An ezine (email magazine, electronic newsletter or email newsletter) is a form of communication where you email your micro-entrepreneurial business subscribers a periodic publication on a particular topic. An ezine can be an important component of the marketing strategy for your micro-entrepreneurial business.
To start sending out an ezine, you have to choose a topic — one that you have a passionate interest in. When choosing a topic, focus on your niche — what your product and service or business are about.
Writing an ezine, even one where the text for a partial issue is brief, is an ongoing undertaking. Doing so takes a lot of patience and perseverance to create a successful ezine. Whether you’re writing and sending the ezine out daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly, you need to have an ongoing replenishment of content.
Creating fresh, interesting content isn’t always easy, but many publishers find other ways to satisfy the need for content. Some get content at article database sites.
If you use your creativity, you can come up with plenty of ideas for content. For example, your newsletter might regularly provide great quotes on liberty. Or it might provide great tips and quotes on the world of business. Or you might include a joke of the day or a recipe of the month.
Some ezines include a headline from the general news that applies to their particular niche along with commentary tying the headline to how the item affects the niche.
Subscribe to as many ezines as you can that are tied to your topic. Doing so can give you plenty of material and ideas. You should not use other people’s material; however, reading these other ezines can spur on your creativity and thinking for fresh content in your ezine.
If you do see an article that you find compelling enough to share with your audience, contact the ezine’s publisher and ask for permission to reprint it. Most ezine publishers would probably react favorably to such an inquiry. More than likely, they’ll allow you to reprint it as long as you properly attribute it.
Thousands of ezines are online that you can read to improve yours. One of the best ways to educate yourself is to carefully watch others. You can see what to do and what not to do. Ezines cover almost every topic you can think of, and some that make you think.
Check out these resources for additional help on writing ezines:
Alexandria Brown: For many years she has been known as the “Ezine Queen” and offers great guidance on launching and maintaining an ezine.
Charlie Page: Charlie Page is an ezine expert and maintains an extensive directory of ezines. He has written about ezine publishing since the late 1990s.
ebook Crossroads: This site has a great section on email newsletter publishing.
National Association of Independent Writers and Editors: This site has loads of great guidance on writing and editing.
Self-Publishing Resources: This site has lots of great self-publishing resources applicable to ezine publishing.
thesitewizard: This site has an extensive section on ezine publishing.