FREE MEMBERS ONLY WEB SITE

Offer a free membership into your members only web site. Tell them what it normally costs for people who don't purchase.

FREE AUDIO CASSETTE/VIDEO

Offer a free audio cassette or video to people who buy. Let them know this audio cassette or video can't be found anywhere else, only through this special o.ffer.

FREE E-MAIL COURSE

Offer a free e-mail course on a topic related to your product or service. Add your back end product ads to each e-mail course lesson.

FREE CHAT ROOM SEMINAR/CONSULTING

Offer a free chat room seminar or consulting to give away as a freebie. You will become know as an expert on topic by electing to do seminar or consulting yourself.

FREE GIFT

Offer a free gift if they buy your product or service. Giving value of f.ree give will attract them to purchase your main product or service.

RSS/e-mail and blogs/e-zines cannot be directly compared. Blog content and e-zine content can both be delivered via RSS and e-mail, and there is no direct business/logical relation between, for example, blogs and RSS.

Blogs are "personal" conversations, opinions and news, delivered in a linear structure, usually written in a more personal style, and confined to a limited number of content types.

E-zines on other hand are more similar to magazines or newspapers, carrying content presented in a complex non-linear content structure, and having ability to carry many different content types that do not mix well together if provided through a linear content structure.

A typical e-zine might include:

- an editorial; - a leading article, representing prevailing topic of a specific e-zine issue; - supporting articles, clearly structured to show they are secondary to leading article; - links to "best of" blog posts in given timeframe; - links to most relevant forum topics and posts; - a news section; - a featured client case study; - different advertisements (banner ads, textual ads, advertorials etc.); - a featured consultant; - a Q&A section; - a featured whitepaper; - etc.

Providing all of this content demands a complex content structure and a strong and experienced editor. The blog format simply does not provide level of structure needed to effectively present such a complex content mix.

But that's not to say that blogs are in any way inferior to e-zines, they're just different. And businesses need both, and they need to deliver both via RSS and e-mail.

Personal preferences towards content delivery channels and internet content media formats have no place in business. What matters is what our audiences want and how they want it.