Wikipedia is the center of the online encyclopedia universe. Millions of entries on every conceivable topic makes this website an authority source that many young students and adults turn to from all corners of the globe.

The widespread popularity of Wikipedia has made it an easy target for quite a bit of controversy and critique. Many academic institutions disapprove of any use of unverified Internet sources, including Wikipedia articles. Ironically, Wikipedia prides itself on the idea that its information is verifiable. Read more about Wikipedia’s Verifiability policy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability

Wikipedia Basics

Founded in 2001, Wikipedia is a free content resource that anyone can submit information to according to certain submission rules. Articles are written and submitted by anyone interested in the topic being discussed.

Authenticity is supposedly ensured by the ability of others to edit previously submitted information and correct any errors. Grossly inappropriate or incorrect articles can be nominated for deletion. Wikipedia users are given a week to vote on the appropriate response to a deletion nomination.

These safeguards have been built into Wikipedia’s design as a way of preserving both its credibility and authenticity. While Wikipedia’s systems of checks and balances are not failsafe, they do eliminate quite a few of the errors that would otherwise occur.

The fact that the website’s content is made up exclusively by donated content and that it has over 2 million topic articles is a testament to the popularity of this style. While there are no basic rules for submitting articles, there are basic guidelines that Wikipedia asks submitting authors to follow.

Maintaining a neutral tone and presenting the information in a fair unbiased way are the perfect tones that dictate encyclopedia articles. Authors and editors are expected to be respectful of the work of others and not to modify anything without a good reason or verifiable references.

Controversy

Academic institutions and authority reference sources such as encyclopedia companies have been less impressed with Wikipedia than the general public. There are many reasons for the less than enthusiastic response from institutions of higher learning and professional reference companies.

The publishers of Encyclopedia Britannica became enraged when a study claimed that the accuracy of Wikipedia was comparable to the accuracy of Britannica’s long-standing published encyclopedia. They widely disputed the results, insisting that their publication is by far the more superior publication.

Public opinion sides with Britannica. The majority of most people, when polled, have great faith in the reputation of Britannica and hold it in much higher regard than its online counterparts.

The convenience of the Internet encyclopedia version is where a lot of its competition with Britannica arises. Being able to access any information with the click of a mouse brings research to a whole new level.

Wikipedia and Academics

Studies are regularly inconsistent on the accuracy of Wikipedia. There is a wide range in the quality and accuracy of the Wiki articles online.

Articles are constantly being modified and improved upon. When doing research, it is very important to double-check all information. Wikipedia is a great resource, but it should never be trusted as the final word on any topic.

Members of academia are prone to carry negative feelings towards to the use of Wikipedia. Most become agitated when their students source Wikipedia, because they feel their students are not able to tell the difference between a good resource and a bad one - a truthful fact or an erroneous statement.

A commonly held belief is that a student lacks the common sense or ability to differentiate between a good article and a biased, inadequate presentation of a story as fact. Academia also points to the general lack of solid research supporting most Wikipedia articles.

Lazy Research

There is no excuse for laziness, but the blame for it is often placed on the presence of technology instead of where it actually belongs - on the people who rely on technology to provide them the shortcuts they take.

The modern age is one of advanced technology and many students are more than willing to take advantage of the ease of relying on computers and minimal online research.

The primary function of schools is to teach children. Not only are they responsible for teaching them facts, but also for teaching them how to think and solve problems for themselves. When students are no longer able, or willing, to logically decide something, academics are quick to blame the ease of access to technological advances, separating themselves from the blame.

Unfortunately, schools hold as much blame as the technology they bash, for the falling ability of students to produce results on their own. When I was in high school during the early 1980’s, calculators were prohibited in all classes except for the advanced mathematics classes that required the use of scientific calculators. By the mid-1990’s, the children of friends were telling me that they were required to bring a simple calculator to the classroom to assist them in their basic math calculations.

Academia is generally as responsible for the falling academic performance of students as website sources such as Wikipedia. Although academia shares in the blame for falling academic performance with poor resources like Wikipedia, this shared blame should not excuse Wikipedia’s less than ideal service record.

One Thousand Monkeys Typing The Next Great Novel

Wikipedia and all of its sister projects are not perfect. They are websites dedicated to providing knowledge to everyone. Those willing to share what they have learned donate to this knowledge base in hopes of helping others. At least, that is what they do in theory.

