Services are usually strong - especially online services. Find a niche here and you will usually succeed. But what kind of services sell? There are many kinds, but they usually don't take form of affiliate programs that thousands of others are trying to sell. But, you might argue, affiliate programs are a great deal. With very little investment, you can be up and running in a very short time.

But why should someone buy from you, something that is being hawked all over web? This is where advice of pundits comes into action. You must sell yourself first, and do something that sets you apart from others who have exactly same product or service.

Your own web site is a great start. You can have your picture there, a short bio and list your reasons for joining program. If you can sell yourself, affiliate sale is a lot easier. But to do this, you must be able to entice your visitors back. If you can get them there enough times, odds of you making a sale greatly increase.

There are a number of ways to get them to return. Content that is continually updated is a great start. If you have information of interest to them, they will come back. A guest book where you can capture their email address is a real plus. You can then notify them when content has changed, and you are building a valuable mailing list. Running a contest is also a good draw.

If you can get your visitors back for seconds, or even thirds, you have a much better chance of selling your product or services. Who knows - you might also get a lot of new visitors by "word of mouth" which is always one of strongest forms of advertising available.

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 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.