A number of businesses these days find themselves in disfavor with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for business practices that used to be suitable, and that seem very innocent.

Can you picture having your corporate checking account frozen by the government, or facing a federal legal action for something that you weren’t even aware you were doing wrong. It has happened, and continues to happen to a lot of businesses.

If you are not familiar with the FTC, the FTC is the consumer watchdog for the U.S. government that watches a number of activities, including business advertising practices that are used on consumers.

On December 1, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revised their requirements how they plan to enforce what they consider to be deceptive marketing practices. You absolutely need to take these revisions seriously, otherwise you may find yourself in trouble.

This article will discuss two changes that took effect on December 1, 2009 that impact the way businesses can advertise moving forward.

1. Proper Use of “Consumer Endorsements” (i.e. Testimonials)

One change that took effect has to do with how you are allowed to use customer testimonials in your advertising. In short, you are no longer allowed to use extraordinary testimonials in your advertising and then simply put a disclaimer that says “Results Not Typical. Your Results May Vary.”

What the FTC now requires is that if you use a results-based testimonial that is “not typical” of what the average person should expect (i.e. that is above average), then you NOW also have to state what result is typical/average under the depicted circumstances. A lot of people think that this ruling means that you have to give up on using your best testimonials, but that is actually not true.

The FTC isn’t saying you have to give up on using testimonials. They are just saying that if you use any results-based testimonials that are not typical (i.e. are above average), then you also have to state what is typical/average so the customer will not be mislead with your advertising.

So how are you going to know what is typical/average? Well, the answer is by conducting SURVEYS of your existing customers as a regular part of your business. Once you gather sufficient data from your customers, you can then state what results are in fact typical.

Surveys help you obtain numerous types of evidence, including statistical evidence, case studies, and testimonials. You can then use this evidence to not only comply with the FTC ruling, but also to make your profits soar! How? Well, surveys give you data to prove your stuff works, and give you persuasive evidence that you can use to appeal to your prospect’s logic and emotion.

If you have never done surveys before, you can go back and survey your existing customer base so that you will have some data as a starting point. You can then add surveys as part of your normal customer follow-up process. For example, you could send surveys to all customers after 30 days of their purchase and offer them a special incentive for giving their feedback (like we’re requesting here from you on the yellow insert).

No one knows for sure exactly what the FTC will consider to be reliable data. But how else are you going to comply with this guideline unless you start NOW to gather customer data on what they experience with your products and/or services - or just remove all your extraordinary testimonials altogether?

And, as noted earlier, you should use surveys in your business anyway so that you can increase your sales, build customer loyalty, and continue to create products that your customers want. You can accomplish various objectives all at the same time.

Let’s fast forward into the world where you have gathered proper data from your customers through surveys, and you have a great testimonial that you want to use in your advertising that is extraordinary. Here is a hypothetical example of how you could put that data to use and include a disclaimer:

Hi [Company Name], I wanted to let you know that within 2 weeks of using your product, I was able to launch a membership site that started making $50,000 in residual monthly income. Within 30 days, I was able to leave my full time job and focus on growing the membership site. Now I’ve grown it to over $100,000 per month in income. Your techniques work, and I want to make sure everyone knows about them. Thanks a million!

**Of the 30% of customers who responded to our survey, that average customer reported making an extra $5,000 per year in their own business from the techniques taught in this program.**

Notice how in the above example, we still used the extraordinary testimonial (from John Doe in this hypothetical), but then immediately underneath it, we also put a disclaimer to explain what the typical customer experienced under those circumstances (again, totally hypothetical).

You will obviously have to determine what type of disclaimer would be adequate for your own circumstance, and seek an attorney to help you if you are not clear on how to do so correctly for your situation.

But the point is that anyone who reads this hypothetical example will understand that John’s experience was not typical, but they will still be excited that he achieved such good results from your product.

Does the disclaimer take away the marketing effectiveness? Well, yes, in some ways. But in other ways, it actually makes your company more believable to the average person because you are being transparent with your prospective customers.

So what’s the bottom line? If you want to use above average testimonials in your advertising that state specific results, you need to use surveys to gather data (or use whatever data collections means is appropriate for your type of product or service). And then, use that data to your advantage by being persuasive, yet totally transparent and in compliance with the FTC guidelines.

2. Disclosure of “Material Connections”

Another change that took effect on December 1, 2009 deals with the disclosure of “material connections”. In the Internet marketing world, this applies to your affiliate promotions, and any other time when you are endorsing someone else’s product or service.

