Interviews With Successful Ezine Publishers - Jan Wallen

Jan Wallen is publisher of Serious Income, an ezine for the online entrepreneur. It includes articles, tips, and tools to help her readers achieve greater success in their online businesses.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.seriousincome.com

KH: How important has publishing an ezine been to your business?

JW: It has been very important in helping me establish relationships with people on the Internet. It adds that personal touch.

KH: How long have you been running an ezine and how many subscribers do you have?

JW: About 2 years, and I currently have 3500 subscribers. I had to take a lengthy hiatus due to some personal issues, but the main subscriber base stayed with me when I began publication again. I am now in the rebuilding phase.

KH: Do you submit your ezine to directories and/or announcement lists and if so how effective has this been in gaining new subscribers to your publication?

JW: I do submit to directories. This has worked quite well for me. I have not had very good response from announcement lists.

KH: Do you write and use your own articles to promote your ezine? How valuable has writing articles been in promoting your ezine?

JW: I do a combination of my own articles and fresh material by other well known and well respected internet business people. Writing my own articles and submitting them to other publications is a tremendous way to add new subscribers and create awareness of Serious Income.

KH: What methods do you use to promote your products or services within your ezine?

JW: I occasionally use personal endorsement for a handful of selected products or services. I mostly use classified ads at the end of the information. I always try to have some free tools available in each issue that I think will be valuable to the subscriber.

KH: How do you go about preparing your ezine for publication?

JW: I am constantly on the look out for strong, relevant material. I keep an ongoing file for future issues, and as I see items I wish to include, I place them into the appropriate file. Then when it is time to send it out, most of the work is already done. This is particularly helpful if something comes up unexpectedly.

I use an automated system for sending out the ezine and try to stay about 3 issues ahead in placing them into the software. That way, I can just hit the send button at the appropriate time and the work has all been done ahead of time. That saves me a lot of problems.

KH: Any advice to future ezine publishers? Things to look out for or things to concentrate on when publishing an ezine?

JW: I feel that it is very important to have a niche - to offer something that is not currently being offered elsewhere. It is vital to have an identity that is unique. If you consistently focus on offering value to your readers, your subscribers will be extremely loyal.