Here is a little used technique you can implement to build your mailing list for no additional cost. I call it “using subscribers to make subscribers” like much in the context of “using money to make money”.

This simple list building formula can be summed up in two words: ad swap.

Generally, you trade advertisements with other eZine publishers, preferably of the same mailing list size or bigger. You broadcast the eZine publisher’s advertisement to your mailing list while the eZine publisher endorses your ad to his list. Yes, you are actually cross endorsing or cross promoting each others offer to each of your mailing list.

Your advertisement’s goal should be to get as many subscribers possible from the other eZine publisherís mailing list to sign up for yours.

The result: you grow your mailing list. This method does not require money, which means it can be done for free. And the return of subscribers? Infinite!

You only have to do this with one eZine publisher at least once, because his subscribers who are also your subscribers can now be followed up within the boundaries of your mailing list.

Perform ad swaps with as many eZine publishers as possible and soon, you will have a huge mailing list of your own - built free.

 This is from an article in Billboard Magazine. It talks about viral marketing an how the music biz is working to capitalize on it.

This year saw the emergence of a new buzzword in the digital music space — widgets. Next year, we’ll see if they do any good.

An offshoot of the global social networking trend, widgets are small applications that users can place into their blogs, profiles and Web sites, and thereby extend the functionality of an otherwise separate Web site or service. What’s more, users can simply copy widgets found on friends’ profiles and insert them onto their own, thus enabling a tremendously viral distribution opportunity.

Read the rest of the article:  http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2849016520071229?sp=true 

If you own one-page sales letter business models or content-based websites, you should turn every webpage possible into subscriber snatching devices for you. The good news is that not only is this method extra effective, it is just as extra effortless when it comes to applying the concept.

Since visitors can come and leave without remembering your website in the future (which is very likely to happen), you can still follow up with your visitors easily by seeking their permission to opt into your mailing list through your web pages - on autopilot!

You can create a pop up window to appear after your visitor attempts to close the window or leaves your website, asking for your visitor’s name and email address so that you can follow up with him or her in the near future via subscribing to your mailing list for free.

This way, you can convert a big portion of your visitors into subscribers, giving you a chance to follow up with them on other offers you may have in the future.

Alternatively, you can insert an opt-in form within the spaces of your web pages. This method is effective, especially if you are afraid of Internet users who have pop up killers installed in their web browsers, set to block any pop up windows.

In conclusion, turning every webpage you own into subscriber snatching devices with little effort can be responsible for huge subscriber-pulling results.

If a person visits your website and leaves, chances are that he or she will not come back, especially if there are no compelling reasons to do so. After all, we all behave rather impulsively on the Internet, so much so that we can easily forget where we were 10 web pages ago.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back. You could have converted a fraction of the visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitorís name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offer, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve ñ the easy, wise way.

Starting your own eZine can be a lot easier than you think. This is because in the most basic necessity, all you really need to get started publishing your own paperless newsletter are wealth of content, auto responder with broadcast feature, and a website (which is optional).

Content
You can compile weeks of content ahead in advance and slowly dispense them to your subscribers. For example, you can compile 100 short tips in one day and dispense 10 tips once a week. In other words, you can compile 10 weeks worth of content in just one day!

Auto Responder
Your auto responder is your asset. You need an auto responder to send your mails and eZine issues to your subscribers and store your data base of people subscribed to your newsletter. My recommended auto responder include is AutoResponse Plus.

Website
You may be surprised that this is actually an optional component. In short, there are eZine publishers publishing their newsletters without a website! But of course, having your own website can offer you tremendous advantages, such as the ability to bring in more subscribers and having your newsletter indexed in the top Search Engines.

These are the things you need to get started on publishing your own eZine at its bare minimum. Do not underestimate the little you need, though, because several eZine publishers today succeed well with only an auto responder and contents, with or without a website. And you can, too!

Zaadz is a social network like MySpace or Facebook. People can open an account, network with others, author blogs, add friends and lots of other things. What Zaadz does a little differently is that they put a new meaning on the word “Social” in the social networking world. Social in the sense that they care about our world and it’s people. Social in the sense that are care about the environment. The Zaadz community cares about the many cultures of the world. The mission of Zaadz is to make our world a better place in every sense and it’s motto is: “Zaadz: Connect. Grow. Inspire. Empower.”

