Insider Guide to Creating a Killer E-Zine (Trial Version) by Dr. Mani Sivasubramaniam - HTML preview

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ENROLL IN A FREE EMAIL TUTORIAL by Dr.Mani

Because you have ordered the Insider Guide to Creating A Killer Ezine, we’ve made special arrangements to sign you up for a seven day email tutorial course about Ezine Marketing Strategies – for FREE !

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Introduction – Making The Most Of This Guide

Greetings and welcome to the Insider Guide To Creating A Killer Ezine

In case you’re wondering what I’m going to do here, it’s very simple. I’m sharing with you my roadmap to ezine publishing success. This is the distillation of years of experience I have gained from creating and publishing email newsletters, marketing it to explosive growth and profiting enormously from them.

Now I’m sharing these powerful insider secrets with a very select group of people – including you. This means that you are among the first to have the opportunity to benefit from these unique strategies – and create your own potent, powerful and profitable ezine.

In the Insider Guide, you’ll get an overview of the whole ezine creation process. You’ll learn how to build an ezine starting with little more than an idea. By following the sequence I describe, you’ll soon have a high quality, high impact ezine.

Throughout this Guide, I will refer to my comprehensive course on ezine creation

 

“Ezine Launch – Tips, Tricks And Secrets For Creating Killer Ezines”

Ezine Launch is a complete blueprint to ezine creation, compiled of the latest, newest, most effective tips, secrets and strategies that hundreds of ezine publishers – myself included - are using every day to publish ‘killer’ ezines.

To make it easier for those of you who own Ezine Launch, I have quoted chapter (and page number, where relevant) so that you can directly skip to the topic being discussed. In addition, I also point you to some other helpful resources that provide extremely valuable information that you can benefit from while publishing your ezine.

Because this Insider Guide is only an outline, it deals with just the major steps and concepts. But as you know, each major step is made up of dozens and dozens of smaller action steps. It is only by executing each of these little things perfectly that one ends up with the ideal ezine.

So let me next tell you what this Insider Guide is NOT! This Guide is not meant to give you the exact details of how each small step is executed. That’s the job of a more comprehensive course like Ezine Launch, which is composed of 140+ pages of tightly written lessons, covering in careful detail every imaginable facet of the ezine planning, design and creation process.

Even without reading Ezine Launch, you’ll find this detailed Insider Guide helpful. In addition to clearly seeing the big picture, you will grasp the basics of the individual steps in the ezine creation system. This will serve as a starting point to launch your ezine.

And when you decide that you want to learn in greater detail about creating a killer ezine, I have some good news guaranteed to delight you.

I am drastically slashing the price of Ezine Launch only for readers of this Insider Guide because I realize that you are serious about ezine creation and marketing. Listen, I want to give you a chance to learn from my lessons and tips – and create your own killer ezine.

And that isn’t all. I’m also throwing in a free one month trial subscription to my paid-newsletter, Ezine Marketing Tips. This will help you exploit your ezine by marketing it effectively. When you claim your copy of Ezine Launch, I’ll register you for the free trial.

Remember, this offer is limited to users of this Insider Guide – and it will not last forever. Click here now to learn more about this special time-sensitive offer.

However you choose to use this roadmap, I guarantee you’re going to be overwhelmed by the content within this Insider Guide. I have taken the vast experience I’ve gained from publishing over 15 ezines and distilled it into 10 simple lessons that remove all hurdles, and make creating an ezine as easy as falling off a log.

All you have to do is follow the plan, one step at a time, and before you know you’ll be the proud owner of your own killer ezine – I guarantee that.

 

Be prepared – you’re going to taste success beyond your wildest dreams.

 

Enjoy the journey.

