Online petitions have been around for many years. Some gather enormous amounts of signatures and have even gained national media attention but most gather only a few signatures and supporters and simply fizzle out without a trace. What is the difference between these online petitions? What makes one a glorious success and the other an utter failure? Some people say it's just the luck of the draw or in the timing in which the petition came out. I think luck and timing both play part in the success of an online petition but there are many other things we can do to help make sure our online petition is a success.

The first thing you want to do is to write clearly. The people reading it may not have a lot of time so it is important to get right to the point and what your goal is at the start of your petition. You first paragraph should make it totally clear what your goals are and want to achieve. Make sure to proofread and spell check your petition. You should put in the time to make sure your petition sounds professional and serious if you want people to take your petition seriously.

Send your petition to as many friends and family as you can and also ask them to send it on to their contact lists as well. You can even make an online community or social network based around what your petition hopes to accomplish. MySpace is a great place to start as you can look through the forum topics and discussion groups to find people that may be interested in your cause as well. These people can be added as friends and will be happy to sign up and help spread the word about your petition to all their friends and contacts as well.

Get the word out about your petition by advertising on search engines if you can afford to or simply by finding online forums relevant to your cause and posting threads there about your petition and how one can go about signing up.There are lots of ways to advertise online including making free YouTube videos about your cause, banner exchange programs and by simply writing articles about it and submitting them to blogs and ezines around the web.

Just because you have created an online petition doesn't mean you should overlook offline advertising methods as well. You may be able to get small radio stations around your area to hear your cause and mention the petition to their listeners if you try. You can put up posters around town and hand out fliers as well.

It is very important to be polite when asking people to sign your petition. People are easily turned off by rude and offensive petitions even if they may agree with your cause and goals you want to achieve. The most successful petitions are intelligent, well written, reasonable and are also willing to address other opinions and standpoints.

With the many tools at your disposal you should be able to make a top notch petition. If carefully written, well thought out and has a goal that the masses will support, it just may become one of those rare online petitions that will attract media coverage and possibly even national attention.