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request re signature files

One of the things I make it a point to read in email is people's signature lines (always assuming they keep them to the conventional three lines in length) This tells me what that person is doing or considers important in their lives right now.

For writers, a sig file is a ready-made advertising vehicle. You can advertise your websites, your awards, your latest book or anything that you want others to read. It is a no-cost way to advertise and promote yourself and it only takes a few seconds of your time to create or modify a signature file in your email browser.

The Christmas gift thread was a case in point. I intend to use some of those ideas and credit the contributing individuals in my syndicated column. When I use some of those ideas on my web newsletter, I'll add urls to the writer's name to credit them and send some business their way in appreciation for contributing the idea.

So, the bottom line is without a signature line that tells me about your writing or website, I can't send those people to any place that might benefit you. And some of you wrote great posts without sig files.

As a starting point if you haven't considered doing this before, signature lines are conventionally three lines long. You can produce longer ones but fewer people read long ones and some listservs are programmed to delete anything longer than three lines. So, keep them to three lines. The most obvious content is a clickable url to your website. The other obvious one is your name because we normally don't "sign" our posts with our full names. This leaves you one good line to "sell" your services or your products or whatever you choose. It tells us the w's of your writing life.

It is also not a static file. It can and should be changed regularly to update folks on what you're doing and add interest to your posts. Think of the masthead of most magazines - you seldom read them unless you're looking for your own name or that of a friend. They're always the same. So, change your sig line to keep it marketing fresh.

Just my .02 on a Sunday afternoon.

Doug
Douglas Green
Award winning writer telling your story
www.simplegiftsfarm.com/clips/clipmaster.html




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