However, one thing that we often fail to admit (except in private) is importance of permission e-mail marketing, where members of your mailing list have given you permission to contact them, or where they're past customers of yours. Obviously, these e-mail lists are always opt-out, so if someone chooses not to continue receiving information from you, they can easily get removed from list.

Many of you know that I write monthly articles for Planet Ocean Publications, which (in my opinion) is one of best sources for up-to-date information in search engine industry. Their monthly online publication, Search Engine News, is second to none, and if you don't subscribe to it, you're missing out on tips and strategies that could make an amazing difference in your search engine optimization work. For those of you who aren't familiar with Planet Ocean, here's their URL. http://www.searchenginehelp.com/moreinfo/

Stephen Mahaney is editor of Planet Ocean, and he's easily one of top marketing guru's on Internet. I spent several hours on phone with him recently, and he told me that Time Magazine wrote an article in their November 3 edition that dealt with importance and impact of permission e-mail marketing.

There are a couple of quotes straight from magazine:

"E-mail marketing is fast, effective and dirt cheap -- a godsend for marketers in an economy that has crunched advertising budgets."

". . . humble medium of e-mail is blossoming while flashier forms of Internet advertising are going way of Pets.com sock puppet."

"Little wonder that old-line companies like Ford and Procter & Gamble are joining early users of targeted e-mail pitches like Amazon.com and J. Crew."

Can we trust Time Magazine? I do believe we can! They're a highly trusted magazine and have been for years and years. Time is clearly going on record of saying that permission e-mail marketing is one of most valuable means of making sales on Internet, but only if done properly.

In words of Stephen Mahaney, "If you have yet to 'correctly' integrate 'permission email marketing' into your online business plan, then you risk being thwarted by your competitors that do. It's just that plain and simple."

So, while spam e-mail should always remain locked tightly in a closet (NEVER to be let out), permission e-mail marketing is a crucial way for you to keep in touch with your customers and those interested in your products or services.

Let's look at five effective permission e-mail marketing strategies, tips that many Webmasters fail to do, and they ultimately lose business because of it.

1. If someone writes for information on your goods or services, save those e-mail addresses! Remember that sales aren't always made first time someone hears of a service or product. One trusted source told me that you have to hear about a product, service, or company at least twenty times before you begin to trust that company enough to do business with them.

1. Pay attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitals.

how ofen do yoo receeve e-mail ritten like this!!!!!

Many e-mail messages contain poor spelling and grammar, incorrect use of capital letters and/or poor punctuation. Such messages look amateurish and inevitably produce a poor impression of sender.

2. Read previous tip again.

Seriously, I can't overstate just how important it is to write well. The standard of contemporary writing is quite poor -- both on Internet and in general use. It's easy to find errors in most written sources. Stand out from crowd. Write well.

3. Your subject line should be descriptive.

Many people get dozens (or even hundreds) of e-mail messages per day, and with so much of it being spam (i.e. unsolicited sales messages), your message may be deleted unread if subject line makes it look unimportant or spamish.

Another reason to make your subject clear is to help recipient find it later. Many people archive months -- or even years -- worth of e-mail. A clear subject line will make your message easier to find.

4. Use short paragraphs and leave lines between them.

On-screen text is harder to read than printed text due to its lower resolution. You can make things easier for your readers by using short, clearly separated paragraphs.

You'll notice that all of paragraphs in this article are fairly short (typically, four or five lines) and are separated by blank lines for clarity. You might also care to indent text on first line of each paragraph.

5. Tidy up all those ">" characters.

When replying to a message (or forwarding it), most e-mail programs put a ">" character in front of each line of original text, like so:

> This is text of original > message that you are replying to.

Your reply goes here.