Gotta get the edge on your competitors. Edge them out. Gotta get something in return for everything you give, and you hafta get paid for every service you offer. It's good business sense, they say.

In the past, when I have given advice to clients, I have told them to get their links out on every site they could. To look for complimentary sites, but not competitive ones. I have also advised many things in business that others do not - to give free advice when you know, to pay attention to the best interest of your customer even when it seems to not be in your own best interest. I always advise what I feel is the very best strategy for business long term.

I have always believed that when I truly applied the Golden Rule in my business that it would give me more financial returns in the long term than selfishness would. And my experience with customers who overpay me, and who call me even when I have stopped advertising long ago has convinced me that this is the case.

I believe that there is a broader application of the concept of cooperation than just thinking of things from your customer's point of view. I think that it has a very powerful application in marketing.

Business is terribly competitive now. Getting a toehold is a difficult thing for a new business to do. You must have either a lot of money, or a lot of patience and determination to start a business and to get it to succeed.

The advertising world is one of aggression and money. Places where you can legitimately advertise for free are diminishing. Ads that used to be inexpensive are now out of the range of many startups. And payment of money is no guarantee of results. Purveyors of "internet marketing secrets", "online business promotion", and "search engine optimization" promise you that all you have to do is pay your money and your business is guaranteed instant success. But those promises and those payments have sucked the resources out of many small businesses without returning enough to keep them from sinking into oblivion.

I believe in good and evil. And I believe that it is the goal of selfish and designing people to keep the little guy down, and to consign them to discouragement and a sense of hopelessness. Prices are rising, regulations are increasing, and if you start a business the "official" way, you'll be in debt for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars before you even open the doors.

So what does this all have to do with cooperation, and how can it help you market smarter instead of more expensively?

The advice to get your link out there still holds, because one of the ways to get around the barriers is to have lots of links placed on other people's sites. But I am seeing it a different way now. I think that the Golden Rule, when taken literally in all aspects of business, including marketing, is the answer, not just another problem to be solved. I believe that applying it is the best way to sneak in the back door, through the carefully constructed barriers that selfishness of other businesses have built. Kindness is the one thing they cannot overpower.

So, here are some strategies:

1. Give something away. Oh, yes, this is an old strategy. But give away something of value - something that is of genuine help to others. Ask for a link in return. Just a link. The web gives you the ability to do this multiple times for each item, if what you are giving away can be downloaded over and over. Make your terms generous. Advertising is the only thing you'll ask in return. Find a way that you can give away something related to your product or service - Herbal Momma specializes in handmade soaps and personal care items. The owner also takes incredible photographs, so we established a photo gallery with free photos on her site. The only stipulation is that anyone who uses them needs to supply a link to her site.

2. Share your knowledge. Articles are a proven way of advertising. Give good information. Give more information than is wise for your business by common standards. Teach others about what you do and how to do it. And let others pass your writing on - with a link at the bottom. Kindness and honesty with the best interests of the recipient will build credibility and trust faster than if you say the same thing everyone else is saying.

3. Exchange links. Ok, everyone knows this too, but here is where I am going to diverge. Share links with EVERYBODY who has a site that meets your moral standards. Make sure they are honest, and clean, and let that be the only criteria. If they are your competitor, do it anyway. Find complimentary products or services to cross link with if you want, but cooperate! Both of you are fighting the same uphill battle, which you each get a little closer to winning when you help each other! Put a link on every page on your site that invites people to exchange reciprocal links. Build a page for the links, and if it fills up, build another one. Advertising for advertising is a fair trade, even if it is from a competitor. Links on other people's sites are valuable even if the content is not compatible, because it will help your site get a small edge with the search engines, even if it does not directly bring you hits.

4. Replicate your site and give it away. Give someone else an edge and advantage in building a site like yours. Just ask them to leave links back to your site on it. Tell them how to make it work, and how to replace your affiliate links with theirs - just ask them to sign up for the programs under you so when they succeed, you do too.

There are other applications of this too. Don't just go looking for ways to take advantage of other people. Look for ways to promote your business while helping someone else at the same time. I feel so strongly that this is the most powerful tool that a low budget business can have. Because if you follow the rules of the big guys, or of the experts who are only experienced with dealing with established companies, you'll fail before you even get started. We have to make our own set of rules, and it has to be founded on something that they have missed. This is it! Alone we do not have the power to fight the establishment. Together we can form our own niche and help each other succeed.

So email me about one of these ad boxes - You don't have to be able to afford what is listed. Just offer me an ad spot with equivalent value and I'll trade. If you need something that I can offer, and you have no money, talk to me about an advertising trade. If you need links, then email me and I'll offer you some suggestions for places to find them for your site. Lets build the power of cooperation, and then give a hand up to others who are struggling to follow.