Web Traffic
An ezine is one means used in electronic marketing to drive traffic to a website. Unlike a website newsletter, an ezine can be sent directly to a recipient's email inbox. However, some ezines are simply Web pages designed to read like a printed magazine. Most ezine publishers require their readers to subscribe to their ezines, sometimes with a fee, though most ezines are free.
Ezines look like fancy newsletters, containing pictures and text, as well as some videos and external links. The latter is the bread and butter of the ezine business, because clicking on a link will generate a profit for advertisers. Like a newspaper, advertisers can place ads inside of an ezine to bring traffic to a website or an online store. Links to videos can also be embedded into an ezine the same way a hyperlink is pasted into an email message.
Subscribtion Ezines
Subscription ezines require a postal address and a method for unsubscribing from an ezine or any other electronic mailing campaign associated with it. The subscription method works by a reader clicking on a subscription link in you website or in a linked advertisement on someone else's website. This method is best for attracting long-term readers, because most people who click on your ezine subscription are already interested in the content that is on your website. In the long run, your ezine business could build up a reading audience of a million subscribers or more.
Types
There are a number of ways to send and read ezines. PDF files are the highest quality ezines, and the recipient can save a copy of the ezine to their computer to read offline. Giving readers a choice in how they want to view an ezine is a good strategy, because readers don't have to hassle with logins just to read an ezine. MS Word documents are among the worst kind of ezines to send, since MS Word documents can harbor a virus without the sender or the recipient's knowledge. Giving your customers a virus is a fast way to lose business. HTML is a good way to send an ezine, because readers can view your ezine as a Web page without having to leave their email inbox. HTML is convenient especially if the reader's email doesn't have special features for viewing images or hyperlinks. Text-only ezines are good for readers who are more selective, such as commercial real estate investors, for example. These types of readers will only skim through your ezine for something that catches their interest. A text-only ezine will give a brief statement for each topic or story, and then provide a link to your website or another website.
Getting Started
Many services and products exist on the market to help entrepreneurs, marketers and writers get the word out about their products or services through an ezine. For those who are looking to advertise, remember that the more often readers of an ezine see your ad, the more likely they are to click on it. Being consistent with your ezine publishing or advertising will pay off in the long run. Use services like Constant Contact to get started generating a permission based list of emails for your ezine campaign (see Resources below).
