By Jeff Neil Editor`s Column http://www.editorscolumn.com

I know that you have friends. You know, friends in real world that you actually visit in their homes. Do any of them have one of those cute "welcome" signs hanging by door?

Have you even noticed? Chances are there is a welcome sign. But you really never see it. We all have friends that have `em. But they are so common that we just don`t notice.

What about those big colorful "welcome" mats? Bet you see them when you arrive. They`re big and cheerful. Right there so you can wipe your feet. Sure, they`re really there to keep floor clean. But don`t those mats give you that warm and fuzzy feeling?

If you publish an ezine it`s really just an extension of your home. Your online home. And when you get a new subscriber you send a welcome letter to your new "friend".

Do you send them a small sign or do you roll out mat?

First impressions are important. Even more so online. The average person subscribes to far more ezines than they can really read....So impress them fast with your welcome.

Greet your new reader with some thought and enthusiasm.

Welcome to XYZ ezine, here`s your freebie, buy this and you`ll get rich.....ain`t going to cut it. Take time to tell you new friend why you`re so special. What`s in it for them.

And then prove it.

Include a sample issue with your welcome email. Let them see what they`re in for, and who you really are. Dazzle them with your brilliance and they`ll actually be looking for your issue.

But set it up to your advantage.

Did you bribe them with a freebie? Then make your reader work for it. They`ll get it. They will be looking for it. So why not have them do some reading to find it?

If you offer a freebie before you get a chance to show them your offer, you`ve just wasted your time. Your offer is your ezine, your work of art. Don`t let `em get away without checking it out.

Going back to real world, invite your friends over for pizza and beer. Suggest watching football game in front of your big screen TV.

( Sorry ladies it`s only idea I could come up with.....)

You betcha! They`ll be right over. Now put beer, pizza, and big screen TV outside in yard.

The reason is quite simple.

People very rarely go online looking for something to buy. They go online looking for information - free information.

They want to be educated, entertained and informed. And best way to do that is to write free Articles for Newsletters.

At bottom of your Article is your 4- or 5-line Resource Box. That's what turns your Article into one of most powerful marketing techniques on Web.

Here are eight tips to help you write your Articles and get them published.

(1) Never allow yourself to think that you've run out of ideas. Instead, have opposite thought: that there are more ideas than you could possibly write about. I heard someone saying recently (with regard to Ezine Articles) that everything that could possibly be written about has already been written about. Nonsense! The Internet is evolving so fast that even if you wrote a new Article every day, you still couldn't keep up.

(2) The Golden Rule of Five. Keep your Article titles short - no more than five words. Ezine Editors love short titles (they fit into subject field of an email).

(3) Keep your paragraphs short - no more than 3 sentences. It's much harder to read a computer screen than a printed page - so make it easy for your readers.