What is an ezine? An ezine is an abbreviation for "electronic magazine", also simply put, a "newsletter". Ezines are extremely popular today and are used as an excellent way to attain information through the Internet.

Ezines can be found through a publishers website or in ezine directories. The easiest way to find a newsletter on a certain topic is through ezine directories. There are hundreds of directories on the web today that put each newsletter into a searchable category.

An interesting aspect is that you can attain information on almost any subject, from health issues, gardening, cooking, home business, real estate, cars to pets.

When you go to an ezine directory you simply search for a topic of interest and click on that category. It will bring up a page filled with publisher's newsletters covering the information you requested.

Clicking on one of the titles will give you the information on that publisher's newsletter. It will give you the author's name, description, date it was published, number of subscribers, how to subscribe and the type of ads they accept.

Newsletters are sent to subscribers by email from daily to monthly and anywhere in-between depending on the publisher.

Types of Ezine Directories:

To search for newsletters in ezine directories there are two types of directories you can use, there are paid and free directories.

The paid directories usually are more organized and easiest to use. Most of these directories offer quality newsletters that are updated more frequently than the free directories. They also provide a large database that you can search for newsletters by the size of circulation, publishers name, category, etc. These features can save you a great deal of time. Plus most of these directories will offer support to get you through the process.

Advertising In An Ezine:

Because of the popularity of newsletters, they are also looked at as an excellent way to promote your business by placing ads in targeted publications.

When it comes to advertising in a newsletter, there are publishers that charge a fee for the placement of your ad, as well as free ad placement with other publishers.

To place a free ad in a newsletter, most publishers require that you subscribe to their newsletter before they let you place an ad in their publication. You will find in most cases that their subscriber list will be much smaller than putting an ad in a paid ezine.

To advertise in a paid ezine, you will find publishers with a subscriber list from a few thousand to over 800,000 subscribers. You will find the higher their subscriber list, the higher the cost of the ad. The price of the ad also depends on the type of ad you are purchasing. The type of ad you choose will determine the placement, duration, and how many lines you can use in your ad.

When advertising in an ezine, look for newsletter publications that are in relationship to your website, products, or services. Once you have found a few, subscribe to them so you can see first hand the quality of their newsletter. Another reason for subscribing to their newsletter is you would want to know how many ads they use in their publications.

If you come across a newsletter that uses too many ads, you may want to consider going elsewhere. Any newsletter that is over saturated with advertisements is usually not worth your time or money, as your ad can be easily overlooked. Look for publications that focus more on solid content with only 2 ? 3 ads.

Remember choosing the right newsletter to advertise in can play a crucial roll in the results you receive from your ads.

Our advice when starting out is to try using the free ezines to advertise in. It will give you a better feel of the ins and outs of ezine advertising. Even more important, you need to experiment with writing good ads and a strong headline that gets the viewers attention.

When you first place an ad in a newsletter you are testing the waters. In some cases you may not get the results you were looking for. It may be just your heading that needs to be changed or the content of your ad. Sometimes just by changing a few words or the format will give you better results.

The idea is to test different ads to see which ones work well; it's all about trial and error. This is a common practice used by your most successful marketers.

If you make a few mistakes, remember this method cost you nothing.

Once you have a couple solid ads that work for you, than your ready to go to the paid ezines with the larger subscriber list.

John Kovacs is the CEO and founder of "A Home Business Opportunity". His website mainly focuses on supplying free marketing tips, resources and support for home startup businesses and Internet marketing. To get a step-by-step guide in building an online business, visit http://www.ahomebusinessopportunity.net

To search for ezine directories, you can cut your time in half by going to http://www.ahomebusinessopportunity.net/ezine.htm - there you will find both types of directories, paid and free.