Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Asking Readers to Respond: Elancer Tries To Be A Blog

I got an ezine this morning, which looked so much like a blog I was baffled. I clicked over the site where the ezine is posted: each entry has the typical blog footer, like Comment...Subscribe...Forward...and icons to submit to social networking sites.

But when I clicked on the comment and forward links, it brings up an email you can send. So it's not a blog, it's an ezine with the ability to reply built in.

Elance is a site where you can find good cheap freelancers of almost any profession. Their ezine is called Elancer. What I like about this issue was they are walking their talk - they ask readers to vote on a new logo which freelancers have designed for them. Check it out and vote.

How easy is it for people to reply to your ezine? Can you ask them to vote on something? It makes me wonder why Elance didn't just do a blog, instead of copying the style and form.

Parking Horror Stories: Read the Parkazine Newsletter

I hate cars and I hate traffic. I work from home, and only ever have to drive one mile to the tennis courts and the grocery store. But Erik Feder writes a good ezine about parking your car, mainly in Manhattan where some parking fees rival apartment rentals in other cities.

Erik is The Blog Squad's Ideal Client who is being coached live on the air during our weekly radio show Blogging and Beyond. I subscribed to his weekly Parkazine newsletter to review it.

Here are three things I like about Erik’s e-newsletter, the Parkazine:

Newsletter Nuggets- Tips for Writing Great Ezines

Subscribe to Newsletter Nuggets today. Save time, money and energy AND publish an ezine that gets results. When you subscribe today, you get two bonus reports and an exclusive discount on Secrets of Successful Ezines ebook.

Patsi Krakoff, Editor

Check out our new article directory for coaches, consultants, managers, and executives.

Subscribe to Newsletter Nuggets today. Save time, money and energy AND publish an ezine that gets results. When you subscribe today, you get two bonus reports and an exclusive discount on Secrets of Successful Ezines ebook.

Patsi Krakoff, Editor

Check out our new article directory for coaches, consultants, managers, and executives.

Savvy Biz Tips: Get Almost Everything You Need to Grow Your Biz Online

Denise and I are streamlining our businesses as we merge both our independent practices into one entity. Our new weekly biz tips ezine, Savvy eBiz Tips, is the way that smart online entrepreneurs can get updates on the essential tools and tactics to use to attract, sell and make money over the Internet.

You can subscribe here: www.savvyebiztips.com, and get two special reports, How to Pick a Shopping Cart, and 31 Frequently Asked Questions about List Building.

You will get almost everything you need to grow your business online. Why "almost"? Because once you have certain online tools in place, the rest is up to you. You can then go out and create the relationships and contacts you need to attract people into your realm of business, and work your magic with them. That is up to you, that's your job!

WordBiz Report Does It Again

Happy 4th birthday to Debbie Weil who began publishing her WordBiz report July 21, 2001. To celebrate, Debbie has produced another fine ezine, one that sets the gold standards on several points.

1. She asks for frequent reader feedback.
2. She links to several bonus articles, thus providing timeless valuable content on writing good ezines and blogs.
3. She is friendly and appears genuine in her request for readers email her.
4. She is giving away several copies of a book, in return for readers time in completing a survey about blogging.
5. She describes her progress on the book she is writing about corporate blogging and how readers can actually contribute to it.

Debbie is actually my unsuspecting Blog Fairy, responsible for my taking the plunge close to a year ago. Without her persistence about the value of blogs for small businesses like mine, I never would have started Coach Ezines blog, or BigBook Nuggets blog, or the new Brain-FX blog.

And Denise Wakeman might not have started BizTipsBlog, and we both wouldn't have co-mothered The Build a Better Blog System and Services.

I guess that makes Deb our Blog Godmother...or some such silly thing.

Anyway, I digress. My point is, if you want to write really good ezines, newsletters and blogs, look at what the professionals are doing. Imitate them. Learn from them...or her in this case.

Ezines on Writing Better Ezines

Here's an interesting blog that has some great resources for writing better ezines: Nick Usborne writes about writing online on his Excess Voice blog. On Saturday he published the results of a survey where he asked his readers to name their favorite newsletters and ezines for copywriting info.

Read his list here.

Here's a couple I think you might find interesting:

PsychoTactics Newsletter
Sean D'Souza's newsletter on marketing and copywriting, from a perspective of how the brain works.

ProofreadNOW
A Grammar Tips newsletter for those who care about good grammar and error-free pages.

BluePenguinDevelopment Newsletter
Michael Katz's e-newsletter on the subject of e-newsletters. (This is a favorite of mine, because Michael has mastered the art of taking personal stories and turning them into good newsletter fodder.)

Nick Usbourne's blog has a Monday morning copywriting tip. The one today is on taking front page news stories and turning them into good copy for your newsletters, ezines, blogs and PR releases.

So, I gotta ask, what are your favorite newsletters and ezines? Do you know of any that help you write better ezines?