It's always a good time to reinforce the importance of staying in touch with your list.

As I've been telling my clients for years, the most important goal for your web site is to add visitors to your list. It's rare that first time visitors will buy something, and once they're gone, they may never come back. But if they subscribe to your list, they're giving you permission to invite them back over and over again.

Did you know that you can browse blogs and forums your target market reads for about an hour a week and be marketing your business? You can!

First, find blogs and forums that attract your target market. The topic should generally be related to your business in some way, but probably not published by a direct competitor. The objective in selecting these sites is that your actual or prospective customers are reading them on a regular basis.

I've noticed that when the economy slows down, many of my clients stop marketing their businesses because they're afraid to spend the money. I think this is a big mistake!

When business slows down, it's a great time to increase your marketing. Why? Two reasons.

First, you're looking to get more business and one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through marketing.

The quality and value of your content will determine how your subscribers feel about you and your business. When we talk about starting a blog or an ezine, our clients will often express anxiety about generating quality content on a regular basis.

When I started my first ezine - long, long ago! - I was a little worried, too. But I soon realized it wasn't that hard if I kept in mind the various formats I could use.

When we consider the many ways to market our businesses, we usually think about these types of online strategies:

* posting a blog entry
* sending an ezine or newsletter
* article marketing
* using Google AdWords
* search engine optimization (SEO)
* creating more incoming links to our web site

There's a key strategy that's more important than any of these.

I love parables. They contain wonderful lessons in a form so easy to digest that children can understand them. I grew up hearing the ones in the Bible, and one of my favorite books contains Zen Buddhist parables. Every culture has their versions of these stories.

This little parable is an old story, but one of my favorites. It never fails to give me needed perspective when the world seems aligned against me, and it has that "never say die" attitude we all need when the going gets rough.

Memberships are an increasingly popular way for marketers to receive a continuing stream of income from just one sale. Memberships are also called "continuity programs" since they have a continuing stream of income.

Typically, members pay a monthly fee for information and/or support. The deliverable can be as simple as a digital report each month, or as involved as a package of materials, teleclasses, and one on one coaching.