CRYSTAL BALL GAZING : Ezine Publishing Predictions You Can Profit From In 2002

It's the time of the year when I take a break to reflect upon
the year that's been - and wonder about the year ahead. In
2001, ezine publishing took a quantum leap, evolving from
being predominantly an amateur's hobby into the most
powerful marketing tool for business online.

For an ezine publisher it has been an exciting and eventful
year. A growing number of budding e-publishers have hopped
aboard the ezine bandwagon. Just last quarter, the sales
figures for my ezine creating and publishing tutorial -
EZINE LAUNCH - have shot up by over 380%

So what does the future hold in store for the ezine industry?
I gaze into my crystal ball and I see....

1. ... EZINES BECOME MORE COLORFUL, GLITZY, INTERACTIVE ....
and HUGE

HTML email newsletters have come of age. Increasingly more
ezines are going this route. Subscribers too prefer them to
drab, lack-lustre text-only ezines. In the coming year we'll
see more ezines being published in HTML. But for a different
reason.

HTML ezines allow advanced tracking of results from
advertising and allow newer and more elaborate forms of
marketing. That - more than user preference - will convince
publishers to create their ezines in rich text format.
Large file sizes will however continue to remain a concern.

2. ... DOUBLE OPT-IN AND PRIVACY ISSUES TAKING PRIORITY

The growing concern about privacy and the more aggressive
activism against unsolicited bulk commercial emailers will
guarantee that all responsible online marketers, especially
ezine publishers, will take steps to avoid accusations of
spamming. Double opt-in subscription processes will become
the norm - read my article on it here
Privacy
policies will become more stringent and will be implemented
more seriously.

3. ... MORE EZINES MOVING TO PAYING-SUBSCRIBER MODELS

... but they're continuing to offer free versions too !

It's no longer easy to publish a quality ezine at low cost.
Expect to see most content-rich ezines move to a
paying-subscriber model. To retain existing subscribers and
attract new ones, ezine editors will continue to offer free
versions. But they will be 'lite' forms with a little
content packaged with a lot of advertising.

4. ... EZINE PUBLISHING SERVICES BECOMING FEE-BASED

The larger free ezine services have merged into behemoths.
Soon they'll start charging for their offerings. Topica has
made the first foray into this arena. Soon others will
follow. They will be worth the price for busy ezine
publishers.

5. ... 'FULL-PACKAGE' EZINE CREATION SERVICES EMERGING

It is a ripple that could become a wave. These are services
offering to undertake the entire ezine creation process
including generating subscribers, creating content,
distributing the newsletter - even finding advertisers and
tracking results. A few will debut in 2002. I'm not certain
if they'll survive.

6. ... EZINE ADVERTISING EXPLODING

Where all other forms of online advertising are losing
impact, results from ezine marketing are exploding. If done
correctly, an ezine marketing campaign can become the most
effective - and least expensive - tool for any business.
I'm so convinced of this fact that I've even launched a new
course called EZINE MARKETING TIPS that delivers a daily tip
on intelligent ezine marketing to subscribers by email. More
info at

7. ... NEWER FORMS OF EZINE ADVERTISING EVOLVING

From being vehicles for classified ads and sponsorship
messages, ezines will morph into more sophisticated
marketing media. Advertorials, product placement ads (like
those in Apple's ezine that get me drooling, and then
ordering the cool new accessories for my Mac that I hadn't
ever thought about buying), and with the move to Rich Text
format, the web-style multimedia ads will all take ezine
advertising to a new plane. Whether or not it will be more
productive, we'll have to wait and see.

8. ... MANY EZINES USING THIRD-PARTY CONTENT

Some already do. More will in 2002. Creating an ezine from
scratch is hard work. Content creation and aggregation
services will find a niche to set up and grow. The move to
a paid-subscription model will help finance this process.

9. ... HIGHER QUALITY ACROSS ALL EZINES

Overall ezines will be more professionally created, contain
useful content and be more valuable to readers. Only
serious epublishers will devote the time and money required
to send out ezines - and they're willing to learn to do it
right. Courses like my ebook, EZINE LAUNCH, and wonderful
discussion lists on ezine publishing have done their bit to
help.

And that's where my crystal ball mists up and gets too cloudy
to peer further. But there are two more things that I would
like to see happen in 2002. One is as an ezine publisher,
the other as a subscriber.

-- EZINE AD NETWORKS GROW AND EXPAND

Selling ad space on ezines is a bugbear for many ezine
publishers. Ad networks exist for websites; they represent
web advertising space across multiple sites and sell them to
large advertisers. It is time someone helps do this for
ezines, especially the smaller ones that are not attractive
to advertisers on their own. Ezine Ad Networks are needed
badly - NOW !

-- CREATE YOUR OWN EZINE SERVICES

As a subscriber, I've often wished there was an ezine that
would cover all my interest areas and include recent,
relevant and essential content about each. Why don't large
content portals allow readers to create their own ezine -
choose the type of content, frequency, interest areas and
more? The portal would then deliver the custom-made ezine
on the user's preferred schedule. I'd be willing to pay a
fee for this service.

Ok, ok, I'm dreaming.