ZimZum

Ruining even the best electronic newsletter is all too easy, never mind what creativity has been put into it, with bad digital magazine software. In fact, selecting a software provider is the key part of producing an online publication. Setting the format for your brochure is just a small section of what they do.

The essential part of the package is, obviously, it’s intuitiveness. If you can’t use the software it doesn’t matter how great it is hyped to be. Your electronic newsletter should matter enough to you that you test out different providers.

With spamming and hacking being an issue online, security measures should be your next consideration as you’re producing a digital edition. What measures are taken protecting your account? What does the digital publishing software provider have in place to stop the general public from merely copying and pasting the subject? You’ll also need to consider the business design to your digital magazine. Disregarding which plan you choose you should think about what role social media will play. Search engine appropriate content could also be essential when considering how to market your ezine. Can you mix paid for and free content? Are you going to offer multiple subscription possibilities? Will the content be monetized ? How about using summaries and teasers to sell this digital publication? How accessible is your newsletter? If it’ll be private you’ll be able to look into many hosting options or is it public? If public you should probably host directly. What will you be doing about back-isues?

Some solutions need to be considered in advance before you actually need to go for them. What’s the level of technical support? How is their FAQ page? Are there useful “fix-it” tips which you’ll be able to actually use? Do they print their response time? Is there a phone number which is easy to access? This is definitely a case of last not least consideration.

Consider your options when you pick out a publication’s e-publishing package provider. And try googling the terms “create digital edition” to find some more pointers.

It’s distressingly simple to spoil even the most creative online catalog, never mind how much energy has been put into it, with poor online publishing software. The biggest part of making an online newspaper is selecting the software supplier you’ll use. Setting the format for the brochure is merely a little part of their job. Being easy to use is the main part to look for from your software. If you can’t run the software it doesn’t matter how good it is hyped to be! Before deciding on a provider for the electronic magazine, take time to try it out.

Further major preparations you need to make are about security. Next on your list of preparations should be spammers and hackers. Have you been taken through whether and/or how the account has been protected? Can individuals just copy and paste the catalog content or has the flash software vendor prevented these things? Is your content secure?

Has a business strategy been produced? How have you integrated non-traditional media with it? Advertising ought to be thought about. Not that each publication will have to take all this into account but your overall scheme definitely should. Search engine friendly content would also be essential when considering how to commercialize your ezine.

Will the content just be freely available? What about offering several subscription possibilities? The nature of your content, as well - is it monetized at all or is this simply a not-for-profit venture? Will you be using summaries to market the ebrochure? What’s the accessibility of your catalog? If it’ll be private you can look into all your hosting options or is it public? You should probably host directly. What is the plan with back copies?

Prior to striking a problem you should consider a few things. How is the tech-support? Is it simply an FAQ page? Also check whatever how-to guide they may have. If a response time isn’t published this should raise questions. Try calling their emergency phone number to test it out. The importance of tech-support can’t be over-stated.

This final choice in provider could make or break this carefully created magazine. Google the term “Zmags” for some more useful information.

Spoiling even the best digital magazine is all too easy, no matter what creativity you’ve put into it, with a poor choice of electronic magazine package. In point of fact, picking out a software provider is the key part of producing an online publication. And they do much more than simply give guidance on putting your content into a nice format. One of the most crucial features to look for is, obviously, ease of use. Of course, irrespective of how excellent the package is, it still sucks if you yourself can’t do anything with it! Make sure to dry run different packages before you decide on a provider for your ezine. Because hacking and spamming is an issue online, security should be your next main consideration after you’ve produced an online edition. Do you know what measures are taken protecting your magazine? Can the content be protected? Does the software supplier have security which prevents the general public from just copying and pasting your words?

