Signatures The Long and Short of It

Signatures The Long and Short of It

by: Doug Davis

What is the accepted standard for signatures? Who sets these standards? The signatures in question are those blurbs that we include after the body of our main message content in our emails for the purpose of identification and contacts.

Iกm really not referring to signatures in the respect that Usenet Newsgroups see them. It is pretty much agreed by established netiquette that Usenet signatures should be limited to five lines or less. They should, or may, contain:

Your name: Doug Davis

Your email: [email protected]

Your company: Northern Research

What you do: Publisher

Your URL: http://www.couchpotatomarketing.com/ezine

You can shave a line or two from the above by combining your name and email address plus your company with what you do:

Doug Davis [email protected]

Northern Research, Publisher

http://www.couchpotatomarketing.com/ezine

Getting away from Usenet and, some lists, into the real nittygritty of internet marketing, signatures have become a way of sticking that extra ad in there. For better or worse we seem to be stuck with this practice, so don’t expect it to go away soon.

How wide should your signature be?

Text terminals usually had and have a width of 80 characters; this means they can display just as many characters in one row. This is the practical reason why the ultimate text width of email messages and sigs should be no more than 80 characters.

But this doesn’t work very well in practice. We reply, we forward, we quote, and each time we do we add those little angle brackets to the lines of text in our messages, ">>>>." So we end up having short lines and long lines staggered throughout the text. This looks very unprofessional, even if you’re just sending to friends. Thatกs why all the recommendations for different line lengths. Some will not set their character length to anything greater than 72; some 74, others 76, etc.

In publishing ezines and newsletters online, however, the standard seems to be 65 characters. This is what most submission guidelines that I have read, recommend. My ezine wraps with hard carriage returns at 65 characters. Almost all of the article submissions I receive are wrapped at 65 characters. If they’re not, then I have to reformat them to fit my layout. I don’t like reformatting itกs a time wasting task I could do without.

Naturally, sigs in my ezine, and many others, can’t be longer than 65 characters either.

How many lines?

It depends, I suppose, on where you are posting or sending your emails. Discussion lists should be about the same as Usenet, in my opinion. On the other hand if you are posting to optin mailing lists for the purpose of advertising your business offerings, there are no rules. Itกs whatever you can get by with really. Who cares whether you have 20 lines of text and a 4line sig? How about 4 lines of text and a 20line sig?

I have exactly 128 separate sigs in my MS Outlook 2000 sig file. Some of these are actually 12 line, or more, ads; itกs just easier to paste them into the email that way.

Remember the aim of your signature is to be read. If you have a humongous sig it not only won’t be read, it will possibly provoke anger an emotion you don’t need in your prospective customers.

Signature Dashes

The "signature dashes" actually is a line which is used as the first line of a signature. This is described in the "sonofrfc1036": If a poster or posting agent does append a signature to an article, the signature SHOULD be preceded with a delimiter line containing (only) two hyphens (ASCII 45) followed by one blank (ASCII 32).

The sigdashes act as a separator which allows easy recognition of signatures. This line consists of two dashes and a trailing space, ie " " (note the space) and thus can be recognized in a data stream as the character sequence "(newline)(dash)(dash)(space)(newline)". Some programs recognize a signature by the (sigdashes).

Let me make this perfectly clear: There are no additional characters before, after or in between. This means no whitespace before the dashes, no additional dashes, one space at the end, followed only by an newline which ends the line. Thatกs it!

Synopsis:

If you are posting to newsgroups or discussion lists keep your sig as short as possible; try not to go over four lines. Personal messages probably should be the same; why would you need all that sig space when you have the entire body of the message?

When Iกm posting ads to optin lists I usually don’t include a sig at all. I want the ad to be the focus, not the sig.

About The Author

Doug Davis is the publisher of "Couch Potato Marketing Ezine", a veritable treasure trove of internet marketing information, plus a section highlighting the freebies available to help you increase your bottomline. We Have Bonuses: http://kabino.com/cpme

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Doug Davis

Email Etiquette V

Email Etiquette V

by: Kathie M. Thomas

Further to my previous issues this subject continues – as per request from a reader.

