10X More Readers Using
These Simple eZine Tactics
By Bill Broadbent
Its been said that being effective
means doing the right thing and being efficient means doing the thing
right. Which one are you?
For most electronic magazine (Ezine)
publishers, the right thing is servicing a market that is important;
giving a voice to topics that the mass market either overlooks or gives
short shrift. We work hard to get quality material, present that
material in an aesthetic format, and draw readers to us. If you believe
in what you are doing, chances are, you are effective.
But it is a lot of work! It’s
also tough to get an audience of substantial size.
Generally Ezines have only a small
staff, often just one person. Regardless of the staff size, though, we
are expected to maintain rigorous standards that often rival major print
media sources. To do that, we have to be more than effective, we must be
efficient. In that spirit, I would like to share resources I have found
that allows us to turn work into results.
So, we must draw attention to
ourselves. Most often, this is done through subscription boxes on our
websites and Ezine directories. For those of you not familiar with such
directories, here are a few of the most popular and most effective
listing services.
http://www.manzanomarketing.com/eZDir.html
http://ezine-universe.com/ http://www.newsletter-directory.com/
http://www.list-city.com/ http://www.ezinelocater.com/
If no one knows you are out there,
no one will find you. I also think we all know that we can’t count on
the search engines to bring readers flocking to our sites. A quick
search on Ezine on Google returns over 1.3 million sites. Is that where
you want to compete? I didn’t think so. The directory listing is the
first step toward efficiency.
For most directory listing
services you need to enter your Ezine title, the type of category, a
description, your name (or at least a contact name), your URL, an email
address, a description, and sometimes a lot more information – for
each category where you are to be listed. Then you move on to the next
directory, and the next and the next. This could be a full time job all
by itself. But it has to be done, right?
Yes and no.
It does have to be done, but do
you have to do it each time? Thankfully, the answer to that is “no”.
First, there is a little software
program called EzineAnnouncer. It is inexpensive and easy to use. It has
over 900 resources listed. You fill out your information once and begin
submitting. It’s worth checking out:
http://www.manzanomarketing.com/EzAn.html
Now, for those of you who are
unfamiliar with it, let me introduce the idea of article syndication.
With article syndication, you must still enter your information, but you
only need to do it once and it is populated throughout all the
affiliates of that syndicate. Now that is efficient. Article syndication
is really the best way I have found of getting your Ezine in front of a
lot of people. The following is a list of some very powerful article
syndication sites.
http://articlebank.com/
http://www.articlecentral.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/ http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
http://www.allnetarticles.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.clickforcontent.com/
http://www.goarticles.com/
Second, now that we are on the way
to efficiency in getting our Ezines in front of people, our readers are
going to want new, refreshing materials. You have to agree that trying
to create your own stable of high quality writers for your content is
not only inefficient, it can also be incredibly expensive. Article
syndication helps out here too. Not only is your content populated
through their directories, most allow for content sharing as well. An
article gets submitted to the syndicate and if it meets your criteria,
it can be added to your Ezine. Another step toward efficiency.
Now you only have to worry if the
articles meet your standards. There is so much to consider here. Is the
article formatted correctly? Does the color scheme match your site? If
the author included graphics, does the syndicate properly display them?
Can HTML be allowed, how about javascript? There is still a lot to take
care of even once you have quality content and a broad audience. Do you
have to go through a complex routine to accept an article? Are you
constrained on how it can be displayed? What happens when material is
updated? What if someone sees your site and wants to do the same thing
– can you get credit for referring them?
The answers to these questions
have allowed me to withhold one site to the end of this article. I
withheld it because I wanted you to see the other sites first so that
you could fully appreciate this resource. I recently discovered what I
feel is the best article syndication site out there. Appropriately
enough, it is called Article Syndicator at http://www.articlesyndicator.com
. If you want full control of your content, the ability to seamlessly
integrate the content with your site along with as many sites as you can
sign up, and security in the knowledge that your site has the most
updated version of the article just as the author intended, Article
Syndicator deserves a look.
Not only is the content management
aspect top-notch, they offer an affiliate program where you get paid if
people sign-up due to your referral. You don’t even have to be a
salesperson, they are able to track referrals from a link on your site
if you don’t like the traditional affiliate sales practices.
In summary, if you want to have a
great Ezine, dedicate yourself to it. If you want others to find it,
list it in the directories. If you want to maximize your efficiency,
join a syndicate. If you want control over what you syndicate, check out
http://www.articlesyndicator.com .
E-mail: bill@manzanomarketing.com
Author's URL: http://www.manzanomarketing.com/
Written by Bill Broadbent http://www.ManzanoMarketing.com Free eBook
Available – Affiliate Detective Visit: http://www.affiliatedetective.net
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