Basic Formatting Rules for Building a Successful Ezine - Part One
| Category: E-zines: Writing | Date: 2003-06-05 |
Just as in life, there are three tiers of wealth in the ezine industry. There is the lower class who have fewer than 500 subscribers. There is the middle class with 501 to 100,000 subscribers. And finally, there is the upper class who have more than 100,000 subscribers. Some of the really rich have a subscriber base in the millions!
70% of ezines will never escape the lower class. And less than 5% of the publishers will ever rise to the upper class.
There are some simple rules you can follow to get from the lower class to the middle class, then from the middle to the upper class. First thing you must do is understand the rules and then make the determination as to whether you really want to be in the middle or upper class. As in life, the middle and upper class do not escape the bonds of the lower class until they make the determination that they are willing to work hard and do what it takes to succeed.
The basic formatting rules of a successful ezine are geared to take you solidly into the middle class in the ezine publishing world.
BASIC STRUCTURE: When I speak of the word "structure", I suggest this literally. Your ezine must have a "structure" to it, and this structure must be maintained from issue to issue. Your readers come to understand your basic structure, and in this understanding they take comfort. If your structure changes from issue to issue, your subscribers will take the cue and change to another more stable ezine.
HTML MAIL OR STANDARD TEXT: Some publishers like HTML mail, while others prefer standard text. A few even provide their readers a choice of formats though this requires more work. Considering both formats are used among the really rich, I cannot say one would be better than the other. There are however three considerations for making a format choice here. One, HTML mail can seldom be read offline. Two, HTML mail can sometimes be difficult to load on slow machines. And three, if you choose to switch from one to the other, you would be better off offering both formats instead. (Hint: If you construct your ezine in your email application, and you have the choice available to you to set the font or color inside your email, you are using HTML email.)
STANDARD FONTS: While you may read your own email in Times New Roman for example, the majority of your readers may not have your tastes or your settings. You should always use Courier or Courier New to format your ezine. Why? Because Courier is a fixed-width font, and Times New Roman is a variable-width font. An ezine formatted in Times New Roman and read in Courier always looks funny, just like this sentence does. This makes the publisher look unprofessional, which often causes people to unsubscribe.
STANDARD WIDTHS: Carrying on the idea with using Courier as your standard font, let me emphasize the importance of putting a hard carriage return (hitting the Enter key) at the end of every line. Since you are already using Courier as your font, this becomes easy. What you want is to set your standard width between 60 and 70 characters wide. I tend to stick with 65 myself. The reason again here is that text email readers have a setting inside of them to "Wrap Lines at X Characters". The default setting is usually 65 characters. The easiest way to assure the set width is to use this little trick to measure out 65 characters:
123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-12345
Though I write my ezine in Microsoft Word, I always copy and paste it to Notepad before pasting it to my email software. The reason I do this is because in Notepad, the standard font is Courier. I maximize Notepad and turn Word Wrap off. In doing so, now I can see the whole issue and know for a fact that I have hit Enter at the end of every line. If I did not, then the line will stretch across my screen to infinity!
SECTION AND ITEM DIVIDERS: Within the general formatting of an ezine, you should always provide clear breaks between sections and items. Your reader does not want to be confused as to which section of the ezine he is in and does not want to be confused about where one story ends and the next begins. If this happens too much, they will simply unsubscribe to your publication.
There are several ways to go about defining clear dividers. Some people use lines and some people use white space. I tend to use a mix of both. White space is achieved simply by hitting Enter a number of times to create several blank lines. Whether using lines or white space for your dividers, you should always make a distinction between a section divider and an item divider. They should not be the same, but easily distinguished from one another. A section is defined as a general set of items.
Another way people define section and item dividers is with ASCII art which I am going to talk about next.
ASCII ART: Ascii Art is defined as a set of keyboard characters used to make a picture. The most common of Ascii Art is the Smiley :-)
A reader told me once that Ascii Art inside an ezine makes you look like an amateur. He said that I provided good content and the Ascii Art detracted from the overall quality of my ezine. The issue came up because I had in place a questionnaire for people who unsubscribed from my ezine. One person told me that the extreme use of Ascii Art was the only reason they were leaving, so I sent a poll to all of my readers. Over 60% of my readership replied, and 99% of those people did not like the Ascii Art themselves and asked that I do away with it.
The nasty thing about Ascii Art in an ezine is that in order for it to look pretty, you must use Courier to format the ezine. Then when the reader opens it in Times New Roman, it turns your art into pure gibberish.
IN CONCLUSION:
In Part One, we have covered the basic structure, the use of html email or standard text email, standard fonts and widths, section and item dividers, and the use of Ascii Art in an ezine.
If you want to grow your ezine into the middle class by breaking the plateau of your 500th subscriber, then you should take a good hard look at your formatting points.
The whole premise of formatting and the individual points of formatting revolves around one central issue. That issue is simplifying the experience for your readers. If you make it easy for your readers to read your publication, your readers will make it easy for you to grow the size of your subscriber base.
In Part Two, we will continue to move forward with a look at the table of contents and static content, URL and email hyperlinks, and advertising in an ezine.
About the Author
Max Shifrin, the owner of FunEzines.com specializes in helping ezine owners build their subscriber base. For a limited time Max offers you *Free Website Hosting* if you only try out the service. If you dont like it, you still get to keep the hosting for at least 6 months! With absolutely NO obligation! For details Visit: http://www.funezines.com/clients_signup.cgi Right Now!
