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| Blogs versus ezine or both | Views: 1379 |
| Apr 29, 2007 6:04 am | | Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
sherry woodhouse | | Hi all!
I couldn't think of a better group to ask this question. Blogs seem to be one of the new things now. I haven't taken the plunge yet but I am thinking about it. Do you think a blog should be used instead of an ezine or should a blog be done along with an ezine? Why or why not?
Thanks
SherryPrivate Reply to sherry woodhouse |
| Apr 30, 2007 9:43 pm | | re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
DeAnna Troupe, Video Marketing Specialist | | I think that a blog should be done along with an ezine. This way you get both audiences. There are some people who "get" ezines that don't really get blogging. If you only have a blog you miss these people. If you have a blog then you have an rss feed which is good for search engine purposes. Plus there are directories for blogs only as well as for ezines only. Just my two cents on the issue.
DeAnna Spencer
DeAnna Spencer's Virtual Assistant Service
http://www.deannaspencer.comPrivate Reply to DeAnna Troupe, Video Marketing Specialist |
| May 01, 2007 2:46 am | | re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Laura Orsini | | I agree with D. Spencer that both are a good idea. The reason being that they reach people in different methods. Depending on how well you market your blog and list it on the myriad blog directories available, people can and will stumble upon it. And if it's good enough that the readers like it enough to pass it on, you can create good word-of-mouth buzz.
eZines, on the other hand, are sent to targeted readers you already know (or who are already familiar with you because they've signed up for your eZine at your Web site or through some other channel).
So with a blog, the readers generally come to you; with an eZine, you send the material to the readers. In my personal opinion, blogs also can tend to be a little less formal than an eZine. Most eZines have regular features and components, and are distributed on a regular schedule. Many blogs appear to be less formal and have random-to-haphazard scheduling, if they have any scheduling at all.
For maximum ROI, you need to do either or both with great consistency.
Best of luck -
Laura Orsini
laura@wordsmadeeasy.comPrivate Reply to Laura Orsini |
| May 01, 2007 11:22 am | | re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Janet Barclay | | I agree with both Deanna and Laura.
I started my blog last fall, after publishing an ezine for several years. My ezine is fairly formal and is from "my business" as opposed to "me" but my blog is more personal.
Many people have visited my blog that would probably not have signed up for my ezine, or even visited my website, so I'm getting exposure that way. On the other hand, some of my ezine subscribers have become clients after receiving my ezine over a period of time, so I know it's also effective.
Janet Barclay, Organized Assistant
Web: http://www.organizedassistant.com
Blog: http://www.janetbarclay.com
Private Reply to Janet Barclay |
| May 01, 2007 3:09 pm | | re: re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Steve MacDowall | | I would like to start a blog but not sure where to start. Who would be the best to go with or does it matter? I've published my newsletter for over 7 years, it stands now at 11,000 subscribers.
could you suggest which blog group to go with?
thanks
Steve
Steve MacDowall
publisher of the Thursday File
over 11,000 subscribers
www.thursdayfile.ca
click on the apple!
Private Reply to Steve MacDowall |
| May 02, 2007 10:22 am | | re: re: re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Janet Barclay | | There are so many to choose from so it really depends on what you are looking for. Some things to consider:
- free versus paid service
- hosted on their server or on your website
- do you want to be able to customize the template - if so, can this be done, and how easily
- can you assign categories/tags to your entries
- can you upload photos or other files (if this is something you want to do)
JanetPrivate Reply to Janet Barclay |
| May 02, 2007 1:00 pm | | re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Marta Zuazo | | Blogs are a good help to get your eZine exposed to more people. Search engines love blogs because they usually are updated often and saerch engines are always looking for new, unique content. This means you should be prepare update your blog often -at least once a week- but don't worry, you can post to many blogs via email and RSS feeds.
You can start by opening an account at
http://wordpress.org/
http://www2.blogger.com/
Both are free -and you can install the blogs later in your web site later if ou want. I would suggest start with a simple blog about a hobby, just to get the feeling of both platforms and see what you like. Don't worry, they are free, you can drop them.
We use an ezine and a site blog at www.all-foods-natural.com
Private Reply to Marta Zuazo |
| May 03, 2007 12:45 am | | re: re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
sherry woodhouse | | Great comments. Seems both is the way to go. Another question, how would you stagger the blog with the ezine - maybe weekly with the blog and continue monthly with the ezine? Should the content of both sort of mirror each other? The ezine is about travel to Jamaica. Private Reply to sherry woodhouse |
| May 03, 2007 5:21 am | | re: re: re: Blogs versus ezine or both | # |
Marta Zuazo | | How often?
For your ezine, you know better than anyone what your subscribers want, and the effort you can commit. Probably monthly is about right. If you want to publish more often, I would try every other week, more than weekly -all of us have information overload.
Do the blog at least weekly; more often if you can. Many people post daily, but many take advantage of the facility of posting through email -you can program an autoresponder to send a post to the blog weekly, for instance- or RSS -there are programs that would update your blog from RSS feeds.
Content - both should be related but not the same. Search enines are now penalizing duplicate content -to take down a peg those sites that are nothing more than a few articles with little valuable information and lots of advertistments- so, I would change it.
In one of the blogs, I publish only teasers to the content in my site, others have indepedent articles and recipes. Private Reply to Marta Zuazo |
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