Magazine Source

True: Ezine advertising is one of the most effective form of advertising available online . . .

The most important thing for every advertiser is to find targeted market for his product. That's exactly what ezines has to offer. A targeted market. There are so many ezines out there covering so many different topics. It's easy to find highly targeted ones to advertise in. With ezine advertising you can reach thousands of targeted potential customers very inexpensively.

Lie: Ezine advertising ALWAYS works . . .

I know you've been told that all you have to do is purchase a solo ad in an ezine, ... and that's it! You'll be several thousands of dollars richer.

No! It doesn't work that way. These days ezine advertising has become so competitive that it's necessary to stand apart from the competition. You'll need to do a lot work to make your ezine advertising strategy works:

Rule # 1: Be Highly Target.

I know this seems to be a quite obvious rule, but some advertisers overlook this. You need to be very careful when choosing an ezines to advertise in. Make sure that you choose an ezines whose readers are your tightly targeted prospects.

Rule # 2: Subscribe to the Ezine Before You Purchase an Ad.

After you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience, subscribe to them and check a few things before you buy an ad...

=> Quality of the Ezine. It's not the number of subscribers that matters, it's the number of people who actually READ the ezine.

=> How many ads are in the Ezine. Don't expect much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads per issue. Be sure that your ad will be skiped with the rest.

=> Frequency of the Ezine. The ezine published too often (daily) or too infrequently (monthly) usualy will get deleted much more often than a weekly ezine. Why? Busy readers don't have time to read EVERY issue of a daily publication. Monthly ezines, on the other hand, are not published often enough for the subscribers to "remember" thay even subscribed.

Rule # 3: Track Your Ads.

It is highly important for you to know which ads and which ezines are pulling responses.

You track your ads by simply placing a code at the end of your URL or email adress:

e-books@freeautobot.com?subject=ad1 http://resell-ebooks.reallyrules.com?ad1

Rule # 4: Grab the Reader's Attention.

Let's face it. People hate ezine ads like any other ads. They most often are trying to avoid reading your ad. So, in order to get folks respond to your ad, you need to write killer headline that grab people's attention. How to write killer headline... it is a diferent topic. However, make sure your headline addresses reader's needs, desires and worries.

Rule # 5: Deliver on Promise.

Make a promise, and deliver on that promise, so that when people click on your ezine ad and end up at your website, they are not upset. Make sure you always take them directly to further information about your offer, clearly presented. Don't let them get lost in a bunch of other information.

Rule # 6: Don't Try To Sell in Ads.

Don't be fooled into thinking you can place an ezine ad and sales are going to pour in like a flood. There simply isn't enough space in 5-8 lines of a sponsor or a classified ad to write a convincing sales letter.

The purpose of your ezine ads is to generate leads, not sales. Your ezine ad should only attract prospects that You can follow-up on.

Rule # 7: Offer an Attractive Freebie.

Like I said, the purpose of your ezine ads is to generate leads, not sales. And the best way to attract leads is to offer them a valuable freebie they can't resist.

Bilal Babic www.resell-ebooks.reallyrules.com FREE DOWNLOAD: Actual Steps to Making YOUR Living Online! FREE for a limited time ONLY! (Retail Value: $39) http://free.hostdepartment.com/ebooksfree/

About the Author

Adams conceived Atlanta Talent Magazine in 2002 and incorporated in 2004.

Editor of EQ Magazine to Speak at Indie Music Week

Nashville, Tennessee - Indie Music Week has announced that Mitch Gallagher, Editor of EQ Magazine, will be participating as an Indie Music Week panelist. IMW, taking place in Nashville March 11-12, will feature three industry panels of Major and Independent A&R, promoters, label executives, producers, journalists, and entertainment attorneys, and will wrap up with a Music Industry Summit.

Mitch Gallagher, the Editor of EQ Magazine, began his music career almost 25 years ago with a background including degrees in music and graduate studies in electronic music composition and classical guitar. Author, journalist, teacher, touring and studio musician, recording engineer, project studio/multimedia production company owner, studio consultant, and award-winning composer; Mitch is considered one of the leading experts in music technology and recording. After serving as Senior Technical Editor of Keyboard magazine from 1998 to January 2000, Mitch assumed the Editor’s chair at EQ. A published books author as well, his books Make Music Now! (Backbeat Books) and Pro Tools Clinic: Demystifying LE For Mac and PC (Schirmer Trade Books) are available in fine bookstores everywhere.

“Mitch Gallagher has been helping unsigned and Indie artists for years through his work at EQ Magazine, his books, and his unrelenting desire to advance the creation of great music. We’re honored to have him as a panelist,” says Indie Music Week President Jonell Polansky.

Other confirmed panelists include Nashville Star and Sony Music’s Tracy Gershon, Danny Kee from Warner Bros. Records, Performing Songwriter magazine’s Abby White, Amy Stevens of Vivaton Records, Lyric Street Records’ Kirk Boyer, Larry Shell of Broken Bow Records, Bradley Collins of BMI, international music rights expert Marghie Evans, and the Nashville Association of Professional Recording Services (NAPRS). In addition to the industry panels, Indie Music Week will also feature two Artist Showcases to be held at Nashville’s famous Douglas Corner Café.

To attend Indie Music Week 2005, please visit IndieMusicWeek.org for registration information. The early registration fee for Indie Music Week is $99, with 50% fee discounts for music industry students and a 25% discount for industry professionals and members of industry professional organizations. Early registration ends March 4th, and registration fees will increase to $125 (with all discounts still applying.) To be an Indie Music Week sponsor, please visit IndieMusicWeek.org or call 615-292-1337.

1. Write articles that provide your readers with a list of tips.

Depending on the topics your ezine covers, your tips could be on customer service, autoresponders, or you could provide your subscribers with a list of tips that help them to increase their sales or market their businesses more successfully.

You could also provide your readers with a list of your top tips on a specific subject such as "Top 7 Ways To Promote Your Website" or "Top Ten Ways To Promote Your Ezine."

2. Write "how to" articles.

This type of article shows your reader step by step how to reach an objective such as how to write effective ad copy, get repeat traffic, or how to write effective metatags.

3. Publish interviews.

Contact experts on the topic your ezine covers and request interviews. Most people will agree as it provides them with promotion of their businesses at no cost. Publish your interviews in article format or use the popular Q&A formula.

4. Write articles that focus on a current hot topic, trend or that are "seasonal" in nature such as how to increase sales during the holidays.

5. Provide polls for your subscribers to partake in.

Publishing polls will help you to increase the number of people that read your ezine because your subscribers will be interested in seeing the results.

Your polls can also be used to help you decide on changes in your content, publishing schedule, or to decide on new things to add to your ezine.

6. Provide your subscribers with resources related to your ezine's topic such as places to promote their businesses, ezines, etc.,

You could add these in a recommended resources section. You could also provide a list of your favorite resources such as your top 5 books/ebooks on ezine publishing, marketing or web design with a brief description of each of your resources.

7. Publish an editor's note at the beginning of each issue.

Use your editor's note to increase your profit by announcing any new sales or discounts you have on your products or services.

Also use your editor's note to increase your credibility by providing tips on the topic your ezine covers and by telling your subscribers how you've helped your clients or customers.

8. Provide endorsements within your ezine for your products from respected experts in your field or list testimonials from your satisfied customers.

9. Add an "Ask The Editor" section.

Write out thorough, detailed answers to your subscribers' questions within this section.

This will increase your status as an expert in your field, which will lead to more sales of your products.

You can also use questions you get from your subscribers to get ideas for articles that your subscribers will enjoy and that will keep them reading your ezine.

10. At the end of each issue, tell your readers what your next issue is going to be about such as the title and description of your feature article or anything new that you have planned.

This will help you to increase your readership by getting your subscribers to look forward to your next issue.

Article by Ken Hill. Pick up Ken's new informative course on ezine publishing. Discover tips to successfully promoting your ezine including ways to increase your subscriptions by participating in successful joint ventures with other ezine publishers. Pick up your f-ree course today at: mailto:ezinecourse@netpromarketer.com

Artist: Cardinal Trait Title: You Already Know Genre: Roots Rock Label: Emanon Records Website: http://www.cardinaltrait.com

You have heard the term cardinal sin, well, in reference to music; we have a band called Cardinal Trait hailing from Oklahoma. This is a twist on a negative term to make it more positive and forceful upon first impression. Therefore, we are off to good start right out of the gate. The title of the album reveals a truth right from the beginning of the opening track “Something More.” Their roots rock melodic sound makes you feel all warm and tingly inside, like You Already Know them.

I really enjoyed this album; in fact, I appreciated it immensely because there was not one throwaway track. If you were wondering what this band sounds like, the best way to explain it would be they are a combination of REM, Hootie and the Blowfish and Dave Matthews with a smidgen of the Allman Bros. for good measure. Sounds like heady stuff indeed, however, I did hear all of those influences in their musical output. Each of those bands has a distinct sound and a magnificent reputation for recording quality music. So to say, that they are in good company and going in the right direction is hitting the nail right on the head.

This band has a melodic foundation with a marvelous pop sensibility; they are intelligent, crafty, and very talented at every position in the band. Get ready folks, the south is gonna do it again. They have all the cardinal traits of greatness and I hope you as the listener are curious enough to check them out, if you don’t you will be missing one of the best musical rides of 2004.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck-http://www.muzikreviews.com November 30, 2004

Rating-9/10

Credits:

Aaron Vaughn-vocals, acoustic guitar Mark Sullivan-lead guitar, bass Josh Vaughn-drums, backing vocals Will Porter-backing vocals

01. Something More 02. All For You 03. Every Now And Then 04. Flashback 05. So Called Friend 06. Nowhere Land 07. Ardmore 08. White 09. Lately 10. Let Me Be

Want to have a few laughs during your summer holiday? Don't leave home without these reading "gems" from business columnist Lisa Nirell. A Little Summer Reading

One of the toughest things I have to do as an executive mentor is to convince my clients--most of whom are tough-as-nails, driven workaholics--that they're more effective when they routinely take some time off. Recharging your batteries isn't optional for growth; it's mandatory.

The good news is, the power of escape is at our fingertips. All you have to do is get in your car, fight off the Del Mar Fair traffic, jockey for the last parking spot at the Beach, and stake your claim on the sand.

Or, just close the office door for 30 minutes every day, and savor some classics. When the going gets tough, the tough get reading. With tongue only slightly in cheek, I'd like to recommend some personal favorites, slotted into "traditional categories." Remember: The point is to enjoy. This isn't homework. Laugh a little. 'Tis the season for light clothing, light food, and light reading.

Fiction and Poetry Birth of the Chaordic Age. Dee Hock (1999, Berrett-Koehler) The Founder of VISA International explains the magical birth of VISA’s creation, revealing how chaos and order merged to allow competing banks to peacefully create a $1.25 trillion organization for a time (who can forget the 1998 Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against VISA and Mastercard?). Hock has a magical way of discussing the impact the “monkey mind” (aka “inner voice” or “doubting Thomas”) on the success of new projects.

Non Fiction The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women. Harriet Rubin (1999, Dell) Rubin offers practical examples of how women, ranging from George Eliot to Golda Meir, have gained power using ease and grace. She outlines a critical distinction between winning the battle versus “besting” your enemy, and demonstrates how a battle strategy defeated Hilary Clinton’s efforts to launch her Health Care Initiative (her own husband’s team was sent in to work against her!). Who needs fiction when you can learn age-old lessons from real-life political drama?

