The following is an excerpt from the book Fifty-one Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online: How Women are Using the Internet to Grow their Business, Reach the Right Customers, and Make a Difference, by Monica S. Flores. Purchase the book online or at Amazon.

Tip 25. You’re a Clearinghouse: Link to Subject Matter

Subject matter changes so quickly as knowledge grows in a particular field. Today’s information worker typically processes more information in a month than any educated person three hundred years ago processed in a year. Because of the ever-expanding knowledge base in the world, your reputation as someone “in the know” helps your customers and clients trust your judgement.

When you act as a clearinghouse of select information, your web visitors use your site as a one-stop shop with resources to benefit their lives, improve their work environment, or keep ahead of changes in the field. Provide links to the following:

1) Articles in the news that directly impact your clients
2) Editorials on trends in your industry
3) Tools such as software or physical objects that will make your customers’ lives easier
4) Upcoming or expected regulation from the government in your field
5) Policy changes that impact your company
6) International trends or agreements that impact clients
7) An introduction to key players in your industry
8) Answers or viewpoints from industry leaders
9) Emerging trends that your customers may not know

As you add up-to-date information on your industry, others will view your site as a trusted information source.

The following is an excerpt from the book Fifty-one Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online: How Women are Using the Internet to Grow their Business, Reach the Right Customers, and Make a Difference, by Monica S. Flores. Purchase the book online or at Amazon.

Tip 23. Lighten Up: Humor Makes Visitors Happy

Humor, if used judiciously, goes a long way to entertaining your visitors and letting them know a little more about you and your company’s sense of fun, humor, playfulness, or creativity.

If your site does not benefit from humor, then please disregard this tip, but if your site does allow an opportunity for you to provide a respite for today’s busy, left-brain-focused worker, take it. There’s a reason newspaper readers open up the Sunday Funnies section first and magazine readers go to the back page to see the silly picture or the comical illustration.

Some ideas for a humorous section to add to your website: Humor at Work, Funny Stories from the Field, Joke of the Week, Picture of the Month, and Overheard in the Office.

+ Is your website a banking, financial, or legal site?
If so, be very careful about using humor on your website.

+ Is your site zany, irreverent, creative, or whimsical?
If so, consider adding:
+ Funny stories
+ Jokes or silly situations
+ “Overheard” dialogue
+ Funny, entertaining pictures or graphics

+ Make sure that all humor is tasteful and appropriate!!!

The following is an excerpt from the book Fifty-one Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online: How Women are Using the Internet to Grow their Business, Reach the Right Customers, and Make a Difference, by Monica S. Flores. Purchase the book online or at Amazon.

Tip 19. Control Junk E-Mail: Create an Opt-in List

Most people prefer to spend time with their family and friends, pursue important activities, or get real work done instead of dealing with junk e-mail.

What constitutes junk e-mail? Any of the following:
+ e-mail for which the recipient did not sign up
+ e-mail from which the recipient cannot unsubscribe
+ e-mail without a link to the original site sending it

If you dislike junk mail as much as I do (and if you receive as much as I do in a typical day, you definitely dislike it), you’ll make extra efforts to make sure that all your e-mail communications find a happy response upon their delivery.

E-mail communications form a large part of normal interactions with a company, so it’s best to start off with asking permission on if you may send e-mail to your users. This involves an “opt-in” process: users submit their contact information and they confirm that they opt-in to receiving communications from you. It’s always thoughtful to offer links to your latest e-newsletters so visitors may preview what they’re actually going to receive.

When you have legitimate news that benefits your clients, readers, or website visitors, of if you offer a service that’s timely and truly of interest to your mailing list, then feel good about sending your message to your community. It helps them feel like they’re “in the know” and have access to behind-the-scenes information.

I always recommend having a list of people who truly care about your products and services and who want to hear from you, as opposed to a “ho-hum” list of people who don’t actually enjoy receiving your e-mail missive and who will delete it or worse, spam filter it upon arrival.

When you send out messages, always make sure that you offer an opt-out link in the bottom part of the newsletter. Offer a link to your visitors so they may change their e-mail address or update their own contact information, or even choose which of your announcements they’d like to receive.

When you control junk e-mail, offer opt-ins and unsubscribe links, and you truly target the message that you send, you keep your business active in the eyes of the people who care the most. Through your e-mail list, you’re building a loyal base of fans who enjoy hearing from you. Respect the trust they place in you and maintain the newsletter as a valuable service.

I recommend minimizing the e-mail you send rather than maximizing it. Is your message so important that people must hear from you every day or every week? If you offer a weekly service, then you’re fine (e.g. Sunfire NewsWire offers a roundup of Asian-American political and business news, which arrives regularly), but if you’re simply sending promotional messages, consider sending messages only on a monthly, quarterly, or special seasonal basis.