to the user's specific condition (location, time of day, etc.). No plug-in is required when a proxy server HTTP is used - but then the DOI becomes just another URL, embedded in the page when it is created and not resolved when the user clicks on it. The most user-friendly solution is, probably, for a central server to look up values in response to a user's prompt and serve her with cascading menus or links. Admittedly, in this option, the resolution tables (what DOI links to what URL's and to what content) is not really dynamic. It changes only with every server update and is static between updates. But this is a minor inconvenience. As it is, users are likely to respond with some trepidation to the need to install plug-ins and to the avalanche of information their single, innocuous, mouse click generates.

The DOI Foundation has compiled this impressive list of benefits - and beneficiaries:

"Publishers to enable cross referencing to related information, control over metadata, viral distribution and sales, easy access to content, sale of granular content

Consumers to increase value for time and money, and purchase options

Distributors to facilitate sale and distribution of materials as well as user needs

Retailers to build related materials on their sites, heighten consumer usability and copyright protection

Conversion Houses/Wholesaler Repositories to increase access to and use of metadata

DRM Vendors/Rights Clearing Houses to enable interoperability and use of standards

Data Aggregators to enable compilation of primary and secondary content and print on demand

Trade Associations facilitate dialog on social level and attend to legal and technical perspectives pertaining to multiple versions of electronic content

eBbook software Developers to enable management of personal collections of eBooks including purchase receipt information as reference for quick return to retailer

Content Management System Vendors to enable internal synching with external usage

Syndicators to drive sales to retailers, add value to retail online store/sales, and increase sales for publishers"

The DOI is assigned to publishers by Registration Agencies (of which there are currently three - CrossRef and Content Directions in the States and the aforementioned Enpia Systems in Asia). It is already widely used to cross reference almost 5,000 periodicals with a database of 3,000,000 citations. The price is steep - it costs a publisher $200 to get a prefix and submit DOI's to the registry. But as Registration Agencies proliferate, competition is bound to slash these prices precipitously.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

Three Ezine Alternatives You May Not Have Considered

Writen by Alexandria K. Brown

During the free e-zine publishing teleclasses I offer every month, I always get a few people who say to me, "You know, publishing an e-zine sounds great, but I just don't think I have the time to do it on an ongoing basis." Or, "I'm not sure if I'll have enough content to publish an e-zine."

If this is your case, you may want to consider one of these e-zine alternatives. These can still help you achieve your goal of establishing credibility, staying in touch with your prospects, and capturing your Web site visitors.

For the first two alternatives, you'll need an e-mail autoresponder. This is like a fax-on-demand system that sends out e-mails automatically when others request them.

The great thing about autoresponders is that you can preset the timing of a series ahead of time. For example, you can schedule message 1 to go out immediately once a person signs up for the list. Message 2 could follow two weeks later. Message 3 would follow two weeks after that. Get the idea?

ALTERNATIVE 1: THE "EVERGREEN" NEWSLETTER

If you don't foresee yourself writing fresh new content every week or month that you publish, why not make your newsletter "evergreen?"

This means that you write all your content ahead of time, and none of it can be time-sensitive. That is, it should be just as relevant today as it would be a year from now.

Evergreen e-zines are brilliant and easy to do. Here's how it works: Suppose you want to publish a short tip every two weeks. That means you'd have to write 26 issues for a year. Once you had this content written, you'd just set up the messages on your autoresponder and tell it when you want them sent out. (For this example, it would be day 1, day 14, day 28, etc. — each reader would get a message every two weeks.)

Internet marketing expert James Maduk does this. He offers an evergreen e-zine called "52 Secrets My Mom Never Told Me About Internet Marketing." When you sign up, you get one secret a week, which adds up to a whole year. Very effective! (You can see what I mean and sign up at www.JamesMaduk.com. I signed up about 10 weeks ago, so I'm on secret 10. But if you sign up today, you'll start on secret 1. (See how easy this is?)

ALTERNATIVE 2: THE MINI E-MAIL COURSE OR REPORT

These are very popular right now. You simply create several e-mails' worth of content to spread out over a certain amount of days, and set them up on your autoresponder.

Many sites offer 7-day courses or reports, and quite frankly, many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOU to stand out. Make sure yours offers really useful or interesting content that's more helpful than salesy.

For example, say you're a small business coach. You could offer a course called "5 Ways Hiring a Coach Will Make This Your Most PROFITABLE Year Ever!" Just sit down and list the 5 ways, then write a few paragraphs of copy under each.

Then write one final sales message that you'll add on to the end of the series as the 6th message. This should be a friendly invitation encouraging the reader to call you for a consultation, buy your book, sign up for your workshop, etc.

Paste all the messages into an autoresponder series, set the timing to what you want (e.g. every day or every few days), and voila -- you've got an e-mail course!

ALTERNATIVE 3: PROMOTIONS ONLY

If you offer products on your site that don't lend themselves well to creating related content, just offer what you've got!

Give your visitors the chance to receive special offers that will save them money at your site. The trick to high sign-up rates is to make them feel as if they'll be part of an exclusive group. Use words like "special, exclusive, limited, VIP, first looks, discounts, savings, club, and members-only."

For example, one site that I frequent sells discounted designer clothes. During my last visit, they invited me to sign up for "discounts, exclusive offers, and first looks." I jumped at the opportunity!

Don't underestimate your visitors' interest — many of them WILL sign up for e-mail offers if you politely extend the invitation and make them feel special.

Just make sure not to overdo your messages to this crowd. Keep your blasts to a maximum of once a week. Otherwise your readers will get irritated and may unsubscribe.

(c) 2003 Alexandria K. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/

Are You Making The Most Of Your Email List

Writen by Mike Wyman

It sounds easy. Build a website, sell products, and watch the sales roll in. Better be sure your web hosting is prepared for the massive influx of traffic as you start your way down the road to riches. But, it's not that easy is it? How can you build a viable business through your website? There's not an easy and quick way to do so but it can be done as long as you consistently treat your customers with the best possible service you can. Oh yeah, and never give up.

With the millions of people surfing the web every day, it's easy to think that all you need is a small slice of that traffic to make your website a massive success. Your website is a virtual store that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so why wouldn't you be instantly successful? The reality is that it's quite difficult to get people to come to your site. Sure, you may have a nice influx as soon as you launch based on a press release or some form of publicity. But, not only is it difficult to get people to your site in the first place, it's often even harder to bring people back. Combine this with the fact that a purchase is made sometimes only after repeated exposure to any marketing and product and you will find your prodcuts aren't exactly flying off the shelf.

Considering an email newsletter is one way you can add value to your customers and an incentive for them to come back to your site. Most of us have heard about these newsletters and while it looks pretty simple, most of us haven't considered the best way to manage and develop your mailing list. Try some of these ideas to help build your traffic, build trust with your customers, and hopefully make your site more profitable.

Tip #1: Offer and incentive to encourage signups for your newsletter.
People love free things. If you can offer a free product, service, or information as an incentive to gaining new signups, your chances are much more likely you will grow your list quickly and effectively. Not only that, you now have the opportunity to up-sell your customer either now, or down the road. If you place your free giveaway on another landing page that is only revealed when your customer signs up, you ensure that your customer will visit this page for sure. Whether you offer additional products that can be purchased, or simply place some Google Adsense ads there, you increase your chances of making some money.

Tip #2: Send your newsletter on a regular basis.
Ideally you should send your newsletter every week and on the same day each week. You want to create value for your customer but you also want to keep your website 'top-of-mind' with everyone on your list. By doing so, you increase the chances that your customers will come to your site the day your newsletter goes out. Don't be concerned about sending out too many newsletters by doing it weekly. If you provide consistent and good information about the types of products you sell, you have nothing to worry about. Surely you will have members request to have their name taken off your list but don't be discouraged.

Tip #3: Provide high quality content in your newsletter.
This is probably the hardest part because week after week it can be frustrating trying to find original and useful content for your members. You don't want your newsletter to be a hard sell because that will just lead to unsubscribing. This is not to say that you can't mention some products here and there, just don't go overboard. The point of your newsletter should be to build trust in you as living person and to bring people to your site each week. Once your members come to your site, that is the time for selling.

Building your list will take time but if you use these three tips, it will pay off in the long run. Don't be surprised to have your customers emailing you for more information once you build up your trust by treating people with your best service and providing good information. While it's not likely you will be wildly successful overnight, it will happen as long as you keep at it and don't give up while giving your customers what they want.

Mike Wyman is co-owner of the singles dating site http://www.DateAGolfer.com, the perfect place for golf singles to find their golfmate. He also runs http://www.PuttingForPar.com, a site specializing in the sale of personalized golf ball markers which make a great golf gift.

Writing Publishing Self Publishing Website Promotion Blogging Internet Marketing

Writen by John Colanzi

Are You Ready For The Publishing Revolution?

Writing has traditionally been considered a solitary craft. You wrote you article or book in seclusion. You submitted it to an editor or publisher and prayed it would be published.

Along comes the Internet and the monsters out of the cage. You now have the ability to self publish your work. You can throw up a Blog, hook up to an RSS feed and syndicate your writing.

You can form online communities with other writers. Readers can give immediate feedback on your work. You can promote your work in the virtual book stores such as Amazon.

The Internet has become a writer's paradise.

With the advent of the Internet, you no longer are limited as a writer,. With a little research you can become a writer/publisher. Think of the possibilities.

Every word you write can travel the globe in the blink of an eye.

Why would you want to be a publisher?

* You can make money before your book is even written.

Before the Internet, writers had to find ways to support themselves while working on their novels or stories. Now if you've got a book that will take any length of time to complete, you can still make money by joining affiliate programs for books by other authors.

* You can start an online newsletter.

What an advantage you have over writers of the past. With your newsletter, your readers get to know you and your work. You have a waiting audience for the day your book is released.

* You can start your own Blog.

You can plug your Blog into an RSS feed and your work can be accessed on the entire network.

* You can start your own affiliate program.

Sites such as Clickbank take the hassle out of having an affiliate program. They process the orders and pay commissions to your affiliates. It's a turnkey system for under $50. Your affiliates are an army of salesmen ready to promote your work around the globe. They can reach more markets than you could on your own. It's leverage in action.

* You can build a theme oriented site drawing readers and writers from around the world. It's like having your own Disneyland for writers.

