The Ezine DOT Net - the Resurrection

Good day to you, dear potential subscriber. Welcome to The Ezine DOT Net, an Internet Business and Marketing publication - sent exclusively by email. You may be wondering about my choice of words above - "the Resurrection" - this ezine was originally published in 2001 through to 2004, with 120,000+ subscribers in its heyday.

I decided to start the newsletter again after reading a note I received a few years ago - you can read it below.

- John Calder, Tuesday 15th September 2009

I'm building the site at the moment so there is not even a subscription form on it yet. That will be live by the end of the day.

Good Morning, John.

...or Good Evening, in your case. I just want to know one thing. Where have you been for the past two years!?

Why do I ask a question like this? About 2 years ago, sitting in my no-longer-comfortable corporate-IT-staff chair, I realized that someone was writing on the proverbial wall, so I stopped to read it.

Then I started researching internet businesses and marketing. After a few weeks, I picked out a few names that repeated often, and I signed up for their ezines. My email inbox was immediately maxxed in a flood of fantastic offers and even more incredible promises that seemed (and usually were) too good to be true. But I persisted. I bought a bigger mailbox and started downloading my email to make room, on the off chance that the real thing would find its way to me.

I opted in and out and read thousands of websites and took a web copywriting course and on and on. Still, I found NOBODY that would say a word other than "it's great! Buy this! You'll be a millionaire in weeks!" Except, of course, for the hundreds of malcontents out there that hate everything and everybody. Their vitriolic spew was almost the undoing of me, but I knew there had to be a middle ground where a person could get good information from an honest person. Diogenes and I pressed on.

Unfortunately, when the "downsizing" came, last September, I was nowhere nearer the truth than I was before. Even though I now knew many respected names in the Internet "community" I could not believe that each one of them, selling their similar-sounding products, had the ONE program I would need. I was willing to throw time at it - since that was all I had left at this point - but not to spend my son's tuition on buying a copy of every one of them. I would be willing to buy into a couple or three to get different perspectives, but everybody in the world is an affiliate. How do you get IMPARTIAL information?

After a while, my eye caught on a familiar title in the freebies that people were giving away for new subscribers to their ezines. Wait a minute! Wasn't that just the latest and greatest *hot* item a few months ago?!

I have so many free e-books now that I could make a career of reading them. I didn't get my answers from these freebies, but I did get some idea of which people I did NOT want to deal with. (Those who can not develop a thought and express it simply enough for some newbie to understand AND they obviously refuse to pay an editor to make their work more understandable ... and those that simply repackage tired old hash.)But still I searched for a like mind.

A couple of days ago, I found a message from you, welcoming me to your ezine. I don't remember subscribing to your 'zine, but that is not all that unusual. Opting in and, usually immediately, opting out is a way of life. The standard procedure is automatic now. As I was going through the paces, I clicked on your archive. I read the first article. wow - small letters - don't be too optimistic - it could be an anamoly. I read another article. Wow. Yet another. !!!! (It's not often that I'm speechless, in case you couldn't tell.) Diogenes and I had a big high-five.

What is all this babble is leading to? A "simple" thank you. :) To steal a quote for one of my former supervisors, "thank you for being blunt." Your straightforward style is a rarity and a blessing. Continue what you are doing and you will have a subscriber in me as long as you care to publish this 'zine. I will anticipate the next issue with pleasure.

Charmain Johnson