The Wikipedia frontier has real possibility for the future, but behind the scenes, it is rife with \”monkeys learning to type the next great novel,\” as sourced in the Infinite Monkey Theorem at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem). There are some areas of the Wikipedia that are definitely lacking in information and credibility, and yet when someone makes a gesture to add to the Wiki knowledge base, some editors frame these new contributions as unsupportable and unacceptable additions to the Wikipedia world.

The Wikipedia world relies upon its published Code Of Conduct to drive the decisions of its editors. Examples of the Wikipedia Code Of Conduct include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:BIO

The Wikipedia Monkey Brigade

One extreme example of the \”Wikipedia Monkey Brigade\” is the story of how Danny Sullivan noticed the attempt by some editor to delete the Matt Cutts chapter in the encyclopedia.

For those involved in the study of search engines, Danny Sullivan is one of the most recognized experts in the field of search engines, and has been since 1997. As the founder of Search Engine Watch, and now the editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, Danny even has his own page in the Wikipedia world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Sullivan_(technologist)

It seems some Wikipedia editor decided that Matt Cutts was not notable enough for his own chapter in the Wikipedia. For those of us who work in the search engine optimization community, such a suggestion is absolutely obscene. As a quality control engineer for Google and the voice of Google’s spam detection department, people in the search industry pay close attention to what Cutts says about the future of search placement within Google.

Sullivan suggested that the attempt to delete the Matt Cutts page was at the very least an example of how \”inept\” the Wikipedia editors have shown themselves to be. You can read Sullivan’s heartfelt argument here: http://searchengineland.com/070108-170335.php

Almost as interesting as Sullivan’s blog post about the suggestion to delete the Matt Cutts page from the Wikipedia, was the page where people argued the decision about whether the page was worthy of deletion. You can read that interchange here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Matt_Cutts

Those supporting the deletion of the page were quick to point out the Wikipedia guidelines on Notability at: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:BIO) Strangely, I had read the guidelines myself and I felt that Matt Cutts was a slam-dunk for inclusion.

The Good Faith Argument

Much to my own surprise, the fellow who originally suggested that the Matt Cutts page should have been deleted got into the fray that resulted from his action. He even made reference to having read Sullivan’s comments and chose to use them as a springboard to belittle Sullivan:

\”The sources provided by Sullivan in his blog are interesting and some would even make great additions to a number of AfD-submitted articles to help fulfill notability (it’s a shame he spent the time to make personal commentary about me on his blog than to improve these poorly drafted articles, but to each his own).\”

For a guy who quotes the Wikipedia guidelines about \”assuming good faith\” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:AGF) as frequently as he does, I think his own comments about Sullivan betray his double standards about \”good faith\”.

It is true that one would not expect anyone who studied Bioinformatics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics) in college to understand who the players are in the search industry, but then one would also not expect a person who knew nothing about an industry to judge who is notable in that industry either. It would be like me assuming to be able to identify notable people in the bioinformatics field… Yep, that would be dishonest and silly.

Final Thoughts

The one thing that makes the world of Wikipedia both great and terrible is the same; it is the ability of people to make corrections to the Wikipedia encyclopedia when they see the need to do so. But, the truth is that any monkey with a keyboard and an Internet connection can create and edit documents in the Wikipedia community.

Even I am a Wikipedia editor… I may even be a monkey editor, but at the end of the day, I don’t monkey around editing information about which I am clueless.

About The Author:
Bill Platt helps his customers with link building for their websites, through his program at: http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com. By writing original informational articles that would be of interest to his client’s potential customers, he is able to provide keyword-embedded links to his client’s website from contextually relevent pages on the Internet. If you have more questions, you may visit Bill’s website or give him a call at (405) 780-7745, between the hours of 9am-6pm CST, Mon-Fri.

The operation of any company will usually entail many decisions that will determine the success or failure of your business. Choosing how you set up your company’s communication system will no doubt be one of those crucial decisions you will have to make.

How your company communicates with its clients, employees, business partners, suppliers, shipping agents… are all vital to the running of an efficient business. Your communication system should be integrated, seamless and available everywhere.

Simply put: you must connect all your operations together into one useful network where none of the patrons listed above should be left out. Everyone should be connected and easily reachable; no matter the time of day or the location.

One obvious component of any company’s communication system will be the Office Fax. However, the old traditional fax machine is slowly being replaced by a new kid on the block. For the reasons listed above and below, many companies are choosing to go with Internet Fax as their preferred method of faxing. If you’re not familiar with online or email faxing some background information might prove helpful.

