It's easier than you might think to create email newsletter articles, and publishing your own online newsletter is a great way to build a mailing list of people to whom you can later promote products.

Many experts think that publishing an email newsletter is the single best way to start an internet business. Doing so allows you to develop a list of people who already respect your opinions and information, and are more likely to buy whatever you endorse.

Once you get a decent sized subscription list, you can sell advertising in your newsletter, and/or promote products through your own affiliate links that you publish in the newsletter.

Even with as few as a hundred subscribers, you may be able to start selling some ads in your newsletter, and as your subscription list grows, so does the desirability (and cost) of advertising in your newsletter.

The newsletter could be your entire internet business, with your cash flow coming from the advertising you sell, and your affiliate links to products that you endorse.

Many people are afraid they don't have what it takes to develop and create email newsletter articles. If you simply cannot write, or don't want to, and can afford to pay for the service, you can actually have this servicecreate email newsletterfor you.

Also, you can pay a modest few and have a co-registration service recruit your subscribers for you ... more than a few of the major leaque internet marketers do it that way, and you can, too.

So what do you need to do to create an email newsletter? The process is really pretty simple. Here's what you need.

First, you need to select a topic for your newsletter. I can't really help you there, because I have no idea what your individual interests or expertise might be. As with any other venture, though, pick something you yourself are passionate about.

Assuming you have a list of several topics that you could write about, a simple way to find out where there might be a market for the newsletter is to use the search engines.

You can use the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool to find out how many people are searching for information on your topic area, and then use your favorite search engine or ezine directory to see how many newsletters you'd be competing with, if you published something on that topic.

All of that research might take you a few hours, but the time invested will be well worth it, in the long run.

Next, you're going to need either a bulk emailing program (and an ISP that allows you to send bulk mail), or an autoresponder service that allows you to "broadcast" messages to your mailing list.

You'll need a way to build your list of subscribers. Several co-registration services exist that can help you to generate "leads" and subscribers, and will also advertise your newsletter.

Finally, you'll need to publicize your newsletter in some of the e-zine directories, and/or you'll need at least a one-page "mini-site" to give your newsletter an internet "home". This could be nothing more than a simple one page description of your newsletter, and a subscription form. Learn more about creating your own mini-site here.

If you want most of what is described above in an all-in-one package that includes autoresponders, hosting, links to a subscription service, and access to a library of (copyrighted) articles that you can reprint (with proper credit to the original author) in your newsletter, you might want to consider this membership site. For a low monthly fee, you get everything you'd need to publish your first newsletter (or several).

While you're thinking about this, take a serious look at publishing your newsletter as a blog. Blogs and RSS are the hot new tools for 2005 and beyond. Do not overlook their tremendous marketing potential, especially as a companion to or primary medium of distribution for a newsletter. Learn more about how to create email newsletter blogs.