About 40 years ago, during the cold war, the US
Department of Defense realized that existing communications systems
couldn't survive a nuclear war.
The Rand Corporation, with the help of a number of
academics devised a networking system that could assure continued
communication even if a part of it was destroyed.
That network became known as the Internet.
Even though the label "Information
Superhighway" doesn't quite fit, the many byways on the Internet
make it an incredible source of information.
For that reason, we took computers home.
We can safely assume that everyone who has a
computer with a connection to the Internet has been in touch with
others by email. That
undoubtedly represents the most frequent use of the network for
sharing information.
Most
Internet users will spend some of their time online looking for
information on the World Wide Web.
The Web has become so easy to use that many don't even know
that other sources of information lurk in darkness on the Internet
waiting to be tapped.
When the Web added graphics, sound, colour and
movies to dull, simple text, interest in the Web as a source of
information exploded. As
I write this, the search engine Google tells me that it has access to
over 8 billion Web pages!
In addition to the one-on-one activities of email
and surfing the Web for information, the Internet is also made up of
communities. In a
previous article,
I wrote about chat rooms, news groups and lists that provide excellent
venues for shared interests.
Another source of shared information on the
Internet can be found in the recently popularised "blogs",
short for Weblog, a special kind of online diary. As I mentioned in
another article
on that subject, anyone with access to the World Wide Web with the
address of your blog can read what you've written in your online
diary.
Blogs have become so popular that even politicians
and celebrities have started keeping them so that they can update what
they have to say to the world and--in some instances--invite comments
from readers.
Following the better known and frequently used
sources of information on
the Internet, "ezines" stand out as an often neglected but
exceptionally useful resource. "Ezines" simply means
electronic magazines, though many appear more like newsletters than
magazines.
Ezines and newsletters both serve a similar
purpose: to disseminate information to groups of readers.
The difference comes with the presentation.
Ezines add colour and images and design to the plain text of
newsletters.
The real value of both ezines and newsletters comes
from the fact that you subscribe to regular deliveries of information
about subject matter that you want to receive by email.
In that sense, the comparison between ezines and magazines
comes closer: just as you
decide which magazines you want to read, you choose which ezines to
subscribe to.
To locate the information you want delivered to
you, look into the following directories of ezines and newsletters. Since they don't all have the same listings in the
directories, you may have to look at several to find what you want.
Those with plus signs (+++) have the most comprehensive
listings.
http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/
+++
http://www.ezine-dir.com/
+++
http://www.myfavoriteezines.com/ezinedirectory/links.html
+++
http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/
+++
http://www.newsletteraccess.com/
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/mags.htm
- (women focused)
http://www.ezinehub.com/
http://www.ezinelocater.com/
Some ezines and newsletters get distributed daily,
others weekly, monthly or occasionally.
One of the most complete listings of newsletters can be found
on the Open
Directory.
What
do people look for when they surf the Web or subscribe to ezines?
Among the most popular Internet topics are Stars, Movies,
Sports, Health, Games, Online Dictionary, Jokes and Baby Names, Free
Mobile Ringtones and Iraq.
If you want to subscribe to a newsletter about your
favourite celebrity, you might try the news retrieval system of Inbox
Robot. They feature
actors and actresses as well as authors, athletes, models musicians,
speakers and talk show hosts.
For game lovers, the Web
Scout Lists has ezines in several categories, including Animation
Games, Board Games, Cards, Chess, Role Playing, Video and Console
Games and Others.
About.com
has newsletters on practically everything.
On their main page, you'll find a list of channels as well as
an alphabetical search facility for your favourite subject.
With 475 Guides, from 20 different countries, About.com covers
50,000 topics. If, for
example, you click on the link to Hobbies and Games, you'll be
transported to an extensive list from which you can choose newsletters
about games or hobbies you enjoy.
Suppose you select Board / Card Games.
You'll then be taken to Erik Arneson's
page where you can sign up for his free newsletter.
The same process can be followed for subscribing to newsletters
on other topics.
For fitness, outdoor activities and sports, About.com
has a comprehensive list that surely includes anyone's favourites,
whether that's soccer, fishing, tennis or horses and many more topics.
Unfortunately, About.com seems to have missed
cricket. However,
cricketers can subscribe to the Play-Cricket newsletter,
which is produced by the ECB cricket network in association with BBC
Sport.
For any single subject that you happen to be
interested in keeping up with, you can type the name of the topic and
"newsletter" or "ezine" in any search engine.
For example, if you want to receive up-to-date information
about what's happening in the Scrabble players' world, you can type
"Scrabble newsletter" into a search engine like Google
and you'll find several pages of newsletters about Scrabble.
Health is another popular topic, and the Internet
has a number of ezines and newsletters devoted to it.
The Health
Sciences Institute has been consistently good at providing useful
information, often questioning the studies funded by large
pharmaceutical companies.
I personally subscribe to 26 ezines and
newsletters. I mention
this only because I've found getting regular information about the
topics of my choice keeps me informed and saves me time.
That may sound odd, but having done the research in advance, I
don't have to spend a lot of time digging for information when it's
needed. By no means do I
read all of every newsletter or ezine.
The secret to making the most of your information
superhighway is to allow the information you want to flow freely into
your computer; and when it arrives, skim through it for the material
that you find useful.
Next, create mailboxes for your newsletters. This has a double advantage:
it keeps your inbox from getting cluttered and allows you to
save what you may not have time to read when it's received, and you
store what you want to keep for future reference.
Another useful feature of ezines: if you have
information to share with others, you can create your own. Should you
decide to broadcast what you have to say to a number of people you
know, you'll find the following websites helpful in creating your
ezine:
http://www.crayon.net/
http://www.newsletterpromote.com/emailtemp/
- templates
http://www.e-zinez.com/
http://ezineuniversity.com/
Keep in mind that one of the functions of an ezine
is to make products or services available along with your information. Never yield to the temptation to send sales material to
people who haven't subscribed to your newsletter.
That's called spamming (unwanted sales pitches) and you don't
want to be known as a spammer.
The
best way to start your own ezine is to have a website where people can
subscribe to the free information that you offer through your
newsletter or ezine. Along
with the information you provide in your ezine, you can include an ad
or two for a product or service.
Don't overdo the ads.
It's fair enough to give your readers a chance to consider what
you have to sell in exchange for the information you provide free of
charge. They may or may
not read your ads; but the ads are justifiable as support for your
newsletter.
Finally, a warning for those entertaining the idea
of creating an ezine in the hope of selling a product or service on
the Internet: many
people, including spammers will have your email address.
You'll have to learn to deal with lots of unwanted spam.
As a result of a monthly newsletter that I sent to
about 500 subscribers several years ago, I get about 400 spam messages
daily, even though I stopped sending the newsletter out more than two
years ago! When you create and distribute an ezine, also become an
expert at filtering and deleting!
In the meantime, enjoy reading those that cover your favorite topics.
