Give Your Ezine an Edge

The purpose in publishing an ezine can be varied, depending on your personal or business goals, but whether you choose to publish an ezine as a free marketing tool to keep in touch with your customers, or sell it as a profit-producing product, you want to get as many subscribers on board as possible. That's why it's important that your ezine have an edge.

What kind of edge?

Well, for one thing, you can offer fresh and original content, not simply rehashed articles that half your readers may have already seen. Or, take a different slant on a commonly available topic and make it sound new and alive. Let's say you sell gift baskets and that you publish a monthly ezine to help you keep in touch with your clients. There are any number of things you can include in each issue to make it a valuable resource that your clients will wait impatiently for. Consider...

• Software reviews
• Ebook, book and ezine reviews
• Articles on why corporate giving works, how to set up a corporate giving plan, gift possibilities for those on a budget, etc.
• Tips for your readers to stay in touch with their customers

PLUS...

• Information on the services you provide
• How you can help your clients build their businesses with corporate giving
• Ideas on when to give

And MUCH more!

Your ezine can become a valued resource that will keep you and your business in the very forefront of your clients' thoughts so that when they want what you have to offer, they automatically think of YOU.

There is an abundance of ezines available online, and your clients and prospects probably already subscribe to several. Using fresh and original content to make your ezine stand out from the masses will help even novice ezine publishers create more attractive and well designed publications. Selecting important, but scarcely covered topics - or aspects of a broader, more general topic that fits your subscriber base - will definitely give your ezine an edge.

Another edge you can give your ezine is to attach an original ezine cover that depicts the contents just as a magazine cover would do. Granted, you can't physically attach a cover, but you can virtually attach one. And since the online world in which we live every day is virtual, it stands to reason that ezines have virtual covers, as well. Don't you agree?

Consider the world of physical books. Few people would buy a book without a cover. I wouldn't, and I buy a LOT of books - just ask my husband! Ezine customers are no different.

If your customer can is looking for only ONE ezine and they are given the option of selecting your ezine with a beautiful graphic image that makes the ezine seem like a real, physical product... or your competitor's ezine that doesn't include a cover graphic and which seems like only one more email... which do you think they will choose? Which would YOU choose?

Would you rather click on a link that says:

--> Subscribe to Our Ezine Here!

Or one with a colorful, graphic image that depicts the topic of your ezine and gives it an "image" of its own?

The choice is simple. And the choice will be simple for your customers and prospects, too.

An ezine cover is a tremendous edge that you can give your ezine for very little, if any, cost. Ezine covers are affordable even for those of us who haven't reached our six-figure income mark yet.

There are a number of sites that offer creative ezine covers, and most everyone can find one at an affordable price. You can even create your own simply and inexpensively with the Ebook Cover Creator - http://sensiblesitesolutions.com/ebcc.shtml

The image of your ezine can make or break its success and reception online. That's why it's important that you add a special edge to this project that you have slaved over and into which you have invested hours of valuable time. Attach it to an image that will take it beyond the realm of virtual into the world of visual and watch your subscriptions skyrocket.

Article copyright © 2007 by Darlene Bishop. All rights reserved worldwide.

Darlene "Dee" Bishop is a writer and creative designer with decades on online experience and the owner of Bishop's Corner, an online/catalog shop offering hundreds of quality gifts, home decor items, toys, housewares, furniture and more with nearly 1,000 products under $20. Visit her online store today at http://BishopsTN.com.

NOTE: Feel free to use this article in your ezine or on your website provided you leave it entirely intact, including the resource box above. A courtesy copy to is appreciated.