Mystery Cyber Rules. Thomas Siebel, et. al. (2000, Doubleday) Want to learn how to write a company brochure disguised as a hardcover visionary book? Add this flavor of the month from days gone by to your paperweight list! In this high-tech “whodunit,” protagonist Siebel carefully orchestrates twists, turns, and surprises that finally culminate in the revelation of The Secret Of Success. (If you hate spoilers, skip ahead to the next book.) The real twist in the plot appears when Siebel asks a Board member – Charles Schwab – to write the Foreword. Later, the big secret comes out: "Put the Customer First." While the real mystery might be how it took civilization 2000 years to figure this out, Cyber Rules remains a relatively good read. Auctioned copies start at $.09, so hurry and order your copy today.

Science Fiction The Road Ahead. Bill Gates (1995, Penguin) Wherein Mr. Gates describes his future dream home: “A house that tracks its occupants in order to meet their particular needs and combines two traditions: Unobtrusive service, and that an object we carry entitles us to be treated in a certain way.” (Does this mean I can program the bulletin board to refuse to give my husband the Mercedes keys when he's just going to the grocery store? Sign me up!) The title appears to have been a mix-up; I am convinced that it really meant to say, George Orwell goes to Redmond. Still an amusing read after all these years.

Children’s Books The One Minute Millionaire. Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen. (2002, Harmony) Here’s a novel idea for an industry that once prided itself in get rich quick schemes, high margin products and services: What if you gave away a percentage of your profits each year to mentor young people, or to support worthwhile non-profit endeavors? The storybook layout of this book keeps things entertaining and light, yet the messages are compelling. If you want to create new prosperity possibilities for yourself and your family, read on--especially the story about Millionaire Michelle.

What Should I Do With My Life? Po Bronson (2002, Random House) Two years have passed since we saw early signs of the dot-com collapse's impact on millions of careers. This turn of events inspired Bronson to listen to the life stories of more than 900 people who have challenged their own career choices. "What makes this a children's book," you ask? Many of Bronson's subjects dug deep into their childhoods to remind themselves of what fuels and inspires them.

Isn't that what summer is all about?

Lisa Nirell, President of Nirell & Associates, mentors high-tech entrepreneurs and executives to accelerate growth. Lisa also writes for ComputerWorld, San Diego Daily Transcript, and Software Strategies and has served on three Boards of Directors. For more information, visit www.nirell.com.

About the Author

Lisa Nirell, President of Nirell & Associates, advises high-tech entrepreneurs and executives who want to accelerate growth. With more than 20 years in software, consulting, and sales, Lisa has served on 3 Boards of Directors and has published in ComputerWorld and Software Strategies. For more information, visit www.nirell.com.

About the Author

This article may be freely distributed as long as there's an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.comSyd JohnsonEditor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, Web Articles Guide. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com

About the Author

Written by the eme teamElectronicsme.net: Where electronics are made easy! The latest articles on televisions, laptops and digital cameras.andElectronicsme.com: Where electronics are made easy! The latest news, reviews and comparisons of electronics, photography, and computers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, Web Articles Guide. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com

All the experts agree, if you want visitors to explore your website, you have to give them a reason; without one, they'll click away from your site. If you publish an email newsletter and own a website, here's an interesting way to promote viewing of your website's pages among your newsletter readers.

Sprinkle (actually, "hide") trivia tidbits throughout the pages on your website. They can be in body copy, image captions, advertiser copy ... anywhere. Then run a quiz in your newsletter, letting your readers know the that all of the answers are somewhere on your site. Offer a prize to the first person to email you with all the correct answers.

You may freely repost the sample quiz without any resource box. I would appreciate, however, some sort of a link to my website Bison Creek Author Services in your newsletter or on your site. If you need ad copy lines for a newsletter link --

"Author services, including sales copy writing, free article posting, manuscript readings, reviews and testimonials--for writers just like ourselves: long on vision, but way short on funds. Bison Creek Author Services http://bisoncreek.com"

Sample quiz begins below ============================================================

1. How many ways are there to make change for $1 (US)?

2. In most advertisements, what time is displayed on watches?

3. According to Al Capone's business card, what was his profession?

4. A cat has how many muscles in each ear?

5. Four English words end with "-dous": horrendous, tremendous, stupendous, and ____________?

6. What is the only English word that ends in the letters "-mt"?

7. What is the longest one-syllable word in the English language?

8. How many ridges are around the edge of a U.S. dime?

9. How many dimples are on a regulation golf ball?

10. What is the only U.S. state with a one-syllable name?

11. What is the only known sound that does not produce an echo?

Answers 1. 293 2. 10:10 3. used furniture dealer 4. 32 5. hazardous 6. dreamt 7. screeched 8. 118 9. 336 10. Maine 11. a duck's quack

Mike Morgan is a freelance writer, owner of Bison Creek Author Services , and moderator of Article Post-Short Pieces, for short articles and fillers,

About the Author

C. Bailey-Lloyd aka. LadyCamelot Public Relations' Director & Staff Writer www.HolisticJunction.com www.MediaPositiveRadio.com

Poker is becoming a popular choice of what people are playing now, in particular Texas Hold'Em. Playing for free is the best way to begin learning poker for a person who has no experience. The largest poker room on the Net has around 70,000 simultaneous players who play for real money and approximately 7 million registered users who enjoy playing for fun at the time of this writing. With all the offerings of "play for fun or for real", it would be a good idea to look at your intentions when choosing a place to play at should you be thinking of eventually playing for cash. You can always find places that give the option to play at no cost, but some places do not offer the option to play for real money.

Video poker is very common in Las Vegas casinos as well as with online casinos. The casinos on the Internet can be played for free, plus you can find others places to play at no cost on Yahoo! Google and MSN. But when you play certain ones like "Jacks or Better", it is a good idea to study what the payout scale is on the variety you are playing. The goal should be to find a free version that has the same odds as your favorite in Las Vegas, so you can use it to perfect your skills for winning. Keep in mind that just because you see a Jacks or Better sign on the machine in a land based casino or on your computer does not mean that the payouts are all the same. This especially holds true in land based casinos even if the signs in a group of machines are exactly the same. Payout percentages can vary from lows of 92.6% to over 100% for Jacks or Better. Now if you have a hard time locating a no cost version of your favorite, you can purchase software programs for under $40.00 that will not only let you play your favorites, but offer tutorials and counsel your play to help you get better at it.

Sometimes manufacturers of slot and video poker machines will offer versions of their video poker that can be played with no cost to the player. These are the same businesses that build the machines for Las Vegas casinos so you can really have a good time with what they periodically offer for "test play".

Okay, now let's talk more about Las Vegas. People spend millions having fun in the casinos there, but why should the fun stop when you leave? It is so easy to find poker software programs for Texas Hold'Em today. But with a little searching you can buy software which features Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker and Let It Ride. And if you like the slots there are also sites that sell CD's for the actual Blazing 7's, Double Diamond, Popeye, Blondie, Betty Boop slots and more. You do have to pay one time for it, but you will play for hours with no further cash outlay and be ready for the next trip. Have fun and good luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Howze is a webmaster for 9 sites that relate to 2005 World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events and updates along with resources for free online card games .

Article Size: 684 words (body). Pre-formatted to 60 character width.

You may republish this article, but must keep the resource box and copyright at the end.

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

Getting Your Newsletter Read How Great Newsletters Adapt To Perfectly Match Their Readers

By Michael Green

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

One exciting feature of newsletters - frequently overlooked by their editors - is the ability to shape the content to *perfectly* match the readership’s interests and passions.

In fact, newsletters can achieve a form of near perfect synergy with their readers and that’s something rarely experienced with other products or services.

How is this incredible close-fit possible? If you publish your own newsletter or EZine then please read on…

EDITORS MUST GET INSIDE THEIR READERS HEADS You see, a newsletter editor is in a unique position of power, but most fail to capitalize on their in-built advantage.

Editors tend to think of their publication as simply being there to impart knowledge and information to their readership on whatever subject they are headlined to cover. That’s fair enough. Informing readers is an important part of any newsletter!

But…in order to really satisfy your reader, you need to know what information the reader would like to see covered and published. And that means getting a ton of feedback all the time!

HERE’S YOUR MASSIVE INBUILT ADVANTAGE And here’s the incredible advantage that you have as a Newsletter or EZine Editor over just about every other product or service out there. Put simply:

"YOU CAN ASK YOUR READERS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT TO READ ABOUT…….THEN GIVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THEM!"

Publishing a newsletter shouldn’t be a 'one-way' street. You’ve got to discover what kind of material your readers want to read and the easiest way to do that is to simply ask them the question.

INVITE RESPONSE AND SEND OUT REGULAR SURVEYS There’s no mystery to gathering the feedback either. Every Newsletter should invite its readers to send in feedback.

If you’re writing an electronic newsletter (EZine) then invite your reader to click *reply* and send in comments. If your newsletter is in print then include a response mechanism such as a fax back, tear-off slip or at the very least a contact address for you as the editor.

TIP: You can dramatically increase feedback response by offering an incentive to complete your feedback survey. A free report on your subject matter works extremely well.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE INFORMATION YOU GATHER That’s easy. Collate the feedback and establish trends in the requests you receive. You might find, for example, that a batch of readers would like to see more "How-To’s" on your subject. Maybe others crave for readers letters and answers, whilst other readers might want to see more longer (or shorter) articles. You get the drift though. Find out what it is they’d like to see.

What next?

Give it to them. And give it to them in spades...

Start thinking about your readers’ feedback as if that’s their way of going out to vote! They’ve indicated a preference, a particular like or dislike about your newsletter. Now, just like any politician, your job is to reflect that right back to them and give them the information they crave.

SHAPE YOUR NEWSLETTER AROUND THE FEEDBACK Very few editors take the time to really understand what their readership would like to see covered. Fewer still actually do anything constructive with the results.

But if you take the time to do both of these things, you are guaranteed to experience a couple of *great* results:

(1). Your existing subscribers will become increasingly loyal, as they derive pleasure from the fact that your newsletter covers what they really want to know about.

(2). New subscribers will flock to your publication. Why? Well just think of your possible subscriber base as being like a huge lake of fish. They’re all swimming around looking for information (and newsletters) that perfectly cover their interests and presents the information in a format that they would like to receive.

Your newsletter is the bait. If you shape it perfectly around the desires and needs of your existing readership, the chances are your publication will also fit your potential subscribers. Follow the above advice and you will have adjusted your bait to perfectly attract an ever-growing newsletter subscriber base.