Has a marketing strategy been produced? Where is the role of social-networking in it? What ad-handling will you do? An over-arcing of your business should be shown throughout. Thinking about search engines is also essential when considering marketing this digital publication. Will your content just be freely accessible? Will it be possible to offer multiple subscription options? Will your content be commercialized at all? What about using teasers and summaries to market your ebrochure? How available is the magazine? If it’ll be private you’ll be able to investigate many hosting possibilities or is it public? You will be best hosting directly. What will you be doing with back-isues? Prior to it being a necessity you need to think about a few more things. In other words: tech-support. Is it just an FAQ page? Do they feature a how-to guide? If their response time isn’t mentioned ask questions. Do they have 24/7 support? Tech support may be the last consideration at this stage, however it needs to be a decisive factor in your choice of provider. You don’t want to discover the hard way that they’re not up to it.

Be sure to hop over to this exceptional webpage for online newsletter software suggestions.

The selection you make here will be what determines if your magazine goes well or not - think very carefully before opting for your vendor. Search Bing or Google with the term “Zmags” to find more useful tips.

What a wonderful resource the Internet is!

Students find information to help them with their studies; business people keep in touch with important clients and stay up to date with important business developments; stay-at-home-parents can find ideas for children’s activities and feel less isolated by forging friendships with other online parents; and even small children have the opportunity to learn how to use the technology that will take them into the future.

It seems everybody has a reason to use the Internet and writers are no exception. In fact, the Internet is a resource that once explored, most writers couldn’t do without.

Let’s take a look at why.

1. Research

This one’s almost too obvious to mention but nevertheless, it’s the number one reason why a freelancer would use the Net.

While most writers still build up their own library of reference books, without the Internet we’d still be scurrying off to the public library in the hope that they’d have a book about “coinage in ancient Egypt” or “the architect who designed the fountains at Trafalgar Square”. Pretty obscure subjects and the likelihood of the library having anything on their shelves was pretty remote. They could probably order something that might help but that could take anything up to a month to arrive.

But now we have the Internet! Tra-la! A few simples keystrokes and up it comes. I now know that coins in ancient Egypt can be traced back to the late dynastic period and that the fountains of Trafalgar Square were designed by Sir Charles Barry. How much easier things are today!

The meanings of names, weights and measures, sunrise times around the world, world Royalty throughout history, how long it takes to drive from Chicago to Los Angeles and what food you’re likely to be served in Botswana, all the information’s out there just waiting for you to need it.

2. Find Work

While it’s still usual to pitch ideas to magazine and newspaper editors and send manuscripts as hardcopy, the Internet has opened up a whole city of avenues for writers.

There are websites specifically designed to help freelancers find work (or project owners find freelancers, depending on how you look at it), and online magazines are often looking for writers who can submit professional content to their sites.

By joining a handful of well-chosen freelance forums, you’ll soon discover where to look for work and which markets pay best.

3. Join Support Groups & Communities

Writing is a notoriously lonely profession.

Almost all freelancers work from home and therefore don’t have the opportunity to network with others in their profession.

By joining online support groups and communities, freelancers can alleviate some of that loneliness.

Being able to exchange ideas and thoughts with others who know exactly where you’re coming from can help a writer get through the day without clawing at the walls too often.

Online communities are also great sources of information that you may otherwise have missed. New markets and new research resources are often discussed and the budding freelancer will be given far more advice from those who’ve made all the mistakes already, than any book could ever offer.

Local groups sometimes arrange social meets, too. What could be better than lunch with other writers when you’ve been pulling your hair out because your friends just don’t understand that putting words on paper really isn’t as easy as it looks.

If only ruined wallpaper and wigs could be written off against tax…

4. Polish Up Your Language Skills

“Their”, “there”, or “they’re”? Or was it “lay” or “lie”? Or possibly even “too”, “two”, or “to.”

And where does that semicolon belong? Oops, it seems I started that sentence with a conjunction. Am I allowed to do that? No? Well I just did! Surely writers can break the rules sometimes, can’t they?

The Internet is bursting at the seams with sites designed to help improve your writing.

It doesn’t matter how good you think your language skills are, it’s always worth testing yourself now and then just to make sure you’re still on top of things.

