The Non-Definitive List of E-zine Directories

This article is written for anybody who reads,
publishes or plans to publish and e-zine or newsletter.

Whenever I read about the best ways to promote an
online newsletter, listing in e-zine directories is
always mentioned as one of those 'no-brainer' things
that every publisher should automatically do.

So I figured, why not? Everyone else seems to be doing
it, I'd better do the same.

Not so easy. In the first place, try looking up 'ezine
directories' on google. I got 1690 results. A lot of
those results turned out not to be a directory, but a
list of other directories. The list seemed endless.

In the second place, most of the lists of directories I
found turned out to be hopelessly out of date.

So I decided to build my own list of e-zine directories

As I started following the links I hit up against one
of the worst aspects of the Internet. Here is a list of
the 14 principle reasons why so many of the links
turned out to be useless:

1. Site no longer exists
2. Site appears to exist, but content is all pre 1998
3. Site appears to be running, but many links are dead
4. Message says 'Site no longer maintained.'
5. Site so badly designed, navigation impossible
6. Site caused my eyes to bleed (figuratively!)
7. Site bombarded me with multiple pop-ups
8. Site not relevant (no e-zine list)
9. Site appeared to be a scam
10. Site redirected to a different URL
11. Payment required to list e-zine
12. Site offered no explanation, name or logo
13. Site no longer accepting submissions
14. Site 'under construction.'

According to my 'History' file, I have visited over 800
sites in the past 3 days. My back hurts, my eyes hurt
and my brain has turned to jelly. But I think that I
have done it!

All told, I have boiled these 800 'possibles' down to a
list of 33 e-zine directory sites that all work, and
all accept submissions. That list can be freely
accessed on the BizE-zine web site at

http://www.BizE-zine.com/directories1.htm

In order to test them, I have submitted my newsletter
details to every one (apart from paml.com which seems
to be working, but the link to the submit page
doesn't.) The responses I have had so far are varied:

1. No response
2. A polite email confirming my submission
3. Immediate listing
4. An onscreen notice confirming submission and
advising that entry to the list may take some time.

I plan to revisit each of the sites after one month and
report back on whether I got listed or not.

Of course, I have no idea whether I will get any new
subscribers from all this effort, but I made my entries
in such a way as to be able to track the source of any
submissions that do arise. I will report on that too in
a month.

Six of the sites also accept postings of articles. This
could be very useful, but in a few cases, it seemed
easier to post than to read those which were already
there! Maybe that was just me.

Nine sites also had a good amount of extra content
which would be very useful to publishers of e-zines.

These are all indicated on the BizE-zine web site.

Finally, I have ranked the 33 sites in order of their
Alexa ranking. This purports to measure the site's
traffic. I am not sure about the legality of quoting
the Alexa figures directly, so I have simply put the
sites in order - highest traffic at the top.

Is this list definitive? I hope not! I am sure that
there must be lots more sites on the Internet that
could be included. If you run one, or know of one,
please email me at mailto:martin@BizE-zine.com so that
I can update the list.

Similarly, if you have had any success with any of the
sites I have listed, please let me know - perhaps I can
include a 'users comments' section on the web page.

My next project is to do the same thing for Article
repositories ... but not right now - I feel a migraine
coming on.