Mani Sivasubramanian
The Ezine Marketing Center
http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Top Ten Reasons To Publish An Ezine
STEP #1 : Develop A Roadmap To Ezine Success

1. What are you going to write about?
2. Study your competition
3. What do your readers want?
4. What is your ezine’s purpose?
5. Do you want to make money from your ezine?
6. Create a USP

STEP #2 : Design and Lay Out A Beautiful Ezine

1. Choose a catchy name
2. Create each element of your ezine – header, table of contents, footer, content, advertisements
3. Layout your ezine elements into an attractive design

STEP #3 : Get Absolutely Magnetic Content To Enrich Your Ezine

1. What kind of content will you use?
2. Who will create the content?
a. Write it yourself
b. Invite other authors to do it for you
c. Hire a professional
3. Learn the essential elements of creating your own content

STEP #4 : Make Your Ezine Look Fabulous – No Matter What

1. Learn all about elements of ezine formatting
2. Create your ezine for the lowest common denominator
3. Check your ezine on multiple email clients
4. AOL woes – and getting over them
5. Publishing in HTML

STEP #5 : Design And Build An Effective Ezine Website And Archive

1. Choose your domain name
2. Choose a web hosting service
3. Designing your website – DIY vs. Hiring a Pro
4. What you should put on your ezine website

STEP #6 : Set Up An Automated Ezine Distribution System

1. Spread the word about your ezine automatically
2. Sign up new subscribers and send them the first ezine issue instantly
3. Respond to feedback, comments and questions right away
4. Use powerful business automation software to do it

STEP #7 : Before Publishing, Automate – And Test - Your Ezine Processes

1. What can you automate?
2. Start by analyzing your ezine process, then automating it
3. Test every step of your process
4. Why not put your entire e-business on auto-pilot?

STEP #8 : Make Joining and Leaving Your List A Breeze For Users

1. Offer multiple options to sign up
2. Collect demographic data to tailor your content and offers
3. Let readers opt-in - twice
4. Handle removal requests promptly and politely

STEP #9 : It’s Showtime : Publishing Your First ‘Killer’ Ezine

1. Small details to make a big impact
2. Do a final proof-reading
3. And now …. PUBLISH

STEP #10 : Start Getting People To Sign Up In Droves For Your Ezine

1. Collect email addresses from your contacts
2. You have to sell even free!
3. Get subscriber recommendations
4. List in directories and search engines
5. Use articles as promotional tools

CONCLUSION : Two Powerful Secret Weapons To Blast Your Way To Ezine Success

Top Ten Reasons To Publish An Ezine

Ezines are Universally Accessible, Inexpensive, Instant and Interactive.

 

- Gain name and fame, become widely known as the expert on your subject or topic

 

- Develop many contacts, make new friends and grow your network

 

- Cultivate a relationship with readers and invite them to your website over and over, ultimately converting them into customers

 

- Get permission to contact your clients and customers regularly by email

 

- Expand your customer base much more widely than you can with only a website

 

- Establish a route of communicating regularly directly with your customers, maintaining contact with them over time

 

- Promote yourself and your business quickly and easily while saving money

 

- Give your customers timely, up-to-the-minute information

 

- Increase brand awareness using your ezine

 

- Make money in many different ways with your ezine

 

Step #1 : Develop A Road Map To Ezine Success

 

1 – Decide What You Are Going To Write About

What are you good at? Think about what interests you. What are you passionate about? Do you have expert knowledge or experience in a particular subject or topic? Do people ask you for help or assistance with things? What things? What kind of help?

Finding out what you are passionate about is the most important thing as you plan your ezine’s topic. Great success is almost always bred by great passion.

 

Do what you love, and you won’t have to work a single day in your life

 

(Learn how to brainstorm for the ideal ezine topic in Lesson 3.1.1 of Ezine Launch, pg.14)

 

2 – Study the competition

Is there a need or demand for the information you plan to provide? If you’re teaching people about solving a common problem, or bringing happiness and money, or relieving pain or stress, you’re sure to have an audience ready to look at your offer. Maybe even pay for it.

Look for other ezines on the topic you plan to write about. How crowded and competitive is the market?

Studying your competition is a very skilled task that takes specialized insider knowledge to do well. Corey Rudl is one of the experts who shows you exactly how to do it. See Lesson 21 of Corey’s Internet Marketing Course Version 3.0 for step-by-step instructions, resources, and tools for researching your competition.

3 – Find out what your readers want

 

Who are your readers? Which group or population are you targeting with your ezine?

Ask your customers and contacts what they would like to learn about. Visit discussion groups, bulletin boards and online forums where they gather and observe the topics and issues being debated.

(See Lesson 3.1.3, pg.17 of Ezine Launch for instructions and ideas about determining what exactly your readers are looking for.)

 

4 – Determine your ezine’s purpose

 

Why are you creating your ezine? Is it to instruct and educate? Entertain? Market your product or service? Sell directly to customers?

