I Want to Do an Ezine! Part 3 What is Content?

Copyright 2002 Terri Seymour

When you publish an ezine, you most definitely want to
provide useful, and original content as well as promoting
your business. Some things you might want to include:

*Original Articles/Guest Articles - If you are not
writing your own articles, please try it. Although
guest articles can be very effective, it is always a
good idea to have some original content as well.

There are lots of places to get articles:

Article Announcement Lists:
mailto:aainet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:reprintedarticles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:aabusiness-subscribe@egroups.com;
mailto:aageneral-subscribe@egroups.com;
mailto:articles_archives-subscribe@egroups.com;
mailto:QC_Reprint_Articles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:ap-shorts-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:article_announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:articles4you2use4promotion-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:articlesubmission-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:Free-Content-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;
mailto:Free-Reprint-Articles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com;

Article Directories:
http://OpportunityUpdate.com/articles/ http://amazines.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
http://marketing-of-training.com/motoarticles.htm
http://www.womans-net.com/submit.php
http://www.MakingProfit.com
http://www.articlecentral.com/suggest.asp
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://www.bestparentingresources.com/Article.html
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.htm
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.connectionteam.com/art.html

You could also ask for article submissions in your
ezine and on your website. Provide a special email
to receive the articles such as:
mailto:ter02@newnorth.net?subject=articles

*Freebies - downloads, tools, ebooks, and any other
useful Freebie you can find. Freebies can be found all
over as well. Do a search for Free Downloads, Freebies,
Free resources or whatever type of freebie you are
looking for. There are also freebie ezines and email
lists you can subscribe to.

*A Forum for Your Readers - A place where readers can
vent, question, complain, interact, whatever comments
or feedback they might want to send in. This also helps
in starting that all important connection between reader
and publisher.

*Human Interest Items - Inspirational stories or poems,
people helping people, survival stories, whatever you
think your readers might enjoy reading about.

*A Little Fun/Humor - We all need to laugh, so why not
have a little fun with your readers!

Note: I would put the last two items together in one
section because you do not want to get too far off the
subject matter.

*Editorial/Personality - This is where you can let
your readers get to know you so they can begin to
trust you. Talk about interesting news items, things
you have learned or experienced, relate to your readers.
You need to make a connection with your readers. Make
sure your personality shines through in your ezine.
Make your ezine warm, friendly, and inviting while being
informative and helpful.

*Ad Swaps/Ezine Ads - You want to make sure and have
a section for ad swaps. Ad swapping is a great way to
get free advertising as well as making new contacts
and friends! I have a Free Ezine section which I use
for my ad swaps.

To start swapping:
http://www.freezineweb.com/ad-swaps1.html
http://www.ezinelocater.com/
http://www.internetmarketing-success.com/ad-swaps.htm
http://www.topica.com/lists/Ezine-Ad-Swaps

*Thank You Section for Your Readers - Take a small
section for your readers to get some free exposure as
a "Thank You" for subscribing. Appreciate them as they
will appreciate you!

*Resources - Of course you want to provide lots of good
and helpful resources. There are lots of places to find
resources.

Do a search at your favorite search engine. Mine is
http://www.google.com

Join discussion lists - I get numerous resources from
email lists. I just save them all in an email resource
folder.
mailto:digital-women-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:hbj_chat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ideasbypost-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Spam - Yes, spam. I have found lots of resources from
spam that I have received. Sometimes the sender has
some useful information to check out. ( Some spam is
just plain junk) You can soon learn to tell the junk spam
from the "might be useful" spam! ;-)

Announcement Lists - Also a good source for resources.
mailto:lists_for_all-subscribe@YahooGroups.com
mailto:Lists-4-u-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ListYourAds-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:listyourgroups-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:Mail-Lists-Only-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:mailman-subscribe@topica.com
mailto:misterlister-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:netwrite-publish-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
mailto:New_List_Announcement-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

*Tips & Tricks - Provide shortcuts, helpful hints and
ideas to save your readers time and money! Ask your
subscribers to submit their tips and tricks and use your
own as well.

There are so many things you can have in your ezine!
You will learn to keep your eyes open for useful items
for your ezine. They can pop up anywhere at anytime!
Make it a habit to save useful things you come across
in folders in your email or on your desktop. Keep them
organized so whenever you need them, you can get to
them right away.

Ezine publishing is not hard, but you need to be able
to organize and provide a quality ezine for your readers
to stick with you. Be available to help and support
your readers if/when they need you. This will go a long
way in strengthening the reader/publisher bond!

You will find publishing a quality ezine to be very
rewarding, not only financially, but personally and
emotionally. Good luck with Your Own Ezine! ;-)

In the next part of the series we will cover ezine
promotion. See you next week!