If, for example, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays are weaker in traffic, these sure wouldn't be best days to send out your newsletter or offers. They would likely end up competing more fiercely for attention because fewer of your prospects are online. This increases possibility of a *quick scan* or even a *delete* when your prospects get to their fuller mailboxes later.

How about time of day? Are your leads visiting more heavily around lunch (11 am to 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm to 8 pm), for example? Is there a fairly consistent pattern? If so, you certainly don't want to send your offer outside of these key time ranges. Again, to do otherwise would be to unnecessarily increase your mailbox competition.

LOOK AT YOUR SALES STATS TOO

Now, take a look at days and times of your SALES. Do you see a pattern here as well? If you do, it can be quite a valuable lesson.

When are your prospects in buying mood? What days? And what times during day? Clearly, you want to make contact at their most receptive times.

So, be ready when your prospects are. Be in right place at right time, ACCIDENTLY ON PURPOSE, to increase your response rates. Study your site stats and coordinate those marketing efforts within your control (particularly when you send out your ezine) to coincide with *peak prospect receptiveness* for your particular business.

When it's finally way I want it, I count words. I usually try to stay around 500 words and format to 60 characters per line. It's easier to get published if article is not too long and is correctly formatted. Also, more people will read a shorter article than a much longer one.

After I'm satisfied with final draft, I'll write a short cover letter to each editor, personalized with their name. I tell them title, word count, and a short two to three sentence description of article. I then copy and paste it into email below cover letter. I do NOT send it as an attachment. Attachments do not get opened due to all viruses we have. I always send as plain text, never HTML format.

Next, I get my list of editors that I submit to and start submitting to them individually, according to their guidelines. Some editors prefer you to request to submit an article, and when I do, I tell them title, word count and brief description of article. Most will let you submit article at once with "Article" in subject line of email. I usually receive an acknowledgement from editors with a personal comment on my article, and date they expect to publish it.

And that's all there is to it! I'm always surprised to see myself in print. I never thought of myself as a writer, (except email!) And now I've received several requests for weekly or monthly articles.

Guess I'd better get busy!