Good luck, Michael Green

© How To Corporation. All rights reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The author Michael Green has developed a TOOLKIT for Newsletter Editors called "How To Write A Newsletter". Included is a How-To eBook Manual which describes hundreds of excellent ways to enhance your newsletter publication. The TOOLKIT also includes Copyright Free Articles, DTP Templates and much more. A must for all Newsletter Editors! Check out ===> http://www.howtowriteanewsletter.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Green spent 12 years building a multi-million dollar business, attributing much of his success to the regular newsletter he published promoting his company. He now devotes his time to educating individuals and organizations as to how to achieve their objectives through newsletter publications both printed and online. He shares his secrets in his new mini-series. Send a blank email to howtocorp@getresponse.com

How to Read Job Ads for Beginners and Newcomers:

Here is the translation what you can REALLY expect whenever you see one of these in a Classifieds Careers/Jobs section:

"exceptional positive attitude" -> translation: *Boss is an asshole and a dictator who blows off his top thirteen times a day!*

"willing to work long hours" -> translation: *Forget about your family, or any personal life at all!*

"stamina to work long hours" -> translation: *In other words you are expected to be a cross between a jackass, a camel and an ox!*

"you are a self-starter" -> translation: *We have no idea what we are doing, but we sincerely hope, you will!*

"can work independently" -> translation: *Don't expect any support from us!*

"provide assurance and consulting services to our clients" -> translation: *You are an extremely skillful liar!*

"exceptional organizational skills" -> translation: *We hope we finally get someone who can clean up that big mess we have here!*

"winning positive attitude" -> translation: *Never get bogged down no matter how stupid the management decisions are!*

"ability to work in fast-paced environment" -> translation: *Break? What break…?*

"you feel like an essential member of a corporate family" -> translation: *You are not going to tell our secrets to the tax office, right?*

"you are responsible and dependable" -> translation: *We expect you to keep your mouth shut no matter what you see, what we do/don't do!*

"willing to work hard" -> translation: *Slavery, the legal way.*

"extremely busy environment" -> translation: *We are understaffed!*

"friendly customer service" -> translation: *You are mentally challenged and smiling to it!*

"outstanding customer support service" -> translation: *You have an experience as a lion tamer or at least as a high school teacher!*

"ability to work in a challenging environment" -> translation: *You can always B.S. your way out!*

"positive outlook" -> translation: *What? You expect us to actually pay you for your work…?!*

Copyright © Dagmar Rakos

------------------------------------------------------Want more fun? Download FREE 3Q’s booklet Original Quips, Quacks and Questions http://www.makeyourhobbysell.com/mybooks/3qs-vol1.zip ------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Want more fun? Download FREE 3Q’s booklet Original Quips, Quacks and Questions http://www.makeyourhobbysell.com/mybooks/3qs-vol1.zip

Title: How to tell if someone opens your HTML newsletter: The ants come marching 1x1 - Hurrah! Copyright Eric Koshinsky, 2003

There is no real way to know exactly how many times your newsletters are read. There is a neat little 'trick' you can use with HTML based newsletters and email so that you can know at least how many times it has been viewed. Compare the number of views the number of copies sent out and you will have a reasonably good idea of how well read your newsletter is. With HTML newsletters and email messages it is possible to tell if the message has been opened.

It all sounds reasonably simple, and actually it really is quite easy. All you need to do is: 1) create a simple 1x1 clear .gif image. 2) Upload the image to your webserver so it is on the internet. 3) Insert the image at the head of your newsletter/email. 4) Mail out your newsletter/email to your mailing list.

Now, when a reader opens your newsletter, the invisible image is loaded, your server's webstats record the hit, and presto, you know how many times your newsletter has been opened.

In a bit more detail.

Create the 1x1.gif file. To do this, any basic image editor will do. Simply create a new .gif image that is 1 pixel X 1 pixel with a transparent background. Jasc software's Paintshop pro is a great and cheap image editor for PC's, and graphicConverter is a great one for Mac. Don't worry, if this seems to be too much of a bother, you can you can simply download the image at the newbie-guides.com download directory. Simply search for 'clear-image'. Save it in a place that is easy to remember. The 1x1 image is invisible when opened!

Upload the image to your webserver

Use whatever ftp (file transfer protocol) software you like and simply upload the file to your images directory. I normally make a special directory only for these images. This way my counter images are in a folder /images/counters/ to keep them seperate from the other images - it just helps keep things more managable.

Insert the image into your newsletter.

Please note that because many article publication newsletters do not allow HTML in the article text, I have placed the different elements on seperate lines. Simply make each HTML statement into a single line should you wish to use it.

This is quite straight forward. Just insert the HTML statement:

at the start of your newsletter, just after the tag.

Of course, if you are using some wysiwyg editor like FrontPage, be sure to insert the image from your webserver, and NOT from your local hard drive!!

Mail out your newsletter as usual.

It is important to keep in mind that you will need to give the my-1x1.gif file a different name every time you send out your newsletter. This way your webstats will track each newsletter seperately. For example if you send out your newsletter twice a month, you might name the counter images: JAN-counter-A.gif and JAN-counter-B.gif for each of the mailings. NOTE: Don't delete the first one, simply copy it and give it a new name for the next mailing. That way the original image will keep recording hits for you!

So, simply duplicate the file, and then rename the file on your server as well as the HTML code in your newsletter. This means you will end up with something like this (inside the 'images/counters' directory on your webserver): JAN-counter-A.gif JAN-counter-B.gif FEB-counter-A.gif FEB-counter-B.gif

In your newsletter the HTML code would be something like:

in your first January mailing and...

in your second January mailing..

If you are worried that all these images will consume all your webspace - DON'T. A typical 1x1.gif uses about 1k of diskspace. Not really something to be overly concerned about!!

Now what you will need to do is check your web server stats to see how many times your image has been 'hit'. Every time an image is loaded through your webserver, it is recorded as a hit. Look to see how many times it has been 'hit' and you know how many times your newsletter has been read!

Just how do you check your webstats? Well I've written another article that explains webstats in more detail, but basically, your webhost package will provide you with all that stats, and a program that will analyze them for you. Two of the most common stat's packages are awstats, and webalyzer. Any reputable webhost will have one (or both) of these installed as part of your hosting package. Simply log into your hosting administration account (which is also where you create email accounts etc.) and use the stat's package they have installed.

You will be looking to find your 1x1.gif (whatever you named it). Every stats package displays information a little differently, so you will have to look a little to find your information. Most commonly you will look for something like:

-Top URL, -Most Requested Files, -File hits

Once you find the information, you can check it against your mail out numbers and have a much better idea of how well you are reaching your subscribers and clients.

If you are an astute reader, and I'm sure you are, you'll already know that there are some problems with this technique. As with most things in life, it isn't perfect. The chief problem is one that simply can't be solved, by any technique! That problem is simply that just because your newsletter/email is opened doesn't mean that the reader actually reads your newsletter very carefully - or at all! But then again, there is NO WAY to ensure that someone reads your newsletter - although having a totally skookum newsletter that people want to read certainly helps!

A second problem is that some people, very foolishly, have their email program's 'auto-preview' window pane open all the time. This means that as soon as they click on a message (even if only to delete it), it is displayed at the bottom of their screen. This still records a 'hit' in your webstats, but may not have any real meaning. A 'false-positive' as they say.

The final dilemma is that this won't work with text only email messages and newsletters. The whole concept depends on the image being 'pulled' from your webserver when someone opens the newsletter. This simply doesn't happen with plain text newsletters. Sorry 'bout that!

There is no truly perfect way to know how many people are reading your newsletter as it is sent out. But using this very simple technique you can have a much better idea of how many are being at least opened (and hopefully read) as opposed to simply being deleted or filtered out as spam.