Under the new guidelines, you are now basically required to disclose any “material connections” that you may have to the person or company you are recommending. For example, if you are endorsing someone else’s product and you will be paid a commission or receive some other value, you are required to disclose that clearly and conspicuously - if it is not totally obvious to consumers otherwise.

This applies to blog posts, email promotions, printed advertisements, and basically any medium of advertising.

So basically any time you are making an endorsement or recommendation that is biased in some way, you are required to inform consumers of this fact so they can take it into consideration in making their buying decision.

If you want to simply comply with this guideline, you would add a disclosure inside your marketing promotion (such as inside an affiliate promotion email) that mentions that you may be compensated when people buy from your link.

However, I recommend that you do more than just comply with this requirement. You can use your disclaimer as a good opportunity to include some additional persuasive reasons on why you are recommending this product or service in the first place.

Here’s a totally generic example:

While I will certainly be compensated if you buy the XYZ product from Denise, I would recommend it regardless. I use it in my own business, and have found enormous value in it, especially from the ABC feature.

In sum, I highly recommend that you study these changes in the FTC’s advertising guidelines and make sure you are complying with them in your business. This article is not meant to provide exhaustive discussions of these subjects, but to just give you a quick overview on a few of the changes.

To learn more about how to grow a business, download my free 47 page “Business Thrival Blueprint“. BusinessThrival.com is a site dedicated to helping business owners achieve a thriving business and life.

Raising money for any venture is sure to be a challenge not to mention the most difficult challenge that faces most companies which is marketing. Setting up a business is usually considered a complicated affair by many but many don’t understand that marketing the business is even a larger challenge than the setting up. This complications in selling can however be decided easily by changing the funded proposals concept.

Promoting is sometimes an underlying plan to get as many potential customers as feasible of whom you hope to convert the leads into actual sales. This however is commonly a slow and involving process that is equally unpredictable. As a consequence, your enterprise may run into financial problems prior to getting your promotional efforts turning into cash.

As a consequence, a bunch of folks made a decision to change tact from the simple coaching using the internet promotion to the new funded proposals option. In this new option, the marketing specialist in control gathers as many potential network marketers as possible and takes them through a training program to help them setup and become the future marketers under his or her down line.

The most important difference however between this and the former methodology is that each new marketing specialist who is inducted into the team gets to pay a little fee for the training. It is this small costs that the recruiter uses to cover up for any funding gap that might be occasioned by the slow moving product during the early stages.

By charging this charge, you get the leverage to continue training as many people as practical who will eventually turn into great movers of the service without spending any of your own money when you’re undecided of any ends in the future.

Under such a suggestion, you stand to benefit in any sense. This is thanks to the fact that the new induct may or may not make any sales in the near future and your activities may have been futile but you do not have to depend on the money he or she should make in the future at the moment. This is because the moneys they have paid for coaching will cater for your present needs as you wait for the future prospects.

It is this that gave birth to the funded proposals and it has proven to be an especially successful method because it takes care of its own expenses as it grows. It is however significant to attempt to ensure that the amounts you charge are not that much for the new sign ups as this can turn 1 or 2 folks off and jeopardise your activities.

As much as this option works really well at the opening stages, great product information is very vital and making certain that you have got the right candidates who can convert the coaching into potential leads and possibly sales is the sole sure way of growing. It is however estimated that many people who see the break after your coaching in numerous cases will grow into good marketeers with bigger sales to sustain the business hence the great success of the funded proposals.

There are many funded proposal systems out there that claim to give you the advantage over your competition. I have some news for you though not all funded proposal systems are created equal. This particular one is not MLM and can be utilized to promote any business or service you may be involved with. The best part is it pays out 100% commissions. Click the Links to find out more.

There’s doubtless nobody around today sufficiently old to remember the real gold run in California but today the gold rush is occurring online. The Net is an inexhaustible goldmine and affiliate marketers are the ones who are digging for gold today.

Loads of people make millions of greenbacks on the internet each year from affiliate network marketing, and if you would like to take part and you are content to show patience and learn how to do it correctly you have every likelihood of success.

In net marketing no-one cares why you wish to earn cash only you do, neither does anyone care how old you are. What’s important is how much you’re happy to put into your business, because in spite of what you could have read on the internet you won’t become a millionaire overnite. And you definitely will not if you know nothing about affiliate marketing. There’s an awful lot to learn, information overload can be a major difficulty, but after you have found the best tools to utilize and the best resources to go to, then you ought to be on your way to success.

