What can you write about? Anything that you can! What is your site about? Do you have a hobby? A job? Experience of life? There are web sites and ezines covering any topic you can think of - and webmasters are always on lookout for new material. From aardvark breeding to zero gravity - they want your articles and expertise!

TOOLS You'll need a text editor program, not a word processing program. Why? Your WP program uses invisible control characters to store formatting information such as end of lines. Webmasters don't want these, as when they copy and paste them to their ezine or web page they'll cause errors. So use a text editor instead. Text editors don't give you all these formatting extras. Windows includes NotePad, but I prefer freeware NoteTab Light, from http://www.notetab.com/ as it has many more features. If you want a spell checker, you'll need to upgrade to paid version.

You will also need an auto-responder. You can store your articles so that publishers can send for an automatic e-mail copy. Some article banks only display title and outline, with a link to your auto-responder. I include e-mail address of my *master list* at end of every article. Both publishers, and their readers, can then send for other articles of interest to them. There are several free auto-responders on web. I use GetResponse at http://www.getresponse.com - if you want ad-free e-mails, you can upgrade to paid version, otherwise your articles will all have a short ad at start of each one.

FORMATTING You'll need to format your article so that it can be pasted right into a page or ezine - publishers are much more likely to use it. However great your content, having a huge editing task will stop many webmasters from choosing your work. Most ezines are formatted at between 60 and 70 characters a line. I format all my articles to 65 characters, to try and please as many people as I can.

If you have web links, include full address, including *http://*, and make sure you have a space before and after link. That way they'll be clickable in e-mail programs and web browsers. Use *mailto:* before e-mail addresses for same reason.

As well as your resource box, don't forget a copyright notice, such as *Copyright Dianne Reuby 2001* . (Use your own name, of course - unless you want me to get glory!) All sites and mailing lists below allow author to keep copyright - always check this before submitting to a publisher you haven't used before.

WHERE CAN YOU PUBLISH YOUR ARTICLES?

There are two main methods - through mailing lists (e-mail) and article banks (web sites).

As 'writeable' promo discs can be purchased inexpensively at stores such as Wal-Mart, after which music samples are copied from hard drive to CD, or by using what is known as a CD burner (high-speed duplicator), it should come as no surprise that even most financially challenged musicians are now embracing this invaluable and well proven promotional aspect for bringing immediate attention to their music.

And, as this method has proven unanimously beneficial in terms of ease of finance, promotion and time, there is absolutely no reason that a similar process cannot also work for your own business, albeit, a few elements properly customized (be sure your computer's compact disc is a "writeable" type, and not simply a "readable" one).

As such, I am providing a "from start to finish" outline that you should find very effective, almost immediately, whether you wish to reach out to your prospects locally, regionally or nationally.

Hypothetically, let's say you are in field of Cosmetology, and own and operate a hair salon. Though your industry has a ready-made market, with women repeatedly visiting on a regular basis, naturally, there is also a fair degree of competition from other salons in your area as well.

And, as such, you've noticed that your business sales and clients, have either begun to level off, stagnate or, possibly, even diminish. What can you quickly do to maintain and increase your clientele and, accordingly, your salon's income?

1. Why not take all of elements of your business, such as your weekly specials, information about your salon such as its history, your web site address, email address, regular prices, business hours, contact information, along with various products and services you offer, then format them into attractive files and place them on compact discs for distribution?

Your prospects are certain to be pleasantly surprised with this new out-of-the-norm promotion method and anxious to see what surprise awaits them on CD.

2. Next, consider all businesses women might patronize, such as women's shoe stores, women's clothing stores, jewelry stores, supermarkets, mall stores, cosmetic stores, etc. Your goal is to consider businesses that are complementary to your own services, yet, are not in competition in any way.

3. Now, contact store managers and/or owners, informing them that you are a fellow local business owner, and request to know if they will consider handing out your CD of information to their customers and/or clients who have computers and, hopefully, have Internet service. You might even request to enter into a barter agreement with these businesses, whereby, you distribute their sales information as well.

While all contacts you make might not be receptive to this idea, undeniably, you will acquire more than a few who will be interested, if for no other reason than opportunities to offer their customers a little something extra and/or to get their own business information into hands of new prospects (your customers) as well.