(Image: mevans / iStockphoto)

There’s something about psychology that responds to external motivation. Video games make most use of this kind of change — which is unfortunate because while they’re useful relaxation tools — computer games are the opposite of everything this blog stands for. In World of Warcraft, you adapt your own lifestyle to better serve the machine; here at Smartlife we make the machines work for you. This means that we’ll be first against the electro-wall when the Cylons come, but until then, we’ll help you work smarter with silicon support.

It’s uncanny how much a tiny number can affect the human brain. You might fully realize why exercising, doing chores, or completing office invoices is a good thing — yet still not do it. But how could a tiny device with less circuitry than the average watch giving triggered Tamagotchi insanity prompt people to pour hours of effort into increasing their electronic rank? Here we look at some services which can use this mental flaw positively.

1. Twitter Timer

In the ultimate inversion of work and wasted time, even Twitter can be made to perform useful tasks. The trendy text-messaging service might mostly be used for complaining, comedy comments, and reporting what people are having for lunch, but now you need never forget an urgent task again. Because your brain isn’t reliable and your scribbled notes may be lost, your cell phone is the perfect tool for reminders — when your phone buzzes, you’d wake up from a coma to check it. (Be honest.) The “timer” Twitter account is an instant egg-timer anywhere in the world — simply tweet “d timer 60 pay parking” to receive a tweet in 60 minutes reminding you to pay parking.

Twitter Timer

Those into hardware hacks can make twit kit, or buy gadgets to hook up to the anywhere-messaging service. One fun application is the Botanicalls rig where a miniature water-level sensor lets your plants tweet you if they’re running dry! With plants phoning you to issue instructions, it’s hard to decide who’ll get us first — the Terminators or the Triffids.

2. Google Calendar and Docs

The simplest scheme is often the best, especially when it’s free, and Google provide two. Google Calendar is an easy option for task timing — a simple view presents all your bookings, and clicking on any reveals all the information you could need (as well as letting you set variable reminder times).

Google Calendar Reminders

When adding events to the Calendar view, it’s important to include all the information. It’s too tempting to just mark the date and event and think “I’ll remember.” You won’t! That’s why we have calendars! Nothing is more frustrating than an instant email speeding across the globe to send you a reminder, but you still have to drag your carcass four miles like some kind of caveman to get the piece of paper with the actual information on it (a caveman who can read, then).

Google Docs - Luke's Manliness Challenge

For more intensive efforts, by which we mean “exercise and other distasteful tasks,” Google Docs can provide an unconventional but effective option. The spreadsheet tools offer almost all the options of Excel, so it’s easy to use, with the advantage that you can access it from anywhere and share it with friends. The latter is what turns this into a powerful motivational tool — if you’ve ever agreed with a friend that, “we should both start doing that,” then a simple spreadsheet can turn those empty promises into powerful mutual motivation. Keep daily records of your efforts, spurring each other on — because explaining skipping something to yourself is easy. You’re on your side. Explaining it to others is more embarrassing.

3. World of Chorecraft

A lighter version of the same tool is Chore Wars, informally known as World of Chorecraft. This turns tasks and toils into a (very simple) game where a “party of adventurers” can embark on an epic quest together. And if that party happens to be housemates, and the tasks are such as “Slay the Demon Of The Full Sink” or “Cleanse The Floor With Mop And Broom” then so be it! It’s a simple idea but well executed with a complete scoring system awarding XP bonuses and upgrading levels for players, making it completely clear who isn’t pulling their weight.

Chore Wars

It’s also an excellent motivator for anyone with children around the house. You try telling them that cleaning up is a game, and they’ll laugh at you and get back to their Xbox. But if the computer tells them it’s a game, well, it’s best to just enjoy the results and not think too hard about the implications.

###

(Photo: panorios / iStockphoto)

All of us want to go green (or at least most of us) both at home and at the office. It doesn’t hurt that many environmentally-friendly projects can save money in the long run, by reducing energy use or waste. But many of these projects are time-consuming. If you’re dedicated to going green, you’re either going to have to clear your schedule or outsource some of the work. Luckily, many green projects are easy to outsource — and there are thousands of professionals ready to take on those projects.

1. Energy Use Audit: An energy audit can pinpoint the ways you can make a home or office more efficient. To find a professional energy auditor in your area, call your state government’s energy department or your local utility company. (Also pay attention to what Google’s doing with personal energy info products.)
2. Energy-Efficient Appliances: The U.S. government maintains lists of energy-efficient appliances at EnergyStar.gov, eliminating your need to search around for reviews of individual appliances.
3. Green Tax Credits: Depending on which green projects you complete, you can be eligible for a tax credit. A tax professional can prioritize your projects for you, according to the credits you’ll qualify for — as well as handling the paperwork to claim your credits.
4. Improve Your Home or Office: From adding insulation to installing energy-efficient windows, there are a whole list of improvements you can make to a building. Many contractors now specialize in retrofitting or remodeling buildings, so check with contractors in your area.
5. Green Landscaping: Grass may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about green landscaping, but it’s actually a series of techniques to create landscaping that requires minimal watering and even upkeep. Check the U.S. Green Building Council’s directory to find a landscape architect in your area.
6. Dry Clean: Your average dry cleaner isn’t environmentally-friendly, but green dry cleaners are opening all over the country. Using such businesses to clean your clothes can be even greener than cleaning them at home.
7. Eliminate Junk Mail: Junk mail is a huge culprit when it comes to paper waste. Tools like 41pounds.org can help you stop the majority of junk mail.
8. Eat Green: Just as you can outsource food-related tasks like meal planning and even grocery shopping, you’ll find that there a green service providers for just about every step of your food outsourcing plan.
9. Better Furnaces: Furnaces, as well as air conditioners, are notoriously inefficient. Either retrofitting or replacing either system is just a matter of calling in a local HVAC specialist.
10. Tuned Engines: Maintaining your car can improve your gas mileage by as much as 40%. A tuned-engine, inflated tires and other tasks can be completed by your local mechanic. If you can set up a regular schedule — perhaps just a little more often than usual — you can keep your car at peak performance.
11. Carpool: Instead of driving your car to work everyday, a carpool can provide a simple answer. Many employers, as well as state agencies, offer carpool matching services, as do websites like CarpoolWorld.com.
12. New Cars: If you’re shopping for a new car, consult FuelEconomy.gov first. The site has compiled almost 25 years worth of fuel efficiency numbers and other information to guide you through the shopping process.
13. Automatic Composting: Composting can be hard work, but there are a variety of products on the market, like the Nature Mill, which compost kitchen waste automatically.
14. Green Your Business: There are a number of ways to make your business’ operations greener, such as improving your supply chain. There are consultants who will walk you through greening your marketing, management, and more — and many specialize in specific industries.
15. Finance Solar Panels: In many states, there are a number of companies and organizations working to reduce the cost of solar panels (often $20,000 or more) with purchase power agreements. The company places solar panels on your roof at a minimal cost to you, and you buy your electricity from that company.
16. Purchase Renewable Energy: Your local utility company may offer you the opportunity to purchase renewable energy, such as wind power, directly from the company without having to install any sort of solar panels or wind turbines yourself.
17. Reduce Paper: While a truly paperless office may be impossible, you can institute policies that keep paper to a minimum and eliminate much of the paper you have on hand. Bring in someone to scan in all your files or enter them into a database. If you want to scan files yourself, then consider purchasing NeatDesk.
18. Clean Green: If you use a cleaning service for your home or office, you can request that they make the switch to green cleaning products. It’s not even necessary for them to buy expensive cleaners: most green cleaning products are based on baking soda or vinegar.
19. Simplified Recycling: Depending on your local trash collector, you probably have the option of curbside recycling. With a phone call or two, you can often find a company offering one-bin recycling — recycling where you put everything from newspapers to cans in the same bin and the company takes care of sorting.
20. Green Certifications: If your business can qualify for a green certification, you can often expand your business opportunities. There are local certification programs in many cities and states, as well as national industry organizations. For instance, the U.S. Green Building Council works with green building companies.
21. Recycling Odd Items: Rather than hunting for a recycling facility in your area that will take your waste, visit Earth911.com. The site can connect you to specialized recycling facilities for items like computers or paint.
22. Automate Power Use: You can arrange for lights to automatically turn on or computers to power down after office hours to minimize energy use. It’s typically simplest to work with an electrician to complete such projects.
23. Try Teleconferencing: Rather than traveling for business meetings, you can have a video conference for far less money with an online service like Skype, and you’ll reduce carbon emissions and gas use along the way.
24. Buy Green Supplies: Whether you need to purchase supplies for your office, or a few items for home, you can typically purchase eco-friendly products (recycled, made with low emissions and other options). Your current provider may even already offer you that option. If not, you can use a standard shopping service to pick up whatever you need.
25. Carbon Offsets: Going completely green is difficult, but you can arrange to have someone else balance out your carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits. There are a lot of companies offering credits now, but those offered by Carbonfund.org are among the most reputable.

###

(Image: Inok / iStockphoto)

If you haven’t heard of macros, you’re misusing this computer — you’re doing far more work than you have to for no reason at all. Sort of like putting your friends on the roof of your car and pushing them places. The fact is: if you do anything more than twice, the computer should be doing it for you. That’s what computers are for! You don’t need to know how to script your XML-interrupts to do it — “macros” are simple commands where you can show the computer what to do and it’ll remember. Like training a temp before going on holiday, only he won’t mess up your desk and there’s no risk of him replacing you.

While everyone needs documents, or spreadsheets, or whatever, your specific daily tasks are unique. Making macros to perform those is the ultimate embodiment of the Smartlife idea, of investing some setup time to make your life easier for ever after. Not quite happily ever after, because you still have to work, but “easier ever after” is pretty good when you’re still getting paid. Most people avoid macros because of the “time discounting” effect; they only see the present cost (of sitting down and working something out) and devalue the future benefits (of never having to repeat yourself ever again.) If you don’t see why that’s a bad deal, you just don’t know how long “ever” is –- or to put it another way, wouldn’t it be nice to complete entire tasks with a press of a button? That’s what macros are for.

There are three beginner levels of macro-making:

1. Program-specific Macros

Some software is entirely based on repetitive tasks, and the only reason it doesn’t do it all automatically is we’re still a generation from Terminators taking our jobs. But most major programs let you record macros, usually under the “Tools” menu, and most important of all: it’s included in Excel (a.k.a. “The King of the repetitive task.”)

Excel Macro

This is perfect for beginners, as programming an Excel macro requires no “programming” at all. Instead, you start it recording, do what you want done, then hit “stop” and assign a shortcut key. There are a few pointers for first-time macro-makers:

Use the keyboard instead of mouseclicks. A computer-controlled cursor can be upset by window placement, but arrow keys and ctrl+ key shortcuts do the same thing every time.

Test every macro several times on a fake worksheet! We know this sounds slow, but a macro is a computer-controlled bulldozer — used right it’ll save you years of work, used wrong it’ll destroy anything in its path.

A minor error (or change) in the macro doesn’t mean you have to scrap it. You can step into the macro in the Tools/Macros/Edit option, and the steps are laid out in code.

You can save macros just for one workbook (so you don’t have to remember twenty different key commands), or more useful ones in Excel itself.

Remember to disable macros in spreadsheets you send to others! A macro-enabled file will set off all kinds of virus warnings with the recipient.

2. Platform-specific: Apple Automator

Apple Automator

If there’s one thing Apple knows, it’s advertising. If there are two things, it’s advertising and integration, and Apple does an excellent job (if only because that makes the advertising easier). The Apple Automator tool is everything the company promises — a super-slick interface that can automate any number of tasks involving multiple applications.

Automate Tasks Across Apps

The only thing wrong with Apple Automator is that you can’t use it on all computers and, in fairness, you could tell that from the name. The intuitive graphical interface guides you every step of the way: there are automatic explanations and hints for every action, and then there’s the Apple Automator Forums. Let us just say: you can’t pay for tech support that good. The Apple Forums have long been an example of what the Internet could be if it was used right. As long as you obey the simplest rules etiquette and don’t treat others like employees, you’ll find a near infinite source of assistance. Because anything you want to do, someone else has already done.  And if you ask nicely they’ll show you how.

3. Independent Macro Programs

If you need to work with several PC programs at once, or your company is based around a “legacy” system that doesn’t have macros and still thinks four-color display is newfangled trickery, you need a third-party macro program. One of the most popular at the moment is Workspace Macro: an all-in-one macro recorder which can copy your mouse input, keyboard commands, and program-specific instructions (which you should use whenever possible to avoid computerized confusion). It’s the most powerful option, as it will work in most situations, but also the most challenging in terms of the time discounting effect –- because you’ll really have to sit down and learn it.  Luckily it comes equipped with full help files and example macros.

Workspace Macro

Unfortunately it does hold some of the better features (like hotkeys!) hostage for the Pro version, and as we all know, “Pro” means “give us money.” The free demo will let you work out if it’s worth your investment* and the online tutorial video should give you a good idea of what the program can do.

Macro Editor

*Let us tell you now: macros are ALWAYS worth your investment, in terms of time and money. The real question is: “Am I the sort of person who makes things easier for myself, or the sort who keeps clicking on Facebook until the deadline is hovering over my head?”

###

(Image: Wikipedia)

Ruby on Rails is an ideal framework for building web applications: it’s designed with rapid and flexible development in mind, making it a cost-effective option for getting a web application up and running quickly. Between the fact that Ruby on Rails is open source and it was developed to work with Agile software development methods, it can be a particularly useful framework for startups. That fact has lead more than a few Ruby on Rails developers to become very comfortable working with startups, even to the point of offering flexible payment arrangements (cash, debt, and equity) and providing access to their own network of resources, like private investors, angel investors, and venture capital firms.

Freelancers

1. Matt Griffin
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Java/Spring/Hibernate, XQuery/MarkLogic
2. Tesly
   Location: Kirkland, Washington
   Additional Areas of Expertise: iPhone Applications, Consulting
   Sample Work: Fretbase, NextProof
   
3. Greg Leuch
   Location: New York City, New York
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Web Standards, Usability
   Sample Work: Politics4All
4. Ryan Felton
   Location: San Diego, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: rSpec, Test Driven Development, Startup Consulting
   Sample Work: Assay Depot
5. Charles Crawford
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts
   Additional Areas of Expertise: User Interfaces, Web Standards, AJAX
6. Eric J. O’Kelly
   Location: Palm Springs, California and San Dimas, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Usability, Design
7. Mark McDonald
   Location: Foothill Ranch, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Perl, MySQL, Startups, Plugin Development, Legacy Application Rewrites, Training and Mentoring
8. Randall Thomas
   Location: San Francisco, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Data Warehousing, SQL, Java
9. Michael Cerna
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Data Aggregation
   Sample Work: Gnomon Online
10. Paul Hamann
    Location: San Jose, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Startups
11. Stephen Wilson
    Location: Austin, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP, Python
12. Jacques Crocker
    Location: Seattle, Washington
    Additional Areas of Expertise: User Interface, Startups, Web Development
    Sample Work: White Label Apps
13. Akshay Surve
    Location: Mumbai, India
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Nonprofits

Boutiques

1. Snooty Monkey
   Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Product Design & Management, iPhone & Mac Development, Simplifying the Complex, Training & Mentoring
   Sample Work: BubbleTimer
2. ThoughtBot
   Location: Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, New York
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Technology Consulting, Training, New Business Development
   Sample Work: Umbrella Today?
3. Terralien
   Location: North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: New Business Development, Project Launches
   Sample Work: Local Eye Site
4. Obtiva
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Training, Partnerships
5. Lone Star Software Engineering Services
   Location: Los Angeles, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP, J2EE, Perl, AJAX, Web Design, Product Development, Project Management, Quality Assurance
6. Pivotal Labs
   Location: San Francisco, California
   Additional Areas of Expertise: PHP Migration, Training
   Sample Work: Cookstr
7. Viget Labs
   Location: Washington, DC and Durham, North Carolina
   Additional Areas of Expertise: User Experience, Online Marketing
   Sample Work: Spoonflower
8. Mutually Human
   Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Information Architecture, Web Design, Training & Coaching
   Sample Work: Joecartoon.com
9. Dakic OnLine
   Location: Chicago, Illinois
   Additional Areas of Expertise: Online Storefronts, Content Management Systems
   Sample Work: Casa Zocalo
10. Intridea
    Location: Washington, DC
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Web Design, Project Management, Strategy
    Sample Work: VisualCV
11. Sinai Studio
    Location: Miami, Florida
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Strategy, Usability
12. Brown Beagle Software
    Location: Leederville, Western Australia
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Training, Cocoa, Mac Ruby
13. Lunar Logic Polska
    Location: Krakow, Poland
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Ajax, Flash
    Sample Work: Zenbe
14. Austin Rail Yard
    Location: Austin, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Intellectual Property
15. Andy Mayer
    Location: Sheffield, England
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Social Networking, Social Web
16. Esomnie
    Location: Sunnyvale, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Interface Design, Deployment and Launch
    Sample Work: Paybackable
17. Sixteen Ventures
    Location: Dallas, Texas
    Additional Areas of Expertise: SaaS Consulting, SaaS Vendors
18. Flatsourcing
    Location: New Orleans, Louisiana and Kazan, Russia
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Business Model Development
19. Railsware
    Location: Beaverton, Oregon and Kiev, Ukraine
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Technical Consulting, Web Design
    Sample Work: Ratepoint
20. BetterLabs
    Location: Silicon Valley, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Startup Incubation
    Sample Work: Dealplumber
21. Altura Labs
    Location: Rome, Italy
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Online Marketing
    Sample Work: Publicis
22. ELC Technologies
    Location: Santa Barbara, California
    Additional Areas of Expertise: Branding
    Sample Work: ESPN

###

Additional developers: RoRCraft, Squeejee, DevFu!, RailsFactory, Less Everything
Job boards: 37signals Job Board, Rubynow, Ruby on Rails Jobs, Ruby on Rails Contractors

(Photo: YanC / iStockphoto)

In the past, you could market a new company by printing out a few business cards and passing the word that you were open for business. But as more startups rely on the Internet for marketing, the steps necessary to promote a company have evolved into a more complex effort. For each step of a product’s life cycle, there are corresponding steps you can take in your Internet marketing efforts to ensure the demand for your company grows.

As you introduce a new company or product, you’ll need to take steps to brand yourself online, as well as launch your product and build awareness. In the growth stage of your product’s life cycle, you can begin to target a wider audience, through search engine traffic, content marketing and other techniques. The third stage of a product’s life cycle is maturity: during that time, you’ve got opportunities to build affiliate revenues and plan for the lesser demand as your product ages. Finally, you have the opportunity to build on a declining product for new versions and plan for new products, using an existing email list and other resources you’ve built. If you’re successful with your online marketing efforts, you can quickly build a system to market your products and earn money for years to come — without all the effort that goes with building

Each of those steps includes more than a little work, however. You can learn the steps necessary to successfully market a product or company online — but each individual step, from SEO to email marketing, can be a full career on its own. A better alternative is to focus on offering great products and growing your company. You can work with an Internet marketing consultant to plan and implement a marketing effort, without taking hours away from actually running your startup.

1. Ginkgo Consulting
   Areas of Expertise: Email lists, social media marketing, web and blog development, SEO, link building, consulting
   Sample Clients: Tina Zawisza, Diana Metz
2. The Happy Guy
   Areas of Expertise: SEO, article marketing, press releases, web development, ghost writing
   Sample Clients: Online Degree Reviews, Dotcom-Monitor Web Site and Network Monitoring
3. Chelpixie
   Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing, blog development, email marketing, media relations
   Sample Clients: White Noise, Loud Silence
4. The Cyphers Agency — Push-n-Pull
   Areas of Expertise: Online advertising, word of mouth, link building, SEO, content, social media
   Sample Clients: Appalachian Spring, The Mother of Invention
5. Quite Smart Marketing
   Areas of Expertise: Affiliate marketing, online advertising, SEO, social media marketing
   Sample Clients: ClickIM College
6. Harte Marketing & Communications
   Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing, product launches, brand management, SEO, content
7. Blue Sky Factory
   Areas of Expertise: Email marketing
   Sample Clients: Johns Hopkins University, 1st Mariner Bank
8. Pistachio Consulting
   Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing
   Sample Clients: Socialtext, Cubetree
9. Z Squared Media
   Areas of Expertise: Content marketing
10. Eat Media
    Areas of Expertise: Content marketing, social media marketing
    Sample Clients: Tutor.com, Burger King
11. Awareness Social Media Marketing
    Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing
    Sample Clients: Kodak
12. Word Sell
    Areas of Expertise: Content marketing, blog development SEO
    Sample Clients: Salazar Packaging, Whoast
13. Social Media Rockstar
    Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing, SEO
14. Chris Garrett
    Areas of Expertise: Blog development, social media marketing, content marketing, link building, web development, SEO, community building
15. Abraham & Harrison
    Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing, content marking, blogger outreach, viral marketing, community development, SEO
    Sample Clients: The Fresh Air Fund, Survivor Corps
16. PMG Premium Marketing and Creative Services
    Areas of Expertise: SEO, affiliate management, social media marketing
    Sample Clients: Flip Video, Friendsation
17. DMC Affiliate Consulting
    Areas of Expertise: Affiliate management
18. Elena Melendy
    Areas of Expertise: Content strategy
    Sample Clients: LG Electronics, IBM
19. One By One Media
    Areas of Expertise: Social media marketing, online branding, blog development, community development
20. Tectonic Marketing
    Ares of Expertise: Content marketing, social media marketing

###

(Photo: Kuzma / iStockphoto)

Online marketing comes with a long list of benefits, from lower costs to wider reach. Many of those benefits are directly connected to the level of automation you can add to your Internet marketing efforts. While no product can sell itself entirely on its own, some can effectively sell on auto-pilot based on some initial work. Depending on your product — whether you’re selling an informational product or just bringing visitors to your website — you have a wide variety of options when it comes to online marketing techniques. They vary in the level of upfront work needed, and a few require some maintenance work keep to keep your marketing on track in the long-term, but these options can give your products the initial boost they need.

1. Start With a Remarkable Product

When blogs and other media sources find a remarkable product, they’re happy to write about it. Naomi Dunford’s Itty Biz Online Business School (along with her other products) stands out among other online marketing courses on the market: her writing style alone is remarkable, but she also focused on a niche that her competitors weren’t serving, standing her product out even more.

Naomi Dunford gets plenty of press simply because her product is remarkable. Bloggers want to interview her. Other marketers want to become her partners. Websites want to sell her products as affiliates. Whenever Naomi launches a new product, she gets a ton of press just because everyone knows how remarkable her products are.

Finding or creating a remarkable product isn’t  impossible. If you can solve a problem, you can translate that into buzz from people with that problem. You generally need to give that buzz a jumpstart, by seeking out media opportunities — getting bloggers or other websites to cover you. But once you’ve got that buzz started, it can grow on its own. For further resources on becoming remarkable, check out Seth Godin — especially his books, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable” and “The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable.”

2. Offer Affiliate and Referral Opportunities

No matter what product you’re marketing online, you can get someone else to make sales while you sit back. There’s a cost, of course — to convince someone to market for you, you have to be willing to give them a cut of your profits. That’s the entire idea behind affiliate opportunities. You set up a sales page for your product and offer your affiliates a share of each sale they send your way (like this one).

The Thesis WordPress Theme, from DIYthemes, has been particularly successful because of the huge number of affilates promoting the product. Blogs as diverse as ChrisBrogan.com and CopyBlogger drive traffic to DIYthemes — and have done so for months.

You can set up an affiliate program for your product relatively simply. Companies like ShareASale and E-Junkie will manage the details and connect you to sellers — they do charge fees, but they’re nothing compared to the amount of time and money you can spend on marketing a product on your own.

3. Use Content to Interest Buyers

Blogs, newsletters, and even social media content can be a simple way to interest buyers in a product. By offering free content, you give prospective buyers a sneak peek at your product, building their interest and demand for your product. And if buyers routinely see your name, whether it’s in their inbox or on a blog, they’re more likely to trust your promises.

Marketer Marcia Yudkin offers page after page of free content for her prospective clients, including free marketing tips in her weekly email newsletter. Her newsletter is relatively simple, but it provides her a connection that allows her to sell her services, a membership website, and even books.

Relying on content to market your product is a less automated process than other Internet marketing techniques. However, it’s inexpensive and can offer a long-term relationship with buyers, allowing you to easily sell them multiple products or upgrades.

4. Make Your Product Exclusive

Limiting the availability of your product can help move your product quickly — when buyers have a short-term deadline, they’re motivated to act. Otherwise, a buyer can keep telling himself that he’ll buy your product next month or next year.

Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula system is only available for limited periods — and he sells out each time. In November 2008, he sold approximately 500 slots in just a few days, with a price tag in the thousands. In April 2009, Product Launch Formula sold out in 34 hours. The exclusivity of the product has allowed Jeff Walker to increase the price, as well as move his product quickly.

One way to add exclusivity to a product without limiting the product itself is to add an incentive or a prize for those buyers who are in the first 15, 100, or however many people to buy your product. Whether you offer another product of your own as the prize or one of your partner’s or affiliate’s products, a prize with limited availability can improve the exclusivity of your product.

5. Build a Brand

Building an online brand can involve elements of other online marketing methods. You might develop a blog, or you might plan a giveaway, or you might put out an absolutely unique product. But you’ll need to go even further to have the sort of brand that convinces a buyer to pick up a product just because your name is on it.

A good example of an online brand is Ramit Sethi and his personal finance site, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He has created a strong personal brand, associating his name with personal finance. When Ramit launched his book earlier this year, he was able to use his brand to move it to the top of Amazon’s rankings, as well as land on the New York Times bestseller list. Ramit worked very hard to build his brand and it paid off — and he’s continuing to expand on his previous successes.

When building a brand, you have two options: you can build a personal brand, as Ramit did. But you can also build a brand around a company, allowing you more freedom if you’ll want multiple brands in the future. Either approach uses the similar techniques to establish your brand as an authority and trusted source within your niche.

6. Create a Network

There are so many opportunities on social networks right now that it’s hard to keep track of them. But by building a network on sites you frequent, whether it’s a forum, Twitter, or another option entirely, you can create an immediate audience for any product you put together. It’s just a matter of finding the right niche: for example, Darren Rowse promoted his website, Digital Photography School, by building relationships in photography forums.

To bring traffic to a site or find buyers for a product through social networking, it’s important to add value to the community you’re working with. Simply promoting your product won’t bring you the level of interest that having a genuine connection can.

7. Find a Partner to Work With

At first glance, joint venture partners look similar to affiliate marketers — but a partnership is a two-way relationship. With a joint venture partner, you promote each other’s products, or even team up to create a product together. The workload is halved, and you can take advantage of the resources your partner has available, as well as your own.

Chris Guillebeau sells several products related to travel on his site, The Art of Nonconformity. But he just announced a product available from Location Independent (developed by Lea and Jonathan Woodward) on his own blog. Chris is putting the full weight of his support behind Jonathan and Lea, including offering a bonus to anyone who buys from Location Independent through him.

Many ideal partners might seem like competitors in other contexts. Both Chris and the Woodwards sell products related to the same topic — but working together will actually result in more sales for both partners.

###