One of the first things you’ll have to do is find an affiliate network marketing program. There are many places to look, Commission Junction ( or CJ.com ) offers thousands of companies who are searching for affiliates to push their products, and Clickbank offers a selection of thousands of electronic products that pay exceedingly high commissions. If you are going to start out in the affiliate network marketing business then it’s a good idea to hang around with the heavy hitters, see who are the best network marketers in the business, get their newsletters and read their blogs continually, you will soon see the sort of things they promote. Join up to their e-mails, grab their RSS feeds and join Clickbank, CJ.com or any of the masses of other trustworthy companies that offer brilliant products to market.

Affiliate Network Marketing How to Promote your Products

There are unlimited methods to promote services and goods on the Web. If you have the money you can run Google PAY-PER-CLICK or PPM campaigns, pay for Facebook advertising and market your videos on YouTube. You may also participate on forums, build your own blog or website, distribute white papers and press releases and submit well-written articles to article directory sites.

Out of all the decisions above building your own blog or website and owning your own website name is easily the best . WordPress.org offers the most fantastic selection of free templates so that you can start your own blog, after you have hosting and have paid for a site name set up can take under an hour, after you can be writing promotional content to contribute to your blog and pushing your products to other irritated network marketers. You can be the solution to their issues. You understand how to overcome network marketing Problems and you can pass your knowledge onto those people. If they have questions, as a blog owner you can answer them in your comments section which people will see. If there’s something about network marketing they do not understand, you can explain and help.

It’s best to focus on one particular product at a time, and when you find one you like read all that you can about it, make notes and build an article around what you have read. At the end of the draft you can just place an affiliate link which is coded - that suggests when someone clicks on it and comes to a decision to get it you are paid. This is a stupendously straightforward process from which you can make a lot of commission.

Let’s summarize. You know who your audience is. Your target audience is other frustrated network promoters whose companies are struggling. You find an awe-inspiring product that may help them. You write blog articles and articles that will attract the notice of your target audience. You show them that by using your product their lives will be improved and their companies can be more successful.

But how do they benefit by buying a product from you? How does one know your product is going to be what they are looking for?

You’ll have to provide evidence. Use real testimonials. Show evidence on a video review how easy it is for them to boost their lives by using your product. Would you be in a position to improve on that by offering short help files on audio or video, or what they benefit even more by joining a basic training camp? Find out what other products the affiliate seller can offer to enhance your original product and include that.

After you have your first successful product campaign under your belt then go out and find another affiliate network product to promote, repeat it. Write content, publish it, promote it. What you want is content to rank in the search engines so you’ll must fully know SEO. If plan on paying for advertising then of course the more people that see your ads the better and that’s basically what affiliate network marketing is all about getting seen, found and building a good reputation.

Affiliate network marketing can turn out to be very costly. It’s essential to research and find out who is actually having success online. Don’t reinvent the wheel find out what’s working in affiliate network marketing and get some training .

It’s been said one of the best paths to produce the result you wish is to find someone that is presently producing the result you desire and check particularly, what it is they actually did and do to supply that result. Then simply copy them and your success if just about guaranteed [*T].

Here are 7 MLM tips we’ve found which have been used by top network marketing producers again and again hence manifestly, there must be great value in concealed in these nuggests of knowledge.

MLM Tip 1

Treat your MLM business like a business and it will pay you like a business vs costing you money like a hobby. A business should pay you for your time. A pursuit cost money to participate.

MLM Tip 2

Schedule time to build your small business. Everything in life that’s crucial we schedule. You set your alarm clock because not showing up for work late is critical to keep you job. You plan and schedule a holiday because rest and recuperation is vital. So if you are serious about building a massive business, schedule time to work on your business.

MLM Tip 3

Take some time to pen out short term and long term monetary goals. Goals are like sign posts. They’re built to keep you focused and keep you on track. If you don’t know where you are going, how does one ever expect to get there?

MLM Tip 4

Understand the only way you make money in network marketing is when you sell your product and when you sponsor and hire a new team member. Sponsoring and inducting is the name of the game and you are paid only when you sign up people. So focus the great majority of your effort and time sponsoring and recruiting.

MLM Tip 5

Network marketing success is totally dependent on your ability to constantly present your products and opportunity to a lot of folk over an extended period of time. This means you need to find several ways generate a steady number of MLM leads and guide them into your promoting funnel. Leads. Leads. And rather more leads. The individual that tells the most, sells the most. End of story.

MLM Tip 6

Duplication is pretty much a parable in this industry. Find a way to take huge action yourself and take that action in any case if it can be easily replicated downline with your team. Leaders will always show themselves and they will always find a way to build the business with or without help. Duplication is for the masses and the masses will only produce twenty p.c. of your results. Lead by example. Take huge action.

