Starting an E-Zine: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself when Deciding Whether Publishing an E-Zine is Right for Your Business

by Kendy Sproul

These days there are over 90,000 ezines and newsletters on the internet. So how do you know whether you should add your own company ezine to the mix? This is a big question for many company CEOs and public relations experts as well as small business owners.

An ezine is a time consuming commitment, one that must be kept in order to have positive results for your business. But if done correctly and with the right intentions an ezine can be a great asset.

When making your decision, there are 5 questions you should ask yourself in order to determine whether or not publishing an ezine is right for your business.

1.     Who is your target subscriber?

Give a great deal of thought to who you want to subscribe to your ezine. Who is it that you want to provide information to? What do you want this person to get out of your ezine? In what way do you want your ezine to impact this person’s life?

The more you think about who your target subscriber is and what makes him tic, the better equipped you are in knowing exactly what your ezine should be about.

2.     Do you have consistent, valuable information to give your subscribers?

When a reader subscribes to an ezine or newsletter she expects to receive new and interesting articles that are of value to her. She also expects to receive them on a consistent basis.

In order to meet those expectations your ezine topic should be broad enough to allow for unlimited new information to be provided to your subscribers. That being said, be cautious of having a topic that is too broad. This can lead to lack of focus and therefore lack of reader interest.

3.     What benefits will your potential subscribers receive from your ezine?

In today’s society people have one thing and one thing only in mind when they are asked to sign up for anything: What’s in it for me?

You need to have a clear concept of what’s in it for your subscriber before you even begin to write your first word. If he feels that your ezine is only there to serve your purpose (say, in advertising your business) he will cancel his subscription with the first issue, that’s assuming he even signs up.

Have a crystal clear sense of the benefits for your subscriber and make a few of them evident before seeking a subscription.

4.     What do you hope to accomplish for your business by publishing an ezine?

Of course, even though you need a clear idea of what’s in it for your subscriber, the main reason to publish an ezine is that it will be of some benefit to your business. You need to have a good idea of what that is so you will know whether it’s of enough benefit to your business to continue.

5.     Do you have the time and/or money to dedicate to publishing an ezine?

As I stated earlier, an ezine is a very time consuming commitment. Although it isn’t always necessary to publish an ezine daily, it is best if it’s at least published twice each month. I have seen some ezines that are published only periodically and I don’t recommend this for one simple reason; people are results-now oriented, meaning that if they are not seeing immediate, consistent results with something they will not continue. What does this mean for your subscriptions? Cancellations.

A good copywriter can be a godsend in the area of time, as well as quality material but this will cost you money. How much money depends on a couple of things.

·    How often your ezine is published and how much content is required.

·    The quality of the copywriter. As the adage goes; you get what you pay for. And this is true of copywriters as well.

Making sure you have either the time or money or both to dedicate to your ezine is essential. Subscribers expect to get a consistent, quality ezine, even if they aren’t paying a dime for it, or maybe especially if they aren’t.

Making the decision to publish an ezine is no light task but if you thoroughly consider your answers to these questions you’ll soon know whether or not it’s the right thing to do for your business.