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How to Publicize Your E-Zine by Chip Rowe Once you've created an e-zine, how do you get the word out? This guide offers some strategies to let the world of readers know about your work. Also, check out these eight great tips from Christopher Pirillo, editor of the e-zine Lockergnome and author of the book Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing. Announce Your E-Zine Announce the contents of your new issue on alt.zines. If it's an ASCII text zine, you can also post it on alt.ezines or alt.etext. If it's a binary, or executable file, post on alt.binaries.zines. Finally, announce new Webzines on comp.infosystems.www.announce (first visit the group's charter at http://boutell.com/~grant/charter.html) and Net Announce at http://www.erspros.com/cgi-bin/neta/na-artweb.pl. Make Sure You're Listed John Labovitz's e-zine-list Main: http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list Submit: http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/submit.html eZines Database Main: http://www.dominis.com/Zines Submit: http://www.dominis.com/Zines/add-howto.shtml Yahoo!: Magazines Main: http://www.yahoo.com/News/Magazines Submit: http://www.yahoo.com/docs/info/include.html DIY Search Main: http://www.diysearch.com Submit: http://www.diysearch.com/addurl.cfm e.zine movement Main: http://www.asphyxia.com/asphyxia/ezm Submit: http://www.asphyxia.com/ezm/AddURL.htm EZ Connect Main: http://www.ezconnect.com Submit: http://www.ezconnect.com/submit.htm Flying Inkpot's Zine Scene Main: http://inkpot.com/zines Submit: http://inkpot.com/submit Nerdworld Main: http://www.nerdworld.com/users/dstein/nw30.html Submit: http://search.nerdworld.com/nwadd.html New Journal Digest Main: http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour Submit: http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/submit.html Ultimate Zine List (print and online) Main: http://www.sleazefest.com/sleaze/AddressBook/new/zines.html Submit: http://www.sleazefest.com/sleaze/forms/newzine.html Virtual Libraries: E-Journals Main: http://www.edoc.com/ejournal Submit: http://www.edoc.com/jrl-bin/wilma Wraithspace Zines and Things! Main: http://www.wraithspace.com/zines.html Submit: http://www.wraithspace.com/feedback.html 'ZineW0rld Main: http://www.oblivion.net/zineworld Submit: http://www.oblivion.net/zineworld/faq.html Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters Main: http://arl.cni.org/scomm/edir Submit: http://arl.cni.org/scomm/template.html Best E-Zines @ InfoTrek Main: http://infotrek.simplenet.com/zines.html Submit: send e-mail to http://infotrek.simplenet.com/yellowpages.hts?getentry Handilinks: Magazines Main: http://www.ahandyguide.com Submit: http://www.ahandyguide.com/addedit.htm Linkfinder: E-Zines Main: http://www.linkfinder.com/e-zines.html Submit: http://www.linkfinder.com/submit.html The Dive: Magazines Main: http://www.streetside.com/pat/html/wrate/index.html Submit: http://www.streetside.com/pat/html/DIVE/add.html E-Mail Zines Only Todd Kuipers' E-Mail Zine List Main: http://propagandist.com/tkemzl Submit: http://propagandist.com/tkemzl/howto.htm E3: Email Ezine Emporium Main: http://www.apex.net/users/jyoung/e3 Submit: http://www.apex.net/users/jyoung/e3/addzine.htm Weekly Bookmark: E-Zines Main: http://www.weeklyb.com Submit: No longer accepting listings. (Archives available) Specialty E-Zines Only The Electric Pen (literary e-zines) Main: http://www.execpc.com/~catrina/pen/ezine.html Submit: http://catrina.cgi.execpc.com/links.html Fanfic Resources (fan fiction) (currently offline) Main: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bentley/fanfic/fanz/fanz.html Submit: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bentley/fanfic/info/guidelines.html Fandom Net (fan zines) Main: http://www.fandom.net/Genres Submit: send e-mail to webmaster@fandom.net Kathode Ray: Zines (indie music) Main: http://www.kathoderay.org/music/zines.html Submit: http://www.kathoderay.org/music/add.html Monosyllabic Zines (one-word titles) Main: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~meburns/UNK/zine.html Submit: send e-mail to burns.cii@mail.utexas.edu Outer Sound Press Finder (music zine database) Main: http://www.outersound.com/zine/search.htm Submit: send e-mail to info@outersound.com Rock Fetish (music-related) Main: http://www.rockfetish.com/search Submit: