Writing your own ezine remains one of the best ways for coaches, consultants, and other solopreneurs to market their products and services. Think about it: once people have signed up for your newsletter, you have them forever (unless they unsubscribe). That's a huge marketing potential. It's ongoing, and best of all, they've asked for it.

Publishing your own ezine has a number of benefits:

It showcases your expertise. You have a super-low-cost way to market your services and products -- to a receptive audience, no less! Your target audience can get to know you. The better they feel they know you, the more likely they are to hire you. It provides a regular reminder of who you are and what you offer so you don't have to rely solely on your web site or other, more expensive forms of marketing. You have an easy mechanism for asking for information from your target audience. You have a source of articles to put on article distribution sites to further market yourself. You can add past articles to your web site, creating a regular flow of information. (And the more often your web site is updated, the more likely it will get picked up by search engines.)

Take 30 seconds here, and jot down three ways an ezine could help you in your business.

Getting Started

Starting your own ezine is easy. With these 7 steps, you'll be up and running and in no time.

1. Determine your audience

When you write an ezine, it's especially important to write to your target audience. Don't write general articles that could apply to anyone. Write articles that provide practical tips your target audience can use, if not immediately, then in the near future.

2. List your clients' top 10 needs or problems

Think about problems or needs common to your target audience. Consider areas you coach or consult around. Do you ask specific questions that lead to potential solutions? Do you make suggestions? What are some of the ways your clients have solved these common problems? Your everyday experiences with your clients can provide rich topics for ezines.

3. List topics

Think about your clients' top 10 needs or problems and brainstorm as many potential ezine topics as you can think of. Don't worry about writing titles or text -- just jot down keywords or phrases (enough so you'll remember what you meant later). And remember, ezines are typically short -- only 300-800 words -- so your topics don't have be huge.

4. Set your ezine and writing schedule

Now that you have your list of potential ezine topics, determine your ezine distribution schedule. Most ezine writers publish each day, once a week, once every other week, or once a month. Any less frequent than once a month and your subscribers may forget they've subscribed. Consider what schedule would work best for you and for your subscribers.

Also think about how you write best. Do you write better (and faster) if you write for 30 minutes three days a week? Then make an appointment with yourself for those times. Do you prefer to get on a roll and do it all at once? In that case, plan all your ezine writing for one day each month. If you don't know your best writing schedule, try a few different ones to see what works best for you.

No matter what your schedule, try to stay at least three ezines ahead of your distribution schedule to ensure that last-minute emergencies don't prevent your ezine from being published.

5. Write ezines

Now, it's time to write. Take out your list of potential topics and pick the one that you can write fastest and most easily right now. Write that ezine and set it aside. If you have trouble getting started with writing, give yourself 30 minutes and write as much as you can in that time. Do not edit! Once you've written the first ezine, go back to your list and pick the next topic. Write that ezine. Keep going until you have at least 10 ezines written. (You don't have to do them all in one day.)

Remember, ezines only need to be about 300 words long. (For comparison, this article is just over 800 words long.)

6. Edit ezines

Let your ezines sit for at least a day before you go back and start editing. You'll see them with fresh eyes. Send them to your personal writing workshop. Make any necessary changes, but don't worry about perfecting them! If writers tried to write perfectly, nothing would ever get published.

7. Publish!

Put five of your ten ezines right on your web site - people often like to see what they're subscribing to before they commit, and these five articles will give them a good taste for what you offer. The other five are your first ezines. Yay! Congratulate yourself.

Now that you have your ezines written, it's time to get them loaded into a distribution program and send them to your list.