Internet Fax is simply using the Internet and your email system to send and receive faxes, anywhere anytime. It is mobile, paperless, efficient and you won’t get any busy signals. Plus, there is no need for a second phone line.

Internet Fax is an extremely fast, convenient and simple way to send and receive your faxes. In order to use Internet Fax you have to sign-up to a Fax Service Provider where you get a local or Toll-Free fax number and an online site to send and receive your faxes. Your fax provider acts as a mediator, handling all your faxes whether they are coming from a standard fax machine or from another Internet Fax user. Faxes are sent as email attachments usually in TIFF, PDF or JPEG formats. Most services also let you store your faxes online so they are available wherever you have the Internet and these days that’s just about everywhere.

Internet faxes are private and secure with SSL and PGP encryption. Most if not all companies are compliant with such privacy regulations as Gramm-Leach-Bliley and HIPAA in the United States and PIPEDA in Canada. Your faxes sent and received via email can be protected through PGP encryption.

Internet Fax also has some special benefits for companies that work in remote locations or away from the office such as real estate agents, engineers, onsite builders and contractors, traveling sales agents… just to mention a few.

Plus, keep in mind, Internet Fax is completely scalable to meet your company’s needs. You can have or expand to different fax numbers for each department or salesperson in your company without the cost of installing all those extra phone lines.

Then there is Fax Broadcasting where you can send the same fax to thousands of agents or clients quickly and easily. This is not to be confused with JunkFaxes which are similar to email spam. Fax Broadcasting can be a very important factor in the competitiveness of your business.

If you do choose Internet Fax there are many well-known online fax providers you can use such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, and Send2Fax. You should also consider some lesser known fax providers such as Metrofax out of Seattle and Faxage out of Denver; sometimes going with a relatively smaller company will give you better individual service… you or your company won’t get lost in the crowd or in the large numbers.

Also, many companies and individuals like to consolidate all their phone/fax services into one provider. RingCentral is a popular choice since it gives you virtual phone and fax services all rolled into one.

If you do use an Internet Fax services make sure you shop around to find the best plan that is suited to your needs; plans range from a very modest $20 a year to around $10-$15 a month. Each plan will have a different number of faxes that you can send and receive. Rates are usually based on minutes… so multiple page faxes will cost more with 5 cent per minute the average cost. Keep in mind, International faxes will usually cost more.

Since Internet Fax involves the web and computers, it can be totally automated to meet your needs. It can be used to connect and integrate your whole working network. Also remember, Internet faxing is the wave of the future, if you want your company to remain completely competitive in this brave new computerized world you must have online fax.

Like any business decision, it really comes down to one sticking point, it is not a matter of whether you can afford to use Internet Fax but whether you can really afford NOT to use it. It’s Your Call?

About The Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services try this handy online Comparison Guide: Online Fax Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: Internet Fax Services.

Titus Hoskins Copyright (c) 2008. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

By participating in various online game sites on the web today, it is easy to build various skill sets, network with other online gamers, and win some great prizes. Online game sites have evolved from simple card games and picture contests to full-fledged casino-style games, tournaments, and competitions. More and more online game websites now feature interactive platforms for word games, puzzles, unique prize drawings, and even company-sponsored contests for terrific prizes.

Here Is Advantage Playing In Different Communities

As with any game or competition, practice is key to your success. But, do consider this. If you belong to a local chess club, you will find yourself competing with the same couple dozen people every week. After a length of time, you will know the play style of all of your competitors, and you may know when you sit down at the board that you are going to win or lose, based solely on who you are playing. This knowledge may take some of the fun out of the game, unless most of the people you are playing are as good of a player as you are.

Most chess clubs have a whole bunch of average players and a few chess experts. Suppose your local club was made up of a bunch of chess experts or chess masters, and then suppose you could play at their level competitively. If you were to travel to a nearby city, you might just find that the average player level was significantly lower in the next town, than in your own town. That could potentially set up a situation where when you travel; you would always be a big fish in a little pond.

If your goals are to always be the best player in the room, then it makes good sense to seek out a playing place where you can always be the big fish in a little pond. But, if your goal is to improve your game and to keep your skills sharp, then it may make more sense to travel to a club where you are among the average of players, so that you can always compete against someone better than yourself.