Making Music Now's Mini Course A Music Basics Guide for the Beginning Musician Hello! Welcome to the wonderful world of music. Have you always dreamed of being able to learn how to play the piano, keyboard, guitar or any other instrument? Well, your dream is just about to come true with this Free Music eCourse. This dream of yours is not something so far away that it cannot become a reality in a very short while. This is not rocket science but it does take a genuine commitment on your part to read all seven chapters of this Free Music eCourse in order to learn the music fundamentals that will apply to any instrument. Be sure to STICK WITH IT! Make it a point to pace yourself. The course has been written with the intention of going through it in order, with one chapter building on the next. Now that you have laid the groundwork for your plan, let us begin! Whatever instument you are studying or plan to study in the future, each one of those instruments has a history. Let's take a moment to learn a very brief history of keyboard instruments. Did you know that pianos in some form have been around for over 500 years? Some of the first instruments of this kind were called clavichords. They had a very light, metallic sound because the small hand-pounded 'hammers' were made of very light weight metal-like material. These hammers struck strings of varying lengths to create different tones or pitches. The next cousin to the clavichord was the harpsichord invented by Cristofori in Italy around 1450 A.D. This keyboard instrument had a mechanism in it called the plecktrum which 'plucked' the strings and produced a slightly stronger sound than its predecessor. Whether you are playing an acoustic instrument, which is the closest relative to the history just mentioned, or an electronic keyboard, you are now participating in a centuries old musical art form. SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS Piano or Keyboard? Does it matter if you have a keyboard or a piano? Certainly not. The only real difference is that a full size piano has 88 keys (counting both the white and black keys). Keyboards come in several different sizes. Some have 60 keys, some even less. There are also 88 key electronic keyboards and digital pianos that produce very realistic acoustic sounds. Whatever size your instrument may be, remember that the ARRANGEMENT of the keys and the ORDER of the KEY NAMES is the same on both instruments. Rest assured that your basic knowledge of the fundamentals of music can be learned quite effectively either on a keyboard or a piano. The only missing ingredient is your own persistence and determination to persevere through the entirety of the material in this course with regular practice sessions. Do that and your success is assured! SELECTING THE BEST LEARNING PLACE IN YOUR HOME Please take a moment and give serious consideration at to WHERE you practice in your home. Make sure that you are not within earshot of the television. Even if you are used to 'watching TV with your ears' while you do other things, it will definitely be a roadblock to your learning to Play Piano Now! Also, make sure that you can sit down at your piano or keyboard comfortably. If you have a piano and a bench which came with it when you bought it, then you are in great shape. Seating at a keyboard can prove a little more difficult. Just make sure that you are not reaching too high up or stooping down too low for the keyboard. Finding a chair that is the right height is the key. The right height chair will allow your arms to be a an almost perfect right angle (45 degree) from your body to the keyboard. Don't worry too much about this. If you have the wrong height of chair your back will start screaming at you to change your position!!! Please make any adjustments to keep your back straight and your arms at a 45 degree angle and you enjoy hours of music in one seating. PRACTICE GUIDELINES Please practice as long and as often as you like. I am not going to recommend a particular practice schedule for anyone. You will find your own pace. Sometimes people ask me how long it will take to learn to Play Piano Now. I simply answer with the question of how much time are you willing to put into it on a daily basis. Since this is an introductory piano course for beginners, I think it would be very effective to work at 30 to 45 minute intervals on a daily basis. The longer you put in, the more quickly you will learn and progress. However, your mind needs a while to 'soak up' the information and will work best when you have some hours or a day or so in between practice sessions. The main thing is to make up a schedule and stick to it! The longest journey begins with the first step! As a convenience for you I have created a practice chart and placed it below. Please feel free to make copies of this practice chart and use it daily. As I am sure you have heard before, a habit of doing anything takes root much better when we write down the thing that we are doing on a daily basis. Take advantage of this practice chart by placing it beside your piano or keyboard and filling in your practice times on a regular basis. PRACTICE RECORD Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min Week of _____________, 2003 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min ___min MUSICAL TERMS Let's begin our musical study with a review of the main musical terms you will need to be familiar with to proceed with your music education. BAR LINE - A vertical line which separates notes into groups DOUBLE BAR LINE - A set of two (2) vertical lines which stand for the end of a piece of music REPEAT SIGN - Double bar with two dots at the end of a section or piece of music which indicates that section is to be played twice. MEASURE - The distance between two bar lines. TREBLE CLEF - The S-shaped symbol which stands for notes played with the right hand. BASS CLEF - The reversed C-shaped symbol which stand for notes played with the left hand. STAFF - The five lines and four spaces of both the bass and treble clefs. QUARTER NOTE - Musical symbol with solid note head and stem which gets one count. QUARTER REST - Musical symbol resembling a sideways W which gets one count. HALF NOTE - Musical symbol with hollow note head and stem which gets two counts. HALF REST - Solid half block sitting on third line of the staff which gets two counts of silence. DOTTED HALF NOTE - Musical symbol with hollow note head, dot and stem which gets three counts. WHOLE NOTE - Musical symbol resembling a circle on the staff which gets four counts. WHOLE REST - Solid half block hanging from the second line on the staff which gets four counts of silence. CHORD - Two or more notes played together. BLOCKED CHORD - Two or more notes played at the same time BROKEN CHORD - Two or more notes from the same chord played in sequence INTERVAL - The distance between two notes on the musical staff EACH FINGER HAS A FINGER NUMBER! 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND **THE THUMB OF EACH HAND IS FINGER #1 **THE INDEX FINGER OF EACH HAND IS FINGER #2 **THE MIDDLE FINGER OF EACH HAND IS FINGER #3 **THE PINKY FINGER OF EACH HAND IS FINGER #4 WHICH FINGER IS #4??????????? USE CURVED FINGERS AT THE KEYBOARD It is very important to use curved fingers while playing any keyboard instrument. This simply means to try and play on the finger tips instead of on the finger pads. Keep the fingers relaxed while slightly rounding them as if holding a soft ball in the palm of each hand. Hold the ball gently and keep your arms and hands as relaxed as possible while playing. CURVED FINGER EXERCISE Are you ready to play your first piano piece? Let's start with a right hand finger exercise. Place your right hand thumb on any white key in the middle of your piano or keyboard. Then simply place each finger numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 (pinky finger) next to each other on the next white key. Each finger should have a key of its very own to strike. Never put more than one finger on a key. Now start with your thumb and plan the white keys in sequence. Say 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5- 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 as you play each of those fingers. Repeat this pattern three times. Now place your left hand thumb on any white key of your piano or keyboard and go through the same exercise. Be sure to say the fingers number as above. Say the finger numbers reinforces the fact that thumbs are one and pinky fingers are five. This will especially helpful to you later as you will be saying counts instead of finger numbers. LEARNING THE BLACK KEY GROUPS Take a look at your keyboard and notice the pattern of two black note groups and three black note groups repeating itself all up and down your keyboard instrument. This is the same way that these black note groups look on your piano or keyboard. Please take a moment at your own keyboard and find the two and three black note groups in the following sequence: 2 Black 3 Black 2 Black 3 Black 2 Black 3 Black 2 Black 3 Black (bottom of keyboard) (top of keyboard) When I refer to the 'bottom' of the piano please go down to the left- hand side of your instrument. Obviously, when I refer to the top of the piano please go all the way up to the right hand side of the piano. Using the diagram above, go to your keyboard and practice moving in both upward and downward directions. FIRST FINGER EXERCISES USING THE TWO AND THREE BLACK NOTE GROUPS Following are two finger exercises: The first exercise will introduce the two black note group. Please use finger numbers two and three (remember your right hand thumb is finger number 1, your right hand index finger is finger number 2, etc.). Repeat the finger number sequence below as you practice on your keyboard or just on a table top. Just say the finger number that you are using at that moment. Use your RIGHT HAND FIRST and play evenly. Then use your LEFT HAND and repeat the same pattern: 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 The second exercise will introduce the three black note group. Use finger numbers 2, 3 and 4 on this exercise. Again, be sure to whisper the finger number as you play and keep an even rhythm. Even though these are just finger exercises, it is still very important to practice evenly and clearly without rushing through. Use these two exercises daily to warm up your fingers and develop finger independence and strength. Use RIGHT then LEFT hands: 2 3 4 3 2 3 4 3 4 3 2 3 4 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 3 2 3 4 3 2 3 4 3 Be sure to pracitce doing these finger exercises daily for just a few minutes. It will really help your finger independence and facility in the weeks ahead. INTRODUCTION TO THE WHITE KEYS There are only seven (7) letter names used on the piano: A B C D E F G It is interesting to note here that no matter what instrument you play, whether it is piano, tuba or violin, ONLY the seven letter names above are used in the entire realm of music! There are two very easy ways to visualize and remember the names of the white keys on your piano and keyboard. Remember, the note names on an electronic keyboard are the same as on the acoustic piano. Since it is not possible to include a graphic in this format, simply remember that the 'CDE' note groups in always located directly underneath the two black note group. The letter name 'D' in the white key always located directly inbetween the two black key note groups. ANY TWO BLACK NOTE GROUP on the piano has the letter name 'D' as the white key located inbetween them. Go to your keyboard NOW and start to play all of the C-D-E groups from the lowest (bottom left) to the highest (top right) on your keyboard. Say C - D - E as you play each key. Now we will learn about the F - G - A - B note groups. Simply located any three black note group on your piano or keyboard and realize that the F-G-A-B white keys are located directly beneath them. Directly outside of the three black note groups are 'F' on the left hand side of the three black note group and 'B' on the right hand side of the three black note group. Just fill in the outer 'F' and 'B' with G and A and you are done! Go to your piano or keyboard NOW and find all of the F-G-A-G white keys underneath each three black note group. As above, play slowly and evenly saying the letter names as you play the F-G-A-B groups from the bottom of the piano or keyboard (low left hand end) to the top of your piano or keyboard (top right hand end). Congratulations! You now know ALL of the white key names on the piano! TREBLE CLEF NOTE NAMES Both the Treble and Bass clefs each have five lines and four spaces. Learning the actual note names of each line and space (the spaces between each line) is very simple. Please memorize the sentences below for the Treble Clef Line and Space Notes: Treble Clef Line Notes(starting from the bottom line and moving up) EGBDF Every Good Boy Does Fine (the first letter of each word helps you remember the order of the notes) Treble Clef Space Notes (starting from the first space and going up) FACE Just remember that the treble clef spaces spell the word 'FACE'. Bass Clef Line and Space Notes are as follows: Line Notes: GBDFA Great Big Dogs Fight Animala Space Notes: ACEG All Cars Eat Gas Now you know all the names of the white keys on your piano or keyboard. You also learned today the acutal letter names of each line and space on both the treble and bass clefs BASICS OF RHYTHM WHAT DOES A QUARTER NOTE LOOK LIKE? WHAT DOES A QUARTER REST LOOK LIKE? Both the Quarter Note and the Quarter Rest get one beat. The Quarter Note has a filled in note head and a stem. The Quarter Rest is a vertical musical symbol which resembles a 'W' turned on its side. The Quarter note symbol stands for a note that is played for the length of one beat. In other words, play any key on your instrument right now and simply hold it down while you say 'one'. It is what we would call a short note. The Quarter rest is a musical symbol which stands for one beat of silence. In other words, beats of silence in music are counted just like beats of sound. The only difference between these two musical symbols is that there is complete sound for one beat during a Quarter Note and complete silence for one beat during a Quarter rest in music. Start off your experience in rhythm by simply clapping the rhythm pattern of quarter notes and quarter rests in the following exercise. Make sure that when you say 'one' you ARE clapping both hands together on that beat and when you say 'rest' you are holding your hands apart on that beat. BE SURE TO SPEAK THE WORDS 'QUARTER NOTE' AND 'QUARTER REST' AS YOU CLAP OR MOVE YOUR HANDS APART ON EACH BEAT. 'QN' - stands for Quarter Note 'QR' - stands for Quarter Rest FIRST RHYTHM EXERCISE: QN-QN-QN-QN/QN-QR-QN-QR/QN-QN-QN-QN/QR-QN-QR-QN/ WHAT IS A MELODY? A melody is nothing more than a string of notes played one after the other to create a tune or melody. How many times have you asked someone how a tune goes? Please whistle that tune for me.........Well, that, my friend, is a melody. When you first sat down at a piano or keyboard and tried to pick out the correct sequence of keys to your favorite melody, you were actually playing short melodies or tunes. Go to your instrument now and use the information you have learned today about Quarter Notes and Quarter Rests and make up a new melody all your own! WHAT IS HARMONY? Harmony is simply defined as notes, chords or other arrangements of notes that accompany a melody to make a fully developed piece of music. If one person sings a vocal solo, that would be a melody. Two people singing together is called a duet. When the second person sings different notes than the first person, that would be creating harmony with the melody. So it is in any other musical ensemble. The melody is the part of the music that we remember the most and even sing to ourselves later. One of the most basic forms of harmony in piano music is the chord. A chord consists of two or more notes played together in either hand which can create harmony when played along with any given melody. You will notice that either hand can play the harmony, just as either hand can play the melody. In the Challenge Pieces Section of Play Piano Now (www.MakingMusicNow.com) is a piece entitled ‘Moonlight Melody'. The melody starts out in the right hand, then goes to the left hand in the middle section and, finally, ends up in the right hand again to end the piece. CHORDS A chord is defined as two or more notes from a scale played together at the same time. Chords may be played in either blocked chord form or broken chord form. A blocked chord simply means that two or more notes are played at the same time. A broken chord is created when that blocked chord is just played one note after the other in sequence. The first chord we will study is the C Major chord. The notes of the C Major chord are C, E and G. Try this C Major Chord Exercise by placing fingers 1, 3 and 5 of each hand down on your desk or table top right now(remember that the thumb is finger number 1, the middle finger is number 3 and proceed to the pinky finger which is finger number 5). Press down all three fingers (1,3 and 5) at the same time. You have just played the C Major BLOCKED chord. Use this same table top method right now and similarly press down each finger 1,3 and 5 in sequence (one after the other) to create a BROKEN chord. SPECIAL TIP** Remember, a chord with stems up means the right hand is playing and a chord with stems down means the left hand is playing the chord. Please practice this C Major Chord Exercise with Right Hand Only: 'QR' - stands for Quarter Rest or one beat of silence 'Ch' - stands for the C Major Chord. (Again, use your table top and press down 1,3,5 together for 'Ch'. Say 'Chord' each time you press down your fingers on the table top. Also, when you come to the 'Qr' symbol simply lift your hand off of the table top and say 'Rest') Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch/Ch-Qr-Ch-Qr/Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch/Ch-Qr-Ch-Qr ALL ABOUT INTERVALS An Interval is defined as the distance between two notes (Refer to Chapter 2 of this course: Musical Terms). The first interval to consider is the interval of a Second, notated as '2nd'. The second is also referred to as a 'step' in music reading because it is the distance you can travel on your keyboard or piano from one key to the very next key. It is important to learn to read music by INTERVAL rather than by FINGER NUMBER because the fingerings will not be available on all pieces of music that you encounter. Also, learning to read music by interval enables you to be a much more well rounded pianist because you can start on any given note and read your way through any piece of music. If you concentrated too much on just C Position or Middle C Position, you would soon become less able to read notes in other areas of the staff. Now look at the series of letter names below. This series of letters corresponds with your piano or keyboard. Keys C, D and E are in that sequence right next to each other on your keyboard. Moving from one note to the next either up or down in a sequential manner is moving by Seconds. This exercise is written is centered around the concept of the Second, or step. Place your right hand thumb (finger number 1) on a table top or on your keyboard in front of you. Your thumb will be resting on C, your second finger will be resting on D and your third finger will be resting on E. You will be playing interval or distances of a Second throughout this exercise. Be sure to practice this exercise two different ways: 1. Say the Letter Names as you play. 2. Say 'Step up' or 'Step Down' as it is written on the music. EXERCISE USING AN INTERVAL OF A 'SECOND' : C D E D / C D E D / E D C D / E D C D / C D E D / INTERVAL OF A THIRD The next interval we will learn is the interval or distance of a third or 3rd. This is also referred to as a Skip because we are actually skipping over one note to reach the next note on the piano when we play an interval of a third. Intervals of thirds can be read easily because they go from one line note to another line note. They can also be from one space note to another space note. In the following space note exercise ALL of the intervals of thirds are both either line notes or both space notes. Practice the following exercise using thirds the following three ways: 1. Place your right hand in the C Position (RH thumb on Middle C). You will be using note names C, D, E and F with finger numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. 2. Say the Letter Name of each note as you play 3. Play again and say ‘Skip Up' or ‘Skip Down' as the music indicates. EXERCISE USING AN INTERVAL OF A 'THIRD': C E C E / C E C E / D F D F / D F D F / C E C E INTERVALS OF FOURTHS AND FIFTHS Larger intervals of fourths (4ths) and fifths (5ths) are also found a lot in music. We will explore these intervals and corresponding exercises later on. Keep in mind that intervals of fourths and fifths can be identified by the larger distance between these two note intervals. The interval of the fourth (4th) involves one line note and one space note with a larger distance between them than you found in the similar interval of the second (2nd). The interval of the fifth (5th) involves either two line notes or two space notes. Again, this interval of a fifth is similar to a third except there is a greater distance between the two notes than there was between the interval of a third. DYNAMIC MARKINGS The vehicle for expression in music comes through the context of dynamic markings. Since the Italians were the ones to first write marks of expression in their music as well as print the first music manuscripts on paper, all of the marks of expression or dynamics are from Italian words. Please look over the list of dynamic markings below and familiarize yourself with them. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Only those basic symbols are included here that pertain to the pieces within the Play Piano Now piano course. DYNAMIC MARKINGS START WITH SOFT AND GO TO LOUDEST: Piano - Italian word for soft. symbol used in music: p Pianissimo - Very soft; symbold used: pp Mezzo Forte - Medium Loud; symbol used: mf Forte - Loud; symbol used: f Fortissimo - Very Loud; symbol used: ff Crescendo - Gradually getting louder; symbol used: < Decrescendo - Gradually getting softer; symbol used: > You can also learn more about the Play Piano Now piano course at: http://www.MakingMusicNow.com All the best in your future musical endeavors, Jan Durrant, Publisher http://www.MakingMusicNow.com Teacher@MakingMusicNow.com