* You can set up your own autoresponder course geared to your market. Educating and selling on autopilot.

* You can create free ebooks. Take a few of your chapters and create the book as a preview. You're giving readers enough information to decide whether they want to buy your book.

You can also add links to your website, Blog and other books in the free book. .

* You can write for the online newsletters in your target market.

As an ezine writer there are times I've had an article circulated to millions of readers in a single week.

* You can allow webmasters to host your articles on their site.

Imagine thousands of websites promoting your work.

Think it can't happen. Think again.

Without even realizing it was happening, my articles are published on 4000 websites at any given time. Most of those articles are there for the duration.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you put some effort into self promotion.

I've just scratched the surface of the possibilities.

The difference between being a writer or a writer/publisher is just a shift in mindset. If you're willing to get out of your comfort zone, the skies the limit.

There's a cartoon that illustrates the mindset of a winner.

There's a little boy throwing the football with his father. His father looks at him and says, "Son, with a little practice, you can be making the big money they're paying professional football players."

The little boy smiles and looks at his father and says, "Dad, I don't want to be a football player. I want to be the man who can afford to pay all those salaries."

From the mouth of babes.

It's in your hands. Do you want to stay in your comfort zone and limit your possibilities, or do you want to expand your thinking and build a publishing empire?

In the immortal words of Shakespeare,

"Why, then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open."

Is the world your oyster? If not maybe it's time you expanded your thinking.

Wishing You Success,
John Colanzi

Copyright (c) John Colanzi. John has been writing on the Internet for 5 years and has a special gift for you. Sign up for your complementary e-Course "How To Build Your Business With Free Advertising." Visit: http://www.thesimplesystem.net/cashflow.html

Ezines Get From Adequate To Fabulous

Writen by Robin Neidorf

If my in-box is any indication, most of the business world is hot on e-newsletters. I receive half a dozen every day. Some are thinly masked advertisements; most, however, provide some degree of valuable information.

E-newsletters provide a relatively easy and low-cost way to accomplish a number of business goals, including:
• Maintaining connections with current and past clients
• Demonstrating expertise in a particular field
• Sharing resources and building an active network
• Educating clients and prospects about products, services and how best to access them

As a communication professional, though, I review the newsletters I receive with a critical eye; many of them leave much to be desired in their planning and execution. Luckily, it isn't difficult to make the leap from adequate to fabulous, if a newsletter publisher is willing to take a close look at the purpose, audience, content and execution of the project.

What's the Point?
E-newsletter publishers often confuse the tool with the purpose. An e-newsletter is a tool used to achieve some greater business purpose, yet novice publishers often forget the greater purpose in the effort to put out the newsletter on something resembling a regular basis.

Knowing the point of the newsletter within your business context, though, helps you make better decisions on everything from content to frequency. It's critical to your success – and your sanity – to understand up front what the purpose of the newsletter really is.

Newsletters always address one or more of the following three purposes:
1. Serve the needs of current and past clients
2. Position in front of prospective clients
3. Build a base of repeat business

In other words, e-newsletters, like all business communications, have the core intention of creating, sustaining or deepening a business relationship. As a newsletter publisher, you have to know what kind of relationship you are asking your readers for; what do you want from them? Loyalty? New business? Referrals? Increased business? Believe it or not, most of your readers are perfectly willing to give you what you want, as long as your wants are clearly communicated. Most publishers don't communicate clearly enough.

Which of the three purposes is most important to you? Are you helping current and past clients improve some aspect of their work on an ongoing basis? Are you demonstrating your skills to prospective clients? Do you offer a wide range of services that could lead to repeat business if your clients only knew about them all?

Naturally, some overlap exists between the three essential purposes, but one may emerge as the primary purpose. Know what it is, and plan your content to satisfy the requirements of that purpose.

Make Your Point
Once you have a clear idea of what your purpose in publishing your e-newsletter is, you will find it easier to make decisions that help you maximise the benefits of publishing in a digital medium, while overcoming some of the obstacles.

Chief among the obstacles is the notoriously short attention span of online readers. A writing style that engages readers emotionally as well as logically is a must. When your e-newsletter arrives in their inbox, the very subject line must capture their attention. Then, in the body of the newsletter, use compelling headlines, short sentences, action verbs and a story-telling approach to draw readers in.

Headlines are of particular import because readers make nanosecond decisions on whether to delete or keep reading based on headlines. Try these suggestions to come up with effective headlines for your e-newsletter:

• Solve a problem. Examples:

o Spend More Time Providing Value than Hunting for Information.

o Don't Make Your Business Vulnerable to the Taxing Authority

• Use a statistic. Examples:

o Most Companies Lose 30 Percent of Their Mailing Lists Each Year

o Office Workers Waste 6 Weeks per Year Searching for Lost Information

• State a quote or adage. Example:

o Whoever Said "Ignorance is Bliss" Didn't Know a Librarian

• Ask a question. Examples:

o Is It Possible to Get Through Divorce with Dignity?

o What Do Your Clients Really Think of You?

• Create a mystery. Example:

o What Is the Real Agenda of Google?

Interact!
Unlike print media, e-newsletters offer the opportunity for two-way communication with your readers. This capability can be one of the biggest benefits of publishing an e-newsletter, so make creative and strategic use of it. Build the expectation of interaction into your newsletter, and you create the opportunity for meaningful engagement with audiences of all kinds.

For example, you can incorporate links in your text inviting readers to send immediate feedback or questions on your content. Live links embedded in the text are more effective than relying on the "reply" function of e-mail, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that readers often need to be reminded that you really do want them to respond in some way. By including the link (which handily shows up in an eye-catching blue amidst a plain-text message), you reinforce the suggestion that you are inviting discussion and response.

Where do these links lead the reader? If you have a web site, the links can bring readers right into your site to fill out a form, join a discussion forum, or complete a registration for a program. Be sure to create a back-end automated tracking system that will capture information about how many visitors arrived by clicking a newsletter link, what they did when they arrived, and other data points that will help you deepen your relationship with them individually and en masse.

Realistic Outcomes
Quality e-newsletters take time to create and manage. Expect to devote time each issue for planning, writing, editing, layout and production, distribution, and database management. A monthly e-newsletter will require human and financial resources; I usually counsel clients to start with a quarterly or bimonthly newsletter, as it is preferable to increase frequency than to create the expectation of more than you can consistently deliver.

As you create and distribute your newsletter, think carefully about what specific result you want for each issue. What do you want a reader to say, think or do as a result of receiving the newsletter? Your desired outcome might be for readers to:

• Visit your web site
• Request additional information
• Sign up for a class or seminar
• Use a particular tool/resource
• Refer you to others
• Give you feedback
• Feel they can't live without you

All but the last of these desired outcomes are measurable and relatively easy to communicate to readers. When reviewing your newsletter content, ask yourself if what you want is clear. Put your "call to action" in no uncertain terms, and make it easy for readers to fulfil their side of the bargain by placing live links, contact information and other next steps right in their path.

Within the context of your e-newsletter, your words can shape opinions, behaviours, business decisions and profitable relationships. Make your efforts pay off by understanding your purpose and how to work toward it in every single issue.

Robin Neidorf is the author business books, articles and reports and the founder of Electric Muse, a research and communications consultancy. Go beyond ezine basics with Robin's full-length report: E-Newsletters: A Guide for Publishers (http://www.freepint.com/shop/report/enews/), published by Free Pint.

Three Breathing Techniques For Any Ezine Article

Writen by Radhika Venkata

I subscribed myself to many ezines. I'd love to read articles in them. First thing I will do is going to article section of the ezine.

I am telling you honestly... I have learned so many things from these ezine articles. Three aspects of the articles made me think and to write this article.

When ever you write article just follow these THREE simple rules:

***Focus on ONLY one point:

Some articles goes pages and pages. Remember Article is a short and brief information on any of the topic.

Better not to write long essay type documents. Simply focus on one point. For example if you want to write on search engine optimization, take specific point from this vast subject. Like-

• one article on Keywords

• one article on title

• one article on 'how content is good'

• one article on images and 'alt' tags etc.

By this we can discuss each single topic in depth.

***Make it point by point:

Instead of big paragraphs, slice up big lines and paragraphs in to short paragraphs and side headings.

This is to make few points stand out clearly from others. If the reader is in hurry, he can grab main points from these highlighted sections.

People scan the articles and ads. The highlighted lines and subheadings should make hem pull in to the body of the article. If not atleast they should get the idea of the whole article.

***Tell them straight:

What do you want to tell through your article? Tell it in simple and clear way. Some articles start with a story end with a story. Readers don't know what to grab from that article.

Yes...People interested in others stories. But not in those that are no useful to them.

If you want to start your article with a story, then keep one or two lines at the end of the story as a summary.

About The Author

Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to 'EbookBiz Magazine' which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasters-central.com/

Does Online Article Writing Work

Writen by Lance Winslow

Writing articles and submitting them to online article submission sites is one strategy that is being used more and more often as a way to gain exposure for self employed Internet Entrepreneurs. But does it really work? Well if you submit articles to one of the more robust and more popular online article sites indeed it does.

Most online article writers write articles on a subject near to their line of business or subject and then put a byline at the bottom of the article. For those readers who wish to learn more about the subject matter, they can then click on a link taking them to the Internet Entrepreneurs Website.

How well does this bring traffic to the website? Well, it does very well in fact. Of course if the online entrepreneur/writer has something worthy then well they can convert that Internet Traffic to more sales you see? I have written some online articles myself and so someone new to the concept of online article writing asks me;

"I visited the Ezine Article site and was extremely impressed with the amount of articles that you've submitted. Upon further investigation (curious to know what business you are engaged in), I saw that many of your articles had no direct relationship with your primary business ventures."

Actually I am retired so NONE of my 5800 articles have any direct or indirect relationship to any business ventures at all. But my hobby is to run an online think tank for mankind now in my retirement and I must say that we do in fact find significant traffic clicking into our site and who knows maybe we will wake some of mindless masses up and help innovation and the forward progression of the species. Who knows?

Lance Winslow

Online Article Submission Websites And Opportunity In Chaos

Writen by Lance Winslow

We all know that the Internet Traffic Stats are quite fickle and erratic in nature. One minute the whole world is on the Internet and for days on end and then all of a sudden traffic dies and then just when you think something is terribly wrong; it explodes again sending traffic counts to all time highs?

Many who use online article writing to promote their websites may wonder why this is? And the answer is, that it just is and that is the way it is and there is not much you can do to change any of that. However we all know one thing in business and that one thing is that;

There is opportunity in Chaos. And I have enjoyed the randomness of opportunity while participating as one of the 20,000 authors providing 170,000 articles on one online article submission site which I call the category killing website. My thoughts are when people are drawn to my site during a peak period, then they frequently visit after that, and thus the fluctuations of the Internet Web Traffic, only affect the stats, but not my over all game plan. Cycles, patterns, and controlled chaos are part of the world we live in and personally I wouldn't want it any other way.

If there is a lot going on in the news then web stats will drop for a few days. If the weather forces more people on the Internet, then traffic picks up. If we have a media event that people wish to learn more about then they get online and look it up. The trends and changes are what provide much of the opportunity and thus, each species has it niche. For March it seems much like the weather indeed, as the web traffic comes in like the Lion and leaves like the Lamb. But if you use the Internet to market that is just fine even in the year of the Rooster, Chicken or Dog; you know what? It's all good to me! Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

5 Ways To Explode The Number Of Subscribers To Your Ezine

Writen by Bob Kleine

I am about to share 5 powerful ways to boost your ezine subscription rate without any additional traffic! I'lll assume that you already have a stream of traffic, even if it's only 10 visitors a day. These techniques will get more of those visitors to give you their email address with no additional costs to you.

1. Offer a free ad in your ezine as a bonus for subscribing. This is very powerful and the best way to do this is to publish a "Classifieds" edition of your ezine where you display all of the new subscribers ads. This will ensure that the regular issues of your ezine aren't flooded with ads but still gives your subscribers the benefit of a free ad.

2. Offer a free ebook or report as a bonus for subscribing. Many ezine publishers cut their own throats with this method by offering an ebook that every person on the planet already has. The best way to do this is to compile your own short ebook or special report. This is actually a lot easier than it sounds. Just round up 10-20 articles you have written and set them on a nicely formated web-page and boom you have an instant ebook. You could offer a list of resources for whatever niche your readers are interested and compile it into a special report and mention that newer, updated versions will be released in the future to current subscribers.

3. Offer an archive of your back issues and additional resources behinda password protected webpage and change the password weekly or monthly to increase readership of your ezine. This can be a very powerful boost for your ezine and will also get people to read your ezine rather than just subscribing for a free bonus and trashing all of the issues before they even get opened.

4. Use the free ebook you've compiled in strategy 2 above and write a JV letter to website owners that would be interested in your ebook letting them know that you will personalize the ebook with their website address and contact info so they get additional traffic for free also by just offering your free ebook on their site. This is a win-win situation.

5. Find some ezine publishers that have similar content and offer to do an ad swap with them. Don't do all of them at once because this will give less exposure to the people you've swapped with and you want to give them as much value as possible as you may want to do more swaps and possibly other kinds of JVs with them in the future.

If you spend just one day putting all of these tips to use you will jump your subscriber base big time and you can repeat these steps over and over again. The potential subscriber boost you'll receive from these tips is crazy and all you have to do is implement them. So don't procrastinate! Get started using these strategies today. Your subscribers are waiting for you!

*BIG TIP* Make sure you track these ads to determine if they are worth running again. You may find one that is so great you'll want to purchase a larger "paid ad" with that publisher, that's free ad testing

Robert Kleine's newest website at http://www.rapidarticle.com will make it easy for you to always have free content for your ezine and for your website. With thousands of free articles available in hundreds of categories, you should have no trouble finding what you need. If you write articles for publication you should, come by and submit your articles today.

The End Of Email Ezines And Online Marketing

Writen by Xavier Nelson

Ok, it's time to bring out my soapbox.

Something has been bothering me for over a month now, and it just keeps getting worse, so I am afraid it's time to talk about it.

Some of the readers may not appreciate this, but I think it's something that needs to be looked at and I think you will appreciate it, when others may start thinking I have lost my marbles again.

I want to apologize in advance to any of my fellow ezine publishers. If I rub you wrong with my comments and thoughts today, I truly don't mean any one person, nor do I think any less of any of you. I know you are doing what I am going to discuss, so you can bring quality content to your readers that will benefit them and also to grow your own business while helping others.

Have you noticed lately how more and more ezines are full of spelling errors (or so you would think at first)? Seeing articles with 'f.ree' or 'mo.ney' and so forth?

At first I thought I was seeing things, because even some of the most experienced and well-known marketers were spelling all these words wrong, but it's all on purpose, and you know what?

It makes me sick!

Yes, you heard right, it makes me sick. Let me explain.

Over the past couple of years, email has become more and more unfriendly as a tool to bring you valuable information, all because of 'SPAM'.

I remember when these little surfprograms like NetNanny came out and started blocking websites and don't get me wrong, I think control is needed, but I am a firm believer that parents are not doing their job either. When a site such as the Breast Cancer Research group is blocked and students can't even do their research for homework, there's something wrong.

Then came the spam blockers and you as a reader could decide what would be spam and what not. But for many people that was too cumbersome, so many of the ISP's built in their own blocking criteria, like the words 'free' or phrases like 'make money'.

Spam is a major problem, that is true, but I feel it should be up to you, the reader, to decide, as an adult of a free country, what you want and what you don't want to read.

There's something very worrying to me when companies and governments start to take over our decision making. The sad truth is that honestly, they are only doing it to protect everyone from the unsavory practices of Spammers and the likes, however, I am an adult and would like to choose for myself as I am sure you do too.

So, what does that have to do with the spelling errors? Simple.

To be able to get you the latest issue of that ezine you have been looking forward to receiving, you can either 'white list' the sender, the publisher can misspell words on purpose, or change the medium that is being used to bring you the newsletter.

Let's have a look at each of these....

Depending on what ISP you are using, how to 'white list' (meaning to declare a certain email address as not being spam and that you would like it to come through) varies and in some cases is next to impossible for the average person to do, and in other cases, still doesn't mean that you will see that next article you are waiting for.

Misspelling the words, to me personally, looks very unprofessional and even makes me think more of spam, even though it's from publishers I read all the time. Granted, because I know the reason behind it, I don't think any less of the author, it just looks like crap!

Changing the medium used to bring you your latest issue is something that seems to be the way forward, but even there challenges await. Some publishers send just a link with the comment that here's your next issue waiting for you (which really bites if you are reading your email and ezines offline). Others will start an article and when they've gotten your attention and hooked you into it, there's a link waiting that you have to click to read the rest of the story. Some publishers will send you a follow up or two as well, to make sure that you even got their newsletter and if you didn't they tell you nicely that you may have a problem with your mailbox and here's the link to the online version, so you don't miss it. I don't mind the occassional email like that, but when you subscribe to a lot of ezines, like I do, it can get annoying pretty quickly.

Some have moved to sending an email with a link to a pdf file version of their newsletter. Now that's something I feel is a good idea, because if you are offline, or using your PDA, you can still catch up on the latest news and information.

Others have begun to publish their newsletters on their blogs. Like in my case, most of my articles appear on my blog at http://blog.makemoneymarketingonline.com sometimes days before the latest issue of the eBusinessCornerNews is sent out.

The downside to this again is that you have to be online. The good thing about this is that there's a way around that, via services that allow you to bring copies of websites or xml feeds to your computer or PDA. For example, I use Avantgo on my PalmPilot to do this and Mozilla's Thunderbird helps too on the desktop side of things. Some publishers are even moving to 'podcasting', which are audio versions of their newsletters that you can stream on your computer, or download to a portable player for example (I just got my own podcast station set up recently to test this medium).

Some authors have even gone as far as using services like the Private Mail Reader that will push newsletters and ads to your computer, bypassing your email system altogether, and while I don't think this is a bad idea, I don't like the fact that I, as a publisher, have to pay to do this (at least I haven't found a free service yet, so let me know if you know of one please), but I also don't like that many of these authors not only push their newsletter to me this way, but they also send me an email version of it and even follow up in the new service with an email saying they hope that I got the latest copy and if I didn't then here's the link and on and on, you know what I mean.

Another downside with these services is that not everyone is willing to download yet another piece of software to their computer just to read your messages, especially since there are several and each publisher wants their reader to download a different one (it reminds me of having a bunch of different messengers on my computer).

So, the question of the day, and I do want to hear from you, so please see the bottom of the email on how to send me feedback, is...

What would you like to see happen as a reader, what bothers you the most, what are you doing if you are a publisher, considering that you want to read the ezines you subscribe to and if you are writing one, you want to make sure your readers get it?

But wait, there's another problem that has crept in....

Now some ISP's limit the length of an email that can get through to your mailbox, so if you like to rant and rave in your articles (as you well know I love to go off on a wild rave), then you may not see it either, because it's too long.

Now tell me, what does that have to do with combating SPAM????

So, since some of you won't see this article because I used those bad words like 'free' and others won't see this article because it's too long, I am going to close this out for now.

Here's to your success,
Xavier

Xavier Nelson is the publisher of eBusinessCornerNews, your source for reviews, articles, free resources and more. Get your free subscription at http://blog.makemoneymarketingonline.com right now.

Also, proudly presenting "The Complete eBusinessCollection". Visit http://www.MakeMoneyMarketingOnline.com today for a great collection of tools and resources that will take you to the next level and a very generous and free 2-tier affiliate program you can actually make money with!

Automating And Outsourcing The Article Submission Process

Writen by Nicole Dean

Article marketing is all the rage. The word is spreading that writing and submitting articles is one of the best ways to get long term traffic to your website. That's nothing new. But, if you're new to article marketing, you may already be discouraged by the amount of time it takes to actually go through and submit your articles.

Here are some options to automate and outsource your article submissions.

Outsource the Work:
Hire a Virtual Assistant to submit your articles for you. Many VA's are quite knowledgeable in article submitting and have tools and resources to do it efficiently. Plus, if you're working on money-making projects while your VA is submitting articles, you'll likely end up ahead.

Set up an Autoresponder
If you've developed a following of people who enjoy your articles, or you would like to, offer your articles via autoresponder. That way, you can easily email your list with any new articles for reprint and it only takes a minute.