If you play games in your hometown, you will need to top your gas tank and allow extra time for travel to play against a different community. But venturing into alternate online game communities is as easy as typing in www. and your favorite game portal into your favorite Internet browser. Many of the online game websites provide chat and an online community environment, which will help you build a strong social network with other top players in different communities.

Key Benefits of Online Game Sites

Online game sites are a great way to relax, have fun, build problem-solving skills, and even win prizes and status within your group. Some online game sites are linked to online auctions where you can cash in your winnings for real merchandise, while others are simply played for points and tallied on public scorecards. Different game sites offer various incentives and advantages, but some of the key benefits include:

Interacting with other members in forums and competitions

Building up unique skills for different types of games

Using your spare time in a constructive way, where you earn points and recognition for playing

Building a member track record and sharing your knowledge with the community

Having access to exclusive games after you reach a certain status level

Getting free products, samples, and offers from sponsors and advertisers

Most of all, online game sites give you a chance to develop a new identity online, connect with other players, and cash in your winnings for great prizes in the long-term, from the comfort of your own home. Regular participation is the key to becoming a power player, and can help you not only win, but also make you a leader in the community in which you participate.

How to Win on Online Game Sites

The only real way to win regularly on online game sites is to play regularly - preferably every day. As it has always been said, “Practice makes perfect.” Playing games on different game websites can help to increase your skills, by enabling you to compete with different sets of people.

You have to play frequently to increase your chances to win, and it is recommended that you explore different contests and prize categories. Sometimes you might need to risk some of your current winnings to gain access to better prize opportunities, but you’ll get the most of your experience when you explore the various offerings of the different online game sites.

Building up a track record of winnings is only possible with regular play and participating in the game communities as often as you can. Forums are just one place to learn more about different contests underway, and also a place to find out where the winners are successful.

Networking and Communities on Online Game Sites

Some online game sites are built with forums and communities, where players can interact and share tips and strategies, as well as make friends through social networking. Some online game sites are now letting you create your own blog within their community.

Still, the ultimate benefit of joining these groups is simply learning strategies for winning, keeping up with the latest contests and prizes, and getting the ‘inside’ scoop on the best contests and games to participate. Forums are a great way to learn more about other players and members, and find out how many people are interested in a particular game or contest.

Other Benefits of Visiting Online Game Sites

In addition to winning great prizes and even cashing in points for real cash and drawings, online game sites give you a chance to find great deals from advertisers and get the latest news about upcoming products. The companies that sponsor different sites usually provide some sort of incentive or discount for visiting their store - in many cases, you won’t get these discounts simply by visiting the advertisers’ website directly.

Special offers, promo codes, and other freebies can all be accessed through the game site, and it’s a great way to find new products and companies online. Some sponsors even have their own page with a list of products and services available, which makes shopping and discovering new products very simple.

About The Author:
T.C. Gaity writes about the Internet. Trader Auction Games (TAG City) is a portal for online games. Whereas most online game sites lets you stroke your ego with your winning streak, Trader Auction Games gives you the opportunity to win real prizes, when you play well. Advertising opportunities are also available for businesses who are interested in bartering products for advertising. Learn more: http://www.traderauctiongames.com

Is your email marketing campaign not as effective as you’d like?

Here’s what I do for about 90 percent of the email messages I receive: Delete, Delete, Delete… Some days it’s so bad, I think my finger’s going to get jammed from pressing the \”Delete\” button so much.

The email messages get deleted for various reasons. Since I now send email marketing messages myself, I try to pay closer attention to emails I receive but don’t read, as well as those I do read. I do this in an attempt to discern what compels me to open and read one message versus deleting another either without opening it, or very soon thereafter. The result boils down to this:

The Headline Is Important! The Headline Is Important! The Headline Is Important!

\”You had me at \”Hello\”…Remember that line from the Jerry McGuire movie? If the subject line of your email does not grab your reader by the hair, that reader will most likely delete your message immediately. Period. End of story. Your subject line simply MUST be attention-grabbing.

Now grabbing readers’ attention can be accomplished in a variety of ways. You can appeal to their emotions, sense of curiosity, even their greed. However you choose to do it, the result must be the same. You must command the readers’ attention and get them interested enough to at least open your message instead of hitting the delete button without another second’s consideration.

