An ezine has become on the most effective marketing tools on the Internet today. Unlike a traditional magazine or newsletter, the ezine (also referred to as an email magazine) is an easy to put together publication that\'s only available through the Internet via email or a website. This eliminates the costs associated with traditional magazines such as printing and distribution.

If you do a search about any subject online you are going to find that you have the opportunity to join hundreds of ezines on various targeted subjects. Since the development of an ezine is a perfect method to build an opt-in list of potential clients for your products and services, it\'s imperative that you develop your own online publication. Otherwise you\'re only leaving potential sales on the table.

So what are the steps to developing a successful online ezine?

The truth is that with a simple piece of software and knowledge on a certain subject, you can create your own ezine and start adding people to your subscriber database in a matter of minutes.

Here are the four steps to creating your ezine and getting it online.

Step #1 - The first thing you need to do is choose a name for your ezine that describes the content you will be providing. Obviously you want to create an ezine that relates to the products or services that you are going to be selling. For example, If I have a product or service that deals with weight loss & nutrition I might name my ezine the following, \"Lose Weight Safely - The eZine Dedicated To Safe and Effective Weight Lose Techniques\". The main thing is to make the name of your ezine exciting and let the subscribers know exactly what they are subscribing to.

Step #2 - After you create the theme and title of your ezine, the next thing you will want to do is add an opt-in form to your website so people can subscribe to receive your publication. The reason you want to do this before you actually create your first ezine, is that you need subscribers to send information to. You might as well be building your database while you develop a quality publication.

In order to add an opt-in form to your website you are going to need an auto-responder service such as Aweber. An auto-responder is an email marketing and database tool that allows you to build an opt-in list and then email that opt-in list your ezines and email promotions. The auto-responder service you choose will give you a snippet of code you can add to your website, blog, MySpace page, etc. that will allow visitors to subscribe to your new ezine.

Step #3 - After your opt-in forms are added to your web properties it\'s time to start encouraging your visitors to subscribe to your new ezine. You can do this by offering your visitors extra freebies simply for signing up for your publication. Some good ideas are free eBooks, discounts on products, vouchers, reports and audios. The important thing is to add on the value a person will receive when they sign up and make them an offer they just can\'t refuse. By doing this you can drastically increase your opt-in rates and build your subscriber base at a much faster rate.

Step #4 - All that\'s left to do from here on out is produce a quality publication to send to your subscriber base. When writing your ezine newsletters it\'s important that you continually offer valuable and relevant information about your selected topic. This will ensure that you will retain your subscriber base and avoid having people \"opt-out\" of receiving future information.

Make sure you keep your direct advertising to a minimum and find a way to \"work in\" your products and services into the subject you are writing about. Giving someone a subtle suggestion about a product or service often works way better than blatantly advertising to them.

In closing, you now have the formula for successfully creating your own ezine. While most web publishers worry about creating the perfect ezine before they start building their opt-in base, you will grow your database much quicker by working in reverse and then writing quality content as your subscriber base grows.