One of the Hottest Commodities on or off the Internet is "Information". In this age of technology people more than ever want to know and they want to learn. I imagine you yourself are reading this in hopes of clicking away with more than you started with. My job as a writer, publisher and editor is to see that you do.

Newsletters provide you with an outlet to a specific group of people, who subscribe and read your publication because they want to gain specific information. It could be Business, Humor or Travel, but nevertheless they are reading your words for a reason. Your job is to supply your readers with the information they are looking for. This my friend is sometimes a painstaking job, with little or no pay and long hours to boot!

This is not a venture to be entered into lightly. Newsletters are not overnight successes. It sometimes takes years to build a respectable subscriber base. Cash flow is almost non-existent at the beginning and for much of the time after that. Your newsletter is an investment in relationships, or better-called "networking". You must earn, gain and keep a certain amount of trust and loyalty from your readers.

Mistake: If you think that you own your newsletter, I here to tell you that you are wrong. Running a newsletter is much like being in a political office. You would not be there if you did not serve your constituents to their satisfaction. They will directly or indirectly dictate to you your requirements in serving them. If you fail so does your newsletter.

Hint: Live up to the responsibility you have taken on. When your readers bestow that trust in you, there is no better way to condemn your newsletter than to violate that trust.

Your job is not necessarily to be liked, but to keep your content up to the standards that your subscribers have come to expect from you. Keep your information content high and your advertising and "noise" levels low. The subject of your newsletter will of course dictate the personality of your newsletter.

As for your Personality in your Newsletter, every newsletter will take on a life of its own. You must control the personality that it portrays. Be careful what personality traits you give your newsletter and how much personality you give it. Remember that your primary goal is to supply information. Save the bulk of your thoughts for welcome messages and editorials. Be careful how you convey your personal thoughts in your newsletter. What could be meant as an editorial thought could be a disastrous mistake that costs you subscribers.

You will find that your readers will write to you with questions, comments, and often complaints. Don't forget now these are the same people that control the fate of your newsletter. Treat them as you would any life giving force. Your subscribers are (99%) intelligent, well-mannered people seeking the wisdom of your print. They will express their own ideas and desires. They will ask you for your input and thoughts. Often this may be impossible, but one of your top priorities should be to respond to your readers with honest, informative information with a touch of your thrown in. Keep in mind that for every 1 malcontented feedback message that you receive there are hundreds or thousands that are happy, but never write. Think about it. How many times do you write just to tell somebody they are doing a great job, as compared to how many times you have written to complain about a product or service? After your subscriber base becomes very large (that's assuming that it will), you will find that many of the questions will be similar. For this you can use a "replicated" or "canned" response. You can save these responses in a special text file as you create them, and call up the file when you need them.

In closing I would like to say that it's your job to get "their" newsletter out on schedule each and every time. Your subscribers will come to expect and yes, demand their newsletter on time and intact. Consider yourself a "Mailman". Neither rain nor shine, nor vacation or sickness shall deter you from your duty. If you are publishing a serious newsletter and are the sole person doing this insurmountable job, do yourself a favor and get a laptop if you haven't already. I myself have published from bed with a fever and all over the country, and you will too!

"Wild Bill" Montgomery http://www.MakingProfit.com We've Featured Over 110 Articles in only one issue of our newsletter. How many do you get in yours? Why Play With Puppies, When The Big Dog Rules! Get The Best In Marketing & Business Information! To Subscribe go to or Email to

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Stanley Majors is an experienced online poker journalist who writes articles on a range of poker topics. His numerous articles found on Texas Holdem Net ,provide useful and factual poker information and insight.

The Gingerbread Nightmare

Do you ever see those beautiful gingerbread houses during the holiday seasons that are so beautiful? They look so simple, and look like such a fun project to do with the kids making gifts for grandma and grandpa. I could just feel it….soft Christmas music in the background, the warm, spicy smell of gingerbread filling the air, the cozy warmth of the fire on a snowy day, and my children and I building these luscious goodies sure to bless our family and friends, and all inexpensively as well.

That was the fantasy. Where was my mind? How could I forget about the little thing we call REALITY? Ever notice how professionals make things look easy? That’s the very mark of a professional.

The first reality check was the store. Money was very tight and these looked like a great way to give a quality to gift to several loved ones. After we did the shopping for the candy and the ingredients for these gingerbread houses, the bill totaled nearly $75. I almost fainted. (We could have bought some great gifts with that, or even bought beautiful gingerbread houses).

As for Christmas music, the children insisted upon the Chipmunk’s Christmas carols. Have you ever listened to more than 1 chipmunk song at a time? Have you ever noticed what that does to a brain?

The fire was nice, but then we had the fights over whose turn it was to stoke the fire. Two boys can fight over anything, and anything involving work makes a worthy fight indeed.

We started with the dough, and that part turned out! It was SO delicious…..in fact we had to make more because after all of us eating dough, there wasn’t enough for the houses. So….back to making more dough.

This particular dough had to be chilled, then rolled, then you cut pieces of the house out from a paper mold with a knife. Ok, got that part. We put it in the oven for baking, and half of the pieces burnt terribly. The other half were perfect, but you can’t build a house with half the parts. So…..we had to make MORE dough. By now, we’re not having fun anymore. It’s getting late and mom is beginning to want to get this mess cleaned up now. We finished making new house pieces and it was like midnight, I had long put the children to bed and was cranky now at this point. The only thing to do now was to let everything cool (including tempers), and attempt the decorating tomorrow.

Whew….new day, it’s a wonder what a little sleep will do ya. Now we make the hard frosting that will act as glue to hold the pieces of the house together, time to build. Time for the fun to begin, boy are we ready!

We begin assembling the house, and half the roof piece breaks in two on one of the houses. On the second house, we find the pieces to not match correctly. On a third house, we overcome all these first two obstacles, and now have great difficulty getting props to hold the house together while the “glue” dries, and it’s repeatedly falling apart and causing the oldest child to have a temper tantrum in frustration (mom too). Somehow through this fiasco, we end up with 1 viable house. (The others became, hard dog biscuit type things for the family pet). Oh well, she needs her Christmas goodies too, right? We frosted the house and each child decorated half. The end result? A $75. UGLY gingerbread house that only a grandma (with apologizes from mom), would take and not be too insulted by. But, we did accomplish one of our goals….it was a memory. A memory we fondly call “The Gingerbread Nightmare”.

By Valerie Garner-Get a series of no cost traffic builders that work to get traffic to your website, plus a few ideas for earning income too. Many unique resources you'll love! Mailto: Moredetails@quicktell.com (resource box must be included in article for reprint permission)

Valerie Garner-an author who enjoys writing on a wide variety of topics, mostly pertaining to a home, sprinkled with humour.

About the Author

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Publishing an ezine is the ideal way to reach your target market. How far your reach extends depends on the type of experience you create for your readers.

By giving your subscribers a value-laden, benefit-rich experience you can create an ezine with a loyal and eager following of dedicated readers.

Here are three powerful things you can do to create the type of experience your readers demand:

1. Let Your Readers Get To Know The Real You

My favorite ezines have a personality. The personality of the writer behind the words is what captivates my attention.

Every writer has a unique style, and when it is allowed to flow freely it can be quite contagious. Let the real you come through in your words. Let your style flow from your heart. Just be yourself and talk directly to your subscriber.

An effective technique is to visualize yourself writing to just one person. This person should fit the profile of your target group. If you've properly identified the wants and desires of your audience, you'll find your writing style becomes more natural and flowing.

By using this model you discover the power behind the word "you". You can never use the word "you" too much. You know what I mean?

This approach works even if you are the editor of a corporate or institutional publication. Your own voice is more effective, and affective, than an anonymous, ghost-like corporate voice. You'll discover that the personal approach helps to bridge the gap between a reader and an otherwise impersonal entity.

2. Provide Solutions That Help People Reach Their Goals

Your readers subscribed to your ezine because you made a promise to deliver something of value. You must consistently deliver goal-oriented value to keep loyal readers.

You do this by giving people the tools and information they can use to make their own informed decisions. By creating an environment which seeks to inform, rather than sell, you establish a lasting rapport and an atmosphere of trust.

To put this into practice, deliver the value aspect of your ezine in the form of word pictures. Tell a story drawing on your personal experience and show how you were awakened to a solution. Paint a picture with words to describe the benefits or pitfalls you found by following a particular path.

Publishers who do this are regarded as trustworthy experts. Consequently, they create a following of subscribers who buy products and services based solely on a recommendation.

It is noteworthy, and should come as no surprise, that affiliate commissions are highest among those who use the products they recommend. They are in a position to comment first-hand on the benefits and solutions available in owning the product.

3. Let Your Readers Interact With Your Ezine.

You engage people more fully by allowing them to participate and interact with your ezine. Plus, this interaction lets you take the pulse of readers and find out what's important to them. You can then tailor your content and marketing efforts accordingly.

Here are some ideas to get your readers involved:

> Take a poll. Invite your readers to respond to a short survey question. Provide a set of two or three responses from which they can choose by clicking on the appropriate link.

> Reserve a section of your ezine for reader feedback and invite people to email you with their comments. Personally respond to all email and reprint those which you feel are most beneficial for your readers.

> Have a section of your ezine devoted to reader's questions. Respond in your ezine with thoughtful and insightful answers. This establishes you as an expert in your field, thereby enhancing the worth of your ezine as a source of credible information.

Put the above three principles to work for you and see if you notice a difference. Just keep in mind your reader's desire for goal-based solutions, and let your must-read ezine be a source of must-have value and must-get benefits. You can't lose!

Brett Krkosska provides 'how-to' advice on family and home-based work issues. Stop by his site for startup guidance, home business ideas and inspiration at: http://homebiztools.com For a Fresh and Original perspective on today's home business issues get Brett's ezine at: mailto:enews@homebiztools.com

Here are some maintenance log entries from a major airline – or so the email says, showing the problems reported by pilots (P) and solutions recorded by mechanics (S).

