Publishing Your Own Ezine, Part 4, Writing For An Online Audience

You are most familiar with print publications such as your local dailies or some magazines. Some of these you may be following religiously, what with their timely and highly informative articles as well as the news and tips they provide.

Naturally, you will want to achieve the same with your own eZine.

Doing such haphazardly will prove to be fatal. Why? It’s because there are distinct differences between print publications and online materials. Primary of these differences is the manner by which content is written. You simply cannot write for an online audience the way you would for print publications. They are two very different markets.

Online materials are read from monitors. They are not like print publications which can be taken to the bathroom, the bedroom or the public transportation system to be read. Reading from monitors can be stressful in the long run, will tire out the user, especially when he is tasked to read something from his screen. This is what you will want to avoid. If they get tired, they’ll give up reading, and they won’t be able to receive your business message.

Writing for an online audience entails a unique set of rules:

1. Keep your sentences short. People will be reading from their monitors. Their eyes will get tired easily. Allow their eyesight to rest by keeping your sentences short so that they can easily be read.
   
2. Keep your paragraphs short. Same reasons as number one. Additionally, you will want your readers to feel a certain sense of accomplishment for reading your piece. This can be achieved by presenting short paragraphs so that they’d know that they have read a lot of what you have to say.
   
3. Avoid using technical jargons. You will be writing for a wide array of people with various reading comprehension levels. As such, you will want to pull them into your piece by making your works easier to understand. Jargons – especially highly technical ones - will only confuse people. So keep your words simple. The rule of the thumb is this: write as if you’re writing for a 12 year old. This is so because the average reading comprehension level is likened to that possessed by someone of such an age.
   
4. Use bulleting and numbering as much as possible. This will make it easier for your readers to scan your copy. Even if they decide to skip some parts, bulleted and numbered items will not escape their attention, and you will still be able to convey your business message.
   
5. Avoid using all caps, not even in titles. All caps is a form of digital shouting, and you wouldn’t want to give your readers that impression. This is a form of net etiquette that has been in existence in years. Its principles apply in eZines as well.
   
6. If you need to emphasize some phrases, use quotation marks. Since you cannot italic certain words or place them in bold fonts, quotation marks will suffice as replacements.
   
7. Find the right tone appropriate for your audience. You can’t be too serious when your market is demanding something amusing. And you can’t be too relaxed when your market is demanding something formal. Know your market, and write correspondingly. This way, you’d be able to relate with them better, which is the purpose of an eZine in the first place.
   

Again, writing for an online audience is very much different from writing for print publication. You have to adjust accordingly to please your target market and to better your chances of achieving your industrial goals.

Publishing Your Own Ezine, Part 3, Reasons Why You Should Publish An Ezine

An eZine isn't only good to capture leads as well as repeat visitors. It isn't only good for establishing great relationships with your prospects. If that were the case, then eZines can easily be replaced by other marketing tactics.

But eZines are on a class of their own. They are one of the most potent marketing strategies in existence. Part of this lies in their amazing ability to keep in touch with potential customers/visitors, of course. But a great part of it lies in their sheer flexibility. Indeed, eZines are capable of satisfying many marketing purposes that can bring in some direct and indirect income for your enterprise.

There are so many things you can accomplish with your eZine, basically because your eZine is capable of so many things. It's not just a means of conveying information. It can be bigger than that. And its benefits will surely stack up as time goes by and your digital publication will grow in reputation.

Let's take a look at some of the reasons why YOU should publish your own eZine.

1. An eZine can immediately brand you as an expert in your field. An eZine conveys information, information that will be attributed to come from you, the publisher. This is an excellent way of building your reputation. People will easily think that if you have the balls to publish an eZine, you have the knowledge and the skills to back it up.
   
2. An eZine can help provide a boost for your sales. This is a given. Statistics show that at an average, people buy after the 12th contact. How do you contact them? This is a purpose served by the mailing list, as powered by your eZine.
   
3. An eZine can become your leverage. Want to enter a joint venture with established players in the field? The first thing they will study is the size of your mailing list. If you have a quality and well-marketed eZine, your mailing list is sure to grow and you can use this as a bargaining point. Joint ventures are a "what's in it for me" proposition. You have to show your prospective partners that you’re a worthy addition to their team by presenting a mailing list with a lot of subscribers and an amazing response rate.
   
4. An eZine can become a revenue-generating system by itself. Once your mailing list grows, you can sell ad space on your eZine. A lot of online businessmen are constantly on the lookout for eZines with huge readerships where they can promote their own products and services.
   
5. An eZine can even require payment for subscription. Once your eZine gains a lot of prominence and credibility in the industry, you can start charging subscription rates. A lot of the big name internet marketing superstars today have paid subscriptions, and such is doing wonders for their profit rate.
   
6. An eZine can advertise your other ventures. Even if your activities are beyond internet marketing, you can always mention the same in the issues you distribute. Ezines can grow so big that the advertising mileage they can provide has tremendous potentials. It's always a great way of reaching more people, and it's fast considering the speed of digital delivery. Furthermore, you won’t have to spend that much on advertising cost, since it’s YOUR eZine.
   

There are other benefits in publishing your own eZine, but the reasons above are at the top of the list. The bottom line is this: there is no reason – no reason at all – why you should refrain from publishing your own eZine. If there’s one tactic that will change the course of your online business, it's this.