Make your Newsletters Viral
If you have your articles in your newsletters, you can easily add a blurb at the end of your article that says "You may use this article freely with this author bio intact." This simple addition will allow your mailing list to promote your articles.

Online Article Submission Service:
There are several online services that you can pay to automatically submit your articles to publishers and directories in seconds. These services offer options where you can pay by the article or by the month. There is a huge range in prices, varying from $1 per article to over $100 per article, so shop around.

Article Submission Software:
If you'd prefer to submit and manage all your articles on your own computer, there are a few pieces of software that you can purchase to assist you in speeding up your article submissions. These software options range in price and quality as well, so definitely research your options before committing to a large investment.

A Combination of the Options Above:
If you have an Assistant who you know and trust, you can purchase article submission software for that person to use. You'll save money in the long run by automating your Assistant's workload and shortening their hours submitting your articles.

Or you can purchase credits or a monthly membership at one of the online article submission services and pay your Assistant to submit your articles through the service.

Your time is valuable. Article submitting is one job that can easily be outsourced or automated, saving you much time and effort in the long run.

Nicole Dean is the owner of http://www.showmomthemoney.com/productreviews/article-submitting.htm where you'll find reviews of article submission tools. For more free reprint articles by Nicole, stop by http://www.ladypens.com/profile/Nicole-Dean/1

Readers Rule

Writen by Ed Howes

It was a large directory – small directory horse race on my particular articles that convinced me of this matter. The large site has far and away the most readers and the most content. The small directory has protracted homepage exposure and a surprising supply of readers. In other words, the small directory has a much better reader to content ratio than the large. If my goal is to expand my regular and loyal readership, on which directory should I submit?

Unless the word of mouth advertising for my work is strong enough to bring new readers to the directory or my web site, my popularity will shrivel over time. To prevent this, I and other writers will create and submit fresh content and further reduce the reader – content ratio. If we need fresh material to attract readers we need readers to consume our writing.

Today the best directories cater to authors, if they are serious. They must begin to focus much more attention on reader satisfaction and enjoyment – on site. A recent comment on the Ezine Articles Writers' blog shines a light on the nature of the problem. Blog Moderator Chris Knight said approximately 80% of article views went directly to the article from an off site link, such as a search or Email. That means only 20% of the views are from people finding and opening the article on site. Those percentages need to change.

At Ezine Articles there are 7326 registered on site readers. Of those, 5112 have achieved expert status by logging five onsite hours or more each of the past four weeks. Of these, 1421 are platinum level readers logging ten or more onsite hours for each of the previous four weeks. These readers submitted 8743 comments on articles they read and rated 13533 articles. 8589 comments were accepted by the reviewers. 317 comments were deleted by authors. Where did I get these statistics? I got them from the future where they will be posted on the home page or linked from the home page to the website report page. This page will have extensive statistics and averages for the entire site and all members. It will be a wonderful page for new visitors, whether readers, writers, publishers or marketers. It will make it easier to sell directory sponsored services because the numbers won't lie. The buyer knows exactly what to expect.

The more successfully content providers meet the needs of readers, writers, and publishers, the more they can increase revenue streams from most sources. E content providers will branch into audio and podcasting. Wouldn't it be great to hear articles read by authors or very good readers, when sitting in front of a monitor or reading print is inconvenient? Yes, we could use screen reader software and have the computer read to disc. But the computer and the software will never have the writer's intention and will not soon sound like an author or a good reader.

An article connects reader and writer. They have a brief if perhaps recurring relationship. But a website can bring people together in communities around any particular interests – if its operators so choose. For example; a reader web log in each popular article category. I predict the ones who so choose will be the most successful. If you are an online reader who has good ideas about the improvements any website can make for you and other readers, start talking to the site operators. You will be doing the whole world a favor. One person with one good idea is worth more than a million with no ideas.

Ed Howes sought and found, knocked and entered. Now he sees things differently. To see more of what he sees, please visit http://www.justanotherview.com or do an author search here at Ezine Articles. Readers grow: wiser, faster, better.

Are You Content With The Quality Of Your Ezine How To Send Htmlformatted Emails In Outlook Express

Writen by Dina Giolitto

How many times has this happened to you: you've been slaving over that email newsletter for hours, perfecting the tables, checking and rechecking the copy, tweaking image files. You're finally ready to send, hooray! You take a deep breath, click... and what happens? Your email newsletter goes out to thousands of people looking like crap! WHY? There was a problem with the images being read. It's enough to drive a marketer over the edge...

Tip: Take this Article and SAVE IT to Your Desktop. Next time you want to send out an ezine, open this up and read the directions carefully!

1. Create your email newsletter in an HTML editor. If you don't have one, purchase DreamWeaver or go for a freeware version here: http://nvu.com.

2. Create the "tabloid" where your newsletter will live. Use the "insert table" or a similarly labeled function to do this. Think logically, and create tables inside of tables where your various sections will be placed.

3. Add stylistic elements. Choose a font for the text and another for the headline. Decide if your tables should have a border or not. Add cellpadding (10-15 pixels or so) to every table inside your main table. Cellpadding gives your table's text and pictures a border so they look cleaner and more professional.

4. This is important: Make sure that the page you created does NOT have a background color. If your page has a background color or file, it will create problems if you decide to pop the HTML code into an email or on a network page that you own. In the editor I use, you must click FORMAT and then "page colors and background to edit the background color. Set it to NONE.

5. Fill in the details. Add all of the remaining elements including great copy, images that have been properly named and uploaded to your hosting server, and live links that your readers can click to "learn more," "download," or "buy now". When you're satisfied with the results, save as an .html file to your desktop or a properly labeled folder and publish.

6. Prepare to copy the file. Open a new, blank email in Microsoft Outlook Express. Go to the three tabs at the bottom - Edit, Source, and Preview. You want to be in the SOURCE panel. Open up the html file you created in the editor, and click VIEW>SOURCE. Click Control-C.

7. Transfer the code to your email now. Go back to the email SOURCE panel and do a CONTROL-V. Your code should flow in from the file you saved. Save as a draft just in case you accidentally wipe out the file, at least it'll be in your DRAFTS folder.

8. Take a good look at your newsletter. Do this in the EDIT tab of your Microsoft Outlook Express. The graphics, tables and copy should appear here looking virtually the way they looked in the HTML page you created. If everything is shifted to the left, go back to the HTML document, click the OUTSIDE table, click PROPERTIES, and designate CENTER as your alignment.

9. FIX and SEND! Add the new code back to your email by repeating steps 6 and 7 and then view your email in the EDIT panel once again. When you're satisfied with the results, blind copy your contact addresses, a catchy headline that will be noticed in people's email boxes, and finally hit SEND.

As I mentioned earlier, sending out a newsletter that looks sloppy and contains missing pictures gets a slap on the wrist! Don't let it happen to you. If you keep these instructions handy, they may prove useful for you one day. I know I plan to use them myself!

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Are YOU Content With Your Content? Get Top Secret Marketing Tips from the Web's Biggest Gurus and Expert Authors on The First Annual Web Content Awareness Day on FEBRUARY 9, 2006.

Go to http://wordfeeder.com/wcad/landingpage.html for details.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

A Solid Foundation To Creating A Profitable Ezine

Writen by William Johnston

Everything successful needs to be built on a solid, confident base. Here are some essentials to creating your own profitable ezine.

What is an ezine?

An ezine is an email magazine. They are also known as an online publication or an electronic newsletter. An ezine can be on the subject of anything, and is distributed to subscribers who have 'opted in'. There are thousands of ezines currently in circulation all over the internet.

What's the point in publishing an ezine?

Having your own ezine will improve your internet presence greatly. An ezine will also help you keep in touch with your visitors and will give you the opportunity to collect a great number of targeted visitors' email addresses which you can advertise to. An ezine is also a great way to make a good income by selling ad space. Space in popular ezines can sell for up to $200 for one small ad.

How much does it cost to run an ezine?

Unless you opt for a professional service, publishing your ezine is completely free. All that an ezine costs is your time. Time needs to be spent collecting or writing content for the ezine, putting the ezine together, and distributing it.

What should my ezine be about?

Your ezine can be about anything you like. However, your ezine should be focused on something you know a great deal about and about something you enjoy. This will make publishing the ezine more enjoyable and will make writing content easier. If you have a website, you should consider making the subject of your ezine and website coincide. This will be a great benefit for both your ezine and your website.

How often should I publish my ezine?

You can publish your ezine as often as you like. With few subscribers, I recommend publishing once a month. As your subscriber list grows, you can upgrade to publishing once a week or bi-weekly. The more you publish your ezine, the more ad space you can sell, and so the more profits you will make.

How large should my ezine be?

The size of your ezine does not really matter. So long as it is filled with high quality content, readers will not care how long it is. Make sure it does fulfil what you think your readers will expect though otherwise they will be left disappointed. Also bear in mind that readers may want to download it. If it is too big, it could put people off.

What should I call my ezine?

Make sure that the name of your ezine appeals to those who would be interested. Make the title specific and exciting. Also bear in mind that most ezine directories are listed alphabetically and so ezines beginning with a letter of the alphabet near to the end are often not seen. Try to get the name edge by starting your ezine title with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet.

What day of the week should I distribute my ezine?

This doesn't matter greatly. I recommend just distributing on whichever day suits you. Bear in mind that a lot of ezines are distributed on Monday and Friday and so if your subscribers have subscriptions to other ezines then they might be receiving 3-5 ezines that day. You could choose a less busy day of the week such as Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

When should I start selling ad space?

Once your number of subscribers exceeds 1000 is about the right time to start selling ad space. This way, the companies who supply the ads may get good response rates and will advertise again. When you start selling ad space, offer deals to advertisers such as 'buy ad space for one week and get a second week free'.

And now you're ready to start your own profitable ezine. Just remember, top quality content + a good subscription rates = great profits.

For more information on this subject or about making money online go to http://www.info-ebooks.co.uk

100s of free ebooks and software products are also available at this address.

Thanks for reading,

William Johnston
(will@info-ebooks.co.uk)

Top 10 Reasons To Use A Blog To Publish Your Ezine

Writen by Denise Wakeman

Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium. Here are 10 reasons why you should deliver your ezine articles via a blog.

1. A blog is web based so you can update and post new articles anywhere, anytime. It's a dynamic medium that can be updated on a moment's notice.