Zaadz is an alternative to the usual Social Networking sites. They go so far to have a button on the bottom of every page proclaiming themselves “100% Organic”! You notice the differences immediately between Zaadz and sites like Care2 (another “green” site) and Friendster when you start the process of registering for a Zaadz account.

When you click “you! (join now)” link (there version of register for an account), you must in mind agree to the Zaadz principles. Zaadz principles are: Harmony, Integrity, Peace, Trust, Truth, Unity and Finally, Love. You agree to these principles by clicking each word in a series of circles that resembles a flower.

On this page they explain the reason why. They explain that they are different than most other online communities. They are committed to the principles inside the circles.

They ask tht before you join to take a moment and commit (by clicking the circles), to these principles. Once you do (after all they are all great concepts) you’re in.

So, is there a way to both serve this community and grow your business? You bet there is. Zaadz is the place to take advantage of the emerging green economy. Never has there been a place where so many socially conscious and active individuals meet and hang out in one place. The Green Economy, which I will here officially name Green 2.0, is growing by leaps and bounds. Some experts are predicting that the green economy will overshadow the dot com boom.

Here are 5 things you can do to guide these socially minded people to your business:

1. Create a Meaningful Profile - Just like the other social network sites (Friendster and Myspace for example) you first create a profile. The content you add to this profile is extremely important. Remember this is the first thing other members will see about you and your business. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make your profile complete. Add a cool title for yourself. Hard to explain but they will give you some examples like (Philosopher or Thinker), just go with it. Add a good description about you and your services in the about me section. Remember be complete.

Add Some Friends - Like the other social networking sites, you can add friends. Click the “Zaadzsters” link and use the search feature to find people with a similar taste in music. By adding friends, you increase your reach. Remember the seven Zaadz principles, you are not here only to benefit yourself, you are here to share. By adding friends on Zaadz, you are connecting with many new people that have like interests, goals and dreams.

3. Add an Event - Debuting your new Service? Build your own events page and invite all your new Zaadz friends. On this page you can add a link to your site and it even add a link to a Google Map. Marketing doesn’t get much easier (or more inexpensive!) than this.

4. Post a Blog - With your Zaadz account, you get a blog. Here is where you get to add really compelling and meaningful content overflowing with brilliant insight for your fellow community members. This doesn’t have to be directly about you or your business but rather about the bigger picture that your business products/services address. For example, if you are a Plummer, don’t write about what you offer, write about the importance of good plumbing and home care.

5. Join a Pod (Zaadz Group) - Browse Pods or use the Pod Tag feature to find a couple of pods that you fit into. Join and share your plans, your goals, your business with the other members. Share consciously, no one wants to be battered with a sales pitch on the first meeting. That’s not the goal here. The goal is to network with a group of like minded individuals, who, once you earn their trust, may very well become some of the best emissaries for you, your message and your products/services.

Since the beginning, Zaadz has been labeled with a “New Age” tag. In my opinion, this is not a bad thing. After all, we are in a New Age of Green and Social Consciousness marketing and business. Go Green 2.0.
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Lennie Appelquist is the Owner of FreeMarket Media Group. FreeMarket Media Group is dedicated to helping individuals and small businesses generate leads, convert those leads in customers/clients and build a web presence that works for them. We can show you how to make your online business profitable - IMMEDIATELY. Wanna open a FREE account on Zaadz? Click here to join me on Zaadz!

In March 2007, Google announce that they were “going greener”.  In his Ars Technica blog post, Nate Anderson wrote on March 29, 2007:

Google’s commitment to “green” means that the company sources carpet and sofas made without PVC, paints without volatile organic compounds, and cafeteria food from local growers. It’s not surprising, then, that they would roll out the largest commercial solar deployment in the US—a 1.6MW installation that covers most of the buildings at Google’s campus and extends even to shaded parking spaces. At the ETech conference in San Diego this week, Google’s Anthony Ravitz explained how Google did it, and why.

