By Stephen Bucaro

You provide a Web service such as Web site design, Web site evaluation, search engine optimization, graphics design, or copy writing. You find a Web site that could sorely use your services. You send a friendly email message to Web site's owner.

Your ISP disconnects your service, your Web host cancels your service, your affiliate membership gets terminated with loss of commissions, your business gets a bad reputation, and you are labeled SPAMMER.

All because you sent an "innocent" email. Spam has become such an invasive and revolting phenomenon today that people who receive any unsolicited email messages will make sure sender pays dearly for crime. Is there a way to send a friendly email message without getting persecuted?

Let's make one thing clear, improperly sending mass unsolicited email messages will result in big problems for you. Proper mass email marketing is done through opt-in lists or newsletter advertising. There is no effective way to mass email market for free. Safe lists and FAA sites are a waste of your valuable time.

But there is a safe way to send a small number of friendly email messages to solicit customers. What makes this possible is your "signature" block. A signature block is a short paragraph, about six lines long, that you include at bottom of every email message. The signature box includes information about your business and how to contact you.

Most email programs let you configure a signature block that automatically gets included in every email message that you send. To properly use a signature block, make sure that it is not personalized in any way to individual that you are sending message to. Make sure there is a dividing line that separates signature block from rest of email message.

To put it another way, you are NOT sending a marketing message to individual. You are sending a personal message that just happens to automatically include your signature block. Now all you need is an legitimate reason to send a personal message to prospective customer. Below are five different scenarios for this.

1. Give a Compliment.

Find something you like about prospective customer's website and send them a compliment. For example: "I'm writing to let you know that I found information on your Web site about how to buy a new car very informative. I find your Web site very useful. Keep up good work. Thank you". And of course, your signature block is automatically included at bottom of your message.

Don't be too transparent or patronizing with your compliment. Don't send a general compliment. You must compliment something specific. If you honestly can't find something you like about prospective customer's website, use one of other methods described below.

In fact, technique works so well that many of them don't want you to discover how they get those thousands of website visitors and make so many sales on virtual "auto- pilot."

Their method?

Creating tightly focused articles other people publish in their ezines (online magazines and email newsletters) and post on their websites. This method rates so powerful that some even call it "the web's best kept traffic secret."

Now, you may ask, "Why would an ezine publisher or website owner publish my articles for their subscribers?"

The answer: Content!

Over a 100,000 ezines and newsletters operate on web (along with millions of websites) covering everything from pets and cooking to investments and real estate. Many of them need tightly focused content and they simply can't produce all of it themselves.

Look at it this way... it's same reason newspapers use Associated Press. Individual newspapers often can't afford staff writers to cover every story, so they accept articles from outside their organization.

You can do exact same thing for various ezines and websites catering to your niche audience!

You can get valuable publicity -- exposure you often couldn't even pay for if you wanted to -- by providing valuable, content-rich articles in exchange for a byline and a link to your website (called a "resource box")!

The following represent only a few of enormous benefits of writing and distributing simple articles online:

** Attain "Expert" Status **

Let's face it! In eyes of virtually everyone who reads your articles you rank as "expert" on subject.

Just look at people who write newspaper columns. You may disagree with their viewpoints, but they still have an elevated status in your mind compared to "average Joe" off street.

** Pre-sell Website Visitors **