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What was the name of your ezine again?
© Ron Hutton - All Rights reserved
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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.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FEATURE ARTICLE PROVIDED BY =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ron Hutton at Plug-In Profit Toolbox.
One thing that's absolutely, undeniably certain about internet marketing is
that to grow your business fast... EXPLOSIVELY QUICK!
...you need an offer that stops people in their tracks.
Get yours here.
Plug-In Profit Toolbox
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To your success,
Ron Hutton
GoThrive.com
Breakaway Marketing
167 Deep Woods Way
Ormond Beach, FL 32174
Phone: 386.846.6458 | Fax: 309.416.4629
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