This month I’ll share on Setting up Mail groups and creating signatures for your email.

Creating a mail group might differ, depending on the program you use, but for this exercise we’ll use Outlook as the program as it is a widely used email program. Why would you use a mail group? So that you don’t have to go through your address book selecting everyone that belongs to a particular group or listing – the same person could be listed with several different groups. Far quicker when sending an email to the whole list to just select the name of that list instead.

If you click on the Tools menu, and select Address Book, then File, New Entry, you will see you have two choices: New Contact, or New Distribution list. Selecting Distribution List brings up a new window where you can name that list, and then select names from your address book to add to that list. Once completed, save and close and you will notice that the new Distribution List shows in bold in your address book listing. Now, when you want to send to that group, you just select, or type, the name of that group in the BCC field, not the TO field. Why? Because Outlook will proceed to grab all the individual addresses of each member of that group and enter them in the TO field when sending the email – every recipient will see the addresses of the rest of the group. Hence why it is important to use BCC even when using a group name.

Signatures

It is good to experiment with your signature style – have a look at what others do so you can decide what you do and don’t like. You can use colour, different font formats, and even add a graphic. You may have to check your menus in Outlook but in 2000, to create a signature, you can click on Tools, Options, then select Mail Format, then Signature Picker and New. Depending on the options you chose when installing Outlook, a simple editor, or Word may open. Write your signature block, give it a name and save it. You can also choose (after saving) whether the signature block will be used on Replies and Forwards for email. This detail is simplified – if you need detailed assistance, please call me or email me for further instruction.

About The Author

Article reprinted by permission Kathie M. Thomas, Founder กA Claytonกs Secretaryก. Kathie is a multiple award winner in her industry as a Secretary and Virtual Business Operator, and has 30 yearsก experience in the secretarial/ administrative field. www.asecretary.com.au

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09, 2004

by Kathie M. Thomas

Effective Email Communication

Effective Email Communication

by: Adam Senour

Email, when used properly, can generate additional direct sales and leads; can be used as a tool to communicate with your existing client base to let them know of upcoming events which may affect them; and as a means of ongoing promotion for your business.
The following is a list of simple guidelines and tips that will help you become an effective email communicator. Please bear in mind that many of these guidelines assume that you have never established any prior dialogue and, as you become more familiar with your customers, can often be altered to meet your clientกs needs.
Send your emails in plain text. While HTML/richtextformatted emails do look much more attractive, they will often be accidentally blocked by antispam filters and either show up incorrectly or not at all in various email programs. Plain text, on the other hand, will show up exactly as intended in all email programs.
Include a signature of no more than four lines. Your signature should provide the recipient with a means to contact you other than email, and should mention your company name. A good email signature format will look something like this:
Mike Leblanc

Any Vacuum Cheap

Website: http://www.anyvacuumcheap.ca

Telephone: (905) 5091661
This signature provides not one, but two ways for a customer to reach you.
Note: Many people will put their email into their signature files. This is, however, unnecessary as the email itself can be replied to directly and the email address may be extracted from it.
Use common file formats for email attachments. There are a wide variety of formats for attachments; however, these formats are not universal and as such, many people cannot open various types of attachments.
The following is a list, in approximate order of universal acceptance (based on my own experiences), of attachments which are commonly accepted:
TXT (plaintext)

JPG/GIF (pictures)

PDF (Adobe Acrobat Reader)

DOC (Microsoft Word/WordPad document)