I could talk about email subject lines all day, because this is such an important part of email marketing, but to make this lesson as brief as possible, let’s put it this way:

To be effective, your email subject line needs to be one or a combination of these:

1. Descriptive - As a reader, I want to know what your email is about before I open your message (see first paragraph above). Using your most relevant keyword(s) within the subject line can be helpful here. For example, if your headline reads \”Receive 25% Off Clothes Purchases\” my response is likely to be \”So,\” (yawn) and guess what comes next? Delete. But if your subject line reads \”Get $25 Cash Back On Your Next Purchase of Elder Berman Jeans\”, and I’m an Elder Berman customer, I’m clicking that headline!

2. Compelling - Appeal to me on an emotional or interest level. For instance, here is the subject line of an actual email I recently received: \”I Have Found A Great Traffic System\”. My response? \”So?\” Delete. There was nothing about the headline that remotely galvanized my attention, much less compelled me to take any action (like actually opening the message). Now, had that message headline read \”Discover How To Add 10,000 Visitors To Your Website…\” or \”Kimberly, Don’t Lose Any More Traffic!\”, I may have been a bit more inclined to open the message and read further.

3. Purposely Non-Descriptive - In other words, pique my curiosity. This strategy can be a bit tricky. To be effective, you must give the reader just enough information or a \”hook\” to entice them to seek more, but not so much that they think they know what your message contains, and decide prematurely that they’re not interested.

For example, I recently used this email subject line: \”You Can Delete This, But What If It’s True…\”. While I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no great copywriter, I thought this subject line was effective for two reasons. First, I was able to take the reader a bit \”off guard\” by telling them to delete the message. In effect, I was predicting the action the reader was likely to take. But then, I added \”…But What If It’s True\”. By including this phrase, I hinted that there might be more that they would be interested in knowing; that they might miss out on something if they didn’t open the message. In addition, I left them most likely asking themselves what \”It\” refers to, in essence enticing them to open the email to find out what the \”It\” in the email message was about.

The bottom line is this, the subject line of your email is the fundamental and all-important key to getting your emails opened and read. Are there other elements of effective email marketing messages? Yes, of course there are. But, if you get this one wrong, none of the others really matter. When your email is immediately deleted, your reader never receives your core message, nor can she/he benefit from your information.

Learn to create great subject lines, and you’re well on your way to email marketing success.

About The Author:
Kimberly Clay is a successful business woman with over twenty years of experience and success to her credit. She is an online entrepreneur with a passion for educating and helping others to develop online success and create wealth. For more information, visit her website at http://www.GetMyWealthNow.com or her blog at http://www.blog.GetMyWealthNow.com

New Internet marketing tools are coming online each and every day. Why should you care? Mainly because these new marketing tools can have a dramatic impact on your online traffic, leads and sales. So much so, your online competitiveness can greatly depend on you finding and using these new marketing tools before everyone else does.

And as Internet marketing grows more and more lucrative, it is becoming more competitive each day, so staying aware of what’s happening has become vital to your online success. More importantly, if you’re a full-time marketer like me, your livelihood will largely depend upon you being able to keep on top of all the new ways of marketing on the web. With these considerations in mind, I would like to list some new or relatively new marketing tools that have been effective for me in my online marketing. Some of these are marketing software, others are SEO strategies, marketing tips and the like… all have helped me achieve my online goals. Here are some new marketing tools you can try:

1. Real Link Finder

Neil Shearing’s \”RealLinkFinder\” is a handy little link-building tool you can use to increase your link popularity and SE rankings. It lets you find targeted blogs that don’t have the \”nofollow\” attribute tag so your links will count in all the search engines. Great way to build targeted links related to your site’s main keywords or keyword phrases. This is one \”No Cost\” link-building tool you should try: www.reallinkfinder.com <http://www.reallinkfinder.com>

2. Peel Away Ads

Simple ads which sit at the corner of any webpage, when a cursor hovers over the pulsating image - the page peels away to reveal your ad or promotion. Might seem a bit gimmicky, but like the pop-up or fade-in, they do work. You do get more sign-ups and sales. www.pealawayads.com <http://www.pealawayads.com>

3. Video Marketing

Using videos as marketing tools has now become commonplace on the web. If you’re not promoting with videos, you are losing a large portion of the online traffic or surfers currently on the web. Even using videos to explain your site or product will increase your conversions and sign-ups. Viral videos embedded with your links or site url can produce results when placed on YouTube or Google Videos. If you need help, one recent commercial product has been from Simon Grabowski (GetResponse) called TalkStream, which lets you put streaming audio and video on your sites. Just Google to find it.