2. Subscribers can subscribe to your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and have your content delivered straight to their desktop. This delivery system bypasses spam filters and readers get exactly the content they want.

3. No web site to mess with. It's very inexpensive way to set up a web presence for your ezine. There are several sites where you can set up a free blog and others are very reasonably priced for the massive exposure you can get.

4. You can set up links for ads and your affiliate programs in side columns so you don't have to include them in your ezine format.

5. You can set up a subscription form and send emails to your subscribers when new content is added.

6. Blogs link to other blogs which helps you create a viral marketing system and increases your exposure in search engines. Search engines LOVE text based, fresh content that is highly focused (key word rich).

7. You can use your ezine blog to become a trusted expert for your subscribers, by filtering content for them so they don't have to visit hundreds of web sites.

8. You have an instant archive of all your articles. When you post an article, a new page and permalink is created. People can share that link with others and be sent directly to the article being referenced.

9. Readers can comment on your articles, which creates rapport and trust between you and your subscriber. Comments also add rich content to your site and again, helps your ranking in the search engines.

10. The bottom line is this: using a blog can help you attract more visitors who become subscribers and then eventually become clients.

For an ezine publisher, a blog compliments and can significantly ease the delivery of your ezine content. Essentially, like any web site, you have to promote it and encourage people to add your site to their RSS feed (that's another subject) or subscribe for updates through a subscription form. That's why I put a subscribe form on my site – subscribers and get updates in anyway they want. You still need to submit to search engines and directories to drive traffic. If you already have an ezine subscriber database, my advice would be to post everything on the blog and then send a weekly email, or whatever your normal publishing schedule is, informing your subscribers when new content is posted.

Marketing is done in a conversational way and via the links on your blog. Announcements can be posted on the blog and to one's list. I see the blog and ezine database as complimentary...working together to increase your exposure and make it easier for people to get your information and build relationships.

About The Author

Denise Wakeman is Chief Implementor of Next Level Partnership, a company dedicated to partnering with you to take your business to the next level. Denise has nearly 20 years experience in small business administration and management. She has specific experience in leveraging Internet marketing systems to create awareness, build customer loyalty and increase the bottom line. Visit Denise's blog at http://www.biztipsblog.com to get tips and tactics for taking your business to the next level.

Denise@NextLevelPartnership.com

Quotepowerquot The Ezine Advantage

Writen by Heidi Richards

"Regular communication with your customers is essential to your success." - Heidi Richards -

E-zines - The alternative of choice for many companies is a great way to market your company. All you need is an e-mail account and permission from your customers/clients to send the e-zine. In fact, I have found e-zines to be so powerful that I write and produce 4 a month. And I am working on a 5th one.

They are:

Self-Marketing News www.self-marketingnews.com

PetalsNCents (a marketing newsletter for the floral industry) - www.petalsncents.com

Creating A Legacy (a newsletter for the nonprofit community) www.creatingalegacy.com

Ramblin' Rose (a newsletter for my customers) – www.EdenFlorist.com

WECommerce News (a newsletter for members of The Women's ECommerce Association, International) – www.WECAI.org

Since the whole topic of e-zine production can be overwhelming, I will just touch on the highlights to get you started.

1. The first thing you must do is collect your customers/clients e-mail addresses. We collect them when they call, come in the shop, answer surveys, or enter our contests. We ask for it every time we have interaction with them.

2. We tell them the benefits. The e-zine is filled with product updates, trends, surveys, special offers, testimonials, discounts and my favorite CONTESTS.

3. Make it easy to read and brief. Two to three pages max.

4. One of the most important things we had to deal with was when our lists started growing (beyond 250); we were very limited in sending through our original e-mail account (AOL). They have rules and sometimes will freeze an account if you send too many at once. The format would also get botched sometimes. The lists became unmanageable when we had to remove unsubscribers and duplicates. Finding the ones who wish to unsubscribe can be challenging. We switched to another service hoping they could send our newsletters and maintain our lists. It was a good service; however, we didn't like the look of our newsletter. It had limited capabilities (no bold or italic). Since I'm the creative type, I didn't want my e-zines to look like everyone else's. We have now found a program we are very happy with. There is no monthly fee, just a one-time purchase fee. It is called Group Mail Pro - Mailing List & Group Management Software. And it only costs $79.95 (and you own it).

If you plan your ezine right, give it a great title and offer your customers and clients benefits, your ezine will be a success!

PROMOTION

Have a subscription form on your website! Have a sign up sheet at the office. Promote it with postcards in your monthly statements. Tell anyone you think might be interested. Offer a free report when they sign up. Buy the URL with the title of your e-zine so you can easily direct traffic to subscribe.

Good things happen with e-zines; increased visibility, increased business and goodwill. Happy Writing!

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business © 2005 - Heidi Richards

Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org

10 Benefits Of Submitting Articles To Ezines

Writen by Rojo Sunsen

1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe.

5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don't publish your articles.

6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your income.

7. You could allow e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your advertising could multiply all over the internet.

8. You will get your article published all over the web when you submit it to an e-zine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site. They'll allow their visitors to republish your article.

9. You'll gain people's trust. If they read your article and like it, they won't be as hesitant to buy your product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits.

10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in an e-zine. You could agree to run one of their articles in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run yours in their e-zine. It's a win/win situation.

About the author:

Rojo Sunsen is a specialized bounty hunter who prefers to work quietly/confidentially for the benefit of her clients.

Five Solid Reasons To Publish Your Ezine In A Blog

Writen by Titus Hoskins

Get Your Ezine 'Out There'!

Placing your ezine in a Blog or a RSS Feed only takes
minutes to do. It's easy, fast and free. There's no reason
why you shouldn't take advantage of this new technology.

Here are 5 solid reasons why you should publish your
ezine in a blog:

1. To Syndicate Your Ezine. Place your 'content'
and 'links' on hundreds of sites. As you probably know by
now, the internet is a numbers game - the more links, the
more content you have 'out there' - the more traffic you
will receive.

Syndicating your ezine in a RSS Feed will also make it more
readily available to those who don't check their email or
for those who get their email blocked by Spam Filters or
Overzealous ISPs.

2. Get Feedback From Your Readers. In my opinion this
is the most important reason to publish your ezine in your
blog. It allows for instant reader feedback.

Communication with your subscribers is essential for building
trust. Instant contact also adds creditability - you are
a real human being - ready to answer any questions a
subscriber might have.

As an extra bonus - your readers also get a chance to add
links to their site. Great for reciprocal linking.

3. Add to MyYahoo! By getting your subscribers to add
your blog to their 'MyYahoo' - your readers have immediate
access to your ezine. You don't even need e-mail. The Spam
Filters can't touch you!

By getting your subscribers to bookmark or Add your ezine/RSS
Feed to their MyYahoo - you're building a large targeted
contact list. A great way to connect instantly with your
subscribers.

4. Blogs Will Help Index Your Ezine Quickly. Get your
ezine indexed in all the search engines. More exposure, more
sales, more subscribers. Using 'MyYahoo' will get your ezine
indexed very quickly.

The search engines are constantly looking for fresh content
on your site. By publishing your ezine thru your blog adds
fresh content to your site. You can add new content in a
matter of seconds - without dealing with 'html' or 'xml'.
Because it's so fast and easy - you will be publishing more
often or developing other blogs to match the content on your
site.

More links - higher PR rankings.

5. To Monetize Your Blog/Ezine. Many blogs such as
eBlogger encourages you to add the 'adsense code' to your
blog. If you have a large subscriber base you can earn extra
money from your ezine and blog for months; if not years to come.

This is in addition to all those affiliate links and product
promotions you have in your ezine. Get these links indexed
and earning you money for years to come!

In addition, as an extra bonus, by actually using RSS or a
blog you will become familiar with this new technology.
Maybe all the hype about RSS is somewhat overblown but in the
near future every web site will have it. Where's there's
hype - there's interest!

Gear up now to take advantage of this interest. Put RSS on
your site right now.

No one can afford not to use this opportunity to get their
content 'out there' - syndicated on the web. RSS is just
another way of passing along information. You should
take advantage of it.

If you're still wondering how to publish your ezine thru
your blog or how to put RSS on your site. Just download my
simple RSS Report and Guide from the link in the resource
box below.

Putting RSS Feed on your site only takes a couple of minutes.
Publishing your ezine in your RSS Feed can be done in
seconds!

Give RSS a try - the rewards are worth it.

------------------------------------------

To add RSS to your Site within minutes - download this
simple RSS Report and Guide.
Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of bizwaremagic.com.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached. Visit http://www.bizwaremagic.com
for more simple solutions to your online marketing tasks.

-----------------------------------------

10 Tips For Ezine Publishers

Writen by Michael Southon

1. Many Ezine Publishers use too many styles of separator in their Newsletter. I recently saw an Ezine that used no less than 7 different separators:

++++++ ------ ~~~~~~ \\\\\\ ...... ====== ******

This confuses the reader and makes your Ezine difficult to read. Your Newsletter will look much smarter and be much easier to read if you use just one or two styles of separator.

2. Always give an email address for your readers to un- subscribe. Making your readers go to a website to unsubscribe will create more traffic but it won't make you popular.

3. Place the email address for unsubscribing near the top of your Newsletter where it can easily be seen. That will avoid messages from your readers asking you to unsubscribe them.

4. Put the title of your main article in the subject field of your Newsletter. People are much more likely to open an Ezine whose subject field reads:

WebTrafficDaily: '10 Power Tips to Boost your Traffic'

than:

WebTrafficDaily, Vol 14 Issue No. 6

5. Unless your Ezine specializes in offering free ads, limit your classifieds to ten per issue. More than that and your readers will be irritated and the ads will lose their effect.

6. In every issue of your Newsletter, tell your readers about some new resource you have added to your Website - give them a reason to come back. After all, that's one of the main reasons for publishing an Ezine - to turn one-time visitors into repeat visitors.

7. Before sending out your Newsletter, do a trial run and send it to yourself. I do this and I almost always find some little error that needs fixing.

8. Keep an archive of back-issues on your website. People are more likely to subscribe to your Ezine if they can see a sample.

9. Search the Web for Tips on the theme of your Ezine - include an 'Editor's Tip' in each issue.

10. Format your Newsletter to 60 characters-per-line. You can either do this manually using a 'ruler' such as this:

012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789

Or you can use an ASCII file formatter (much quicker) such as 'Ezine Assistant'. Ezine Assistant is free and you can download it at: http://www.ezineassistant.com/

------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
------------------------------------------------------------

Automatic Article Submission May Violate Authors Copyrights

Writen by Michal Moreno

Article submission to free reprint article directories is a most effective viral marketing method. Its advantages are numerous, and include: fast visibility to major search engines, credibility boost, targeted traffic and targeted Back Links to your website, and many more advantages. For the above reasons, many online marketers, site owners and copywriters now engage in submission to article directories.

In order to give an article maximum exposure, the article author / submitter must submit his article to as many directories as he can, which makes the submission a tedious process. Many authors try to save themselves the bother by registering to automatic online submission engines which are solutions intended at taking care of the article submission process. However, it is important to note that those automatic article submission services may harm the authors' copy-rights as the following description notes:

Automatic article submission engines are mainly automatic, and relate to submission forms in a most general manner, thus not giving any special attention to the submission form fields.

By doing so, the received articles are not necessarily transmitted in the correct manner to the article directory, so that the result is usually articles with mixed and/or empty fields, and from my experience – especially the resource box itself and its links.

In most cases, such an article is rejected for publishing, but bare in mind that in case the article does get published, this may result in your article appearing free for reprint use, with no resource box or back links to your website.

Being the chief editor for free-article-zone and an article author myself, I witness that phenomena occur on a daily basis, and do hurt for those authors who put much of their time into writing unique and valuable articles, only to have their efforts washed down the drain with automatic article submission engines faults.

The best advice I have for other authors is to make the time and submit their articles manually. If you do not have the time for massive submission, the second alternative may be to browse through article directories, mark a few that seem like they have quality content and are managed by human editors, and manually submit only to those directories.

If you insist on using automatc submission services –my advice is to take a moment to evaluate an automatic article submission service before using it – see articles submitted by that engine in different article directories before you use it, and make you choice only after investigating the service efficiency thoroughly.

Good luck!

Michal Moreno is the chief editor for free-articles-zone free reprint articles directory and articles.co.il free reprint articles directory.

Michal is also a project and account manager for Moreno's Internet Makreting Experts.

Print On Demand Questions

Writen by Harriet Hodgson

Print on demand (POD), a cross between self-publishing and digital technology, is a hot publishing trend. Your book will be printed within weeks, but POD is still a gamble. Answering these questions before you sign with a POD publisher will save you money and angst.

1. Is the publisher reliable? Read Internet reviews, articles, blog postings, and books about POD. If you know someone who has used POD interview him or her.

2. Do the printed books look good? Request a sample book from the publisher. It should have a professional looking cover, a sturdy binding, and clear, readable print.

3. What is the formatting fee? This will be the highest fee and chances are it doesn't include corrections.

4. What do extra services cost? POD publishers will edit, design your cover, write the back cover copy, write your bio, press release, and more. Editing is the most important service. The editing should be thorough, not a quick glance at your manuscript. Choose extra services carefully because they add up in the blink of an eye.

5. Are there hidden fees? You shouldn't be charged a reading fee or a fee to obtain an ISBN number.

6. Does the publisher have a distributor? Book sellers avoid POD books and won't carry your book unless it's listed with Baker & Taylor, Ingram, or a local distributor - yet another fee.

7. Is the contract fair? Some POD publishers pay low royalties. Find out the royalty rate and how often royalties are paid. You should also receive some free books and be able to buy books at the industry discount.

8. How long will it take to recoup your money? This number should be available and if it isn't, ask for it. Remember, this number is a guess, not a fact.

9. What will publicity cost? Most POD publishers don't publicize books. Get a publicity estimate from a book publicity firm. Add up the publicity and publishing costs.

10. Are you willing to spend this much to see your book in print? POD is a gamble and you may lose more than you make. But if you have the funds to invest and a book that fills a niche, go for it!

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 26 years. Her current work focuses on health and she is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief, co-authored by Dr. Lois Krahn, is her 24th book. The self-help book was published by BookSurge, a POD publisher. Go to http://www.harriethodgson.com to learn more about her work.

Make Your Ezine Sizzle

Writen by Genesis Davies

Getting visitors to your site to sign up for your newsletter is one thing, getting them to actually read every issue is another. Research shows that many online newsletters just don't get opened.

Think about it. How many emails do you get a day? Even if you don't subscribe to many e-zines or services, you probably get a minimum of 25 a day. Most of us don't have time to read all those emails, so we either leave the ones we aren't as interested in or delete them to save space.

If your potential clients aren't reading your newsletter, they won't be clicking on your links or buying products that you advertise. To get them reading each and every issue, you need to make your content worth the time it takes to read!

1. Limit solo ads. Solo ads are ads sent out to your email list without any content attached. While your readers will probably tolerate one or two of these a month, you don't want to overdo it or they will stop opening your emails and may unsubscribe.

2. Personalize. Studies show that people are more likely to open an email that has their name on it. It also gives you a way to connect with your readers. They will feel like they have more than just a business relationship with you. The idea here is to build confidence and trust so you can keep your clients.

3. Relevant ads. Any ads that you place in your newsletter should relate to the material presented. If you send out an email on dog clothing, for example, you shouldn't include an ad for infant safety equipment. Your readers will be confused as to why you included it and it looks very unprofessional. Take the time to search out affiliate programs that relate to your topics.

4. Great Content. "Content is king." Is the new e-commerce catch-phrase. Even though it might seem overused, it's still true. You need to have interesting articles jam-packed with information that is relevant to your readers in order to hold their attention. You can find free content online, but you can also hire writers to write original content for fairly low prices. Try www.freelancewriting.com or www.elance.com

5. Pay for an auto-responder. "You get what you pay for." My mother always said and in this respect, it is very true. Free auto-responders are great to start off with, but they usually include an ad in your newsletter (how else are they going to make money?). This ad is usually at the header of your newsletter, otherwise known as your most valuable ad space! Just taking on a paid ad for this space will easily pay an auto-responder fee! If you really can't afford it right now, start with a service that gives you a free trial or that allows you to upgrade later.

Good newsletters require a bit of time and effort, but once you get your readers actually reading and responding to your work, it will all be worth it.

Genesis Davies is a freelance writer who currently runs 2 websites and an ezine. Check out her business site. Sign up for her free Create a Sizzling Ezine course

An Embarrassment Of Riches Part I

Writen by Sam Vaknin

The Internet is too rich. Even powerful and sophisticated search engines, such as Google, return a lot of trash, dead ends, and Error 404's in response to the most well-defined query, Boolean operators and all. Directories created by human editors - such as Yahoo! or the Open Directory Project - are often overwhelmed by the amount of material out there. Like the legendary blob, the Internet is clearly out of classificatory control. Some web sites - like Suite101 - have introduced the old and tried Dewey subject classification system successfully used in non-virtual libraries for more than a century.

Books - both print and electronic - (actually, their publishers) get assigned an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) by national agencies. Periodical publications (magazines, newsletters, bulletins) sport an ISSN (International Serial Standard Number). National libraries dole out CIP's (Cataloguing in Publication numbers), which help lesser outfits to catalogue the book upon arrival. But the emergence of new book formats, independent publishing, and self publishing has strained this already creaking system to its limits. In short: the whole thing is fast developing into an awful mess.

http://www.doi.org/

Resolution is one solution.

Resolution is the linking of identifiers to content. An identifier can be a word, or a phrase. RealNames implemented this approach and its proprietary software is now incorporated in most browsers. The user types a word, brand name, phrase, or code, and gets re-directed to a web site with the appropriate content. The only snag: RealNames identifiers are for sale. Thus, its identifiers are not guaranteed to lead to the best, only, or relevant resource. Similar systems are available in many languages. Nexet, for example, provides such a resolution service in Hebrew.

The Association of American Publishers (APA) has an Enabling Technologies Committee. Fittingly, at the Frankfurt Book Fair of 1997, it announced the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) initiative. An International DOI Foundation (IDF) was set up and invited all publishers - American and non-American alike - to apply for a unique DOI prefix. DOI is actually a private case of a larger system of "handles" developed by the CNRI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives). Their "Handle Resolver" is a browser plug-in software, which re-directs their handles to URL's or other pieces of data, or content. Without the Resolver, typing in the handle simply directs the user to a few proxy servers, which "understand" the handle protocols.

The interesting (and new) feature of the system is its ability to resolve to MULTIPLE locations (URL's, or data, or content). The same identifier can resolve to a Universe of inter-related information (effectively, to a mini-library). The content thus resolved need not be limited to text. Multiple resolution works with audio, images, and even video.

The IDF's press release is worth some extensive quoting:

"Imagine you're the manager of an Internet company reading a story online in the "Wall Street Journal" written by Stacey E. Bressler, a co-author of Communities of Commerce, and at the end of the story there is a link to purchase options for the book.

Now imagine you are an online retailer, a syndicator or a reporter for an online news service and you are reading a review in "Publishers Weekly" about Communities of Commerce and you run across a link to related resources.

And imagine you are in Buenos Aires, and in an online publication you encounter a link to "D-Lib Magazine", an electronic journal produced in Washington, D.C. which offers you locale-specific choices for downloading an article.

The above examples demonstrate how multiple resolution can present you with a list of links from within an electronic document or page. The links beneath the labels - URLs and email addresses - would all be stored in the DOI System, and multiple resolution means any or all of those links can be displayed for you to select from in one menu. Any combination of links to related resources can be included in these menus.

Capable of providing much richer experiences then single resolution to a URL, Multiple Resolution operates on the premise that content, not its location, is identified. In other words, where content and related resources reside is secondary information. Multiple Resolution enables content owners and distributors to identify their intellectual property with bound collections of related resources at a hyperlink's point of departure, instead of requiring a user to leave the page to go to a new location for further information.

A content owner controls and manages all the related resources in each of these menus and can determine which information is accessible to each business partner within the supply chain. When an administrator changes any facet of this information, the change is simultaneous on all internal networks and the Internet. A DOI is a permanent identifier, analogous to a telephone number for life, so tomorrow and years from now a user can locate the product and related resources wherever they may have been moved or archived to."

