Format

PDF format is a good one to use; this retains the printed format on the web and makes it less likely that people can make alterations to your work. It is possible to alter PDFs, but it requires special software.

Content

As with any magazine, you will need to generate editorial copy; however, there are also other options for e-zines. There are many free articles available to download from the Internet and these can be accessed from many websites (check before using them that they really are available for republishing).

It is worth having a really enticing article at the beginning of the e-zine; unlike printed magazines, where people flick through the pages, often beginning at the back, if the start of an e-zine is not attractive the rest of it may never be read.

The same principle applies to the beginning of articles where, if the first line is really enticing, readers are more likely to continue with the rest of the article. It is also important to have really good headlines and sub-heads, which help draw readers in. Headings can incorporate an interesting item from the following article, and can include words that create an emotional response, and can also indicate the benefits to be gained from reading the article. Some words that have been shown to be effective in gaining attention in headlines for articles, reports and letters are: ‘Now’, ‘You’, ‘Free’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Discover’, ‘How to’.

Security

Once an e-zine is on the Internet it is impossible to prevent it from being copied and sent to other people. However, the same applies to printed publications which can be photocopied quite easily. You can include a statement to the effect that unauthorised reproduction or distribution is prohibited, but this can be very difficult to enforce. However, there is software that enables you to ‘hide’ elements within images on the web so that if you find they have been used elsewhere you can identify that they ‘belong’ to you (this process is called steganography).

Cost

An e-zine can be charged for or sent free, depending on whether you are running a commercial business or not. If you do charge, you may consider arranging online payment, although this will require setting up an account with one of the services through which you will have to operate such payments, and this will cost you an upfront fee plus a percentage of each transaction. It does, however, make it simpler for people to subscribe to your e-zine.

There are some useful ways of encouraging people to subscribe to e-zines; these include reduced rates for an initial period, additional issues in return for payment by standing order or direct debit, or asking for a deferred payment that is only actioned after a particular period of time – for example, one to three months after subscribing, so that the subscriber can get used to the publication before finally committing money to it.

Method Of Distribution

You can send your e-zine as an attachment to an email message or you can direct people to your website where they can find the e-zine (in which case it is useful to do a reminder to people each time an issue comes out so they know a new one has arrived on your site). If you send your e-zine as an email attachment, you need to consider its file size and how long it will take to download. If recipients are on broadband, this is not such an important factor but, for those who are not, a large file size can take a very long time to download and the recipients are also at the mercy of telephone line ‘blips’ while downloading, which result in disconnection and the need to download all over again.

If you simply put the e-zine on your website, people can then choose just to read it online, or to print out single pages as and when they choose. You should also consider the time it takes for people to get into your site to view your e-zine and this will relate to your design elements – lots of fancy graphics and moving elements will add substantially to the time taken – and there is evidence that after fifteen to thirty seconds people tend to lose interest and give up if they have not yet accessed the material for which they are searching.