I know I’m a sucker for the comma. They slip in all over the shop and lead to wasted time while I go through my work, whipping them out again. And I’m not alone. Most of us have a little “something” that’s peculiar to us. As long as we’re aware of it things aren’t too bad, but what if you have some little “distinguishing feature” that you don’t know about? You wouldn’t want to be sending your work off to editors with commas hooked here, there and everywhere, would you?

Some language improvement sites send out regular newsletters that are worth subscribing to. I receive a couple every week and am surprised at just how much I’ve picked up.

5. Develop A Portfolio

A website is pretty much a necessity for freelancers these days and luckily, they aren’t difficult to build.

Your website should give prospective clients information about your background including any relevant education or employment, a bit about who you are and why you write, what your goals are and your areas of expertise. Some freelancers list their basic prices on their websites while others choose not to.

A “clip file” is a must on the website. No matter how much you write about yourself, if you really want to sell yourself you need to give visitors the chance to access a cross-section of your past work.

To get a good idea of what’s needed, take a look at other freelancer’s sites. Those who have been around for a while have neatly laid out sites that work hard for them. Make sure yours works hard for you, too!

6. Read “How To” Articles

Thousands of freelance writers have posted articles on the Net giving advice to others, whether seasoned writers who are perhaps moving in new directions or newcomers who still have lots to learn about all aspects of the profession.

All sorts of subjects are covered from how to find markets and which topics are most likely to sell to the basics of bookkeeping and how to make uninvited guests understand that you’re working even though you’re at home.

If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, I’d suggest reading at least one “how to” article every day. Believe me, there’s far more to learn than you imagine!

7. Keep In Touch

Editors and other project owners are keen to use email as a means of communication so it’s worth having a mail account that you can easily access from wherever you happen to be.

Free accounts such as hotmail, yahoo and gmail are all handy for people on the move because you can log in to check your messages from Internet cafes, libraries and friends’ houses.

If you’re busy working on a project, you might find that the client wants to keep in touch via one of the instant messaging systems that are available these days. MSN, yahoo messenger and AOL instant messenger are the most popular for this use.

Use email to contact your existing clients regularly. As with any other business, it’s important to remind them of your services and perhaps offer a discount now and then.

8. Take Payments

Quite often you’ll find clients will want to either transfer money directly to your bank account or use an online payment service such as Paypal (www.paypal.com).

If your client transfers money directly to you, checking your account for payments is easy when you have access through the Internet. Just log into your bank and list recent transactions. If the payments been made, you can update your accounts accordingly and know that you can happily work for the client again as nothing’s outstanding on his account.

If a client wants to pay via Paypal or another online system for transferring money, you can send an invoice directly through the service and receive an email when the money’s received. From there you can either transfer it to your bank account or leave it to accumulate on the Internet account.

If you’re planning to use the Internet freelance sites to find work, then a Paypal account is an absolute must. The same goes for some content sites.

In other words, if you want to maximise your earnings, get a Paypal account and do your banking online.

Conclusion

I honestly can’t imagine how a freelance writer can manage these days without regular access to the Internet.

Searching the Net will never be the same as browsing the shelves of a library and I suggest you continue using whatever resources your local community has to offer. But for the sake of convenience, the Internet simply can’t be beaten.

If you’re still not comfortable with computers, sign up for an evening course and learn how to use the basic programmes and find information on the Net. Believe me, once you’ve started, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Sharon Jacobsen is a freelance writer living in South Cheshire, England. She’s been writing in one form or another since she was a very young child taught to read by her grandfather and although there’s nothing she’d rather do for a living, she does enjoy dabbling in web design “on the side” now and then. To contact Sharon or to find out more about her work, please visit http://www.sharon-jacobsen.co.uk

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1) SELLING CREATES TRAFFIC

You probably know that by including your ad in a
free ebook, then allowing others to give it away is
a great way to spread your ad all over the internet.
That worked good in the old days because hardly
anyone knew about it, but now there are free
ebooks almost everywhere. Because of this your
free ebook ad has to be extremely persuasive and
you must present it so people perceive it as valuable.
I have a solution for this free ebook problem.

