HOW TO BUILD AN ONLINE AUDIENCE ON A VERY LIMITED BUDGET

I find that writing articles based on my own knowledge and life
experiences is the best means of internet marketing. In other
words, you are BRANDING yourself. Writing down information
(valuable), that can inform and most importantly, HELP others
through SHARING.

A few words of advice here...

Just write in your own UNIQUE and distinctive style - what
comes naturally to you. Be yourself in your writing and you will
find that the words will flow. Use your individual area of expertise
(and/or interests) to help others through sharing your unique
knowledge and experiences of the magical journey that is life.

Then submit your articles to relevant ezines in your area of
interest or expertise, and/or publishers resources - lists like
Shelley Lowery's Article Announce, Mike Valentine's Free-
Content, Angela Giles-Klocke's TheWriteArticles, PromoteYour
Article and Free-eContent. All very useful lists, that we regularly
use.

Their web adresses are:

http://www.egroups.com/group/article_announce
TheWriteArticles@yahoogroups.com
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Free-Content

Also,
Publisher Network: publisher_network@egroups.com
PromoteYourArticle@yahoogroups.com
Free_eContent@yahoogroups.com
and finally ArticlePublish@yahoogroups.com.

They are all an excellent source of information and many
ezine publishers source relevant articles from these lists.
Sometimes even ezines with huge readerships pick up articles.

I believe that this strategy is the most effective form of TARGET
MARKETING... that get's us the best results on a very limited
advertising budget (like most start up home online businesses)...
and best of all it's BRANDING oneself through free advertising.

A few final words to summarise...

Why not start WRITING ARTICLES for the www and see
what happens...transpires (nice word, eh?).You DON'T
have to be a "professional" writer to write articles. You
know more about the subject matter (based on your past
knowledge and experiences) and especially YOUR business.
It doesn't matter whether you have never written anything
before, just make a beginning.

"Be bold and unseen forces come to your aid."
(that is one of my favourite quotations - story of my life!).

Progress in life is accomplished by doing the basics right - the
"little chores day by day". Success is never instantaneous -
in any field of endeavour. For a while it may appear as if you
are not making a noticable difference through your substantial
efforts (in time and dedication put in ). However, just keep
"chipping away" at your online marketing long enough and I can
assure you, you WILL get noticed with web traffic...even though
it may take awhile. The key to internet marketing success is
PERSISTENCE - taking the small steps daily and making them HABITS.
Ingrained...like writing articles!

This whole business of internet marketing has been one long
learning curve for us over the past five years - seeing what
works and what doesn't... like the lessons of life itself.

Finally...

Just make a beginning. Take that first step and you'll find
that one step naturally leads to the next.

As the ancient Chinese proverb so wisely said:
"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a broken fanbelt
and a leaky tyre... er sorry, a single step".

Good luck with those first few steps in writing articles for the
www (without a broken and leaky pen) and ENJOY the journey.