Planning Your Ezine by Heidi Ross

header

Planning Your Ezine

by Heidi Ross

Planning an ezine can be rather simple. Don't become overwhelmed with the task. I'm not saying it doesn't take some work on your part, because it does; just don't make it harder than it is. You need to think about these points. You need to decide on a name for your ezine, an ezine slogan, numbering each issue, and what will go in your ezine.

Every ezine needs a name. You can't just say my ezine or worse yet leave the ezine name blank on your ezines header. Decide on a name for your ezine even if you have to ask a friend or spouse to help you think up a good name.

Do you have a slogan for your ezine? You need a short catchy slogan to go with your ezine name. Decide on a slogan that is short, catchy and is easy to remember. After all you want to stand out but in a good way.

Numbering each issue can be as easy as Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, and etc. The other way to number each issue is to use a volume number. Volume 1, Issue 1; Volume 1, Issue 2; Volume 1, Issue 3 and etc. You keep changing the issue number each issue. The volume number doesn't change until the year changes and then when you change to volume 2 start out with issue one again and keep going.

What are you going to put in your ezine? Will you have a main article, letters from your readers, tips, freebies, helpful sites, sponsor ads/classified ads, ask the expert ...The list could go on and on. What do you want in your ezine?

Once you have made all the above decisions you can start planning out a template for your ezine. What decorative borders do you want to use for your ezine? Here are a few examples: <<=>> or <><> or anything that you want to use. Just keep in mind to stay within 55 - 65 characters per line for your ezine. Any more than this and your ezine may end up looking sloppy and distorted.

Now for the header. You need to decide how you want to do the layout. Below are a few examples or you can come up with your own layout.

=======================
=======================
==============

Ezine Name
Ezine Slogan

issue # Date

Remember to visit us on the web. http://www.yoursite.com

=======================
=======================
==============

=======================
=======================
==============

Ezine Name
Ezine Slogan

issue #
Date

Remember to visit us on the web. http://www.yoursite.com

=======================
=======================
==============

Now for the next part: In This Issue

Here you will have a short list of each section that is in your ezine. Here is an example list.

Welcome
Feature Article
Freebies
Letters/tips
Ads
Subscription Info.
Contact Info.

If You have more than 2 or 3 items in this list then you may want to put a space between each one. Ex.

Welcome

Feature Article

And so on.

Each section should have a border between it. Make sure your sections are in the same order as your list above. To get a free template send a blank e-mail to
mailto:ezine_template@s endfree.com