Some simple constructive procedures are given for coding sequences of symbols to be transmitted over noisy channels. A message encoded by such a process transmits a positive amount of information over the channel, with an error probability which the receiver may set to be as small as it pleases, without consulting the transmitter. The amount of information transmitted is less than the channel capacity, so the procedures are not ideal, but they are quite efficient for small error probabilities. It is shown that there exist codes of the same error-free character which transmit information at rates arbitrarily near the channel capacity.