MLM Tip 7

Discover a way to use attraction marketing to create cash flow in any case if a prospect joins your network business or not. Then teach your team to do a similar thing. This helps get everybody into a nice cash flow situation so that they can afford to remain in the game long enough to produce an amazing result.

Build a team around learning all the essential MLM tips for creating a sustainable business online while earning 100% Commissions. Tip to end all MLM tips, click the link to find out more about this Incredible Marketing System and leave your competitors in the dust

A couple of weeks ago, Denise and I recorded a step-by-step video for one of our staff members on how to perform a specific task. With our flip camera in hand, we quickly recorded our message and emailed the instructions off to them. It was simple and took us no more than 5 minutes.

A lot of small business owners create videos for employee training purposes. However, many forget that video can be used in a number of different ways in your business. A perfect example of this is online video marketing.

Online video marketing is a very cheap alternative to traditional advertising. Plus, it is a dynamic and highly effective method to promote different products or services among your customers. Just one viral video can replace multiple forms of promotions, especially if the video educates and creates an interest among your customers so that they in turn promote your business.

So, why is video marketing exploding throughout the internet and becoming such a huge online marketing service?

Well, we all know it began with the YouTube phenomena, but now has expanded well beyond just that. With video marketing, you can easily highlight features and benefits of your products or services in the best possible manner in the shortest period of time.

For example, seeing a picture of a treadmill with a description is not nearly as effective as seeing someone on the treadmill in action. That’s why infomercials are so successful. Your customer gets to see exactly what the product can and will do in just a matter of minutes. The customer connects and can imagine how the product could benefit them.

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, a video is worth much more. Your video can literally become viral with community submissions and social tagging overnight.

So, what techniques can you implement so that your business gets massive exposure with online video marketing?

Technique #1: Post Video To Your Web Site

A perfect way to please Google is to upload a video on your web site. Google has introduced a concept of “universal search” where videos will be listed along with the other links on the search results page. For example if you Google “how to tie a tie” you’ll see video thumbnail listings in Google.

When running a business, it is vital you do whatever it takes to get on page one of the top search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. So, upload a video on your web site and help your site be found in more ways than before.

You can also have a video appear as soon as a customer opens your web page. A customer can watch your video every time they come to your web site, especially if you grab their attention with a catchy headline.

Once you have their attention, you can then pitch a product during the video for them to buy or you can simply introduce a product and ask the customer to opt-in to learn more. Once the customer opts-in to request more information, you can follow up with an email.

Technique #2: Send Out Video Emails

You can include a video link in an email to solicit new customers or to refresh ties with current clients. This allows them to connect with a real person, not just words on a page. If they haven’t met you, many of them will feel as though they have. This can go a long way to turning a potential customer into a long-term customer.

Just remember that your email still needs links, images and good compelling text. Not everyone will watch your video email. For example, some recipients may be at work and want to be discreet, some may not have a sound card in their computers, and some may simply not be interested. So, be sure that the copy in your email makes up for this.

For those who really connect with video email, you can then ask them to subscribe to a video email group. This can be done through a group announcement mailing or by simply adding a survey to your normal email asking if they would be interested in receiving video emails. If they are interested, they will subscribe, while others won’t.

With the advent of smart phones like iPhone, Blackberry and Android, it is easier to watch videos wherever you go. They key is to get your video out there for people to watch. A great way to do this is with video distribution software.

Technique #3: Distribute Your Videos Everywhere

To get as much visibility as possible, submit your videos to as many different places as possible. You can do this manually by placing a video on your web site, blog, landing or sales pages, as well as video sharing sites like YouTube, Viddler or Google Video.

You also can automate the process with software like Traffic Geyer that will distribute your videos to hundreds of sites. Whether you upload the videos manually or use video distribution software, it is a good idea to follow a couple steps to make sure to get the maximum results from your efforts:

1. Make sure you list your key words in the title of your video. In other words, make sure you name your video title using words that you want people to find your video under when searching by those key words.

2. Make sure you put your URL at the very beginning of the description field. Most description fields will be abbreviated so that the viewer can only see the first few characters. You want to make sure that the viewer can click off your main site even if they don’t click to expand and read the detailed description.

Regardless how you distribute your videos, just do it. Videos are an inexpensive way to get tons of free exposure for your business. The more you diversify your marketing strategies, the more effective your efforts will be and the more customers you will reach.

To learn more about how to grow a business, download my free 47 page “Business Thrival Blueprint“. BusinessThrival.com is a site dedicated to helping business owners achieve a thriving business and life.