It’s probably true. You couldn’t make these things up.

P: Left inside main try almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main try.

P: Test flight OK, except autoload very rough. S: Autoland not installed on this aircraft.

P: No. 2 propeller seeping prop fluid. S: No 2 propeller seepage normal. Nos. 1, 3 & 4 propellers lack normal seepage.

P: Something loose in cockpit. S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield. S: live bugs on backorder.

P: Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces a 200-fpm descent. S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud. S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S: That’s what they’re there for!

P: OFF inoperative. S: OFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windscreen. S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing. S: Engine found on right wing after brief search. [The pilot meant engine ‘misfiring’.]

P: Aircrafts handles funny. S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Radar hums. S: Reprogrammed radar with words.

P: Mouse in cockpit. S: Cat installed.

Communication is hard in the work world, and in our private lives. Someone said “Whatever you say, assume it’s been misunderstood,” and it’s probably a good idea.

In this case, we can see the misunderstandings, the humor and also the exasperation. Can you imagine the pilot assuming there was “autoload” on his or her airplane? There’s just no telling about other people’s assumptions. I’m reminded of the attorney I once worked for who flagged me down while sharpening a pencil in an electric pencil sharpener. “How do I get this out of here?” he asked me. Or the time our business went computer and my boss took his zip code for his salary and was furious. Sometimes communication takes a lot of tact!

We always tend to think things are easier somewhere else – that the communications we have between inside sales and outside sales are worse in our place, or the communication between lawyer and paralegal, or between partner and partner, or that surely pilots and mechanics can communicae—there’s “only” an airplane between the two of them.

As I say in my ebook, “Communication,” good communication takes a lot of work – expressing yourself clearly, listening up, and repeating back for clarification to make sure you’ve understood and been understood. It’s particularly hard in writing where there’s no feedback (as we see here), and no non-verbals to read.

It also requires excellent emotional intelligence skills – creativity, flexibility, intuition, and empathy.

67% of the qualities that contribute to success are emotional intelligence competencies. Work on your communication! It will pay off in both your private and your professional life.

(c)Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, offers positive psychology coaching and Internet courses on emotional intelligence, optimism and strengths. Visit her on the web at www.susandunn.cc and mailto:sdunn@susandunn. cc for FREE inspirational ezine, FREE Strengths course.

10 First Rate Tips To Getting More Ezine Subscribers By Ken Hill

1. Submit your ezine to ezine directories.

Ezine directories attract people interested in subscribing to ezines that provide them with information about their interests such as marketing, affiliate programs, gardening, or staying healthy.

In addition, ezine directories will help you to find people to buy advertising in your publication as well as other publishers who would like to swap ads or do a joint venture with you.

2. Promote your ezine in your signature file. Include a couple lines of promotion for your ezine in addition to the other information in your sig file.

3. Add a subscription box for your ezine on every page of your site. This will ensure that whatever page your visitors enter your site from, they will be able learn about your ezine and subscribe to your publication.

4. Provide a bonus for subscribing to your ezine such as an ebook, report, tutorial, marketing course, or access to your subscriber's only membership site.

Mention your bonus when promoting your ezine on your site, in your signature file, and when submitting your publication to ezine directories.

5. Buy classified ads or sponsor ads for your publication in ezines that you are already subscribed to and enjoy reading.

Also search ezine directories for ezines that reach your target market and offer reasonable advertising rates.

6. Swap ads with other ezine publishers. Be specific when asking for your ad swap. Clearly define where you will place the other publisher's ad and ask the other publisher to place the same ad for you.

Also ask for confirmation of your ad and a copy of the issue your ad will run in, and provide the other publisher with a copy of her ad and a copy of the issue you run her ad in.

To get the most out of your swaps trying swapping ads for at least 3 issues in a row and track your swaps, so that you will be able to pinpoint which ads and ezines give you the best response.

7. Use your articles to promote your ezine. Add a resource box that advertises your ezine to articles that you've written and run in your ezine or write articles specifically for promoting your ezine.

Next submit your articles to other ezine publishers, to article directories, and to article announcement lists.

8. Use autoresponders to promote your ezine to your visitors. Make sample issues of your ezine available by autoresponder or use your autoresponders to create an archive of all your past issues.

9. Publish testimonials/endorsements for your ezine on your site. If you've received tons of these for your ezine, use an autoresponder to deliver them to your visitors.

10. Swap recommendations with other ezine publishers. You could swap recommendations where the other publisher puts her recommendation of your ezine in her own words while you do the same for her.

You could also publish a recommended ezines section if you wanted to swap recommendations with several other ezines interested in swapping recommendations with each other.

Article Copyright by writer, Ken Hill. Save Money With Affordable Email List Hosting! Fast, easy and cost effective email delivery to your lists. You'll increase your sales while reducing your investment! Get your First 30 Days F-REE! Learn more now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5343

1. Write articles that provide your readers with a list of tips.

Depending on the topics your ezine covers, your tips could be on customer service, autoresponders, or you could provide your subscribers with a list of tips that help them to increase their sales or market their businesses more successfully.

You could also provide your readers with a list of your top tips on a specific subject such as "Top 7 Ways To Promote Your Website" or "Top Ten Ways To Promote Your Ezine."

2. Write "how to" articles.

This type of article shows your reader step by step how to reach an objective such as how to write effective ad copy, get repeat traffic, or how to write effective metatags.

3. Publish interviews.

Contact experts on the topic your ezine covers and request interviews. Most people will agree as it provides them with promotion of their businesses at no cost. Publish your interviews in article format or use the popular Q&A formula.

4. Write articles that focus on a current hot topic, trend or that are "seasonal" in nature such as how to increase sales during the holidays.

5. Provide polls for your subscribers to partake in.

Publishing polls will help you to increase the number of people that read your ezine because your subscribers will be interested in seeing the results.

Your polls can also be used to help you decide on changes in your content, publishing schedule, or to decide on new things to add to your ezine.

6. Provide your subscribers with resources related to your ezine's topic such as places to promote their businesses, ezines, etc.,

You could add these in a recommended resources section. You could also provide a list of your favorite resources such as your top 5 books/ebooks on ezine publishing, marketing or web design with a brief description of each of your resources.

7. Publish an editor's note at the beginning of each issue.

Use your editor's note to increase your profit by announcing any new sales or discounts you have on your products or services.

Also use your editor's note to increase your credibility by providing tips on the topic your ezine covers and by telling your subscribers how you've helped your clients or customers.

8. Provide endorsements within your ezine for your products from respected experts in your field or list testimonials from your satisfied customers.

9. Add an "Ask The Editor" section.

Write out thorough, detailed answers to your subscribers' questions within this section.

This will increase your status as an expert in your field, which will lead to more sales of your products.

You can also use questions you get from your subscribers to get ideas for articles that your subscribers will enjoy and that will keep them reading your ezine.

10. At the end of each issue, tell your readers what your next issue is going to be about such as the title and description of your feature article or anything new that you have planned.

This will help you to increase your readership by getting your subscribers to look forward to your next issue.

Article by Ken Hill. Pick up Ken's new informative course on ezine publishing. Discover tips to successfully promoting your ezine including ways to increase your subscriptions by participating in successful joint ventures with other ezine publishers. Pick up your f-ree course today at: mailto:ezinecourse@netpromarketer.com

I recently spend several frustrating hours laying out and mailing an email newsletter. If you publish a free ezine, you will know its very time consuming to get all the information formatted correctly before sending. My long lesson should help you!

1. Use master templates

Create a master template using a word processor like MS word. Opening a word document, change the font to courier new - The same font that standard text files use.

Create a line of 60 characters across the page. Use "select all" then move your right hand margin to the end of the line, to set the margin for the whole document.

This stops this effect:

--- Hi Welcome to My ezine and Hope...etc ---

Include any details that go in every ezine. -Title, date, lines for layout, contents list copyright etc

Save as a "text file with Line breaks" You can use this to format all your ezines.

Do the same for any articles you write, so your articles are formatted and ready to cut and paste into your ezine.

2. Us a word processor A lot of editors' recommend using a new program just for your ezine, simply follow these steps:

Using the master, open MS word or similar program and open your master file you have created. Now you can use the grammar checker, spelling etc of a powerful program without formatting problems. When you paste any information, recheck the margins.

Remember to check and save as July.txt or whatever for your newsletter and not over your master.

3. Another pair of eyes

Always get it checked "twice", wait until the next day to read it again before sending. I use my wife as a first check, before it goes any further.

4. Check Send You can see what it looks like in your mailbox by using and email bounce service. Send it to mailto:echo@connectingonline.com or mailto:format@mail-list.com. It will bounce back to you. This is helpful especially if you publish an html mailing list.

5. Shortcut on desktop

Place a shortcut to you directory where your master and upcoming ezines are in. That way every time you find a link, that would be helpful to your subscribers, copy and paste it straight in.

6. Build over time

If you ezine goes out fortnightly, the day after it goes out make some progress on the next one, even it means just check the layout, but get it started and finish it a couple days before publishing day. This gives you time to check it before sending.

7. Write your own articles

How can this save your time? By having your own articles, you can increase your creditability and never have to look for new fresh information.

Ezines build customer trust for ongoing sales. Anybody can write articles, you don't have to be a world class author.

8. Use a proof reader

This doesn't have to be a large expensive service, I use students who do a good fast job. I email the information to them, the next day I get it back ready to send. The best way is to send it as an attachment and keep an eye on your formatting when you get it back from them.

9. Treat it like a 100,000

That's right, 100,00 subscribers "and" $100,000. Keep to your publishing dates, treat your subscribers like gold and they will trust you and become long time repeat customers.

10. Use a mailing list provider.

I used a lot of services from software, like mailoop, list servers etc. So far bringing the service in house using a personalized script Mail Master Pro has been a good option, check it out at

http://www.cgitoolbox.com/cgi/mmp/

Personalizing you newsletter will make it "stand out" from the other 80,000+ ezines online.

Producing an email newsletter is an excellent way to build trust, promote your site and increase sales. Remember that it should be only one of you promotion methods and way of increasing sales. Have a great day.

Paul Easton Power Promotion Plus-Free Newsletter, Learn the secrets of Web Site Promotion and get Free Award Software to do it! http://100Promotiontips.com/ezine.htm for more information

When it comes to advertising, I've tried just about everything. I tried free classified ad sites, I tried FFA sites, I tried banner exchange programs.

The results? Not much.

I was tired of hearing that the Internet is the largest market in human history. Maybe so, but how could I reach those millions of people?

The answer, I discovered, is ezine advertising.

Ezines are sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone who receives an ezine has chosen to do so.

And that's why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezines and they'll read your ad. And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience.

There are currently around 90,000 ezines being published every month. So whatever you're selling, there's more than likely an ezine that will take your ad straight to the audience you want to reach.

Ezine advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as well. A 5 line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between $5 and $20 per issue.

As a general rule, you'll always get back at least the cost of the ad, and usually much more. So there's very little risk.

But there are some tips for successful ezine advertising. Here they are:

1. The first and most important rule is: "Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundred responses. If you don't track your ads, you won't know which ezines were pulling responses and which weren't.

But how do you track your ads?

The simplest method is to place a key or a code at the end of your email address:

yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=ezineA

Then, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the subject field, you'll know which ezine it came from.

For a URL, it's the same principle:

http://www.yourdomain.com?ezineA

However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll need a good webstats program to track the coded URLs. These two programs are excellent and they're both free:

Here's another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create a duplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA, this is the URL you'd place in that ad:

http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA

2. Target your audience. It may seem obvious but some advertisers overlook this. If you're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertise in an ezine that deals with stock options; they probably won't be interested.

Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to find ezines that relate to the product you're selling. You can find a list of 56 ezine directories in 'The Free Directory of Ezines' at:

3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience, subscribe to them and examine the ads closely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue after issue, you can be pretty sure that it's getting results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.

4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You probably won't get much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads per issue. Readers of those ezines have become hardened to the ads and have learnt to skip them.

5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of never running ads for two similar products in the same issue - your ad will be much more effective if it's the only one of it's kind in that particular issue.

6. Small ezines Vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always better. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tend to have more ads than the small ezines. Also, small ezines with only a few hundred subscribers often have a much more targeted audience than the big ezines.

7. Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web, an ad has to be seen about 21 times before someone acts on it; on the Internet it's about 9 times. If your budget allows, try and have your ad repeated at least three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offer discount packages for bulk advertising.

8. Email address Vs. URL. The advantage of giving an email address is that it gives you the opportunity to send a powerful sales letter to the person who responded to your ad. It's also much easier to track your ads with an email address than a URL.

9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often tip the balance between a response and no response.

10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the number of words you're allowed. Short ads are more likely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; they pack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don't describe your product but tell the reader what your product can do for them.

Michael Southon is the publisher of 'The Free Directory of Ezines' http://www.netmastersolutions.com/ He is also the Editor of 'FreeZine Express', a twice-monthly newsletter that brings you details of new Ezines added to the TFDE as well as Articles and Tips on Ezine Advertising and Ezine Publishing. To subscribe, send a blank email to: mailto:FreeZineExpress-subscribe@topica.com

1. Promote your ezine on the top third of your site, and on every page of your site with a subscription box that advertises your ezine.

2. Tell your visitors the benefits of subscribing to your ezine -- what's in it for them for subscribing to your ezine.

3. Provide a bonus for subscribing to your ezine. Your bonus could be a f-ree ad, ebook, email course, software, or access to your members only site.

4. Make sample issues of your ezine available to your visitors by autoresponder.

Your sample issues will increase your subscriptions by giving your visitors a firsthand look at the valuable content to be found in your ezine, the topics you cover, your point of view, and your personality.

5. Provide an archive of all your past issues.

You could provide your visitors with a web based archive of all your past issues. This will not only help you to get more subscribers, but will also fill your site with keyword rich webpages which can help your site to rank higher in the search engines.

In addition, you can create your archive by making all of your past issues available by autoresponder if you don't have the time to keep up a web based archive.

6. Tell your visitors that if they subscribe to your ezine that they'll be entitled to subscriber only discounts.

This could be discounts on purchasing your products or discounts on advertising in your ezine.

7. Publish testimonials for your ezine on your site.

This will increase the number of people that subscribe to your ezine by showing them what your ezine has done for other people - how it has helped them, provided them with valuable information, showed them how to promote their businesses etc.

8. Let your visitors know that you will never sell or give away their information. Have a strong privacy policy in place.

9. Tell your visitors what your next issue is going to be about. For instance what the topic of the feature article is or anything new you have planned.

10. Have a sweepstakes or contest for f-ree advertising or products. Tell your visitors that if they subscribe to your ezine that they will be entered every month in your contest or sweepstakes.

Article Copyright by writer, Ken Hill. Save Money With Affordable Email List Hosting! Fast, easy and cost effective email delivery to your lists. You'll increase your sales while reducing your investment! Get your First 30 Days F-ree! Learn more now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5343

One challenge the ezine publisher faces is the creation of good content. Every issue must contain something of interest, something useful to the reader. Here are ten tips which will help you choose the right article to feature in your ezine weekly.

1. ASK YOUR READERS.

Ask your readers what they love most and what they dislike. Give a bonus for answers you receive. You can decide to give a bonus to the first 50 to tell you what you want. This is an effective way to know what article to feature.

2. WRITE ARTICLES.

Write articles and use article announce groups to publicize your new articles. Make it clear in your article that it may be published freely. Those who publish the article will send you a courtesy reply.

Articles that get published by great numbers of people are good. Simply use them in your ezine. Remember to add a little more spice to them.

3. FOLLOW TREND.

Tastes and values change progressively with time. You should also follow trend. Constantly look out for what is new. While retaining the focus of your ezine, add dynamism by following trend.

Use articles that provide dynamism.

4. PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION FORUMS.

Discussion forums are helpful in helping you choose the right article for your ezine each week. Visit these forums and watch the questions asked. Watch also the answers posted. You will be able to determine what topics are hot.

Go out, search for articles on these topics or write on them and you will have great content.

5. TITLE, CONTENT AND AD HARMONY.

Articles that you publish must harmonize with your ezine content for each issue. So should the title. There should also be harmony with the ads you place.

If the focus of your article for the week is how to turn prospects into customers, an ad selling cleaning agents would not be effective.

Work on the harmony of your content. Choose articles that go along with every other thing.

5. PRACTICALITY.

Articles that tell "how" have an effect on readers. It puts them in a mood that will get you really started. I must say it aloud. The reason why you are giving content is to make sales.

“How to" articles make the reader want to click your ads once it harmonizes with the article.

6. DEMOGRAPHIC.

If your ezine has an effective feedback mechanism, you should know who your readers are.

Choose only articles that harmonious with your reader's interest.

7. DETAIL.

I don't know about you, but I like detail. Articles that give information would do just fine.

8. AUTHENTICITY.

Always determine the authenticity of articles you intend to publish. What I mean is try and think on it. Are the principles and logic stated in the article sound?

Articles which pass this test are good enough for your ezine.

9. THE 30SECONDS TEST.

If the article does not sustain your interest (attention) for the first 30seconds (or maximally 60seconds) forget it. Find another article.

You want to sustain your reader's interest so watch out!

10. LANGUAGE.

Look for articles that are written in plane easy to understand language. The last thing you want is to get your reader confused.

C. Oluwafisayo Akinlolu 2003

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Anyone may republish this article as long as the resource box is included. A courtesy copy of published material should also be sent to me. If published at a website, the website should be made known.

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Oluwafisayo is the publisher of Inbusiness4profit. A weekly newsletter which exposes tips and strategies for profits in business. Click http://server.com/webapps/mail-list-subscribe.cgi?id=65509 to subscribe.

He is also giving away The Secrets of Interent Millionaires Bundle, worth over $500. Click http://www.quickinfo247.com/7767817.204/sim to find out more.

HURRY WHILE OFFER LAST! ----------------------------------------

Oluwafisayo is the publisher of Inbusiness4profit. A weekly newsletter which exposes tips and strategies for profits in business. Click http://server.com/webapps/mail-list-subscribe.cgi?id=65509 to subscribe.

1. Provide your subscribers with special offers, discounts or sales that only they are privy to.

This could include subscriber only bonuses for purchasing your product, a two for one sale, or you could sell your product at a lower price for a limited time to boost your sales.

2. Include a publisher's note or welcome message before you get into your ezine's content.

This will help you to add your personality to your ezine as well as help you to build up your subscriber's trust in you and your business.

Your publisher's note is also a great place to be self promotional by telling your subscribers of any special offers or subscriber only discounts you have running.

3. Use bonuses to get more subscriptions to your publication such as ebooks you've written, ebooks you have the resell rights to, a marketing course, or anything else that your visitors would find to be valuable.

4. Promote your ezine on every page of your site with a subscription box that advertises your ezine.

Ask for your subscriber's first name on your subscription box so that you can personalize your ezine with your subscriber's name.

5. Swap ads with other ezine publishers. This will give you an effective way to increase your circulation by promoting your ezine in publications that target the same audience as your ezine does.

Swap ads for at least three issues in a row and track your ad swaps so that you will be able to tell which ezines and which ads get the best response.

6. Purchase classified ads and sponsor ads in other ezines.

As with your ad swaps track your ads so that you can identify which ezines are best to advertise in and which ads are the most effective in increasing your subscriptions.

7. Submit your publication to ezine directories and announcement lists.

This will get your publication noticed by people interested in subscribing to ezines like yours. In addition most announcement lists will allow you to submit your ezine on a weekly or monthly basis which will give you ongoing promotion of your ezine.

Some directories and announcement lists to help you get started are:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sitesandzines/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/List_Of_Lists/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAnnounce/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/for_all_ezine_publishers/ http://ezine-marketing.com/home.shtml http://www.ezinelocater.com/ http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/ http://www.cumuli.com/ http://www.ezine-universe.com/ http://www.webscoutlists.com/ http://www.freezineweb.com/ http://ezinesplus.com/links/ http://www.bestezines.com/ http://www.netterweb.com/ http://ezine-marketing.com/home.shtml

8. Write your own articles that you publish in your ezine.

Writing articles will increase your credibility with your subscribers and lead to more sales of your products.

Try writing "how to articles" that show your readers step by step how to do something or provide your readers with a list of valuable tips.

After your articles place an advertisement that promotes your business, service or special offer.

9. Go through the articles you've run in your ezine and pick those that you feel best showcase your expertise.

Add a benefit rich resource box to your articles that entices your readers to subscribe to your publication and then submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to other ezine publishers.

Some announcement lists and directories you can submit your articles to are:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublisher/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QC_Reprint_Articles/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reprintedarticles/ http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm http://www.marketing-seek.com/articles/index.shtml http://www.goarticles.com/ http://connectionteam.com/ http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/recent.shtml http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.html http://www.ezinearticles.com/ http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml http://www.allnetarticles.com/

10. Use testimonials for your products in your ezine to increase your subscriber's trust in your product and to increase your sales.

Also increase the number of visitors that subscribe to your ezine by including testimonials for your ezine on your site from your happy subscribers.

11. Use your signature file to promote your ezine.

Keep your sig file to 5-8 lines that stress the benefits of subscribing to your ezine and use your sig file in all your outgoing email. This will give you an easy no cost way to promote your ezine and rake in new subscribers.

12. Recommend the products of affiliate programs you've joined to your subscribers.

This will help you to increase your profit while helping you to meet your subscribers needs. Only endorse products you have used and would whole heartedly recommend to your subscriber base.

Article © by writer Ken Hill. Check out the #1 manual Ken recommends for anyone wanting to start their own profitable ezine -- learn how to write irresistible content, gain tons of subscribers while successfully promoting your business all the while. Find out more now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=4274

5 Keys To A Successful Ezine By Al Martinovic

There are 5 basic keys you need for your ezine to be successful and here they are though not necessarily in this order.

1- Hosting You need good reliable hosting for your website. You don't want to lose subscribers because your site is always down. Not only that... it's unprofessional.

Why should someone listen to what you have to say in your ezine when you can't even get the basics of having your website operational?

2- Autoresponders You want to automate everything. An autoresponder will send a confirmation email when someone subscribes. It will handle removal requests and if it has a broadcast feature you can even send out your ezine through it.

You may need multiple autoresponders as you will find that there will be many things you want automated such as when you are offering a free report, or confirmation of an ad someone placed in your ezine... the list can go on and on.

3 - Tracking You may want to track the ads you place when promoting your ezine to find out what ad(s) pull well for you and which don't. You don't want to be wasting your time on ads that don't work. When you find an ad that pulls well... go all out on it.

4 - Products As you start to grow your ezine and build a relationship with your subscribers you need to offer them products. After all... you are in this to make money.

You can create your own products around your list, get resale rights to an existing product to offer to your list or you can join an affiliate program.

Now, I admit... 1-4 can get pretty expensive especially if you are on a tight budget.