 

Try and define this as clearly as possible before you start. The entire process of planning and publishing your ezine will depend upon its purpose.

 

5 – Do you want to make money from your ezine?

 

Yes or No? How much? How fast?

 

You can choose between three methods of making money

– selling your content (paid-subscription model)
– advertising products and services (affiliate program model) – selling advertising space and sponsorships (ad supported model)

Learn more about these models and how you can adopt them in your ezine creating strategy in Lesson #3 of my free “7 Days To Ezine Marketing Success” course. To sign up send any email to
EzineMarketingCourse@fetchreply.com or submit the online form at http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/emailcourse.htm

6 – Write Your USP

If you’ve followed the steps above, by now you should be able to write out a short statement (25 to 50 words) explaining your plans for your ezine. People are more likely to sign up for a newsletter with a clearly stated purpose.

STEP #2 : Design and Lay Out A Beautiful Ezine

 

1. Choose a catchy name

 

You might wonder what’s in a name. The short answer – Everything.

 

A catchy, descriptive, short and memorable name can do wonders for your ezine’s success.

The name you choose should be relevant, representative and add to your business’ brand value. And an important point – the same domain name for a website must be available !

(See Lesson 3.2, pg.20 of Ezine Launch for detailed instructions on choosing the perfect title for your ezine – including important details on how search engines rank ezines based upon their name.)

Important Note: As soon as you find the perfect name for your ezine, order the domain name right away. Don’t wait – someone else might grab it. You don’t have to build a website immediately, you can simply reserve the name for later use. To start registering your ezine’s domain name, click here.

2. Develop a layout including the various elements of your ezine Having a well designed, pleasing and consistent ezine format adds to its appeal.

Most ezines are made up of a header, table of contents, the actual content, a footer and advertisements.

a. Header: The header element is at the top and includes the ezine’s name, issue number, date of publication, a slogan or descriptive phrase and the website URL for the ezine.

b. Table of contents: A table of contents shows the reader at a glance what is in this issue.

 

c. Content: This is followed by the actual content, presented in an easily readable and attractive layout.

d. Footer: The footer is a standard set of administrative trivia including details about subscribing or leaving the list, location of the archive of past issues, copyright notices, legal information, feedback requests, author/editor/owner details and any other relevant announcements.

3.Experiment with different arrangements of the various elements View the samples in different email clients to make sure they look good in all.
4. Creating HTML ezines
If you intend publishing your ezine in HTML or Rich Text format, you’ll have to organize your ezine elements in a different way to make it look more attractive.

(In Lesson 4.1.1 to 4.4.7 of Ezine Launch, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of all the major steps of ezine layout and design you must follow to make sure your ezine is both user friendly and sells effectively to readers.)

The topics covered in this section include:

- Making that crucial first impression that takes your reader’s breath away
- Using your ezine layout for branding your business
- Making sure each issue is easily identifiable by using numbering conventions
- Why you must offer a table of contents and how to create one
- Using links to draw readers into ‘Buy” mode
- When and how to insert advertisements
- How to make it easy for subscribers to contact you
- Getting more subscribers by simply asking them to sign up
- Designing links and email addresses to be clickable
- Determining the correct way to offer back issues
- How to use personal information to build trusting relationships

… and a whole lot more.

Keep This In Mind: The longer you spend planning and laying out your ezine and its content, the fewer roadblocks you’ll run into later on. Plan for the future, factor in growth and the related needs, make the best use of existing technology, especially to automate everything. And always have your USP as the guiding light when you make decisions and alterations.

Your ezine is an extension of your goals and ambitions – keep them in sharp focus always.

 

STEP #3 : Get Absolutely Magnetic Content To Enrich Your Ezine

It doesn’t matter what your ezine is about. Or how well formatted it is
Or that you’re the world’s top expert on your subject Or that you have thousands of subscribers.

The single most important thing about your ezine is its CONTENT.

Well-written, compelling, exciting and motivating content is what creating an ezine is all about. If you write with passion, that very enthusiasm will communicate itself to your readers, energizing them, mobilizing them to action. Your content will determine your ezine’s success or failure online.

