7 Steps to a Smooth Ezine Launch (Part 2 of 3)

By Yara Nielsenshultz

You have some ezine articles written, and you've posted some sample articles on your web site. Now it's time to get your writing into the hands of your potential clients. With just 7 easy steps, you can be up and running your own ezine within a week.

1. Determine format
First, determine the format for your ezine: html, text, or both. This decision rests on two things: your (or your virtual assistant's) abilities and what your audience prefers. Doing a text-based ezine is easiest, but it lacks punch. Yes, your readers subscribe to your ezine for your expertise. But in our experience, they tend to respond better to a well-formatted html ezine with links and images. On the other hand, some email programs will not accept html-based emails.

Fortunately, most ezine distribution services enable you to create your ezine in both formats. Your subscribers will receive the html version unless their email program cannot accept it, in which case the distribution program automatically sends the text version.

2. Determine additional ezine information
You've written your feature articles. What other information will you include with your ezine each time it goes out to your subscribers? In this ezine, we typically include 2-4 other items. These items may be ads for products or services, a quick note from us, or a recommended resource. What will you include?

Remember, your ezine represents a marketing vehicle. What you include in it should help you market yourself, as well as your products and services. Think about your audience and what they will respond best to.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

Many solopreneurs successfully integrate personal information into their ezine so that their clients can get to know them.
Your ezine provides an easy, low-cost way to find out what you audience wants. Just ask them and have them email you their responses.
Your ezine subscribers already have a level of belief and trust in you. They are going to be the first people who want to buy your products and services. Make sure you tell them about those products and services and give them the first chance at any discounts or specials you offer.

3. Choose a method for distribution
Once you know all the details for your ezine, it's time to choose your distribution service. There are several out there, so you'll need to do a bit of research. Some factors you need to consider:

Price: what can you afford?
Technical level: does it have templates that you can plug text into, or do you need to know html (or hire someone who does)?
Sign-up forms: does it provide the script you need for sign-up forms? Does it enable email sign-up as well as html sign-up (and do you need that)?
Management: does it automatically manage subscribes, unsubscribes, and bounces?
Reports: what kind of information does it provide about readership?
Lists: does it allow multiple subscriber lists or just one, and what do you need?

To choose the best service balance your abilities against what you can pay and what you need. For example, when Yara started her first coaching business, she used MailChimp. It required an intermediate level of html knowledge and only provided one subscriber list, but it was the least expensive option at the time and it met her needs. Once we opened Red Pepper Writing, we switched to a service (1 Shopping Cart) that better met our current needs.

Here are a few of the major ezine distribution services:
www.aweber.com
www.mailchimp.com
www.constantcontact.com
www.jangomail.com

If you have a shopping cart, it might also provide email distribution services.

4. Program/load your ezine
Next step: loading your ezine into the distribution service. Each service handles this step differently. Consider hiring a virtual assistant to load your ezines for you. VAs who provide this service can do it quickly, and their hourly rate is a lot less than yours is. We also recommend loading several at one time for maximum efficiency.

5. Test your ezine
Always test each ezine issue before you release it. And test it on several different email programs and computers to ensure that the formatting looks ok. For example, we test ours in Gmail, Outlook, and Hotmail. Our ezine appears different in each one, but it's acceptable. If it ever isn't, we tweak it. Again, your virtual assistant can do this step for you.

6. Send your ezine
Yay! Now you get to send your ezine to your subscribers. Congratulate yourself and go celebrate!

7. Get subscribers
Your ezine subscriber list will grow over time, and there are a number of steps you can take to make that happen. We'll cover those next steps in next week's issue. In the meantime, at the very least, make sure you have a sign-up form on a prominent place on your web site (every page is best) and put the sign-up information in your email tag line.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Yara and Aaron Nielsenshultz, the Writing "Peppers" and founders of Red Pepper Writing, teach ambitious Coaches, Consultants, and other Solopreneurs how to use powerful writing to get more clients and make more money. For FREE weekly writing tips, visit http://www.redpepperwriting.com.

WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE ? No problem! You may reprint it as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” blurb at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to peppers@redpepperwriting.com.

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