http://www.rockfetish.com/search/searchzine Ska FAQ: Zines Main: http://twillis.com/ska/faq/Zines.html Submit: send e-mail to skafaq@twillis.com Ultimate Band List: E-Zines (music) (currently offline) Main: http://www.ubl.com Submit: http://www.ubl.com/cgi/add.cgi?type=magazine&do=add World Wide Punk: Zines Main: http://www.worldchat.com/vic/wwp/zines.html Submit: http://www.worldchat.com/vic/wwp/addlink.html General Databases Search Engines You should submit the URL of your Webzine to as many search engines as you can. Before you do, add META tags to at least your main page, as some search engines use those to index your site (see Virtual Promote at http://www.virtualpromote.com for more information on META tags). For a primer on the various search engines and how they index sites, visit Search Engine Watch at http://searchenginewatch.com To tackle many search engines at once, try a service such as Submit It! at http://www.submit-it.com. You fill out one form and then it provides links to each search engine. This can save a lot of time, although it's not bug-proof. Before you begin, prepare an enticing 25-word, 50-word and 100-word description of your site. For more tips, check out the tutorial at http://www.virtualpromote.com/promotea.html Awards Most awards on the Web are bogus, but they do provide another way to get links back to your site. For an overview of other Web site awards, visit VirtualPromote at http://www.virtualpromote.com/hotsites.html or Award-It! at http://www.award-it.com. If you'd rather not go to all the trouble, you can also pick up some nice awards at The Corporation at http://www.thecorporation.com/icon/icon.html. Getting Return Visitors Some zine editors include a sign-up form on their page where visitors can leave their e-mail addresses. This allows the editor to compile a mailing list of people who are interested in the content of the zine, and he or she can send notice when the Webzine has been updated. However, sending your ASCII text zine unsolicited via e-mail to a whole bunch of people is a bad idea. You can join a service that will automatically notify visitors who sign up when you update your page. There's more information at URL-Minder at http://www.netmind.com/html/url-minder.html. Sharing the Wealth Some e-zines carry advertisements, usually in the form of banner exchanges. You can arrange local banner exchanges with like-minded zine editors, or join a service such as LinkExchange. Usually for every banner ad you display for another site, you get 1/2 credit with the service. Each credit means your banner ad is displayed on another site. The services offering banner ad exchanges are getting more sophisticated with targeting where your ads are placed. For more information, see Web Site Banner Advertising at http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/ You might also consider joining a Web Ring. For more information, visit the Webring home page at http://www.webring.org. More Guidance Other helpful sites VirtualPromote (http://www.virtualpromote.com) This is an excellent, free site and newsletter that includes tips on promoting your e-zine on the Web and also discusses new search engines and directories. The main site includes a guide to 500 index sites and also advice about how to get the word out, including submitting to search engines for maximum effect and which Web awards to shoot for. The E-Zine and Zine Resource Guide (http://thetransom.com/chip/zines/resource.html) I created this site to provide links to e-zine resources. "Link Libraries" and "Reviews" includes sites of interest in publicizing your e-zine. Places to Send Your Print Zine Factsheet Five (http://www.factsheet5.com/sendzine.html) Small Press Review Zines (http://www.cyberspc.mb.ca/~mosfog/breview.htm) [ED. NOTE: We updated all links as of Apr 8, 1998. Check out these places too.] Links to 'Zine Sites Main: http://www.mgal.com/links/zines.html Submit: kaye@mgal.com E-Zine Review Main: http://sunsite.unc.edu/faint/eziner/index.html Submit: http://sunsite.unc.edu/faint/eziner/zz_submit.html (Instructions on how to submit a review and a template)] Brought to you by: World Wide Information Outlet - http://certificate.net/wwio/, your source of FREEWare Content online. Compiled by Chip Rowe - http://chiprowe.com. Last updated September 8, 1999. An HTML version of this document, including links, is available at http://www.zinebook.com/publicz.html