There are many methods to make a living. Some people work many lengthy hours a week slaving in a sizzling factory. Some people go to work for lengthy days in a cubicle, meeting another person’s quota and achieving someone else’s goals. Some folks have decided these concepts of labor do not work for them. These individuals have realized the freedom and monetary good points to be made in Web businesses. There are lots of sorts of Internet businesses, however one stands above the remaining as easy and efficient. This enterprise is affiliate marketing, and anyone can be a success.

Affiliate marketing is a simple principle. You present a hyperlink to your Affiliate program owner in your website. Many major websites provide affiliate programs, together with EBay. These corporations will, in turn, give you very effective and artistic tools to raised your web page and keep track of your earnings. This software program, expensive when bought alone, is free to affiliate participants. You don’t pay for the programs that will make your web site sharper and more inviting. Quite the opposite, you get paid.

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Affiliate programs resembling those with EBay can be the source for complete incomes. Folks with excessive site visitors websites can herald whole second incomes from simply offering a link to another website on their page. This technique of enterprise continues to make you money all day long. Every minute your web page is up is a minute you might be earning money out of your affiliate program. Each time an individual hits on your affiliate’s symbol, you make money. This money is free to you and comes at no overhead cost. Actually, affiliate programs can lower the overhead prices of running your individual enterprise as a result of they provide each software and technical assist to assist your website be the most effective it may be.

Affiliate programs can also supply an attraction to your website. Once you participate in affiliate marketing, you give your readers another reason to go to your web page and continue to return. They may come to associate you with the bigger affiliate names you are working with, increasing your credibility and esteem among people who surf the web. These companies need you to succeed as a result of your success means continued success for them so they are going to give you all of the instruments and help you might want to succeed within the industry. You will profit from years of experience as they continually refine programs and tools to your use to make them more and more consumer friendly and effective. The affiliate marketing program concept is especially effective if you pair it with your personal on-line business. Your affiliate banner or logo won’t take much room or detract out of your web page, and will make you cash whereas your web page also appeals to different readers interests. This really is the way to go to ensure your success within the on-line industry. Affiliate programs provide fast cash and make sure that, even when your web page has a slow day and does not make you a lot cash, your site will continue to develop and be efficient overall.

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In an earlier article, Jynell talked about how YouTube and other video sites provide an opportunity for your voice to be heard around the globe. She also discussed how to leverage videos to grow and expand your business.

So unless you have been living under a rock, you already know how popular online videos have become. Even kids are posting videos to YouTube and other video sites to share their ideas.

For instance, my 5-year-old daughter Victoria enjoys creating videos on her iPod Touch as to her Dora toy collection. She constantly asks me if we can post her Dora collection to YouTube.

I have not posted her videos to YouTube or other video sites for that matter. But think about it. Even my 5-year-old daughter understands the power of YouTube. That’s shocking if you think about it.

So what does it take to make one video become noticed more than another? At times, a specific video may become popular because it is creative, dramatic or just unusual. But for business videos, you can’t always get by with being unusual.

While it may not take a lot of time to broadcast your message, it is not as easy to deliver that message in a way that your targeted audience finds useful. After all, it is not like we are professional Hollywood actors, or have ever worked in the industry.

The truth is that it takes practice to become persuasive on video, and in person. But the good news is that there are certain steps you can take to make your videos and live presentations more compelling. And it is a skill that anyone can learn.

The rest of this issue will look at 3 Hollywood tricks that you can use to make your videos and presentations way more appealing.

Hollywood Trick #1 - Don’t Memorize the Script

For starters, you don’t want to memorize the script. You just need to memorize or review the key points. You never want to follow the script word for word or you will sound very robotic. It will sound much more natural if you just go with what you know from a list of key points.

So how can you stay on track without following a script? Well, you start with writing an outline. The outline should have enough details that you can remember what points you wanted to make, but where you can say them in your own words.

Practice telling the story from the outline, and if you keep forgetting key points, add them to the outline too. But again, don’t write down everything verbatim. Just keep refining the outline until it conveys all the key points at a high level, and where it is super-easy for you to talk from it.

You want to get to a point where your outline is so well done that you can tell the story very efficiently from just those few words jogging your memory. It is so much easier to talk from your knowledge and experience than it is to read from a script.

And the more comfortable you are with your knowledge base, the more you will let go of the fact that you are on camera.

Thus, once you have an outline that you are happy with, start recording. Take a deep breath and then get right into what you know. When you start thinking about the camera, it gets into the way of what you know.

Hollywood Trick #2 - Keep Smiling

Smiling is so important whether you are appearing on camera, or are just recording your voice by itself. You get warmer in your voice and your overall personality by smiling. A physical smile will change everything in your presentation.

With a long message, you should start with a smile and then fade it away. You should then smile periodically as you are talking.

If you are reading from a script, after every 3 sentences, you should put a smile back on your face. This keeps a natural tempo in your presentation, as well as keeps the audience engaged.

To make a smile look natural, think of something that makes you smile, such as your child, your pet, etc. When you put that thought into your head, a smile will naturally come. If you maintain a real true interest in what you are saying, it will also help you produce a smile.

You may have your own strategies that help you with smiling. Try those out too. But it is a known fact in Hollywood and with the TV studios that smiling is a critical ingredient to keeping the audience interested.

In fact, you should watch some news reporters and study how they introduce smiles into their conversations. They do it in a way that seems natural. But they always do it, and the reason they do is because it works.

Hollywood Trick #3 - Treat the Camera As Another Person

Another Hollywood trick is to treat the camera as another person in the room and react to it. You may be tempted to look at the camera man, but try not to. It takes some practice to learn to treat the camera as a “real” person that is sitting there with you and interact with it.

So if there are multiple people who you are talking with, you should look the other person in the eye when you are talking to them. But you then need to turn to the camera and look directly at the camera so you are looking into the eyes of the viewers too. Again, treat the camera lens as another person you are talking with, and rotate who you look at as you have the conversations.

Again, you can watch some TV round table shows for examples on how the news reporters do this. They make it seem so natural that you don’t even realize what is going on.

If you just put these three strategies into practice in your videos, you will be way ahead of everyone else who is just flying by the seat of their pants. Give these strategies a try and let us know about your results!

To learn more about business growth and increasing your sales, download my free 47 page “Business Thrival Blueprint“. BusinessThrival.com is a site dedicated to helping business owners achieve a thriving business and life.

I saw recently a television show called “Platinum Hit” that was hosted by singer and songwriter, Jewel. The show is a competition of not yet discovered songwriters who are required to write a “hook,” i.e. an idea or phrase that makes a song so attractive that it grabs the ear of the listener. The top three participants with the winning hooks then must write an entire song with fellow team members in a matter of hours and days in hopes of getting a record deal with a few of the top producers in the industry.

So, this got me thinking about how this concept could assist a small business owner. For example, how do you attract a buyer? What is your hook? Is your business appealing enough to a prospect to make a sale? The answer is advertising.

We all are aware that there are numerous ways to advertise, such as through print media in newspapers and magazines, and through broadcast media such as radio and television. You also have advertising on the internet with banner ads, pop up ads, or pay per click campaigns, as well as offline advertising with direct mail, brochures, flyers, and postcards. The different methods of advertising are infinite.

Principle 1: Get Your Buyer’s Attention

Great advertising must grab your buyer’s attention almost instantly and without thought. You only have a few seconds to ignite your buyer’s interest to get them to take action, whether they visit your web site, listen to your ad on the radio, or read an article that you mailed. You must hook them instantaneously.

A headline is the hook. The headline is the first, and sometimes the only impression you may ever make with a buyer. So, it is extremely important that the hook intrigues, excites, or even shocks the buyer so that he will make the purchase.

To start a headline, there are key phrases you can use where you leave them wanting to learn more. For instance, have you ever heard or seen a headline that reads “Who Else Wants A Better Paying Job,” “The Secrets Of Getting A Loan Approved Overnight,” or even “Here’s A Quick Way To Get Over a Cold”?

All of these headlines are attention grabbers. They are really vague and don’t give you enough information away without reading further. The headlines have served their purpose. They have peaked an interest. But does this automatically mean that you will get a sale? Sometimes, yes, but often times this isn’t the case, unless your product resonates with the buyer.

Principle 2: Resonate With Your Buyer

So now you have your buyer’s attention, but does your product resonate with what the buyer wants? If the buyer doesn’t understand what you’re offering, then he/she simply won’t buy. Your product must relate to what the buyer needs. This can be done by showing the buyer the benefit he/she will get from your product or the problem you will be solving for him/her.

For instance, if a car manufacturer finds that a certain brand of vehicle does better on safety tests, then that manufacturer would push a safety message over vehicle price, features or fuel economy. By doing this, the manufacturer will resonate with the buyer.

When you resonate with your buyer, the buyer automatically perceives value in what you are offering. Strike a chord with your buyer by showing the buyer the benefits of your product or by helping the buyer resolve a problem. You can quickly resonate with your buyer this way. You can also quickly resonate with your buyer by always being honest and credible.