4. Social Media Bookmarks/Tags

One of the most significant changes in recent years has been the rise in importance and use of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati… these sites are now commanding huge traffic numbers and should not be ignored in your online marketing.

You must connect your content with these sites. This is very simple to do since social media sites use tags, which are more or less simple keywords that help classify content and links. If you’re using the popular Wordpress blog software, each category will be considered a tag. You can create a simple tag in technorati by using this code:

<*a href=\"http://technorati.com/tag/[tagname <http://technorati.com/tag/[tagname>]\” rel=\”tag\”>[tagname]<*/a>

<*a href=\"http://technorati.com/tag/new marketing tools\” rel=\”tag\”>new marketing tools<*/a>

Remove the *asterisks in actual codes.

5. Add this Button

One of the easiest ways I have found to tap into the whole social media bandwagon is to put the Addthis button on your webpages and let your visitors bookmark your content for you. This button is free and only takes seconds to set up on your pages. In case you’re wondering if this button works, I recently received 70,000 visitors to one of my sites in one day from these social media sites. Granted most of this traffic is transitory and not permanent - the huge traffic numbers will only last as long as your links/bookmarks are on the front pages of these popular sites. But where there is smoke, you can make fire.

6. Blogs RSS Feeds

Likewise, you must have a blog and RSS Feed associated with your site or product. It is vital that you take advantage of this technology to get your content broadcasted across the web and around the world. RSS is only simple code that syndicates your content to all interested parties; it originally stood for \”Rich Site Summary\” and was a way of summarizing your content and broadcasting it. Most people now refer to RSS as Really Simple Syndication. You need a \”newsreader\” or aggregator such as Newsgator, Google Reader, My Yahoo! or Feed Demon to access all your feeds. One little blog traffic tool I find helpful is John Reese’s BlogRush, which helps syndicate your blog posts on other blogs. www.blogrush.com <http://www.blogrush.com>

7. Expert Marketing

Another effective way to market online or off is to promote/prove yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Creating articles, ebooks, websites on a subject that interests you will make you an expert. Once you gain credibility as an expert, your marketing will become much easier. Some obvious places to help build this credibility would be Ezinearticles, SelfGrowth, Ideamarketers… I have found these places are excellent for getting your name and your content noticed.

8. Long Tail Niche Marketing

One of the most effective ways to market online is to use long tail keywords in your niche market. This simply means instead of targeting very general and very competitive keywords, you target less competitive long tail keywords in a smaller niche market. I have found this tactic especially good for affiliate marketing, and the trick is to find the exact long tail phrase someone is using in the search engines and then construct content/url to match it. I find Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite software program extremely helpful in finding those long tail keywords.

9. Guru Fast-track

One of the fastest and quickest ways to earn large amounts online is to hook up with big marketing GURUs and use their huge contact lists. If you have a high quality info product, then JVs (joint ventures) with these savvy marketers can be a very viable option for you to try. These marketing gurus or experts are valuable marketing tools you can use to your advantage. Granted, their aggressive marketing methods do turn many people off, but there’s no denying their methods do work.

10. Micro-List Marketing

Micro-List Building is one of the most effective online marketing tools you can use. Quite frankly, I have found building a large opt-in list is not the real key to online wealth but instead creating small micro lists for each of your promoted products to be much more effective. You can have hundreds, even thousands of these different micro-lists. Use an unlimited autoresponder program like Aweber to handle and manage all these lists.

Studies have shown interested customers may not buy on the first visit, that it may take up to six or seven reminders. So keeping in contact with an interested customer, one who is looking and in the right mindset to buy, will definitely increase your sales.

Here, rather then the hard-sell, the emphasis should be on collecting contacts in order to give them helpful informative content on the product they’re interested in buying. Supplying quality content should be your main goal; let the selling take care of itself. If you get the first part right, the sale will come naturally.

In conclusion, you must remember when dealing with such a complex creature as Internet marketing, in most cases there’s no one single marketing tool that will do the job. Instead you need a whole orchestra of tools working together in order to make your online marketing the most effective. So why not try some of these tools in your own online marketing and see the results for yourself. You have everything to gain.

About The Author:
The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time web marketer who regularly sells 1000’s of dollars worth of affiliate products/services online each day. He owns and runs numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools or Marketing Tool Guide Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.