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What was the name of your ezine again?

by: Ron Hutton

Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton

Strategic planning for your ezine will keep your subscribers coming back for more week after week. You know that you need to start your newsletter and you've been putting it off so long that days have turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Don't let that go on any longer. It's not necessary.

Whether you're just now breaking onto the publisher scene or you've got a subscriber list and you want to revamp your ezine, answer the following questions before taking any additional action.

Q1: What topic do you intend to cover in your newsletter?

- Pick a topic that you're extremely interested in. You don't need to be an expert. Become an expert. If your interest level is high enough, you'll naturally be driven to research and study your topic. Pick a topic for your ezine that you'd love to write about for 29 subscribers or 290,000 subscribers.

- Will you be a generalist or a specialist? There's a place for both.

- RE: The Generalist... Newsletters that cover a broad range of topics and treat them "superficially" tend to attract subscribers who are new to that topic. Your challenge as a generalist will be holding on to your subscriber's attention. You'll need a "hook" each week. This might include short powerful tips and tricks or perhaps you can feature a favorite free resource with each ezine issue.

- RE: The Specialist... Your target audience is smaller, but the chances of developing a very loyal following is better than if you choose the generalist path. Specialists have to dig deep and if you like to write and train on the nitty gritty "how-to's", then the specialist path could be your calling.

Q2: Where will you find material for your ezine?

- Is it all inside your head just waiting for an escape route? Great. Let it flow.

- Can you take advantage of articles with reprint rights?

- Will you need to do a lot of research every time your write your newsletter? If yes, that's OK. Just be prepared to set aside the time required so that you can consistently deliver your newsletter to meet your subscribers' expectations. Which leads to the next question...

Q3: How often will you send out your ezine?

- What's the right frequency? It varies. Monthly. Weekly. Twice per week. Daily. It all depends on your subscribership, how much time you can devote to writing your newsletter and the amount of content you plan to include with each issue.

- You'll want people to remember your name, and this is tough to accomplish when you're publishing your ezine monthly. I think weekly is good and when special occassions arise send out two issues in the same week. Surprise your readers every once in a while. Mix it up.

Q4: What format will you use for your ezine?

- Permission-based email publications are still the mainstream. However, ISP filters continually make it more and more difficult to deliver email newsletters.

- Consider a blog. Consider setting up an RSS feed. Give your subscribers options on how they'd like to hear from you.

- Do you want to write lengthy in-depth articles or short punchy tips and tricks?

- Will you podcast (audio) or publish streaming video?

Q5: What name will you choose for your publication?

- Does your ezine name communicate anything about the kind of content that people can expect to receive in your newsletter?

- Catchy is good. Topical is good. Short is good. Descriptive is good.

Finally, an exercise you can do that might be helpful is to make a list of the newsletters that you consider to be outstanding. These are the ones that you open and read 100% of the time they land in your inbox. Write down the title, author / editor's name, subject matter.

Next, make a list of the newsletters you receive that you could unsubscribe from and you'd never miss them.

What are your general observations about these? I'll make an educated guess that the "loosers"...

1) Never offer any substantial or useful advice. 2) They don't specifically focus on any particular topic that you're interested in. 3) You receive messages from them 3 or 4 times per week and 95% of the time it's an ad that's been "cut n' pasted" from the latest flavor-of-the-week affiliate program / hot opportunity.

Don't let this describe your ezine.

Strategically plan your ezine so that when it comes time to monetize it, your readers will appreciate knowing about the products and services that you're promoting. Deliver value up front and you will be rewarded in time.

About the author:
Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to "GoThrive Online", for Free Video Tutorials for Internet Marketing and big juicy marketing tips in small, easy-to-chew, bite size servings. Free Video Tutorial Archives Here:

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Tracking and Measuring RSS Feeds
by: S. Housley

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Techniques Used to track RSS Consumption

Small businesses can view web logs to provide information on how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is requested. The logs and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a feeds success. Many 3rd party tracking options have additional tracking information available.

Hosting

The most common method to track the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a 3rd party feed host. Companies like FeedBurner essentially track feeds based on accesses. The downside to using a 3rd party like Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the feed host rather than the feed creator. Additionally, no distinction is made between unique views or syndicate feeds.

FeedBurner provides a free no frills service to host RSS feeds and they have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that eases users concerns about migrating from FeedBurner. There is a 3 step process for users interested in migrating from FeedBurner's free service, implementing a permanent redirect, and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some publishers, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to retain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program FeedBurner Partner Pro is not free, but allows for users to point to their own domain, retaining complete control of their feeds without sacrificing statistical tracking.

The downside to using a service like FeedBurner is that some filtering applications used on corporate proxy servers block feeds residing on FeedBurner or other free hosts.

Redirects

Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each subscriber. The tracking benefits to such a customized solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and any users abusing their access and inappropriately syndicating a feeds content can have their feed turned off. The downside of course is that the success of RSS is in a large part due to the anonymity. Users don't want their personal habits tracked.

Considering the venture capital interest in these 3rd party hosting services. It is important to note that their value is in the data that they collect. As with any 3rd party service, it goes without saying that publishers should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware of who owns the rights to the collected information, and how that information might be used. It goes without saying that the value in many of the free services currently available lies in their aggregate data.

Uniquely Named Transparent Images

Uniquely named transparent 1x1 graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times the image is viewed and determine the number of times the feed was accessed.

Companies Specializing in Tracking and RSS Metrics

Pheedo - Pheedo creates tools that enable individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze, and optimize their weblogs and content.

http://www.pheedo.com

SyndicateIQ - SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides clients a set of analytics.

http://www.syndicateiq.com/

FeedBurner - FeedBurner offers a full range of services to help you build awareness, track circulation, and implement revenue-generating programs in your feed(s).

http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision of the extent and importance of the analytics they require. Realizing that any system they employ is not going to be perfect.

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor