Don't be a cyber-litterbug

Once you've started attacking the online market, you'll post messages in discussions, post classified ads, set up or change your web site, and perhaps upload articles to online libraries. It's important to keep track each day of what you did when and where. Cyberspace is crowded with outdated files and descriptions that are no longer accurate: like roadside campaign signs that are left up long after the election, this cyber-litter shows its owners don't care enough to clean up after themselves.

To avoid becoming a cyber-litterbug, set up a simple database that tracks the date, location, and description of your activities when you post discussion messages or upload files to your web site or to a discussion group library. Check the log once a month or so to see whether information needs to be updated or deleted, and where to find it if it does. Up-to-date information is an effective promoter of your business, but out-of-date information works the opposite way. An activity log is the only way to keep track of your marketing efforts so you can keep them working for you, rather than against you.