I can remember my first reaction to word "ezine". What is it? The word "ezine", (pronounced ee-zeen), is a shortened version of "electronic zine", which is a word used to describe short self-published "electronic magazines".

Ezines can be email-based, Web-based, or presented in some other electronic format. However, for the most part, when publishers speak of their "ezines", they're usually referring to an email publication.

"Ezine publishing" has grown in popularity over the last several years to the point where there are thousands of "ezines" covering virtually every topic under the sun.

Some "ezine" gurus have spent years of tedious, zombie Internet surfing and late night fact finding through manual work to compile their personal arsenal of "ezine" marketing tools and resource list.

Email publishers produce their "ezines" for a variety of reasons and the following are among the most common goals:

Generating Revenue - Generating a profit is one of the most common "ezine" publishing goals. The sources of "ezine" revenue include advertising, sales of products or services affiliate revenue, and so on. The "ezine" serves as a support mechanism for the product or service and adds value to it, which encourages more sales.

Generating Leads - Publishing an "ezine" is a great way to generate leads with the same pursuits and interests. Important personal and business contacts are made every day between "ezine" publishers and their subscribers.

Supporting a Website - An "ezine" creates an excellent means of driving repeat traffic.

Once you've determined your goals, for starters, you should plan a publishing strategy that will best enable you to reach those goals. You need to decide on "ezine" topic, determine the frequency, issue size and the most importantly, develop the content.

One of the most popular types of "ezine" content is the "article". "Articles" might be of the news, how-to, entertaining, or other variety. As an example, since I am in home business, my article content is focused on marketing ideas, useful business building resources, time saving tools, website development and training.

It is highly recommended that you produce at least some of the content yourself. As a publisher, you are in the unique position to be able to create your "ezine" unique "personality". Your subscribers will learn to identify it over time and may come to appreciate your "ezine" for precisely that reason. Other popular sources of content include staff or freelance writers, syndicated content, or reprints of articles from other "ezine" publishers.

On the other hand, if all of your content is un-original and your "ezine" offers nothing unique to your subscribers, they will not have much of incentive to read each issue or stay subscribed.

2004, Jon Kogan, All Rights Reserved - http://www.zivomarketing.com