Principle 3: Build Rapport With Your Buyer

By grabbing your buyer’s attention and resonating with him/her, you will always build rapport. One of the best and easiest ways to do this is to be honest in your advertising. Buyers are very smart - smarter than you think and smarter collectively than any single one of us. It’s like they have a smart meter that goes off when you are not being truthful. Buyers really appreciate the truth.

Be credible. If you convey honesty in your message, chances are you’ve gone a long way toward establishing your credibility. However, credibility is not just being honest; it is also about being believable. If you offer an exceptionally low price for your product, you’ve got to convey that the offer you are making is as great as it seems and that indeed it is a valid offer. You’ve heard that old saying, “sometimes it is too good to be true.” So, be sure that you can overcome this potential obstacle.

For instance, if you are offering something for $10 that normally sells for $39.95, your job is to establish credibility for your price. You can do this by explaining why you are offering it at such a low price. Maybe it is because you bought the product in large volume and you are offering the price discount, maybe it is because you are having an inventory sell and clearing out remaining stock, or maybe you have created a new version so want to get rid of the prior version. Whatever the case, building credibility, as well as being honest, are key in building rapport with your buyer.

But what else can you do to make your buyer believe that you or your products are the real deal? It’s called value.

Principle 4: Demonstrate The Value Of Your Product/Service

After you have built rapport with your buyer, don’t forget to explain the value that your buyer will get with your product. A great way to demonstrate this is by comparing your product to another product with similar features and pointing out why your product is a better value.

By positioning your product this way, you are allowing the buyer to justify why he should purchase your product over a competitor’s product. This is especially true if the purchase was done on the spur of the moment, even if the buyer knows nothing about your business or even you.

So, how can you still be a hit with the buyer if he isn’t familiar with your product or your business? You simply just establish authority.

Principle 5: Establish Authority

Consumers love to do business with people they not only feel they can trust but with those who are experts in a particular area. For example, if you are trying to learn how to play golf, wouldn’t you take golf lessons from a golf pro instructor? If you wanted to learn the fast and easy ways to building a seven-figure business, wouldn’t you look to those who have done it?

Well, the same is true from your buyer’s perspective. The buyer wants to know that you are an expert or that the history behind a product that you are advertising makes you credible. Examine your business to find what you can say to establish your authority or expertise in what you are advertising.

So, there you have it. By implementing these basic advertising principles, you will hook your buyer and be a hit!

To learn more about business growth, download my free 47 page “Business Thrival Blueprint“. BusinessThrival.com is a site dedicated to helping business owners achieve a thriving business and life.

I came across the eBay hot trends page over the over the July 4th holiday weekend as I was doing some online shopping for my birthday. This made me stop and think about all the great tools I’ve seen over the past few years that show what the hottest selling items are.

Then I thought about how these hot trends tools that exist today are a wonderful resource for people to use for ideas on what to sell in their online business, or to use for an additional revenue stream to an existing one.

Step 1 -Pinpoint What Products Are Already Selling Like Hot-Cakes

Several of the best ways to discover which products are in demand is to look at the “hot products” section on Google Hot Trends, eBay’s hot items page on eBay Pulse, Google Insights, Alexa, and Yahoo Buzz. Each one of these sites show a daily snapshot of current trends, hot topics, and popular searches.

For instance, on Google Hot Trends, you can see a list of the top 20 searches of topics that individuals are looking at. The list changes during the day and minute by minute. You can also change the date to find what folks were searching the days before.

Today, while I am writing this article, the top search is the space shuttle Atlantis launch. Not surprising, since NASA announced this is the final launch of the space shuttle program. But what if you wanted to sell vacation packages? The fourth search today is the keyword Bahamas. After all, what is summer without a nice vacation to a tropical island, right?

And then there’s eBay Pulse. On this site you can see the top 10 most popular searches, the top 5 largest stores by number of active listings, and the most watched items on eBay. This shows you where the hungry fish are, buyers!

And don’t forget about Alexa. Although Alexa is commonly known for its traffic rank tool where you can see how popular a website is, it also has a “What’s Hot” page where it lists the top 20 hot topics, top 10 hot products and hot pages that people are searching on. Heck, you can even download and install Alexa’s Toolbar on Firefox or Chrome. The toolbar gives you the ease in one click to gather all the information you want.

Google Insights allows you to search volume patterns across certain regions, categories, and time frames, while Yahoo Buzz shows you what topics are trending now.

All of these are great examples of tools that are available on the internet to see what products are selling like hot cakes.

