Disadvantages of Publishing Your Own eZine

As with any other types of businesses, publishing an online newsletter (also known as eZine) has its share of drawbacks, in spite of the numerous benefits it also offers; and any individual who wishes to pursue eZine publishing as a business should be apprised of what such a business would entail. Having said that, we will attempt to cover one aspect of the eZine publishing business and deal with other aspects in future posts. So if you have an interest in this business type, please read on.

First let me point out that the purpose of this article is not to scare you away with the disadvantages of publishing your own eZine, since the benefits are often more attractive, and therefore would be more encouraging to write about, and probably do more to attract your attention. However, it is important to understand both sides of any business – including eZine publishing – so instead of just listing the pitfalls, you will also be provided with a few tips on how to easily tackle the cons.

One obvious challenge most beginning eZine publishers face is the creation of eZine content, because creating your own content can be tiresome, especially if you are not a gifted writer; but even if you are an accomplished writer you can (will?) run out of ideas quite frequently and as a result, your publishing schedule can become threatening your young business.

One way of taking care of this problem is to create your content in advance. You can compile 30 days worth of content in one day, for example. If you are not blessed with writing skills, you can broker the writing task to more capable freelance writers which you can find at places such as www.elance.com, www.rentacoder.com, or even www.fiverr.com. While you need to pay for such services, you are at liberty to take the credit for the written articles.

Alternatively, you can republish articles from article directories such as http://ezinearticles.com/. This is a free method you can use in order to generate content for your new eZine business providing of course, that you include the resource box of original authors and that articles you use have republishing rights conveyed.

In conclusion, you can easily tackle the content creation challenge using the mentioned methods that do not require writing on your part, free or paid. Hope the few tips provided here are of use to you and you revisit this site for more eZine publishing information. See you soon and good luck!

 

Is Experience Needed to Make Money With Articles?

A quick answer to the title question might be: “No experience is needed to make money with articles! And the reason this might be the most appropriate “quick” answer, is that when the subject of article marketing is studied for a longer period, the answer might be very different. The quick answer is easy because there are no applications to fill out – no employment history to provide – and therefore no questions about a job applicant’s experience. This is because article marketers do not often begin their careers as salaried employees within a company structure.

Most article marketers acquire knowledge and writing skills, as well as the tools and resources (computer, Internet access, website, etc.) needed to become top-tier article marketers through trial and error in the early stages of what can otherwise be referred to as independent agent careers. So the independent nature of this type of business might categorize those who are active participants more as self-employed entities than prospective employees who must provide proof of their abilities/histories.

That having been said, the road to a successful article marketing career is well traveled, but not without the collection of hurdles, obstacles and pitfalls, as well as the inevitable setbacks that article marketers can expect to encounter along the way. For any individual to make money with articles, s/he must have the unique ability to write in a way that is satisfactory to both humans and machines; and while s/he begins writing articles to attract readers to a website or blog it soon becomes clear that in order to monetize articles there is a lot more to be learned.

Acquiring the skills necessary to make money with articles can only be made possible with trial and error, which effectively translates to experiences the article writer accumulated during a period long enough to be considered meaningful in academic terms. So while that individual doesn’t really need a previous career as an article marketer in order to become one, s/he can certainly learn the ropes over a period of time.

Most article marketing skills are self-taught; some picked up along the way while writing for self-owned blogs/websites, and others from the teachings (books, articles, videos, etc.) of those already successful in the field. In view of this particular method of “learning the ropes,” aspiring article marketers would seldom enter such a competitive field devoid of any knowledge about that field in which they expect to make a satisfactory income. They would, at a minimum, need a working knowledge of a few basic steps similar to those outline below.

 

First, they’ll will need to know how to select article content that is most likely to make their marketing websites successful, because these websites will most likely be the showcase for their work. Types of article content range from free content (self-written and rehashed) to high dollar content, and each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages (although high dollar content is more likely to provide more of an opportunity to achieve success).

Second, article marketers will need to know how to choose keywords that can help them attract a good amount of traffic; although such keywords should not be overly competitive, but can compete for first or second page ranking. They must realize that selecting highly competitive keywords used by large, mammoth websites are likely to impede ranking on the much desired first or second search results page.

Third, they will need to know how to optimize their websites for various search engines (a skill they should really try to develop – at least partially – during the early days of website/blog ownership), especially if they wish to attract generic (free) traffic from search engines. These search engine optimization (SEO) skills will be the foundation upon which an article marketer’s career will be built, because they will enable marketers to consistently get high rankings for their chosen niche keywords, thereby attracting more visitors (from the search engines) which will often translate into income.

Fourth, an article marketer must choose early on between a large website on which to base his/her internet marketing career, or a small website. Each size will attract a specific type of of reader and the marketer must take the time to study, track and cater to that readership. This is all part of knowing how to market a particular sized website to the intended audience, and whether or not certain ads (paid banner ads, text links, videos, etc.) will appeal to that audience. Small niche sites are usually 2 to 5 pages, and large sites can run into the hundreds of pages.

Article marketers who have developed and mastered these skills and attack them aggressively while still in the early stages of website ownership, or the first few months of learning the ropes of writing articles for money, will eventually become experts in this field and achieve success. Keep in mind that nothing can replace hard work and determination; but if an aspiring article marketer studiously learn the ropes and glean all the available information (tips, techniques, sales tactics, etc.) before s/he delves into a new career, knowledge acquired and skills developed will alleviate some of the grind from such hard work.

Give it all you got