The IDF provides a limited, text-only, online demonstration. When sweeping with the cursor over a linked item, a pop-down menu of options is presented. These options are pre-defined and customized by the content creators and owners. In the first example above (book purchase options) the DOI resolves to retail outlets (categorized by book formats), information about the title and the author, digital rights management information (permissions), and more. The DOI server generates this information in "real time", "on the fly". But it is the author, or (more often) the publisher that choose the information, its modes of presentation, selections, and marketing and sales data. The ingenuity is in the fact that the DOI server's files and records can be updated, replaced, or deleted. It does not affect the resolution path - only the content resolved to.

Which brings us to e-publishing.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

What Was The Name Of Your Ezine Again

Writen by Ron Hutton

Strategic planning for your ezine will keep your subscribers coming back for more week after week. You know that you need to start your newsletter and you've been putting it off so long that days have turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Don't let that go on any longer. It's not necessary.

Whether you're just now breaking onto the publisher scene or you've got a subscriber list and you want to revamp your ezine, answer the following questions before taking any additional action.

Q1: What topic do you intend to cover in your newsletter?

- Pick a topic that you're extremely interested in. You don't need to be an expert. Become an expert. If your interest level is high enough, you'll naturally be driven to research and study your topic. Pick a topic for your ezine that you'd love to write about for 29 subscribers or 290,000 subscribers.

- Will you be a generalist or a specialist? There's a place for both.

- RE: The Generalist... Newsletters that cover a broad range of topics and treat them "superficially" tend to attract subscribers who are new to that topic. Your challenge as a generalist will be holding on to your subscriber's attention. You'll need a "hook" each week. This might include short powerful tips and tricks or perhaps you can feature a favorite free resource with each ezine issue.

- RE: The Specialist... Your target audience is smaller, but the chances of developing a very loyal following is better than if you choose the generalist path. Specialists have to dig deep and if you like to write and train on the nitty gritty "how-to's", then the specialist path could be your calling.

Q2: Where will you find material for your ezine?

- Is it all inside your head just waiting for an escape route? Great. Let it flow.

- Can you take advantage of articles with reprint rights?

- Will you need to do a lot of research every time your write your newsletter? If yes, that's OK. Just be prepared to set aside the time required so that you can consistently deliver your newsletter to meet your subscribers' expectations. Which leads to the next question...

Q3: How often will you send out your ezine?

- What's the right frequency? It varies. Monthly. Weekly. Twice per week. Daily. It all depends on your subscribership, how much time you can devote to writing your newsletter and the amount of content you plan to include with each issue.

- You'll want people to remember your name, and this is tough to accomplish when you're publishing your ezine monthly. I think weekly is good and when special occassions arise send out two issues in the same week. Surprise your readers every once in a while. Mix it up.

Q4: What format will you use for your ezine?

- Permission-based email publications are still the mainstream. However, ISP filters continually make it more and more difficult to deliver email newsletters.

- Consider a blog. Consider setting up an RSS feed. Give your subscribers options on how they'd like to hear from you.

- Do you want to write lengthy in-depth articles or short punchy tips and tricks?

- Will you podcast (audio) or publish streaming video?

Q5: What name will you choose for your publication?

- Does your ezine name communicate anything about the kind of content that people can expect to receive in your newsletter?

- Catchy is good. Topical is good. Short is good. Descriptive is good.

Finally, an exercise you can do that might be helpful is to make a list of the newsletters that you consider to be outstanding. These are the ones that you open and read 100% of the time they land in your inbox. Write down the title, author / editor's name, subject matter.

Next, make a list of the newsletters you receive that you could unsubscribe from and you'd never miss them.

What are your general observations about these? I'll make an educated guess that the "loosers"...

1) Never offer any substantial or useful advice. 2) They don't specifically focus on any particular topic that you're interested in. 3) You receive messages from them 3 or 4 times per week and 95% of the time it's an ad that's been "cut n' pasted" from the latest flavor-of-the-week affiliate program / hot opportunity.

Don't let this describe your ezine.

Strategically plan your ezine so that when it comes time to monetize it, your readers will appreciate knowing about the products and services that you're promoting. Deliver value up front and you will be rewarded in time.

Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton

Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to "GoThrive Online", for Free Video Tutorials for Internet Marketing and big juicy marketing tips in small, easy-to-chew, bite size servings. Free Video Tutorial Archives Here: http://www.gothrive.com/free-video-tutorials.htm

Internet Publishing Online Today But What About Tomorrow Or Where Have You Gone 406302

Writen by Lawrence Ebert

In the January, 2006 issue of Intellectual Property Today, attorneys Thomas J. Van Gilder and Carl A. Kukkonen cited to a document on the webpage of the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] for the proposition that "patent filings have grown from 353,394 to 406,302, an increase of nearly 15%, from FY 2002 to FY 2005." In footnote 3 of their article, they carefully provided the page number of the document and the link to the document: See USPTO 2005 Annual Report at 61, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/annual/2005/2005annualreport.pdf. The interesting, and troubling, aspect about this is that one will not find in the cited document at the given link the number "406,302".

The number 406,302 did not arise out of thin air. Intellectual Property Today had mentioned the number in its December 2005 issue: The agency received 406,302 patent applications, and 323,501 applications for trademark registration as reported in its fiscal year 2005 Performance and Accountability Report released in November. The magazine eWeek had mentioned the number on January 16, 2006: Last year, the USPTO granted 165,485 patents, up from 99,000 in 1990. According to the patent office, a record 406,302 new applications were filed last year alone. On January 25, 2006, Bruce V. Bigelow of the San Diego Union-Tribune used it: In November, the patent office said it issued 165,485 patents in the fiscal year that ended in September -- and had received 406,302 patent applications, along with 323,501 applications for trademark registration. Andy Holloway of Canadian Business used the number on January 30, 2006: It's easy to see why the patent office is swamped. It received 406,302 patent applications and granted 165,485 of them last year, adding to a database of patents that numbers roughly seven million. On February 20, 2006, Dan O'Shea had used the number in Telephony: During 2005, the agency received 406,302 patent applications and 323,501 applications for trademark registration, according to the agency's Web site.

As of April 23, 2006, one will find at page 61 of the above-identified link a table stating that there were 409,532 filings in FY 2005. One will not find an explanation of why the previous number of 406,302 is gone. Data that exist only on an internet website can be changed, without explanation, and thus cease to exist. In this particular instance, we have evidence of the previous information, because so many people cited to it. However, a person looking only to footnote 3 of the article by Van Gilder and Kukkonen, and following the link to page 61 might be led to the conclusion that Van Gilder and Kukkonen "got it wrong."

In fact, the "error" of Van Gilder and Kukkonen would have been referring to a link to a site that was capable of changing the numbers. Those authors who cite to internet websites for numerical data should be aware that such citation may be perilous in the sense that it is not permanent. The situation presents an interesting issue in the way law review cite checking works. If a law review author utilized the 406,302 number and cited to Van Gilder and Kukkonen, the cite would be approved. However, if a law review author utilized the 406,302 number and cited the USPTO document, the cite should NOT be approved.

In this particular case, there is a secondary sustantive issue as to patent law. The figure of 409,532 (or the previous figure of 406,302) comprises the combination of utility patent applications AND design patent applications. Typically, in such things as the debate on how high the patent grant rate is, one looks only at utility applications. Taking the previous data as presented, one would find a grant rate of 165,485/406,302 = 40.7%, miniscule in comparison to the 97% number once alleged by Quillen and Webster, or the 85% number accepted by Lemley and Moore in the article "Ending Abuse of Patent Continuations."

Lawrence B. Ebert is a frequent contributor to the magazine Intellectual Property Today, articles of which are available through LEXIS/NEXIS. He has previously written about discrepancies in numbers for patent applications in 86 JPTOS 568 (2004). He has discussed the use of "patent grant rate" information by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 4 Chi.-Kent J. Intell. Prop. 104 and 186, which are available through LEXIS/NEXIS and the internet. He has discussed the influence of the improper perception of elevated patent grant rates on the patent reform debate in the New Jersey Law Journal on July 18, 2005. He maintains a blog at IPBiz.blogspot.com.

How To Publicize Your Ezine

Writen by Chip Rowe

Once you've created a webzine, how do you get the word out? This short guide offers some strategies to let the world of readers know about your work.

* ANNOUNCE YOUR E-ZINE *

Once you have your e-zine or webzine in place, visit yahoo.com, google.com and msn.com and submit your URLs (if you have a lot of pages, it's wise not to submit more than five URLs per day). Don't pay for services that promise to submit your site to hundreds of engines. It won't affect your traffic as much as just hitting the larger ones. For a primer on how the various engines work, visit SearchEngineWatch.com. It offers a free newsletter that gets into tons of details about how engines work. Anytime you make a major change to your site or add new pages, submit or resubmit the URLs.

The next step is to enter your URL at the major online directories. You'll save yourself a lot of time if you prepare enticing 25-word, 50-word and 100-word descriptions first. "If you can explain your zine in a sentence you have a fighting chance," says George Myers Jr. of LitKit. A one-sentence description can help you focus on the audience you're after, and it helps when you're deciding where to place your e-zine in directories. Yahoo! is the largest directory, followed by Open Directory. A good guide to smaller engines is directorylist.org.

Yahoo seems to prefer sites that have their own domain name; even then you may have to submit several times before you're listed. Don't do it more than once every two weeks, and chose your category carefully (suggest a second category if it applies, but don't get greedy). Submit your webzine under specific topics, such as Travel or Humor or whatever best describe its content. Yahoo! no longer accepts free submissions to Business categories; instead, it charges a $299 annual fee.

Finally, promote your e-zine by sending announcements to various services that alert surfers to new sites. Post a notice to the Usenet group alt.ezines. If you do a non-commercial paper or electronic zine, post a notice on alt.zines. Announce new non-commercial Webzines on comp.infosystems.www.announce, or any e-zine at bookmarkz.com.

You also can add your zine to the many ezine directories, but most don't produce much traffic. If you have the time and patience, start with our free list of zine directories at http://www.zinebook.com and look for the "Directories" category. It includes directories that list specialty zines such as literary zines, fan fiction, indie music and even one-word titles.

* GETTING RETURN VISITORS *
Some zine editors include a sign-up form on their page where visitors can leave their e-mail addresses. This allows the editor to compile a mailing list of people who are interested in the content of the zine, and he or she can send notice when the Webzine has been updated.