Write an entire ad for the ebook, as if you’re selling
it, and actually set up an ordering option for your
free ebook. You just give your prospects the option
of getting it at no cost if they refer three of their
friends, family members or associates to your web
site. Another option would be to ask them to place
your banner ad on their home page.

It’s very persuasive because they’ll get a product
you’re selling for free, what a bargain! You could
always sell it for an extra high price to increase it’s
perceived value. So you’ll either make a huge profit
or get a link on their home page.

2) CONCENTRATE ON THE TOP

Create an ebook full of tips relating to the theme of
your web site. Type keywords into search engines
that your web site would fall under. Contact the top
twenty related web sites and ask them if they would
like a tip ebook they can give away with their own
ad place inside it. Just include your own ad inside it.

The web sites that agree to the deal will give you a
lot of traffic. You can either put your promotional
ad inside the ebook or have them link to your web
page to give it away. Of course, on that particular
web page would be your product ad. It’s a win/win
situation.

About the Author

Larry Dotson
Over 40,000 Free Business eBooks & More when you
visit: http://www.ldpublishing.com As a bonus, Bob
Osgoodby publishes the free weekly “Your Business”
Newsletter - visit his web site to subscribe and place
a FREE Ad! http://adv-marketing.com/business

We will be making a special offering for residents Huntingdon
Valley Pa. this next week. The only way to recieve it is thru
our email alert. See below what we recently offered:

This is a copy of my most recent email newsletter. This was an
overwhelming success. You must be signed up to our email letter
to get great offerings such as this.
***********************************************************
January 2006

The Early Bird Gets the Worm—Don’t Delay Free Tree Day Jan.
28th is a Free Higan Weeping Cherry Tree Day

Greetings! January 28, 2006 is free Weeping Higan Cherry Tree
Day…..All members of our email club can receive a free Higan
Weeping Cherry when you bring your pickup to our 5275 West Swamp
Rd. Fountainville Pa. location. These trees are 10-12′ tall and
in 24″ baskets. These trees must be picked up on the 28th,
before 5pm. sorry, no rain checks. There is a limit of one per
family and you must have been a member on or before January 27,
2006 of our email club.

Sincerely,

Bill Hirst Free Tree Day Jan. 28th, 2006 is Free Tree Day

5275 W. Swamp Rd. Fountainville, Pennsylvania 18923

January 28, 2006 8:00AM-5:00PM Reasons to Come to this Event We
are selling 150 acres of our nursery and we must liquidate many
trees and plants. Some of of plants are in quantities that would
supply us for many years of sales. But we can’t move that number
of trees. Thus they will be either sold at a discount,
destroyed, or given away. I like the last option. Thus if you
bring your pickup to the farm today, Saturday the 28th, we will
give away 1 free Higan Weeping cherry to each email newsletter
subscriber to Highland Hill Farm that picks up the tree by 5PM.
Sorry you must be have be signed up by Jan. 27th, to qualify.
There are no rain checks. These trees are in 24 and 28 inch
baskets and are app. 10-14′ tall. We will help load them in your
pickup.

We have a total of 75 trees ready to give away while the supply
lasts. All other trees and plants are 20% off today.

Driving Directions to the Farm Highland Hill Farm 5275 W. Swamp
Rd. Rt. 313 Fountainville, Pennsylvania 18923 myhirst@yahoo.com
http://www.seedlingsrus.com We will have other free tree
offerings each month. So keep in touch.
**************************************************************
Within 15 minutes of this email being sent people started to
arrive to make selections. We would have had no customers on
this day. Yet we sold enough other stock to make this offering
possible. We gave away 52 trees and this was even covered by the
press showing up and giving us exposure in local papers.

To signup for our email and be notified of our specials like
this. Go to our web site http://www.seedlingsrus.com and be
alerted.