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

Copyright 2002 Terri Seymour

When you publish an ezine, you most definitely want tonprovide useful, and original content as well as promotingnyour business. Some things you might want to include:
*Original Articles/Guest Articles - If you are not nwriting your own articles, please try it. Although nguest articles can be very effective, it is always a ngood idea to have some original content as well.

There are lots of places to get articles:

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

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

You could also ask for article submissions in your nezine and on your website. Provide a special email nto receive the articles such as: nmailto:ter02@newnorth.net?subject=articles
*Freebies - downloads, tools, ebooks, and any other nuseful Freebie you can find. Freebies can be found allnover as well. Do a search for Free Downloads, Freebies,
Free resources or whatever type of freebie you are nlooking for. There are also freebie ezines and emailnlists you can subscribe to.
*A Forum for Your Readers - A place where readers can nvent, question, complain, interact, whatever commentsnor feedback they might want to send in. This also helpsnin starting that all important connection between reade
and publisher.
*Human Interest Items - Inspirational stories or poems,npeople helping people, survival stories, whatever younthink your readers might enjoy reading about.
*A Little Fun/Humor - We all need to laugh, so why notnhave a little fun with your readers!

Note: I would put the last two items together in one nsection because you do not want to get too far off the nsubject matter.
*Editorial/Personality - This is where you can let nyour readers get to know you so they can begin tontrust you. Talk about interesting news items, thingsnyou have learned or experienced, relate to your readers.
You need to make a connection with your readers. Makensure your personality shines through in your ezine.
Make your ezine warm, friendly, and inviting while beingninformative and helpful.n
*Ad Swaps/Ezine Ads - You want to make sure and have na section for ad swaps. Ad swapping is a great way to nget free advertising as well as making new contacts nand friends! I have a Free Ezine section which I usenfor my ad swaps.

To start swapping:
http://www.freezineweb.com/ad-swaps1.htmlnhttp://www.ezinelocater.com/
http://www.inte
etmarketing-success.com/ad-swaps.htmnhttp://www.topica.com/lists/Ezine-Ad-Swapsnnn*Thank You Section for Your Readers - Take a small nsection for your readers to get some free exposure as na "Thank You" for subscribing. Appreciate them as they nwill appreciate you!
*Resources - Of course you want to provide lots of goodnand helpful resources. There are lots of places to find nresources.

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

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

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

Announcement Lists - Also a good source for resources.nmailto:lists_for_all-subscribe@YahooGroups.comnmailto:Lists-4-u-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:ListYourAds-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:listyourgroups-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:Mail-Lists-Only-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:mailman-subscribe@topica.comnmailto:misterlister-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:netwrite-publish-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.comnmailto:New_List_Announcement-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
*Tips & Tricks - Provide shortcuts, helpful hints and nideas to save your readers time and money! Ask your nsubscribers to submit their tips and tricks and use you
own as well.

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

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

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

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