Maybe it shouldn't come as a big surprise, but most people on the internet and some self-possessed ezine distributors do not know what the word EZINE really means.



Ezines are electronic publications distributed by email or posted on a website. Ezines are typically focused on a certain subject matter. Ezines are just like your typical magazine format of monthly or weekly topical publications in an electronic format.

The title EZINE does not come from the phrase Electronic Magazine, cause you might be thinking that the E in electronic and the Zine in magazine are joined to form this word.

Actually Ezine came from the word FanZine which was a publication with a small subscriber base back then. FanZines were targeted publications that were usually geared towards specific topics like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Football clubs.

Those printed publications were called 'FanZines', but were frequently referred to as 'Zines' instead.

Back to modern days, most Ezines are focused around specific topics and interest groups, just like the way the Zines once were.

Adding an 'E' onto the beginning of the much coveted publication name "Zines" brings us to the word Ezines. This offers a much more logical explanation of where the word "ezines" came from.

Now that we know what ezines are, lets now discuss the basics of creating and doing business with ezines.

Ezine publishing is a very important factor towards a business' success for many reasons. Basically, it keeps you in contact with your potential customers. The relationship between your clients is formed and that is what is needed for trust and respect.

You can also profit by selling advertisements through your own ezine publication. Ezines can be used both as an advertising platform for your business as well as an income-generating endeavor.

When starting out with your ezine publication, keep in mind the basic and most important elements of a good ezine.

1. Keep your ezines clean, short, and full. Don't add too many unrelated decorations or pictures to your ezines. Ezine page decoration sometimes makes it hard for readers to read your content.

People are more drawn to reading short ezines than those long ones that keep on making discussions that go on and on.

2. Minimal advertisement is a must. It is a good point that publishers must advertise in their ezines, but always keep it to a reasonable number of about seven or less, depending on the length of your ezines.

3. Make it personal. When creating your ezines, add your personality to it. Talk to your subscribers. Make it warm and inviting. Let them get into you as you get to know them better.

4. Put in some interactivity. Make your ezines fun as we can all use a bit of fun. Put a form in there, some survey questions, a bit of trivia, and other forms of interaction.

5. Put in quality content. If your ezines talk about something that deals with paper crafts, then make sure it provides information about how to make paper crafts. Tips, articles, links, resources, products, tools, news, etc. - these are all the things you can and should give your readers.

6. Be on time and consistent. If you posted that you will be sending out ezines once a week every Monday, then do it that way. If ever something happens that is beyond your control that might prevent this, just explain to your subscribers in your next release and they will surely understand.

7. Make it a priority to have original content. If you are not sure about articles, then just write editorials or short scripts with news updates, interesting tips, and product reviews.

8. Always proofread your content. You don't want your ezine to look like a 10-year old child has done it.

But most importantly, Enjoy your ezine, have fun with it, be yourself, and wonderful things will start to happen. At least they did for so many success stories - they met great new people and their businesses flourished. This can all happen for you as well with your very own quality ezine!