XLS (Excel spreadsheet)
Use short paragraphs. Try to keep your paragraphs to 50 words or less to ensure maximum readability.
Don’t send unsolicited sales information/commercial emails. Unsolicited commercial emails, or spam, are becoming an increasing problem and many organizations are blocking, deleting, and in many cases reporting the senders of these emails to various antispam services and search engines in an effort to curtail the senderกs efforts.
Use second person terms as much as possible. Words such as กyouก, กyourก, and กyoursก personalize your emails, letting your customer know that you’re thinking of him/her specifically.
Check your emails for spilling nก grammer…er…spelling and grammar. A minor typographical error in a lengthy email will generally go unnoticed, but a series of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors will indicate a lack of professionalism and has the potential to cost you business.
Many email programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, include spelling and grammar tools to ensure that mistakes are kept to a minimum. If you do not have an email program with these tools activated, then alternatively you can open up your favourite word processor; type your email; check it for mistakes; and then copy and paste it into your email program.
Respond to all emails within 2448 hours. If you cannot answer your customerกs question in this time period, at least send him/her an email letting them know the status of his/her inquiry and that it is being taken care of. Some things do take longer than one day to resolve, and the vast majority of customers are very understanding of this, as long as they’re kept apprised of the situation.
Depending on your level of familiarity with your customers, some of these rules can be relaxed and altered to meet their specific needs. However, adhering to these general guidelines will ensure that, more often than not, you will become an effective email communicator.

About The Author

Adam Senour is the owner of ADAM Web Design, a leading web design and development company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Visit http://www.adamwebdesign.ca for more information on ADAM Web Design products and services.

This article was posted on July 20, 2004

by Adam Senour

Using Forums to Promote Your Business

Using Forums to Promote Your Business

by: Megan Corwin

When is work not really work? When itกs fun!

Using online forums, also called message boards, can be a fun way to promote your business in a low key way.

Benefits:

You cultivate relationships with others

You learn about all kinds of topics

Your marketing message is presented without screaming advertisement

By answering questions related to your topic, you are positioned as an expert in your field

How to Use a Forum for Promotion:

First, find a forum that is of interest to you and frequented by people in your target market. A great place to start is to go to ezboard.com and search for forums by keywords that reflect your target market.

Next, I suggest you กlurkก or just watch the activity for a few days to get a feel for the tone of the forum. When you feel confident this is an appropriate place to represent your business, introduce yourself. Often message boards have a กNew Membersก type place to post your first message.

After you have been welcomed, scan through the topics and post answers to questions others may have about your area of expertise. Repeat daily or weekly.

Tips:

Of utmost importance is to have a signature line that is added to the end of each message you post. This is like your calling card, and is what makes this method so subtle. You may be posting a famous recipe, but everyone who checks it out will see your business name. Most forums have an account setting or options area where you can set up an automatic signature or you can cut and paste your signature each time, but this is much more cumbersome.

Don’t spam boards by visiting once and posting an advert everywhere. It will give you a bad reputation not what you need to increase sales.

Check the regulations of the board to be sure signature lines are allowed. Some forums strictly prohibit marketing of any type.

Revisit your posting frequently to address any replies. Also, add new postings of interest every few days to keep your business in the message boardกs eye.

Message boards and forums can be a very valuable marketing tool. While you’re at it, be sure to check out the fun topics, too!

About The Author

Megan Corwin is a personal coach who enjoys helping work at home professionals grow their businesses while maintaining an organized household. Download Megan’s free ebook กHow to Market Your Small Business Online for FREEก: http://marketonlinefree.wahwoman.com

This article was posted on December 10, 2003

by Megan Corwin

Seven กMust Followก Rules While Participating In M

Seven กMust Followก Rules While Participating In Message Boards

by: Radhika Venkata

Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. Not even a penny. All you have to do is allot sometime for this type of promotion.

Before you getting started you need to know some must follow principles. You want your time to be profitable for you. Right? So what ever time you are gonna spend should bring you some profits.

What are those principles?

***1. Target your promotion:***

If you are search engine optimization expert, then you will be benefited by search engine forums. People coming to those forums need help in their web site optimization. If you are willing to share your knowledge with those people, you will gain their confidence and needless to say few customers too.

***2. Always follow the forum rules:***

In some forums or some areas of forums self promotion is not allowed. At the same time, some subforums are alloted to post your product advertisement. So read carefully before posting your product details anywhere on the forum.