Step 2 - Find Affiliate Program That Offers Sought-After Items

You could always purchase those items that interested buyers are searching for and ship them out yourself, but then you have the hassle of dealing with customers and managing inventory. An easier way to get started is to sign up as an affiliate for someone who is already selling the popular item.

A great place to find products is in affiliate marketplaces such as ClickBank, Commission Junction, Google’s Affiliate Network or even Yahoo’s Affiliate Network. In these marketplaces, you can find companies that are willing to pay a commission for selling their products. What a fast and easy way to add another revenue stream to your business.

You can also go directly to the web site of a company who sells a certain item and look to see if they have an “Affiliates” link on their site where you can join their program. At Business Thrival, you can find our “Affiliates” link at the bottom of our home page. We too pay a commission to companies who want to promote and sell our products.

Step 3 - Sign-Up For One or More Affiliate Programs

If you find one or programs you are interested in, then follow the instructions of the company to whom you want to be an Affiliate and sign up. You should note though that the sign-up process and requirements vary per affiliate program.

Sometimes, the company will require pre-approval, and it could take a few days before your affiliate application is reviewed. Other companies will approve your affiliate application automatically. So, be mindful of the fact that there may or may not be a lead-time involved.

Step 4 - Test Your Affiliate Links

After you have signed up as an affiliate, test your affiliate link that the company has provided you to make sure that it is working correctly. This unique URL is how the company tracks what commissions they owe you from product purchases.

To test the affiliate link simply paste the affiliate link into a browser, then go to that URL. Then, log in to the affiliate center to see if it shows as a new visitor having gone to the third party site through your affiliate link. If so, your affiliate link is tracking correctly. If not, then contact the company to get this resolved so that your links will track correctly and so you will be paid all the commissions owed to you.

Step 5 - Market The Product In Numerous Channels

There are numerous ways to market the product into different channels. One way is by pay per click or PPC. PPC is an internet advertising model where you pay a provider a fee for each click to direct traffic to a website based upon keywords that you have selected.

PPC providers such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter, the three largest network operators, all operate under a bid-based model, meaning you determine the maximum amount that you are willing to pay to acquire the click.

You can also use forums and blogs to market your products. Almost all forums and blogs allow you to list your web site in your author bio in your profile. So, if a reader is interested in learning more about you or your products they simply click the anchor text in your signature block which will redirect them to your web site.

Always make sure though that you know the rules and policy of the forums and blogs in which you are participating, as some prohibit this self-promoting activity in the body of your response, or even in your author bio at the bottom. You don’t want to get banned.

These are just a few examples of the channels where you can market your hot trends product. If you need other ideas, you can always use any of the dozens of channels we cover in our BizMarketing product.

Step 6 - Review Your Results

Once you have started selling one or more of these hot products, you should take a moment to evaluate the results.

For those products that sell really well, you may want to consider offering your own version of the product so you can keep more of the profits. But again, it may or may not be worth the hassle of customer service, inventory, etc.

And latest, but not least, you should always be refining your research to look for additional hot products to test for new opportunities. Find your low hanging fruit and capitalize on it!

To learn more about business growth, download my free 47 page “Business Thrival Blueprint“. BusinessThrival.com is a site dedicated to helping business owners achieve a thriving business and life.

If you own a business, you must be so thankful that web 2.0 exists. Why? These are sites that are driven by communities. This is very powerful. You are losing out if you are not taking advantage of this. Getting on Facebook is not a problem. The question is, how to get more Facebook fans?

Facebook is a very user friendly site. There are a number of tools that you can use to customize your profile, and communicate with the other members. Take the time to explore these tools and adjust your settings to your preference.

Just like the tools intended, complete your profile as much as you can. It makes no sense to leave out much information if business promotion is what you are about. Furthermore, you want to appear as a real person, someone whom others can contact if necessary.

It goes without saying that there should be a picture identifying your profile. Also remember to include other images that potential customers may find interesting. You do want to attract more fans, don’t you?

When you are done with your profile, it is time to promote it. One way is by inserting your Facebook URL at the end of your signature line. Therefore, the more you contribute on the web, the more people will see your signature and subsequently, your URL. Do this for emails, forum posts, blog comments, etc.

If this sounds too much work, why not cut to the chase by making a purchase at uSocial.net? This site provides you with targeted Facebook fans that you can use right away. Can you imagine going from solo to corps de ballet? You get the point.

If you’re a business owner, you have probably registered on Facebook site but the question is, how to get more Facebook fans. More info on how to get more Facebook fans, now a click away.