The move to solar made sense for Google, and not just “hippie Gaia-loving” sense. Ravitz said that Google will earn its investment back in 7.5 years, after which it will continue to enjoy inexpensive power for decades. With the company sprawled across a large campus of many low buildings, roof space was easily available. Solar also has the unique property of pumping out more energy when power is the most expensive—peak afternoon hours. When air conditioners across California kick into action on sunny days, Google generates the most power.

On November 28th, 2007, news comes out that Google is going into the green energy business.  Google has been pouring investment money into this sector. Besides investing in solar, wind and geothermal companies, Google will create its own research and development group “to look very aggressively at what we think are some promising technological pathways,” said Bill Weihl, Google’s green energy czar.

Google said that it’ll spend “tens of millions” to research clean-energy alternatives to coal-fired power plants and “hundreds of millions” to cut the costs of this power.

The goal is to produce 1 gigawatt of power from clean power sources - enough to light up a city the size of San Francisco - at a cost that’s the same as if the energy came from low-cost, high-polluting coal.

How soon? “Within years, not decades,” Google co-founder Larry Page wrote in a Web post.

Not much to do with marketing on the web, but good for the earth, don’t you think?

eZine publishers today use any one or more of the 3 most commonly used eZine formats which I am about to describe to you in this article.

Ultimately, you can decide which format is the best choice for you, though each winning format has its pros and cons.

The text eZine is the most commonly published. The advantage of this format is that other than writing, you do not require any special skill to use a Word or Notepad program.

While the HTML eZine format requires a certain degree of HTML skills on your part, you can add more sophisticated features to your eZine issues, making them more appealing to your subscriber thus increases your readership value, something that text eZines do not have.

You can decorate your eZine format, change your fonts, include pictures, and more. However, the drawback often faced by HTML eZines is that they often get trapped into spam filters before they reach their subscribersí inboxes.

The third and least used among the 3 formats is the PDF eZine. Publishing your eZine in PDF format can consume a lot of time and effort on your part but often make up in quality readership

Due to the commitment, PDF eZines are usually published on a monthly basis. The great part, though, is that you can put in your affiliate links in your PDF eZine issue and allow your subscribers to pass the eZine issue around.

Given the choices, however, you do not have to necessarily choose strictly one eZine format, as some eZine publishers today do publish in more than one format.

By far Youtube outweighs the competition when it comes to user generated video content on the web. I use Youtube as a video protion device but I used Brightcove.tv to host the videos that I used on my sites. Why? I felt that the player looked nicer and the video looked better. Now brightcove has annnounced that they are pulling the plug on user uploads. On November 27th I received the following email:
Dear Brightcove.TV member,

Beginning December 18, 2007, we plan to end support of direct consumer uploads to Brightcove.TV. As a result, you will not be able to upload new videos to Brightcove.TV after December 17, 2007. But videos you have already uploaded to Brightcove.TV will remain available on the site and through your Brightcove.TV channel. Videos you have embedded in other sites and blogs will also continue to play.

The good news is that if you create a business account, you will still be able to upload video to Brightcove.com and have those videos appear on Brightcove.tv. That is good news. With the Brightcove pro service (I use a free version) you can create a great video player to use on your site (see: Tiffany Miller Mosaics as an example).

When asked by Tech Crunch’s,Erick Schonfeld, Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire why he decided to throw in the towel on Brightcove.TV. His response:

We are not throwing in the towel on Brightcove.TV, we are eliminating its use as an end-user sharing service. Note that the vast majority of programming on Brightcove.TV are professional channels published by media businesses that use our overall platform for their websites and syndication. It will continue to operate as a content showcase of pro publishers using the Brightcove Platform.

He he goes on in this blog post that the eight million monthly unique visitors to Brightcove.TV (as reported by comScore) is “dwarfed by the adoption of our Internet TV platform by media businesses around the world.” He counts 4,000 such media publishers, who collectively attract “over 120 million uniques visitors per month across thousands of websites.” Brightcove.TV was always a sideshow.

Even though Brightcove.TV will continue to operate and showcase videos from Brightcove’s partners, it will no longer accept videos from consumers. I am tempted to put it in the deadpool, but will refrain for now. If it disappears completely, or arises Zombie-like in the future, we will let you know.

Usually, I upload my videos o any and every site I can. I will continue to watch Brightcove to see how this develops.