Internet Marketing Tools Part Nine Ezine Basics

Writen by Shelley Lowery

One of the most powerful marketing tools used on the Internet is the ezine. An ezine, also known as an email magazine, online publication or electronic newsletter is simply a newsletter available via email and/or online. There are hundreds of thousands of ezines on various subjects available on the Internet free of charge.

Publishing an ezine is a great way to build an opt-in list of potential customers. Not only will it enable you to share your expertise, but it will also build your credibility. Developing a trusting relationship with your subscribers is the key to your ezine's success. You must have a sincere desire to assist your subscribers to the best of your ability. Provide them with helpful information that will teach and inform in regard to the subject matter.

Although offering your ezine to your subscribers free of charge may seem to be a waste of time, you have to look at the entire picture. This publication will enable you to have a direct line of communication with your subscribers. Your subscribers are not just subscribers -- they're actually targeted potential customers. When they subscribed to your publication, they were letting you know they have an interest in your ezine's focus. This provides you with the opportunity to advertise your products or services, and provide them with recommendations.

Once you've developed a trusting relationship, your recommendations will be very effective. However, you must only recommend a product or service that you truly believe in, as your professional reputation is on the line.

If you've been marketing on the Internet, then you know it may take several contacts with a prospective customer before closing a sale. What better way to make those contacts. In addition, you can eventually make a nice income selling sponsor advertising and classified ads.

If you're not publishing an ezine, you really should be. The Internet offers a wealth of quality information and resources to assist you.

Tutorials:

Learn everything you'll need to know in order to begin publishing your ezine.

How to Publish an Ezine
http://www.thewritemarket.com/ezine.shtml

The Handbook of Ezine Publishing
http://www.e-zinez.com/handbook/index.html

A Beginner's Guide to Ezine Publishing
http://www.epdigest.com/beginner/

Ezine Tips
http://ezine-tips.com/

If you'd like a head start in writing your ezine, the following sites will provide you with some ezine templates:

How to Use A Template to Create Your E-Zine
http://www.e-zinez.com/handbook/template.html

Ezine Success
http://www.websuccesscentral.com/ezinesuccess/part1.html

You can publish your ezine completely free. Free list hosts will provide complete email list subscription management including list hosting, subscribes, unsubscribes, mailings and more. They will place a small ad within each message sent to your group. This is a small price to pay and well worth the great service they provide.

Free List Hosts:

Yahoo! Groups - http://groups.yahoo.com/

Topica - http://www.topica.com/

Smart Groups - http://www.smartgroups.com/

Fee based mailing list hosts provide complete email list subscription management including list hosting, subscribes, unsubscribes, mailings and more for a fee.

Fee Based Mailing List Hosts:

SparkList - http://sparklist.com/

Email Factory - http://www.emailfactory.com/

Lyris - http://www.lyris.com/

L-Soft - http://www.lsoft.com/

If you'd rather take care of your own list, there are a couple of different options:

• Use a software program that resides on your computer

• Use a script that resides on your server

Mailing List Software:

Mailloop
This outstanding program will enable you to have complete control over your lists including:

• Automatically filters your email

• Completely run your newsletters

• Import your leads or orders into a database

• Automatically email your personalized customer database

• Send out an unlimited amount of autoresponses

• and more.

Group Mail
Another outstanding software that will enable you to send highly professional formatted messages that are personalized for each of your recipients. You can manage an unlimited number of lists with an unlimited number of recipients in each and much more.

If you're using a software program like Group Mail, you'll also need a good form processing script to enable your visitors to subscribe:

Master Form
This form will enable you to have the results of your form emailed to you or to a specified address. It can write your information to a database file and you can even have a personalized thank you page. In addition, you can even have multi-page forms with no limit on the number of pages. Cost - $35.00

Alien Form
This powerful script will enable you to have the results of your form emailed to you and any additional addresses you specify. It can write directly to files, allowing you to log every time the form is submitted, or to store order or subscription details securely on your server.

Mailing list scripts will enable you to run your mailing list completely online via your web browser.

Mailing List Scripts:

1-2-All Broadcast
http://www.12all.com
A complete list management system including HTML or plain text newsletters, MySQL database, personalization features, automatic removal links and more.

AutoResponse Plus:
Complete list management including unlimited lists, HTML or plain text mailings, MySQL database, customizable auto-personalization of messages, automatic removal links, unlimited follow-up autoresponses and more.

Although a quality ezine should contain some original content, it is completely acceptable to use articles written by other authors.

