When you have an online business you need to utilize every possible avenue of advertising and promotion. As I sign up for more ezines and discussion groups, I am finding numerous publishers are overlooking a very effective and fr~e advertising opportunity.

After I sign up for an ezine or email discussion group, I await welcome letter for guidelines and to learn a bit more about ezine/website/webmaster. Too often all I get in welcome letter is standard default letter. No personal welcome, no introductions, no links to check out and no email.

This disappoints me as I always like to check out sites of people I am signing up with. It almost makes me want to unsubscribe.......almost. ;-) But I know that some publishers may just not know that you can take advantage of this advertising opportunity. I also didn't know of such opportunity when I was first starting.

So, by writing this article, I hope to make publishers and listowners aware of this fr~e advertising.

Whether you use Yahoogroups, Topica or a list manager that you have purchased, you can change welcome message. Personalize it by introducing yourself and letting subscriber know about your website/business.

Okay, sorry about that.. a bit of an inside joke. Or, was it? How many times a day do you find yourself muttering those words to yourself.

I may be aging myself here but I think that sentiment is felt by everyone, at some point. As busy entrepreneurs, we need to “get away from it all” in order to rejuvenate our bodies and our minds.

Our days, as home-based business owners, are filled with task after task, project after project, both personal and business. And, if we don’t take a little time to take a breather, we can end up burning ourselves out.

How you choose to recharge your batteries is a personal choice. For myself, I make sure to take ‘family time’. When 6 o’clock (at latest) rolls around, my computer goes into sleep mode and my brain officially switches to “life” mode. I don’t know what it is but, just thought of relaxing (even if it is mixed with a few household chores) has a calming effect on me. It’s kind of like a winding down feeling.

There are many other ways to help you calm your nerves and take a break:

Get back to nature. Puttering around in your garden can make you feel very relaxed. Sure, pulling weeds and watering your plants may seem like hard work but rewards from your efforts have a calming effect. Watching your plants blossom and flourish is a wonderful site.

Curl up with a good book. After you have put kids to bed, find a quiet place and open up a favorite book or that book you have always wanted to read. Winding down this way may go a little far and you may fall asleep. But, if that does happen, who cares? And just imagine what it will do for you.