Publishing an e-zine or blog can be daunting to say the least. After the initial excite wears off publishers are faced with the reality of finding new content before the next publication date. But what to write about?

The answer is simple. Look back at your past clients or customers, what questions do they always ask you? If you haven’t been keeping track of those questions then I suggest it’s time to start. Usually, sites keep track of these questions in their FAQ or frequently asked questions page.

You can develop a whole series of articles or blog posts by taking each question answering it and expounding upon it. Make sure you answer the question in a clear and concise manner.

By sharing you knowledge and expertise, you’ll build credibility as an expert in your field, while spreading the word about your product or services to those who are most interested.

Here are 3 reasons why your business should consider publishing a regular e-zine at least once a month to increase you sales.

1. E-zines Demonstrate Your Expertise

Typical marketing methods only tell your potential customers how great you may be. But how does a potential client really know whether or not you are worth your salt? How do you develop a relationship of trust with someone you have never met and has not seen an example of your work?

Writing a regular e-zine focusing on helpful topics important to your reader base demonstrates your knowledge and expertise. Try to write articles that will answer frequently asked questions of your target audience. Over time your audience will come to recognize you as a source of insight, inspiration and expertise on the subject and trust your recommendations. In their eyes you become an industry expert.

2. E-zines Keep Your Name Fresh in Your Clients Minds

Unless you contact your past clients on a frequent basis they will soon push your name out of their minds. It’s not that they don’t like you but they have businesses to run and the pressures associated with it.

A regularly published e-zine will keep your name in front of their eyes just at the time when they might need you the most. Helpful and relevant content will keep them coming back to you time and time again. After all you are their recognized expert in the field.

3. E-zines Help Develop Mailing Lists

Offering a free e-zine is the best way to get potential clients name and email address. The value of a mailing list cannot be over stated. Once a person gets on your list you can market to them over and over a gain. Keep in mind their experience has to be good so they come back for more.

The third in my series, “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business”. Today let’s see how an ezine can drive sales.

It’s not unusual for a well-written ezine to achieve sales conversion rates of over 40%. An outstanding number when you take into account the average banner ad click through rate is less then 1%.

Why are conversion rates so much higher for ezines?

The typically email user averages around 100 emails every day. Most of them junk but a few a full of quality information that they just can’t wait to read. They quickly delete the rest and read their favorites in depth. If they are actively participating in your community chances are your ezine is the one they are just waiting for.

Your readers trust, they recognize you as an expert. When you make a recommendation they listen. Herein lies the power. You begin making promoting your products in a deliberate but respectful manner, and the best part of all your readers will listen.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s tip as I continue my series on “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business”

The second in my series, “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business”, let’s talk about how ezines build communities.

How many times have you been out with a group of friends and some one mentions a interesting topic and everyone chimes in with his or her thoughts and opinons. Ezines are great opportunities to begin that same type of discussion with your clients or customers. Because the ezine readers can participate in the discussion they feel they are getting something extra that non-ezine subscribers are not getting. A sense of community develops as more and more readers contribute their thoughts and return on a regular basis to check responses to their comments.

Your ezine provides the foundation for these discussions. Consequently, the community feels loyalty to you because you have answered their questions and provided them with a voice. That community is where the gold lies.

How would you business improve from developing a community from your ezine?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s tip as I continue my series on “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business”

The first post in our series, “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business” I’m going to look at how ezines can increase your sites readership.

An ezine isn’t the end-all, silver bullet, that automatically solves your Internet business problems but if you aren’t publishing an ezine on a regular basis, maybe you should?

How does an ezine increase your readership?

Ezines by their very nature are a viral marketers best friend. Let’s look at an example that has happened to me many times… I receive several online marketing oriented ezines each week. Sometimes, I see a tip or technique that I really like and want to share with my associates. What do I do? I just forward them the ezine with my recommendation. My associates are much more likely to read the ezine and visit the site it came for tips because it came from me, someone they know and trust. In this manner a fledgling ezine magnify the number of readers a site has tenfold in as little as a few issues.

Think about it…how many times have you forwarded an ezine article you liked to some of your friends or associates? It happens all the time, each time yu do it your increasing some sites readship.

Let me ask you, how would your business improve by doubling or tripling your sites readership in a couple of short months?

Stay tuned for tomorrow tip as I continue my series on “How an Ezine Can Improve Your Business”

Today I’m going to start a series of posts on how e-zines and/or newsletters can improve your business. I’m going to be taking a number of ideas and making individual posts for each tip. At the end of the series I will compile the tips into a cohesive article that will later be published in the articles section of my blog. I will also be publishing the articles to various article repositories and distribution centers.

All right let’s get to the tips on how e-zines can improve your business…