***3. Use signature files:***

Almost all the forums allow signature files. These may be less than 4 lines or less than some 250 characters. This varies from forum to forum. So be concise with your wording.

Most IMPORATNT advice is always offer something free in your signature file. Free report on how to increase sales, free email course on how to design a web site that pulls orders or any topic that focuses on your web site theme. This always beats keeping your product price in your signature file. You can built your optin list too.

In signature files DON’t hide URL with กClick hereก as link text. Let people accustom to your web site name or your product name. If you just use as กClick hereก instead of กSEO tips and tricksก, it looks dull and less interesting.

***4. Change the heading while answering a question:***

If somebody ask a question like กWhat are web site promotion methods?ก.

In reply you can change the heading to what ever you want instead of ‘re:What are web site promotion methods?ก

You can keep an interesting heading to make your post prominent from others. Like กFOUR best methods to start with…ก or กAdvertising with out spending a penny.ก etc. These type of headings certainly attracts peopleกs eyes.

***5. Give respect to others opinions:***

Don’t say harsh words even though you know what other person saying is wrong. Be polite. What you want to say tell it clearly and concisely.

If you don’t know a topic still you want to comment on that, add กin my opinion…, as far i know…ก etc. Point out to resources if you know any.

***6. Follow up the thread:***

If you start participating in a thread, then check the box that says กEmail Notificationก. When ever somebody replies your question, email will be sent to you. So you can post a reply or follow others answers and opinions.

What is the use of this? =You may end up with learning something from that discussion =It could be a topic for your next ezine article or ebook or a report =You can get to know of people of that thread

***7. Every day allot some time:***

Save the forum URLs in your favorites folder. Everyday try to visit them regularly. By this you can know the what is going on around you. You may know good resources and free information links that are useful to you. If you come across any information that is useful to you save them on your computer.

About The Author

Radhika Venkata Subscribe to กEbookBiz Magazineก which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooksworld.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasterscentral.com/

This article was posted on November 14, 2003

by Radhika Venkata

A New Twist To The Signature File Idea

A New Twist To The Signature File Idea

by: Terence Tan

After the incredible success of Hotmail.com, the use of signature files on all outgoing email accounts has been a common method of web promotion.

The limitation that most people face is that there is a limit to how much กlegitimateก email they can send everyday.

A key but often overlooked characteristic of the Hotmail campaign that made it wildly successful is that every user of Hotmail was actually part of its campaign. Rather than sending signature file ads from only one email account, Hotmail had a virtual army of people promoting their service.

One way we can boost the number of mails carrying our signature files is to offer free email accounts to people and attach OUR signature files to their outgoing email.While it is now harder to give out free email accounts than when Hotmail first started out, even a small handful of active users of your free service can dramatically increase the number of your signature files being displayed.

Everyone.net offers a cheap Group Mail account that lets us offer free email accounts to 100 people, at $9.99 a month.

For less than 10 cents each, youกll get an large group of people pushing your advertisement every time they send out an email message.

There are probably other companies offering to let you provide free email to others (the key point being they must allow you to attach YOUR signature file to each outgoing email), but Everyone.net does seem to be very user friendly, easy to set up( no setup cost), and cheapest.

They also offer to give you a free domain name of your choice when you sign up.

If you already own XYZ.com, you could take advantage of their offer by also getting XYZ.net for free.

For sites with large and dedicated North American audiences, there is even a Sponsored Mail solution where they essentially offer their service for FREE!

This is certainly a proven, low cost strategy to use, especially if you are looking for some กfree stuffก to offer your web site visitors, gaining their goodwill and turning them into your กevangelistsก at the same time.

About The Author

Terence Tan is the founder of HugeAffiliates.com, a website dedicated towards the development of Multi Level Affiliate Programs as an alternative system of business. Visit http://hugeaffiliates.com to learn how MLAPs can multiply your affiliate referral commissions.

(Please feel free to to freely reproduce and distribute this article, so long as it is reproduced in full, including the hyperlinks, and no modification is made).