Chip Rowe (http://www.chiprowe.com) is the author of The Book of Zines: Readings from the Fringe. An HTML version of this document, including links, is available at http://www.zinebook.com/publicz.html

Does Everyone Ignore Your Newsletter

Writen by Matthew Coers

As Internet marketers we all know how important it is to have a successful newsletter to help us keep in touch with our customers. But it can be pretty frustrating to spend all those hours developing content and campaigns only to have the program flop. Open rates can dive into the single-digits and click-through rates can fall to mere fractions of a percent.

So if this happens, what do you do?

First of all, don't panic. Usually, if you spend a few minutes looking at your data you can identify the problems pretty easily.

Determine Which Problem to Fix

Take a look at where your leads are coming from. If you are purchasing lists from other websites or publishers, make sure you segregate each source in your reporting so you can measure the quality of each list. You want to make sure you have a way of determining the quality of a list source before you merge the purchased group into your master list.

Also, if it has been around for a while, try segregating your opt-in list into three groups by age:

* Under 6 months
* 6 months to 1 year
* Over 1 year

It is normal for open and click through rates to be highest for the "Under 6 Month" category, and lowest for those who have been on your list for over a year. However, there should not be a significant drop off as people move from one category to the next.

Look for anomalies in the data. Here are a few things I look for when I'm troubleshooting a client's campaign:

* Is there a significant drop-off behind the first mailing? If the first mailing that a recipient gets typically achieves a 35% open rate, but the second has a 7% open rate, then the problem is not with the list source, or the header information (subject line, "From" address, etc.) it is with the content of the newsletter itself. If the drop off is 35% to 29%, then one might consider that to be normal.
* Has there been a change in frequency? We all get busy, and one of the first activities that can get forgotten is the newsletter. Unfortunately, absence in the Email marketing realm does NOT make the heart grow fonder. In fact, a prolonged period of non-communication is one of the leading causes of opt-outs.
* Are your articles relevant to the demographic? It is a good idea to survey your house list periodically to test your assumptions about their levels of expertise and interest in different subjects.

Wake Up Your Sleepy Optin List

Look at how you approach the people who have subscribed to your list. Remember that with email newsletters the permission your subscribers have given you to send email to them is not permanent; they can opt out at any time if they lose confidence or interest in your newsletter.

More often than not, however, people don't actually opt-out. They simply stop opening and reading your email. I call these "sleepy" subscribers. They are getting your messages, but since they are "asleep" they can't read them. Although there's no way to know for sure, I would guess that your "sleep" rate is probably about 4 to 5 times the size of your opt-out rate. So your opt-out rate is an indicator of your "sleep" rate.

It is vital to understand what your subscribers think of your publication. Again, surveys are a great way to get feedback on your program. You can also provide an open link on each newsletter that asks for general feedback. Very few people will take the time to provide feedback on a feedback form, but you can bet that those who do represent a large chunk of your audience. Take their feedback seriously, and learn from it.

Five Steps to Improve Your Performance

Following are five steps that have always lifted the performance of my campaigns.

* Get in touch immediately – From the moment someone signs up for your newsletter, they start to forget you. If you take three weeks to send something to them, then they won't remember signing up and they will reject your email as spam. Make sure they get an issue of your newsletter (or an ebook, or a free report; something that is relevant to them and has value) immediately after they sign up.
* Make it personal and entertaining – Email marketing is a one-to-one communication, it is almost always best to keep the tone personal and entertaining. Try telling a few stories about yourself or your company. Let people get to "know" you, and feel like an "insider" with your company. This increases their personal equity in your brand.
* Make all emails "high-value" – Every time you send an email it should be valuable to the recipient, not just to you. Straight sales letters with no "meat" can dampen open rates for future mailings. Train your recipients to view each email you send as a valuable piece of information they cannot afford to miss.
* Test multiple article types – You can write all kinds of articles, and depending on your industry and demographics of your subscribers, they may prefer instructional and how-to articles; others may prefer current industry events, or breaking news. Test these out and see what works best.
* Test different formats – Try splitting your list and send half your recipients an HTML newsletter and the other half a "text-looking" email. Make sure that the "text-looking" email really does have HTML in it, or else you won't be able to track the open rates!

Keep Your Chin UP

All newsletters can experience a blow to their response rates. If this happens to you, it is important to identify the problems and fix them before you lose too much of your list to opt-outs and list fatigue. Variety is the spice of life, and it can "wake up" a sleepy list by injecting some excitement. Make sure each communication you send is high value, and provides something new. And keep the lines of communication open so your subscribers can help you improve the quality of your content.

Matthew Coers is an Internet marketing expert. His website, ProfitChoice.com contains online courses designed to teach entrepreneurs how to build a website and make money online. Download his FREE Internet Marketing report, 7 Days to Website Success.

3 Moneymaking Reasons For Displaying Your Newsletters On Your Website

Writen by Roger C. Parker

Seeing is believing. Unless your website visitors can experience your newsletter and appreciate its value, they're unlikely to join your opt-in, email list. By posting your newsletter on your website, you encourage more visitors to subscribe and you drive more profitable traffic to your website each month.

- Growing your opt-in email list is one of your most important goals. Your success depends on encouraging a high percentage of website visitors to provide their email addresses and permission to contact them for free via email. Most websites expect visitors to opt-in to email lists without first providing an opportunity for visitors to 'test drive' the newsletter. This is like wearing a blindfold when shopping for a car! Thumbnails, reduced size images of newsletters, are not the answer. Visitors are not able to read the value of its information before signing up. As a result, only a small portion of website visitors subscribe and - of those that do – many quickly unsubscribe.

-Your second biggest goal is to monetize your educational One-Page Newsletter by generating immediate sales. For the first time, you can display your newsletter in the context of other text and graphic elements on a web page. Next to your newsletter, for example, you can display links to promotional coupons or links to special offers described on other pages of your website. This is important because fewer and fewer firms are distributing formatted newsletters as email attachments. Instead, they are driving traffic to their website each month by sending short emails announcing the page on their website where they have posted the latest issue. You can now easily convert this traffic into sales!

- The third money-making reason for displaying your newsletter on your website is higher readership. More visitors to your website will likely read your newsletter because they don't have to first download it. This leads to more sign-ups. The more attractive and informative your newsletter, the more likely visitors will sign-up to receive it. You can prove the consistent high value of your newsletter by adding descriptive links to earlier issues.

Although Acrobat Reader PDF format is ideal for distributing newsletters with typography and formatting intact, it is not useful for previewing newsletters.

Macromedia's Contribute 2 is a software program that incorporates Flash Paper technology. With Contribute 2, you can easily add a readable, zoomable and printable version of your formatted newsletter to a page of your website.

This means that visitors to your website, without doing anything else, can immediately read and print your newsletter. The newsletter on your website will be an exact replica of the original.

Flash Paper versions of your newsletters complement Acrobat versions of the copies you print on your office printer. For the first time, you can combine the credibility and constant visibility of educational newsletters with sales created by free, targeted promotional messages.

Roger C. Parker knows the secrets to promoting your business one page at a time. Find out the simple way to keep in constant touch with your customers, while saving you time and money. Visit http://www.OnePageNewsletters.com for your three free reports.

Dare To Be Different The Evolution Of An Ezine

Writen by Dean Mercado

As a marketer, and for the record, I do believe that we are all full-time marketers; I am always looking for ways to connect more regularly with and add value to my target audience – I want top-of-mind awareness for myself, my business and my offerings.

Now for years, I've known that publishing my very own newsletter would be an optimal way to do that and more however, as an innovative marketer, I kept coming back to the fact that there are already a ton of newsletters out there – and some of them are excellent. So I fought the concept of creating one tooth and nail. Did the world really need another newsletter?

Then one day I happened to take off my scarcity-mindset hat and put on my abundance-mindset hat and came to the realization that there's room for all of us out there. So I said to myself, "Why not, there are plenty of potential subscribers available to me; there are over 6 ½ billion people in this world! And a portion of those people are meant to hear the information I will provide, from me."

Being an online entrepreneur, I knew that if I took this major commitment on, I would want to do it electronically because in my mind, it would be cheaper, faster and easier for me to produce. So I went ahead with an electronic version of a newsletter or better known as an ezine. For weeks I scoured my favorite ezines, looking for both what I liked and didn't like about them and came up with a professional and traditional layout for my soon to be ezine. I got it all ready – it looked great, I was all set to go.

Then right before I hit the send button in my contact management software, I slammed on the brakes. "Wait a minute", I said, "What was I about to do". This ezine, while potentially could be well received, looked and felt just like all the rest. Then my inner monologue really kicked in as I heard myself saying, "It could very easily get lost in the shuffle or worse yet, go unnoticed! That could translate into a significant number of people not getting the value I plan to offer every week – value that could possibly make or break a business"! And the conversation in my head went on and on and on. Bottom line, I just didn't feel good about it anymore. And I knew if my heart wasn't in it, the subscriber would know and ultimately both the subscriber and I would lose! They don't get great content and I lose a subscriber and potential 'Raving Fan'.

Now I don't believe in being different just for the sake of being different. I believe in being different when it makes a difference, to both my target audience and to me. I educate my clients and prospects all the time on how to differentiate themselves from the competition. Basically, it was time for me to practice what I preach.

So I shifted gears and went back to the drawing board. That was painful. I was done. Why not just send it out? I just couldn't. I wanted to create a something that made a difference and I wanted prospects to take notice. I wanted to create an ELF (Easy, Lucrative, and Fun) experience for them – I wanted a masterpiece.

Then it clicked! I love to speak! I love to write as well but I certainly enjoy speaking more. I also knew that studies prove that people are more likely to listen than to read and that they also retain more that way. On top of that, there were a lot less audio-based ezines than print ones so I would certainly stand out from the pack. All signs pointed to using audio, so right away, I knew an audio-based ezine was right for me. I felt great about it! And the rest is history…

So, what ways can you add more value to your target audience? How can you become top-of-mind with them? What else can you do to differentiate yourself from the competition? How can you do all of these things and actually have fun doing them? – Because believe me, people will notice.

My ezine the "Marketing Minute" worked for me, what would work for you? Ponder that one a bit.

© 2006 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer," is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships. To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit http://www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.