Publishing your own newsletter also helps. It doesn't have to be long or involved, but it should be published on a definite schedule. There is a lot of different thinking on how frequently it should be published. Some people think that a monthly schedule is a waste of time, as people may forget who you are between publications. Some feel that weekly is OK and others, myself included, feel that more exposure you have better.

Whatever frequency you select, it is imperative that it is published on a regular basis. If it is once a week, pick a day that it will be published and stick with it. If you are not going to publish in any given week, be sure to notify your subscribers in advance so they don't wonder what happened. Building a subscriber base is normally a slow process. You should have a sign-up process on your website.

You can use either a form for this or have them send you an email. A form is preferred way as it is immediately identifiable as a subscription when it is received. If you don't use a form, then at least list your email address with subscribe in subject so it doesn't get "trashed" with rest of spam you receive.

Use something that will immediately identify it as a submission like mailto:bob@adv-marketing.com?subject=Subscribe - this way it will automatically insert word "Subscribe" in subject of email.

Whatever route you take on your road to building your reputation, probably most important thing to remember is that memory of most folks is short, and you will be forgotten "blink of an eye". There are thousands of new prospects becoming available everyday. If you hope to do business on web, you must not only build a good reputation, but you must be visible to your prospects on an ongoing and regular basis.

Wait one! Where's link from home page to those lovely links I saw? Uhmmmmmm. Nowhere to be found. One site even had a site map. But it contained no link to link directory.

So here's a fellow (1 of 4, remember) who will gladly swap links with you, a fellow who will never send you even one visitor. The link he wants in exchange, goes to his home page. There's just no way to get to outbound links from there. So he gets hits from my site and I get zip from him. And link checking software would find link still in place.

So if you receive what appears to be a good offer for a link swap, take time to visit site and see if visitors could ever find that lovely link to you. Four of these in one month is a record for me. But hey, maybe it's a "new" thing that's catching on!

Bob McElwain For ANSWERS, click to subscribe to "STAT News"