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 12, 2003

by Terence Tan

7 Top Marketing Tips To Put You Ahead Of The Game

7 Top Marketing Tips To Put You Ahead Of The Game

by: Ken Hill

1. Publish an ezine.

Youกll be able to capture more sales, increase your traffic, and cash in by selling ad space to your visitors and subscribers.

Publishing an ezine can also open up more joint venture opportunities for you.

For example, you could boost your sales by swapping ezine ads, thank you page ads, or recommendations with publishers whose ezines reach your target market.

2. Increase the success of your ezine by tapping into the power of RSS.

Because your RSS subscribers will get your issues sent to their feed readers, and not to their email addresses, you won’t have to worry about your ezine getting blocked.

In fact, all your RSS subscribers will get your issues, giving you a 100% delivery rate to them.

And if you offer a quality ezine, youกll be able develop a loyal group of subscribers that enjoy your ezine, buy your products, and listen to your recommendations.

As many people will still want to get your ezine by email, be sure give them a choice of how theyกd like to receive your ezine.

That way youกll get lots of new subscribers that are into RSS, and you won’t lose any that still prefer to get your ezine by email.

3. Write articles.

Youกll be able increase your link popularity as your articles published on targeted web sites, blogs, and in ezine archives.

Youกll also be able to build up your status as an expert in your field, leading to more sales of your products and also more new ezine sign ups.

4. Publish testimonials.

Testimonials are great to use on your site to generate more credibility for you and your product.

You can also use testimonials from your subscribers to get more people to join your ezine.

5. Provide a bonus for purchasing your product.

Give your visitors a deadline for getting your bonus.

By doing this, youกll be able to get more of your visitors to purchase from you because they won’t want to miss out on your special deal.

You could also sweeten your offer by telling your visitors that they can keep your bonus, even if they return your product or ask you for a refund.

6. Promote with postcards.

Your postcards will give you an affordable way to promote your business and get the word out about your latest sales and customer only deals.

Be sure to track the results of your postcards by:

Having your prospect provide an extension or department number when calling you.

Having them come to your store with your postcard to get their discount.

Having them type in a special code to receive your discount when ordering through your shopping cart.

7. Use your signature file to your advantage.

Increase your traffic by adding your signature file to all your outgoing emails.

Also use your signature file when you participate in forums that reach your target market.

Simply look for questions that you can lend a helping hand with, and then share your tips and advice.

Youกll then be able to strengthen your credibility, and youกll get a greater response when you use your signature file to promote your site, ezine or freebie.

About The Author

Ken Hill runs the Net Pro Marketer where youกll find informative articles on business, marketing, and ezine publishing. Browse through the articles or submit your own at: http://www.netpromarketer.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 07

by Ken Hill

Introduction to Autoresponders

Introduction to Autoresponders

by: Annieth Wollery

If youกve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the mountain of emails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you’re ready to learn about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their email inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual twentyfour hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming emails (while they’re eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive or even free method of quickly responding to emails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as they are received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices give you their feedback about your website for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these emails, how are you supposed to run your business? The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your emails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your email. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of emails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your email program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting companyกs server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your email account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an email is received. The message is sent to a particular script or email address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of followup messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your emails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

Itกs a good idea to attach a signature to every email that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your email program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your email address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your companyกs reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different subtopics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different subtopic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of free autoresponders you can use. Try http://www.getresponse.com, or http://www.fastfacts.net. Or go onto Google and you will find a long list of free autoresponder companies. Then signup for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your email address carefully. Your website should contain different email addresses for different contact requests. For example, use [email protected] for information requests, or [email protected] for questions about sales. Itกs a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as [email protected]. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponser allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.

About The Author

Annieth Wollery

Vist http://www.mightibucks.com for more information on home business.

Please feel free to use this article for your website or news letter as long as the content and link remains in tact.

This article was posted on August 25

by Annieth Wollery

Grassroots Internet Marketing Campaign

Grassroots Internet Marketing Campaign

by: Isaiah Hull

You may use this article for reprint, as long as it remains unaltered and the resource box and author information are included.