Free Content:

Article Announce Groups - Articles that may be freely published delivered to your email each day.
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm

Ezine Articles - Article Directory
http://ezinearticles.com/

Marketing Seek - Article and Ezine Directory
http://www.marketing-seek.com/

Idea Marketers - Article Directory
http://www.ideamarketers.com/

Author Connection - Article Directory
http://www.authorconnection.com/

Internet Wire - Offers broad, real-time dissemination of company press releases and material news.
http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/home

If you're not collecting your visitor's email addresses, don't wait another day to start. Opt-in lists are one of the most powerful marketing tools on the Internet.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Understanding Ezine Publishing

Writen by Jon Kogan

I can remember my first reaction to word "ezine". What is it? The word "ezine", (pronounced ee-zeen), is a shortened version of "electronic zine", which is a word used to describe short self-published "electronic magazines".

Ezines can be email-based, Web-based, or presented in some other electronic format. However, for the most part, when publishers speak of their "ezines", they're usually referring to an email publication.

"Ezine publishing" has grown in popularity over the last several years to the point where there are thousands of "ezines" covering virtually every topic under the sun.

Some "ezine" gurus have spent years of tedious, zombie Internet surfing and late night fact finding through manual work to compile their personal arsenal of "ezine" marketing tools and resource list.

Email publishers produce their "ezines" for a variety of reasons and the following are among the most common goals:

Generating Revenue - Generating a profit is one of the most common "ezine" publishing goals. The sources of "ezine" revenue include advertising, sales of products or services affiliate revenue, and so on. The "ezine" serves as a support mechanism for the product or service and adds value to it, which encourages more sales.

Generating Leads - Publishing an "ezine" is a great way to generate leads with the same pursuits and interests. Important personal and business contacts are made every day between "ezine" publishers and their subscribers.

Supporting a Website - An "ezine" creates an excellent means of driving repeat traffic.

Once you've determined your goals, for starters, you should plan a publishing strategy that will best enable you to reach those goals. You need to decide on "ezine" topic, determine the frequency, issue size and the most importantly, develop the content.

One of the most popular types of "ezine" content is the "article". "Articles" might be of the news, how-to, entertaining, or other variety. As an example, since I am in home business, my article content is focused on marketing ideas, useful business building resources, time saving tools, website development and training.

It is highly recommended that you produce at least some of the content yourself. As a publisher, you are in the unique position to be able to create your "ezine" unique "personality". Your subscribers will learn to identify it over time and may come to appreciate your "ezine" for precisely that reason. Other popular sources of content include staff or freelance writers, syndicated content, or reprints of articles from other "ezine" publishers.

On the other hand, if all of your content is un-original and your "ezine" offers nothing unique to your subscribers, they will not have much of incentive to read each issue or stay subscribed.

© 2004, Jon Kogan, All Rights Reserved - http://www.zivomarketing.com

About The Author

Jon Kogan is Founder of ZivoMarketing and Editor of Home Business Breakthroughs Ezine!

mailto: subscribe@zivomarketing.com

Would you like to make money online, but don't know where to start?...You are not alone and this could be just a solution for you: http://www.zivomarketing.com/mega.html

Jon Kogan was born, raised and educated in Ukraine.

Arriving to the USA in 1975 has been able to focus on the area of his expertise in marketing, sales and management in the corporate world.

In 2002, Jon has made a decision to apply real world marketing concepts to the Internet. His goals are to provide training, education and to show that it's simple and easy to join the ranks of success-minded people by choosing to start a home business.

editor@zivomarketing.com

Ezine Articles Dot Com The Quick Amp Easy Cure For Writers Block

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

I'm the umpteenth writer to praise the web site, Ezinearticles.com.

But I want you to know it's more than a great place to feature your articles. It's more than an ego boost, seeing as many of your articles in print, as you wish.

It may very well be the cure to that age-old affliction, writer's block.

If you're a creative type, that's probably more significant than a cure for the common cold!

Writer's block, which is when you just can't summon the gumption to put words on a page, seems to afflict many of us when we suddenly stop believing in the quality of our output.

Perhaps we received yet another rejection notice from a brick and mortar publishing house, or we made the fatal mistake of sharing our passionate poetry with Aunt Minnie. No matter, our creative well has dried up, and we feel as if we're about to wither away with it.

The cure, of course, is to start writing again, but that's easier said than done. If we're cursed with the perception that our stuff is junk, we don't put anything out there that can be rejected.

Enter the magical world of Ezinearticles.com. When you KNOW that your articles will appear, that you'll garner an audience for your brilliance, suddenly, you can relax. It doesn't matter that you're not paid a nickel in conventional currency; the spigot has been opened!

You're creating again! In fact, it's a form of therapy that lots of writers would pay good money to obtain. And it's ours, for free.

This is the 120th article of mine that will appear at Ezinearticles.com, and I promise you, it won't be the last.

Perhaps in future postings, I'll share more benefits of using this site as a creative outlet.

In fact, come to think of it, I can't wait!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com