TIP #1: You can go here and get all of what I just mentioned in one package and it's super cheap.

http://www.2marketers.com/pbp

5 - Leads Every ezine no matter how big or small needs no or low cost ways of attracting more subscribers.

You can advertise your ezine by submitting to ezine directories, announcement lists, by writing articles, or doing joint ventures such as ad swaps just to name a few. The problem is... all of this can become time consuming.

TIP #2: There is a software that will automate your entire submission process to everything I just mentioned.

http://www.2marketers.com/ea

TIP #3: There is a site that will bring you new subscribers for only 5 minutes of work.

http://www.2marketers.com/pbl

There you have it. By no means is this a complete list but by getting the basics down and following the TIP's I just mentioned, you are well on your way to a profitable ezine.

Al Martinovic has helped numerous individuals succeed online. Send a blank email to get his powerful report "How To Make Money Online With Any Product Or Service Without Spending A Dime In Advertising" mailto:2marketers@getresponse.com

DoubleClick's recent survey indicated that over 88% of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving permission-based email.

The most common forms of permission-based emails are ezines or email newsletters. Currently there are hundreds of thousands of ezines available on the internet.

Ezines are excellent tools for generating new and follow-up sales, driving more pageviews, building customer loyalty, and improving sales credibility and brand awareness.

Even though ezines are vital to the success of every online business, there are some marketers who unknowingly kill their ezines with not-so-wise marketing methods. I have highlighted some of the killer mistakes below.

Killer #1 .. Who needs permission? Just mail 'em!

A recent study of permission email recipients by IMT Strategies revealed the following:

48% were curious to read the permission email 13% were eager to read 30% were indifferent 7% open it somewhat annoyed 2% deleted it without reading

When it came to unsolicited email or spam:

77% deleted it without reading 16% said they were annoyed but opened it 3% were indifferent to it 4% were curious to read spam email 1% percent were eager to read it

In the above results, we can see that 9 in 10 recipients of permission email were fine with reading the messages, with a near half curious to read!

But for spam, 9 in 10 didn't even read the email or were seriously unhappy about opening it.

We can clearly see a remarkable difference in the response to permission-based emails and unsolicited emails. Always ask for permission!

Only add subscribers who have consciously chosen to receive your ezine. You'll reap the rewards of having a highly targeted and loyal audience that are interested in reading what you send them.

There have been many times when I received issues of ezines that I don't ever recalled subscribing to. These ezine owners had taken their own 'initiative' to add me their list. Such spamming antics only seriously piss me off!

Never try to buy a list of email addresses and then send them your ezine issue telling them to remove themselves if they don't wish to get further mailings. That's spamming.

Killer #2 .. Don't let 'em unsubscribe

Since it is so difficult to acquire new subscribers, let's prevent them from un-subscribing at all costs. Heck .. just don't provide them with an unsubscribe option in the newsletter. Then they won't unsubscribe!

Nothing pisses me off more than newsletters that I cannot unsubscribe from. There are no unsubscribe instruction nor any email address to send an unsubscribe request to.

Such practices are totally unethical and unprofessional. If your subscribers can't even trust you over something so minor, how would they feel secure doing business with you?

They may even complain you for spamming and tell people about your unethical conduct. Bad news spread very fast on the internet.

When your subscribers decide to leave your ezine, promptly unsubscribe them. Make sure you never email them again unless they decide to re-join your ezine.

Killer #3 .. Let's blast them with tons of mailings

Recently I had to unsubscribe from several ezines that were sending me a solo mailing every alternate day!

In the beginning I didn't mind those mailings. But after some 14 days of getting tons of advertisements, I bailed out. The DoubleClick survey revealed that the average online consumer receives 36 permission email messages weekly.

With that number of emails waiting to be read, excluding personal messages and spam, you wouldn't want to be guilty of clogging your subscriber's inbox.

Strike a good balance between your profit line and your subscribers' interest. The lifetime value of a subscriber can be worth thousands of dollars. Why kill the golden goose when it can lay golden eggs year after year?

Killer #4 .. Forget about content, I got no time for that

With an intensely fierce competition for ezine eyeballs, your subscribers may unsubscribe after a few issues if they don't enjoy your ezine.

You need to publish real content that appeal to their interest. One of the best ways to discover what your subscribers want to read is to check out the ezines of top players in your industry or related ezines with large subscriber bases.

If they are at the top, they must be doing some things right! It will be an eye opening experience to analyze the kind of content successful ezine publishers offer to their subscribers.

Never fill your ezine with advertisements that are disguised as editorials. Quality content is king!

Killer #5 .. The ezine that never came

Some ezine owners produce a few issues and skip the next few. Or they are perpetually late in mailing out new issues.

If you tell your subscribers that you publish your ezine weekly, make sure it arrives in their mailbox weekly. You lose your subscribers' loyalty and trust when you fail to deliver. How can they then trust you with their credit card numbers?

Publishing an ezine requires time and effort. Writing up the editorial, proofreading and amending the copy (many times), testing the final copy and maintaining the subscriber list can easily take a day or more.

If you can't afford to publish your ezine weekly, do it fortnightly. I don't recommend monthly because the time lapse in between issues are too wide. Try preparing future issues 2 weeks in advance. Have available backup editorial content that you can always fill your ezine with at the last minute.

There you've it .. 5 guaranteed ways to kill your ezine. Well, I hope you'll never need to use them :)

Michael Low is a professional PR Strategist. He provides top- notch PR services at highly affordable rates. Check out his full range of PR packages at http://www.prbuilder.com/pr.cgi?a006

Everyone and their brother seem to be getting into the ezine (Electronic Magazine, or newsletter) business. Competition for subscribers is getting fierce. Getting subscribers is not too hard. But KEEPING them is a challenge!

Here are five important steps to making your ezine subscribers anticipate, open, and read it every time, rather than looking for the delete button or the unsubscribe instructions.

1. Spell it out. Let your readers know exactly what they are going to find in each issue right up front. Include an easy to scan Table of Contents as near the top of the issue as possible. Try to limit any ads or information that precede your ezine Title and table of Contents to one (or less! LOL)

It's no secret that folks are busy. You MUST inform them of what is included in your issue, in a manner that is easy to scan. Of course, this makes the wording of your titles extremely important, if you're going to catch their attention and convince them to scroll down and read what you've spelled out for them.

2. Be consistent. Set a format, and stick to it for every issue. Decide on some basic categories for content, and don't make changes very often. Your subscribers will know what to expect in each issue, and be able to find the information they have been anticipating.

2. Keep it short. Don't overload each issue. Two or three segments per issue. (as above, repeating the same segments in each issue) Don't overwhelm your subscribers with more than they are able to digest, or browse through.

Consider offering one feature article, and one or two other segments, which will all depend on the theme of your ezine. You only have their attention for about 5 - 10 seconds after they open your email. You MUST catch their attention in that time, or they'll be gone. And you'll only get a couple of chances. Sometimes, even less. One or two issues of not catching their attention, and they're looking for the unsubscription instructions.

3. Pack it full. Just because you offer a short, quick, simple to read ezine, doesn't mean you can't fill it full of great information. There is your challenge! And the bottom line to establishing your publication as the one that's read and anticipated. What you choose to include in the short time that you have their attention, MUST be informational, useful, fresh, inspiring, and entertaining. Write your own articles, if at all possible. If you are not ready for that yet, work at finding content that is full of meat - content that gives the reader something to take with him, something you know he can use. There are a lot of article writers out there. Pick and choose carefully - insist on the best!

4. Avoid advertising overload. Yes, we all know, our ezine is our promotion connection to the internet world. But don't take advantage of your subscribers. Minimize the advertising as much as possible. One or two sponsor ads, and a handful of classified ads (no more than 10!) are about all any reader can handle. And beware of trying to pawn off advertising for all your informational content. It might work on some newbies, but you're not going to pull it over on the more experienced reader who is looking for real information. At least, not if it is all they are getting.

This is an important point, especially if you write your own articles. The most published and anticipated articles are those that contain NO personal promotional links whatsover, except in your bio or resource box that you include with the article.

Think about how its done on television, radio, and in all the hard copy magazines. The advertising is there, no doubt. And there is usually more than we appreciate, but we accept it and tolerate it, knowing it pays their bills. But in between the ads, we are more than likely reading that magazine, watching that program, or listening to that station because we are getting something we can use and/or enjoy.

Publishing an Ezine is an important part of marketing any internet site or Ebusiness. It's not an easy task, or something to take lightly. It takes loads of time, lots of research and/or writing, and genuine dedication to your subscribers! Just give them information that is useful, entertaining, inspiring, or of course, all three! They'll anticipate the arrival of your latest issue, and keep on coming back for more!

Mike and Gail of CMYMTC.com, masters in E-Book and Ezine creation along with Internet Marketing, Hosting and Website design, can teach you everything you need to know so you can produce and publish successful E-Books and Ezines. You can share in the profits of their successful products with their top affiliate programs. http://www.cmymtc.com/affprogs.htm

1. Swap ads with other ezine publishers.

Swapping ads creates a win-win situation for you and the other publisher as both of you will get highly targeted promotion of your publications without spending any money.

When asking for an ad swap, personalize your email with that publishers name, and state what your ezine is about, how many subscribers you have, and how often you publish your ezine.

Swap ads for at least 3 issues in a row to maximize the number of new subscriptions to your ezine as well as to see which ezines are best to swap ads with.

If your ezine still has a relatively small subscriber base, you can still trade ads with ezines with a much larger circulation, by offering free ads, ebooks, promotional tools, software, or anything else of value to even up the swap.

2. Pay for classified ads and sponsor ads in ezines.

People that are already actively reading an ezine that deals with the topic yours does, will be very likely to be interested in what your ezine has to offer, and want to subscribe to it.

When paying for advertising in another ezine, your ad is going to be key in generating new subscriptions to your publication.

Start your ad off with an attention getting headline and stress the benefits your future subscriber will receive by subscribing to your publication.

Provide free bonuses to increase the number of people that subscribe such as free ebooks or a free ad, and end your ad with a call to action that directs your reader to click on your subscription address and visit your website.

3. Give your future subscribers a taste of the valuable content to be found in your ezine by writing articles.

Writing articles will supply you with a powerful way to reach thousands and thousands of subscribers at no cost, and also help you brand yourself as a trusted resource in your field of expertise.

Because people that subscribe after reading your articles have already proven to be interested in what you have to say, writing articles will also increase the number of your subscribers that read every issue of your publication.

This will give you more opportunities to market your products to your subscribers and generate more sales.

After you've finished writing your article, post your article on your site, to article directories and announcement lists, and submit your articles to ezine publishers directly.

4. Submit your publication to ezine directories and announcement lists.

Just like when placing a classified ad to promote your ezine, when submitting your ezine to directories and announcement lists, stress the benefits that your reader will get by subscribing to your publication -- what makes your ezine unique, a must read -- and spice up your offer by giving away free bonuses for subscribing.

It's also a good idea to make up a list of keywords that people would use to find your ezine, as some directories will ask for this when you submit to them.

5. Promote your ezine in your signature file.

This is an often overlooked way to promote your ezine but can yield a very good return.

Your sig file should include your name, your ezine's name, the benefits of subscribing to your publication, any free bonuses you are offering, and a call to action that tells your reader how to subscribe to your ezine.

Keep your sig file to no more than 6 or 8 lines, and use your sig file in all your outgoing mail as well as when posting your advice to moderated discussion lists.

Article © 2003 by writer, Ken Hill. Integrate your entire e-commerce web site using an amazing all-in-one solution. Includes unlimited autoresponders, easy mailing list management, newbie friendly shopping cart, affiliate program software, and much more! Get your free 30 day trial now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5029