How to Have a Successful Blog and Zine

By: Katherine Watson

One of the keys to achieving a very successful blog and zine—whether written the classic way (a type writer) or by modern means (a desktop computer), is your eagerness to shovel in the effort to maintain it. In fact, even a zine that does not have much potential will garner a lot of supporters and readers if it presses on. However, letting the crowning achievement of your blog be based on how often you write and maintain it will only gather support in the long run and perhaps might not even be able to get off the ground, because you may become disillusioned and quit before things get better. This is why you should concentrate on managing your efforts, making sure that you are not only capable of maintaining your blog, but also have a zine worth continuing. This article will act as a guide by setting steps that you need to follow to guarantee a successful blog and zine. In this modern age, you also do not need to make it harder for you by working on classic means to creating a blog and zine, so you should have a computer to work on before following this guide. You should also have an:

1. Internet connection;
2. any kind of word processing software, and;
3. a high-quality printer.

• The first thing you should work on before anything else would be on a consistent kind of style for your zine. This is important, as you can confuse yourself if you keep changing themes every time you get something published. And worse than that, you are likely to alienate the readers of your earlier work, and your supporters would never grow in number.

• Once you have the proper themes you want to work on, the next step is the layout. This is just as important as the theme, as this is what you will use to pull your readers in, in the first place. If you do not have prior knowledge of layouts and graphic editing, then you are likely to have a hard time, but there are plenty of tutorials in the Internet that will help you hone that ability.

• It is also important that you stay true to your word—if you tell your readers that your next issue will be released in a specific date, and then it must be released on that specific date. You cannot compromise on this, as your reputation will be on the line, and even something as simple as being late for your submission can echo to your future publications. You can also give them something to show your appreciation for their sticking with your publications, little gifts included in your zine, like decals or even bookmarks and the like.

• Finally, remember not to bite off more than you can chew. You should always be pacing yourself, even if you have been writing a blog and zine for a long time now. Overworking yourself is a very bad thing when you are working in this kind of environment, as it relies on your eagerness to maintain your publications.

That is pretty much all there is to know, and so long as you keep all of that in mind (and keep pushing!), then you will definitely have a successful blog and zine.