The first review winner is Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, mostly because it was the first one in my inbox this week. Here goes:
My beginning peeve with this ezine is that the content isn’t delivered straight in my inbox. I have to open the email, click a website link that brings me to some website, and click again to tell the site that yes, I’d like to see the ezine. I have to wait for Adobe to open before beginning to read a thing. What a waste of time.
The first thing that leaps out from the page (and grabs you and shakes you and screams blindingly at you) are the horrible graphics. They are low quality, cheap-looking images involving gold statues carrying a lightbulb and a wheelbarrow. The rest of the images promoting ebooks splattered throughout the content were unappealing, too. When I showed the ezine to Harry for his professional opinion, he gave a virtual wince and said something about his eyes hurting.
The ezine earns a point because of targeting its audience properly. It’s clear the ezine is for newcomers to freelance writing that are female, probably in the 25 to 50 age group, and most likely having kids.
I don’t fit that profile, no. Why I have a subscription to this ezine is because I’m too curious for my own good. Why I still have a subscription to this newsletter is beyond me.
The content is of low value to readers, even beginning writers. The single article in the ezine was very basic, common sense info gift-wrapped in a lot of motivational fluff and plenty of filler. I didn’t learn anything new. I didn’t nod my head at words of wisdom. I definitely passed on the motivational therapy. That isn’t a writer’s area of expertise.
The ezine is low on value for reader but high on shameless self-promotion. I don’t have anything against self-promotion ( hire us for great articles, web content and online business success!), but when it’s force-fed down my throat, I gag. There were nine blatant shoves to buy the author’s books. Good thing I was sitting down or I would’ve fallen over.
I figured out why that gold statue on the first page had a wheelbarrow. He must’ve needed it to carry 7.5 pages of bulky filler content. Out of 10 pages of content, that’s how much was disposable.
Pros
- No direct content delivery
- Poor graphics
- Blatant self-promotion
- Low-value content
- Filler
