Advice On Launching An Ezine

by hanamigo

posted on 09/11/2009

The internet has facilitated many things, one of which is publishing. While some may argue that ezines are making print media obsolete, ezines give writers a better opportunity to reach a worldwide audience. Distribution becomes much easier, and now you can write about anything you want. Ezines open up a whole new world to creative people. If you're interested in ezines or are thinking of starting your own ezine, here are a few tips to help you along.

Pick a Topic
When starting an ezine, it's best to create one focused on a topic that you're particularly passionate about. Make sure that you know a lot about the topic so you have something to talk about in every issue of your ezine.

Many ezines start out with a few readers and a few people to contribute to it, so make sure it's a labor of love. That's why you will need to be passionate about the topic. Even if you were to have a readership of one person, it shouldn't matter to you because you love the topic.

Find Like-minded People
It's possible to keep an ezine going with only one person doing all the work, but you don't want to get burned out while putting your ezine together. Try to find people who are interested in what you want to do.

It may seem hard to find people who have the same passion as you, but you have the internet to help you gather individuals. You're no longer limited to the people in your area; you can select people from all over the world.

When searching for like-minded people, social networking sites can be your greatest ally. Use these sites to your advantage. Post in forums, message boards, chat rooms, blogs, and microblogging sites, too. Someone will be willing to help you contribute to the ezine.

Publish
Once you've got enough people and enough material, you'll need to publish. Push the product of all of your hard work out the door and send it out into the world.

There are a number of ways to publish your work. You could publish your ezine as a pdf file or as a word document. You can even publish your ezine as an email newsletter that arrives monthly in your subscribers' inbox.

A newer way of publishing is through a document sharing site. There are sites like Scribd and Issuu that allow you to publish all kinds of print media. All you have to do is upload your document to the site. It's easy to use because users don't have to download anything to read what they want.

Get the Word Out
Now that you've published your ezine, how do you tell people that it's available? You have to advertise. You should approach advertising the same way that you found people to contribute to the ezine. Social networking sites, chat rooms, forums, message boards, etc. become a valuable tool in promoting your ezine.

Try to do a press release on sites related to the topic that your ezine is about. See if you can get someone to review your ezine. Get your ezine listed on a site or database that lists ezines.

Getting a website or a blog will also help you get more readers and maintain the ones that you have. The website will give readers a chance to get in touch with the authors of the ezine as well as ask questions and provide topics for future issues.

Making Money
Most ezines are distributed for free, but there are also ezines around that make money. If you have an ezine with multiple writers, you will probably want to pay them soon. See if you can get advertisement for your ezines.

If you provide quality content that users enjoy, ask your readers if they would mind paying a small fee for the ezine. Tell them that the money would go toward paying the writers and providing a quality ezine. If they really like the ezine, they may not mind paying a reasonable amount for the issue.

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