1. Decide what content you will use.

 

It will depend upon your audience, their tastes and desires, and the topic of your ezine. Here are some suggestions:

- Editorials
- Feature articles
- News clips
- Reviews
- Aggregates of the best content
- Announcements
- Website updates
- Interviews
- Special offers and deals
- Interactive features

(Read chapter 5.1.2 in Ezine Launch for a thorough discussion on how you can employ each of these different forms of content in your ezine.)

 

2. Who will create your ezine content?

Will you create all the content for your ezine? Or will you have others do it for you? Or will you buy readymade or custom tailored content from a professional service?

There are benefits and drawbacks to each approach. Choose the option that is best for you.

(For more discussion on the pros and cons of using other people’s content versus doing it yourself, see lesson 5 in Ezine Launch. You’ll also get valuable tips on creating or re-packaging content for your ezine. If you don’t know to write well, don’t worry. You’ll even learn how to get others to write for your ezine – for free! And they’ll even thank you for it!)

Now here’s a secret tip: Even if you don’t think you can write very well, you can still create killer sales letters that will increase your profits by upto 837% using a simple set of fill-in-the-blanks sales letters. Just plug in your content and go. Click here to learn more….

3. Doing it yourself – armed with these essential tips and secrets to content creation.

If you decide to do it yourself, don’t miss out on the ideas, tips and suggestions in chapter 5.1.2 and 5.1.5 in Ezine Launch about creating crisp, effective content.

The topics covered in this extensive lesson include:

- How to translate your personal expert opinions into attention grabbing editorials
- Step by step guidelines to writing short, yet informative and educational articles
- How to enrich your ezine with fresh, high quality content – without writing a single word. It’s true – you don’t even have to know how to write!
- Leveraging news stories into evergreen ezine content
- Gather valuable resources from various sources and present it as packaged content items for your readers
- The A,B,Cs of writing reviews that catches your reader’s attention and motivates them to buy
- Writing copy that brings readers back to your website over and over
- Why you should offer incentives, gifts, bonuses, freebies and prizes to subscribers to dramatically increase response to your marketing message

…plus a lot more that I can’t list here fully.

If you haven’t already, please don’t put off reading lesson 5 (pg.48) of Ezine Launch. It is well-written, compelling and has valuable information that can make or break your ezine’s success.

Power Tip : Yanik Silver is an impressive online marketer. In an absolutely stunning ebook tutorial called “33 Days To Online Profits”, Yanik and co-author Jim Edwards emphasize the role of ezine articles as promotional tools.

In the most elegant step-by-step description about writing an ezine article that I have ever come across, Yanik shows how you can kickstart those creative juices and churn out an article that sizzles – and promotes your ezine or product in the process.

This one lesson alone is worth the entire price of this value packed ebook “33 Days To Online Profits” – it sells for an incredibly low $29.00. A bargain if ever you’ve seen one. Check it out – if nothing else, then for this article. Go to http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/33days/

STEP #4 : Make Your Ezine Look Fabulous – No Matter What

 

Did you know that upto 95% of your ezine subscribers may not read your ezine – unless it is well formatted?

Email clients or programs are much more variable than web browsers in the way they display messages. So getting your ezine to look great on every one of them is a forbidding task.

Far too many ezine publishers simply neglect this critical issue and put together an ezine that looks alright on their email program. By understanding the pitfalls (and by using the valuable lessons in lesson 6 (pg.66) of Ezine Launch) you can work around most of them.

1. Learn all about elements of ezine formatting

 

The elements of ezine formatting that pose a challenge to you, the ezine publisher, include:

- Choosing a line length that will not wrap awkwardly
- Making Website URLs and email links clickable
- Limiting file size
- Using special formatting tags
- Applying different fonts
- Creating an aesthetically appealing format
- Publishing in ASCII text as well as HTML or Rich Text formats

2. Create an ezine for the lowest common denominator:

Use a text-only editor like Notepad instead of word processing programs like MS Word or Lotus Notes. Limit line length to 64 characters, and hit the ENTER button at this limit. Don’t exceed a file size of 20 KB. Try and avoid any special formatting tags or using different fonts.

Intelligently use white space and text-decorators as section dividers to design a visually attractive newsletter. HTML and Rich text email are becoming popular and have many advantages over plain vanilla text. However there are still many email programs that do not support HTML mail – so you should check whether your readers can handle it before publishing in HTML.

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