In the last couple of years, I've come across an amazing, no- cost, way to obtain great publicity for your company, Web site, or organization. And all it takes is a little elbow power (or a few bucks to hire a writer with same) and the information about where and how to get the notice.

Today there are over 300,000 online newsletters and electronic magazines (often called 'ezines' for short) and the numbers grow daily. They cover virtually any topic you can think of, ranging from working at home to parenting to genealogy.

But here's the biggest secret of all: most of them rely on outside contributors for their information. In fact, many ezine publishers are starving for quality content. Consequently, they need experts (and you are an expert on something, aren't you?) to provide short articles, tips, and advice to their readers. And we're not talking major treatises or giant tomes here; most ezines publish articles as short as a paragraph or two.

Usually, you won't get paid a dime for your contribution. However, because the publication will run your byline (which includes your name, company, and address-either physical or cyber), you'll end up getting leads in the dozens or hundreds every time your article runs. That's dozens or hundreds of new visitors to your shop, Web site, or publication. For free.

So, just how do you go about finding ezines that want what you have to contribute? Well, you can find and approach individual publishers and offer your articles or tips. But that's often time-consuming, frustrating, and difficult. The single best approach is simply to post your contribution to one of the growing number of free article distribution services that are sprouting up across the Web. These services are frequented by ezine publishers looking for content and posting information about your article is the quickest way to get noticed.

Depending upon the individual service, you to post your article on their site, set up an autoresponder (a reply service that sends your article automatically to anyone who requests it; all without your intervention), or include the article or information about it in an online announcement service that they offer.

Here are my favorite places to announce your articles:

Business Opportunities and Classifieds Online
Geared strictly for small and home office businesses, this site features articles from business writers and professionals on related topics. You can submit your articles at: www.boconline.com.

EzineArticles Web site
Provides an ezine and a web site with archived and autoresponder-based articles. You can find and submit articles to www.ezinearticles.com. Selected articles will be referenced in the daily or weekly version of the Ezine newswire ezine, which you can subscribe to at the www.ezinenewswire.com site.

Ezine Factory Web site
Publishers can download and reprint the articles stored at this site free of charge. Authors can add articles to the site once they have been accepted by the webmaster. For details, check the site at: http://home.intekom.co.za/qualitone/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

Free Content ezine
This ezine lets authors submit article summaries and publishers list needs. The editor prefers article summaries, but recent issues of the ezine have included complete works. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: mailto:Free-Content-subscribe@onelist.com

IdeaMarketers Web site
A very thorough site. If you're looking for broad exposure, I'd make this one of your first stops. You actually post your complete article to the site. www.ideamarketers.com

InfoZone Web site
This one offers a pretty thorough directory of articles designed for both publishers and authors alike. All articles are stored online at the InfoZone site and you can also link to your site. www.MakingProfit.com

IQLibrary Web site
This site is a new one and is owned by my company, Intellectua.com. Our plan is to offer a broad range of professional, business, how-to, computing, and Internet articles for publishers to use. However, we will be highly selective in the authors that we include at the site. Please check back frequently to see what we've added. www.IQlibrary.com

LRS Marketing Web site
This site offers several Internet marketing articles by some of the better known names in the business. Check out the site at: www.lrsmarketing.com/Resources/free_articles.htm. You can submit articles by sending them to: mailto:freearticle@lrsmarketing.com.

MediaPeak Web site
Provides free content to over 2,000 online publishers. The content is distributed to publishers via an email service, to which you can subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to: mailto:e-wire-on@mail-list.com. Submit complete articles and up to four-line tag lines to either: mailto:mediapeak@mindspring.com or mailto:submitnews@aol.com. Articles are archived at the the following web site: www.mediapeak.com. The web site also has a content exchange section where publishers announce their needs.

PublishInYours ezine
Designed primarily for you to post complete articles. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: mailto:PublishInYours-subscribe@onelist.com>

Web-Source Web site
You can submit your article reference, as long as it's in an autoresponder, to the web site at the following: www.web-source.net/links/Articles_For_Publication/. You can also subscribe to and submit articles to the companion ezine, the 'Writer and Publisher Connection,' by sending a blank e-mail to: mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com. WriteBusiness web site.
In the 'Articles Reprint' section. www.writebusiness.com

Writers & Publishers Online ezine
If you're a publisher with article needs, or an author with articles you want to distribute to online publications, you can send a summary of your needs to: mailto:submit@list-content.com

To subscribe to this excellent monthly publication, mailto:join-wpo@list-content.com I suggest subscribing first to get a feel for a style of the publication and the format of your submissions.