Grassroots Internet Marketing Campaign

Many people, in a rush to spike sales through the roof, think too big and end up completely missing out on one of the best free marketing opportunities on the net: discussion forums. Instead of focusing on individual sales, they go immediately for ads that promise thousands of visitors, payperclick search engines that could potentially expose them to thousands, and even sloppilyproduced and sometimes fraudulent spam submission programs.

Even though it is essential to increase your rating with search engines, to purchase payperclicks, and to participate in link exchanges and banner exchanges, discussion forums can often provide an extra, nonconventional sales medium to your campaign that allows you to quickly pull in customers with personal contact and conversational presentations of your product.

You can find these boards by searching for the specific product you sell and then adding the word ขmessageboardข or ขforumข or ขdiscussion forumข after it in quotations. For instance, I sell marketing tools and online businessbuilders on one of my websites, so when I look for forums to market my products in, I go to google or overture and type in ขbusiness messageboardข or ขmarketing forum.ข Find as many of these highlytrafficked forums as you can and signup. Some of them will require you to confirm it through your email address.

Before you begin actually posting on the boards, you need to lay down some general rules of approach. I would suggest the following methods, but you can decide for yourself what you think is appropriate for your business and situation.

These are my rules:

When I market on discussion forums, I always try to provide more for the board than I take away from it in potential sales. Not only is it ethical, but it’s also good business. When people ask questions, I use the expertise I’ve gained from Internet businessbuilding and marketing to legitimately answer their questions. If I signed up for every board I could find, and then slapped a boilerplate marketing pitch on every site, I’d just get ignored or banned.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to legitimately get involved with the forum community. It is definitely a goldmine for highlytargeted customers and it is possibly the fastest marketing medium on the Internet, but it is also very important to respect that it doesn’t primarily serve as an ad host. If you stay lowkey and helpful, people will respect your opinion more and will want to see what you have to offer. This is where your signature comes in…

When you create your account for most boards, they will give you the option of creating a signature, which they will attach to the bottom of every post you make. This is the best way to pull customers from messageboardsby alluring them with your signature. Write something catchy or intriguing and then slap a link to your site or email address on it. Remember: the more helpful you are (the more times you post advice/hints), the more times your signature appears… and the more potential hits you’ll get to your site.

Next, you’ll want to decide when it’s appropriate to market outside of your signature. I personally only market in three situations outside of my signature in forum discussions. If a person asks a question about a specific product or service I market, then I’ll respond because I’m qualified to do so and because I truly believe they should use my products to achieve the best possible results. If there’s a discussion thread where everyone is marketing products and it is generally accepted, I will market my product if a) it is related and b) I have already posted several times on the messageboard. Also, I will market my product whenever there is a forum solely dedicated to marketing your products.

Last, you’ll want to decide how much original content you want to post and how much you want to be boilerplate. You’ll want to find a healthy combination of the two to avoid being called a spammer or wasting too much time marketing on forums. I personally have several boilerplate ads that I have saved for signature files, adonly forums, and personal product marketing discussions. I keep them all saved on a word file and I pull them up to copyandpaste when I’m spending a night of advertising on messageboards.

Discussion forums can drive buying customers to your site faster than any other marketing medium. Do not abuse them, establish a reputation in your forums, streamline the process. . . and your work will come back to you quickly in profit.

About The Author

Isaiah Hull publishes Work At Home Right Now, a fresh and informative newsletter about making money on the internet and using proven methods to increase your site’s traffic and profitability. If you’re looking for timesaving and moneysaving tools, as well as honest business advice, come by and subscribe at http://www.workathomerightnow.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 17, 2004

by Isaiah Hull

Viral Marketing with Your Signature File

Viral Marketing with Your Signature File

by: Megan Corwin

Computer viruses are usually a bad thing. They can compromise your security, delete necessary files, and give your PC trouble. Viruses reak havoc quickly often because they are forwarded via email and eventually reach thousands of computers.

But what if you could harness this contagiousness in a good way?

You can! Add a signature file to your emails. A signature file is quick and easy to make, but the potential to reach many eyes is great.