:To contact see details below.
max@funezines.com
http://www.FunEzines.com
70% of ezines will never escape the lower class. And less than 5% of the publishers will ever rise to the upper class.
There are some simple rules you can follow to get from the lower class to the middle class, then from the middle to the upper class. First thing you must do is understand the rules and then make the determination as to whether you really want to be in the middle or upper class. As in life, the middle and upper class do not escape the bonds of the lower class until they make the determination that they are willing to work hard and do what it takes to succeed.
The basic formatting rules of a successful ezine are geared to take you solidly into the middle class in the ezine publishing world.
BASIC STRUCTURE: When I speak of the word "structure", I suggest this literally. Your ezine must have a "structure" to it, and this structure must be maintained from issue to issue. Your readers come to understand your basic structure, and in this understanding they take comfort. If your structure changes from issue to issue, your subscribers will take the cue and change to another more stable ezine.
HTML MAIL OR STANDARD TEXT: Some publishers like HTML mail, while others prefer standard text. A few even provide their readers a choice of formats though this requires more work. Considering both formats are used among the really rich, I cannot say one would be better than the other. There are however three considerations for making a format choice here. One, HTML mail can seldom be read offline. Two, HTML mail can sometimes be difficult to load on slow machines. And three, if you choose to switch from one to the other, you would be better off offering both formats instead. (Hint: If you construct your ezine in your email application, and you have the choice available to you to set the font or color inside your email, you are using HTML email.)
STANDARD FONTS: While you may read your own email in Times New Roman for example, the majority of your readers may not have your tastes or your settings. You should always use Courier or Courier New to format your ezine. Why? Because Courier is a fixed-width font, and Times New Roman is a variable-width font. An ezine formatted in Times New Roman and read in Courier always looks funny, just like this sentence does. This makes the publisher look unprofessional, which often causes people to unsubscribe.
STANDARD WIDTHS: Carrying on the idea with using Courier as your standard font, let me emphasize the importance of putting a hard carriage return (hitting the Enter key) at the end of every line. Since you are already using Courier as your font, this becomes easy. What you want is to set your standard width between 60 and 70 characters wide. I tend to stick with 65 myself. The reason again here is that text email readers have a setting inside of them to "Wrap Lines at X Characters". The default setting is usually 65 characters. The easiest way to assure the set width is to use this little trick to measure out 65 characters:
123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-12345
Though I write my ezine in Microsoft Word, I always copy and paste it to Notepad before pasting it to my email software. The reason I do this is because in Notepad, the standard font is Courier. I maximize Notepad and turn Word Wrap off. In doing so, now I can see the whole issue and know for a fact that I have hit Enter at the end of every line. If I did not, then the line will stretch across my screen to infinity!
SECTION AND ITEM DIVIDERS: Within the general formatting of an ezine, you should always provide clear breaks between sections and items. Your reader does not want to be confused as to which section of the ezine he is in and does not want to be confused about where one story ends and the next begins. If this happens too much, they will simply unsubscribe to your publication.
There are several ways to go about defining clear dividers. Some people use lines and some people use white space. I tend to use a mix of both. White space is achieved simply by hitting Enter a number of times to create several blank lines. Whether using lines or white space for your dividers, you should always make a distinction between a section divider and an item divider. They should not be the same, but easily distinguished from one another. A section is defined as a general set of items.
Another way people define section and item dividers is with ASCII art which I am going to talk about next.
ASCII ART: Ascii Art is defined as a set of keyboard characters used to make a picture. The most common of Ascii Art is the Smiley :-)
A reader told me once that Ascii Art inside an ezine makes you look like an amateur. He said that I provided good content and the Ascii Art detracted from the overall quality of my ezine. The issue came up because I had in place a questionnaire for people who unsubscribed from my ezine. One person told me that the extreme use of Ascii Art was the only reason they were leaving, so I sent a poll to all of my readers. Over 60% of my readership replied, and 99% of those people did not like the Ascii Art themselves and asked that I do away with it.
The nasty thing about Ascii Art in an ezine is that in order for it to look pretty, you must use Courier to format the ezine. Then when the reader opens it in Times New Roman, it turns your art into pure gibberish.
IN CONCLUSION:
In Part One, we have covered the basic structure, the use of html email or standard text email, standard fonts and widths, section and item dividers, and the use of Ascii Art in an ezine.
If you want to grow your ezine into the middle class by breaking the plateau of your 500th subscriber, then you should take a good hard look at your formatting points.
The whole premise of formatting and the individual points of formatting revolves around one central issue. That issue is simplifying the experience for your readers. If you make it easy for your readers to read your publication, your readers will make it easy for you to grow the size of your subscriber base.
In Part Two, we will continue to move forward with a look at the table of contents and static content, URL and email hyperlinks, and advertising in an ezine.
About the Author
Max Shifrin, the owner of FunEzines.com specializes in helping ezine owners build their subscriber base. For a limited time Max offers you *Free Website Hosting* if you only try out the service. If you dont like it, you still get to keep the hosting for at least 6 months! With absolutely NO obligation! For details Visit: http://www.funezines.com/clients_signup.cgi Right Now!
:To contact see details below.
max@funezines.com
http://www.FunEzines.com
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