Things You'll Need:
- Computer Internet access Website Digital camera Photo-editing software Business license Business plan
-
Step 1
Identify what you're really passionate about. This will constitute the primary focus of your magazine's content and can be anything from the political scene to raising ferrets.
-
Step 2
Identify your target readership. If the topic you identified in Step 1 is too broad (i.e. "Life!"), you may be biting off more than you can chew and have a difficult time offering something for everyone. If your focus is too narrow, (i.e., "Penguins"), there may not be enough people who are interested in it, and you could have a problem attracting advertisers.
-
Step 3
Research your competition. If, for example, you are going to launch a new ezine about writing, a Google search would reveal that there are already several hundred writing-related ezines. Familiarize yourself with what your competitors are doing--as well as who is advertising on their sites--so that you can give your new venture a fresh and interesting slant.
-
Step 4
Determine how often you will publish your ezine and whether it will be emailed automatically to your subscribers each time a new issue comes out or will be available 24/7 to anyone who discovers it through a search engine. Depending on the amount of content, once a month might be a reasonable starting point.
-
Step 5
Draft a business plan. Decide what it is you want your ezine to accomplish and how you plan to measure its growth.
-
Step 6
Decide whether you are going to be writing all of the ezine content yourself or soliciting material from others. If you're going to solicit material, you'll need to decide whether you can afford to pay people for their contributions or work out an equitable exchange for free advertising of their own products or services in the ezine.
-
Step 7
Acquire a business license and officially register of your ezine's name. The website of the Small Business Administration walks you through the steps for establishing your new venture and also includes articles and tips for building a business from the ground up.
-
Step 8
Design a template for your ezine. This is going to include a distinctive masthead, a consistent color scheme and definitive sections of content so that your readers will always know where things are located. Make your magazine easy to navigate. It's also critical to use a font that is easy to read and to use that font throughout the publication.
-
Step 9
Sign up for an ezine service provider such as Zinester and EZezine to help get the word out and attract subscribers.
-
Step 10
Use photographs to give your ezine lots of visual variety. Unlike a print magazine, where an abundance of color is going to drive up the cost, an ezine offers much more freedom of expression. If you have a digital camera and photo-editing software, you can easily crop images, create special effects and montages, and manipulate the color. The photos can then be inserted in text boxes throughout the content.
-
Step 11
Do link and banner exchanges with other websites. Volunteer to contribute content to their sites if they'll write content for yours.