How to set up a signature file:

I use Microsoft Outlook, but most email programs have a similar signature feature. Under the Tools menu, choose Options then Mail Format. At the bottom of the Mail Format menu, there กSignatureก button. When you click on the button, you are provided a text box to create your signature, then click on the กNewก button, and you will be guided to creating you signature file.

Keep your signature limited to only a couple of lines. Otherwise, it will scream advertisement and people will automatically ignore it. Remember, subtle is the key.

Start out with your name and website address, then add a tagline or your latest sale or giveaway. There must be a reason for the recipient to click through to learn more about your business.

Hereกs a sample:

Megan Corwin

Online Marketing Coach

Become a member of the http://www.wahwoman.com community and list your business free.

Have your signature file populated on every email you generate. You never know when someone will forward your email on to a friend or colleague, so make sure it is there.

Go ahead and spread your good germs!

About The Author

Megan Corwin has combined her marketing and web site development skills with her love of Internet surfing to become an online marketing coach. With over eight year’s experience developing software and marketing for a software company, she enjoys sharing her talents with small business professionals to help them enhance their online presence.

Become a member at http://www.wahwoman.com, the fastest growing community for online marketing information for the work at home woman.

This article was posted on November 12, 2003

by Megan Corwin

7 Key Items To Include in your Email Signature Fi

7 Key Items To Include in your Email Signature File

by: Kevin Eikenberry and Julie Jordan Scott

One of the most important and often overlooked methods of promoting your on line business or service is your email signature file (sometimes called a "sig"). There are two types of signature files, one is the more simple one at the close of each email, the other might be attached to writing or discussion group posts, etc. and is sometimes called a byline.
Regardless of the usage, having an effectively written signature can make the difference in higher sales, more networking contacts and more prosperity for you today! Using the following as a guide, to build a signature file that will help you meet your needs, and reach your goals.
1. Your Name and the Name of Your Business. You cannot build your brand or name recognition without it. No one would forget to include this, right?
2. Your email address. If you have written compelling content, people will want to contact you. Having your email address immediately available (and clickable) is the best means to satisfy the need to "do it now". Since some email clients don’t recognize and hotlink email addresses, consider putting the mailto: in front of your address. This ensures your address is a hyper link (i.e. mailto:kevin@d… )
3. Your Web Address. People will be enticed to take action immediately if the information is readily accessible, and like your email address, being an active link is always the best. Don’t forget your URL! While it may be best to send them to the home page, the content of your writing may suggest you send them to a specific page. If so, use that address in your signature file.
4. Phone Number. Email is great, and the web is nice, but people often like to connect with you at a different level. Make sure they have the information so they can! If you have a toll free number, consider adding it (and letting people know that it is toll free). If your toll free number but is only available in your home country, either leave it out, or note where it will work. Remember your fax number too!
5. Statement of Mission or Purpose. If your business has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) include it here. This is a short sentence that differentiates you from others in your business. If you don’t have a USP yet (create one!), include a descriptive tagline about you and your business.
6. A Reason why they should contact you now. If you have written an effective article or post, suggest an additional resource you could provide to them, or a way you could help them. Make sure they know how to quickly request this additional help.
7. Ways to Read More. If you produce an ezine, let people know that it exists and how to subscribe. Again, make it easy with a hyperlinked email address (see number two above) or a URL to subscribe from the web.
Overall, while there are no hard and fast rules regarding your signature file, there are some guidelines. Your "sig" in your everyday emails might be shorter not containing each of the items above, while sigs for your article or posts may be longer. Use your good judgment, use this list of guidelines, and experiment to find what works best for you.

About The Author

Julie Jordan Scott ([email protected] ) and Kevin Eikenberry ([email protected] ) are speakers, writers, consultants and people who help organizations and individuals reach for and achieve their goals. Both have content rich websites and free email offerings. To learn more go to
http://5passions.com and http://discian.com .

This article was posted on February 4, 2002

by Kevin Eikenberry and Julie Jordan Scott