Think of amount of email you reply to weekly; that's a lot of people who will receive your mini billboard. It works silently in background selling your site and services.

Signature lines are extremely important when posting to discussion boards and newsgroups. You can't just barge in and try to sell your products, but with a good signature line, you're doing it in an acceptable way when you post or reply to a message.

As in all of your advertising, try to pique readers' curiosity with your signature, so they want to click on your URL and find out more about you.

Promoting your website means getting your URL seen in as many places as possible, and signature lines are one avenue in that direction. If you need more help with composing your signature lines or configuring your email client try:

http://www.smithfam.com/news/june99r.html

http://www.earthlink.net/internet/email/signatures.html

Although this may seem pretty elementary, you'd be amazed to see amount of email I receive daily that's missing signature boat. If you've overlooked your mini billboard I suggest you create one now, because you never know when someone may ask to see your "John Hancock."

3. The information which shows reader how to act - you have to include some form of information about how an interested reader can access a deal, contact someone, visit a web site, or whatever else you're trying to get that reader to do. So, offer them a way (or several ways) to go about "taking action," with contact info, a web address, a phone number, etc.

How to Use "Sigs" -------------------

Signatures can be a powerful tool for budget-conscious web site owner, if used effectively. If used poorly, they're simply a waste of time and effort. So, in order to use signatures in a manner that will produce positive results, here are a few things that you should do:

a) Use as many different signatures as you can. Don't just send one signature you've developed over and over again to same people. Think of several different ones you could use for your business, and alternate. Also, signatures are an excellent tool for promoting an affiliate program that you're involved in. Again, have as many as you can, and rotate.

b) Test effectiveness of your signatures. Don't just keep sending same group of signatures if it hasn't generated good results. Try some new ones, testing each particular signature for a little while to see if it's working better than other sigs you've tried. And once you've improved on your initial results, don't just stop experimenting. KEEP trying to improve upon your signatures more and more and eventually, you'll really be generating some good results.

c) Have a signature for every "type" of message that you send. If you make a signature for every different situation and "type" of e- mail you encounter, you can boost their effectiveness. For example, since most of your friends probably don't want to hear about your business or some affiliate program you're promoting, think of something else that they would like and would benefit them. Here's an example: you ever hear of those "get paid to surf" programs? Well, since it would be unprofessional for me to try to get people to sign up for them on this site, I promote programs to my friends through use of e-mail signatures. I could use something like this:

Regards, Micah

P.S. Have you heard of those new "get paid to surf web" programs? Well, I signed up with one called AllAdvantage.com, and they really work! I got a check for like $30 last week in mail. If you want to sign up for one, just go to: https://www.alladvantage.com/joinsecure.asp?refid=ASU-673

See how effective that could be? And that applies for ANY e-mail "situation" you might encounter.

Get to Work! -------------------

Now that you're aware of all benefits of using "sigs," you have no excuse not to start. So, start thinking about a few signatures that you could use. Jot them down on a piece of paper, revise them, edit them, and USE them. Good luck!