You’ve probably seen them before. Some may be short and sweet, while others may be excruciatingly long and irritating. I am talking about email signatures. An email signature plays a vital role in the free Internet advertising movement that is now in full swing. Free Internet advertising? Yes, that’s right. I said free Internet advertising.

Using email signatures as an advertising agent

Email signatures are a great way to advertise your business, website, ezine, or blog. Anytime you send out an email, your information gets sent all over the web to your friends, coworkers, clients; and then on to their friends, their coworkers, and sometimes even their families.

Writing an effective email signature

What is included in an effective email signature? Below is an example of a great email signature:

==========================
Tomira L. Rosser
Freelance Writer for Hire
Affordable writing services for businesses and individuals,
http://www.tlrosser.com
==========================
Sign up for free Internet marketing tips
newsletter@tlrosser.com

Your Name - is very important! Even if your email recipient is your mother, attach your signature to it and send it along. Your signature will travel further than you realize with every email that you send out.

Your title - Describing your title is very important as well. It gives you credibility and it identifies you with anyone who may have similar interests.

A blurb about your company, ezine, or blog - This tells your readers (and potential visitors) what your business, ezine, or blog is all about.

Your Website’s URL - Do not ever forget this! This is the heart of your email signature. It will direct your readers to your website for further information.

Additional information - If you have an ezine, or newsletter email address, place a small bit of information about your newsletter here and invite your readers to sign up for your newsletter. Of course you may put any kind of information in this additional section.

If you create your email signature according to the above suggestions, you will indeed find it to be very beneficial for you. Email signatures are great avenues to advertising for free on the Internet. May you continue to have great success!

If you are new to the world of online businesses, the task of marketing your website doesn’t have to be so daunting. Here are 5 easy and free ways to market your website.

Email Signatures - This is the easiest way to market yourself. Set up an email signature that includes your name and/or business, any special offers you may have, some tempting text, and your website URL. Including your website URL is very important. Attach that email signature to all outgoing email (including replies). It is good to use this email signature when you are writing to friends and family too. If they forward emails from you to their friends, you will receive more exposure for your website.

Provide fresh and engaging content - No one wants to go to a website that hasn’t been updated in five years. If your website has a certain niche, write about that niche and provide your visitors with fresh material. It is important to make sure you have content that will cause your visitors to want to come back again.

Create a content specific newsletter - Also know as a subject newsletter or niche newsletter. This option is great for those who have writing talent. Even if you don’t have writing talent, with simple organization and focus you can pull it off. Offer an option on your website for newsletter signup. You could either use an email link as the signup method or a contact form. Collect all visitors that want newsletters and put them on your mailing list. Create fresh newsletters (weekly or biweekly) and email them to your subscribers.

Article marketing - Write articles centering around your niche and submit them to article directories such as EzineArticles.com or NeatArticles.com. Always add an author resource box at the bottom which serves as an advertising agent for you. The author resource box should include your name, a blur about your website, and the website address. Once accepted your article is blasted all over the Internet will thousands, if not millions of potential visitors.

Blogs and Forums - I put these together because these go hand-in-hand at times. Blogs are free to create and forums are free to join. Create a blog using Wordpress or Blogger. Blog about your website or your niche. Provide links within your blog posts to your website and if applicable, to specific items. Visit other people’s blogs and comment on their posts and include your email signature in your blog comment.

Take your email signature and use it in the same way in forums. Don’t try to over do it by posting non related forum posts just to get your signature noticed. Participate in the forums and gain reputation. Have fun posting to the forums, all the while keeping your resource box (email signature) in tact. Before long, you will begin to see the fruitage of your efforts.