You’ve probably heard the old saying - I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted, if I only knew which half! Although it’s not possible to know all the factors that go into effective advertising, there are a few elements that are crucial to an ad campaign that is profitable. If you strive to achieve as many of the following 7 factors as possible, you can be confident that you’ll have a winning campaign.

1) Choose an appropriate medium to convey your message. This is so obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t use common sense when buying media. If you’re trying to reach a 14 year old, don’t buy an ad in the daily paper - buy the radio station that plays hip hop music! Try to target your advertising as much as possible. Think about the person you’re trying to reach with your message. The more you know about that person, the easier this will be. If you’re selling clothing to working women, buying TV is probably not a good idea. They’re probably so busy doing household chores and taking kids to various activities, they probably don’t have time to watch much TV. But billboards and radio are great because she’s probably on the road a lot and those media fit for that audience.

2) Don’t believe that everyone uses media the way you or your spouse does. Just because you don’t like a certain program on TV doesn’t mean that your potential customer doesn’t like it - they may be big fans and never miss an episode. Don’t assume that everyone reads the newspaper because everyone you know does. Ask for information about the medium’s audience - let your rep show you exactly who is watching/reading/listening/driving by/surfing their medium.

3) Don’t judge the price of the ad by the dollar amount alone. Just because an ad is expensive doesn’t mean it isn’t a good buy - and the opposite is true also. If an ad is cheap, but no one reads or sees it, it’s worthless to you. If an ad is reaching tens of thousands of people for $1,000, it might be a good buy if those are the people who are in the market for your product. Try to gauge the real value of an ad by the cost per thousand or cost per rating point (for TV, radio & cable). If you’re not familiar with those terms, ask your ad rep - they will be happy to fill you in. (And if they aren’t, find a new rep.)

4) Develop a relationship with your customers and prospects. This is another thing that should be obvious, but very few companies actually do this. Proctor and Gamble has found that this is what makes them money. And it makes sense. If people trust your brand and feel that they know your company, they’re far more likely to buy your products. This is actually easier to do as a smaller business than a large one - and many local businesses have done this for years. It may be schmaltzy, but when the local furniture store owner is on camera for all his TV commercials, people develop a relationship of sorts with him or her. They feel like they know that business. Anytime you can link a personality - even if it’s not a celebrity - to a business, that makes that business stand out. This is an important element that there’s not nearly enough room to cover - so think this one through for your business and come up with ways (and they can be very simple) to develop a relationship with your customers and prospects. An email newsletter is a simple, cheap and very effective way to do this, by the way.

5) Have a hook. Give people something that makes them remember you. Big companies spend millions on this - and for a good reason - it sells stuff. Whatever you do, don’t say “for the best in service and quality” - no one will believe you! If you want to convey that message, have one of your customers give a testimonial on camera - have them describe how you provided them with great service and quality. Give details. A hook needs to be simple, memorable and if possible, fun or heartwarming. The Taco Bell Chihuahua is a good example - the Pillsbury Doughboy is another one. Do something different and let people know about it. Give them a reason to choose your company over your competitors.

6) Be relevant. Talk to your prospects in your advertising - let them know that you feel their pain and are going to help them make it go away. If you’re talking about something they can’t relate to, they’ll ignore you. There are way too many advertising messages in the world today - and people have learned to tune them out unless they click with something that is important to them. You know how this works - you do the same thing. If you’re sick of how your car is nickel & dimming you lately, you suddenly are much more aware of ads for cars. Find out why people buy your product and talk about how you will give that to them. It’s really pretty simple - but an overwhelming majority of businesses totally miss this.

7) Make sure you know what you’re trying to get your prospect to do. Do you want them to come to your store and buy a specific product? Or do you want them to call your business to get an estimate on a project so your sales person can close the sale in person? The more specific you are in your call to action (please make sure to include one!), the more likely your audience will do what you want them to do.

All of the elements that go into your advertising - the media, the creative, the copywriting, the call to action - create a synergistic result. The more focused you are with any of those elements, the better your results will be. It’s always crucial to measure your ad results. Determine what you want to achieve and include devices that will allow you to determine whether or not you achieved your goal. Then you can tweak results from there.

Becoming a great conversationalist takes proper planning and hard work. But, mastering the art of conversation is worth it. Outstanding conversation gets noticed and so does the person behind it.

Have you ever been to a social event and watched someone with an “Aw Shucks, I’m from a farm down home” look about them because they can’t string two words together. They may be too shy or just have nothing to say. Either way, it’s not pretty. In most cases it’s not because a person can’t hold a conversation, it’s because they haven’t prepared for conversation. As with everything in life, great conversationalists understand this simple but important tenet: proper planning prevents poor performance (P5).

The following six steps should help you be better prepared when you next enter a room full of people.

Say something

Readers are leaders and good conversationalists. Keep up to speed with the latest events happening in your world through newspapers, television and radio. There’s always something topical happening … make sure you know about it and that you have an opinion on it.

Ooze with confidence

Confidence is a massively attractive trait. People like talking to confident, authoritative and powerful people because it makes them feel safe. You’ll attract more people to you than bees to a honey pot if you can appear confident.

Eye contact is critical

Make sure that you establish good eye contact when speaking to someone. Not the Charles Manson “thousand yard stare” kind of eye contact … that’s just scary. Never break eye contact when you’re busy making an important point. If you start looking like a sneaky, edgy Coyote, it puts doubt on your integrity and on the validity of your words. So does touching your face, nose and ears whilst speaking. This just makes you look like a fibber. This normally happens when you’re not sure of yourself or your subject. Sigmund Freud once said that the body oozes deceit.

Compliments help you make friends

We all love compliments don’t we? Make the compliment sincere, brief and specific. Most important of all, the compliment must be based on fact otherwise it just becomes empty flattery. For instance, if you saw someone helping an old lady carry her groceries to her car, your compliment would go something like this: “When I saw you helping that old lady with her groceries the other day, I realized that you’re a kind and thoughtful person.” That compliment is based on evidence.

However, if you say, “That’s a beautiful red tie you’re wearing … wow, you’re a real go-getter and confident person.” Well, that’s just plain old flattery, isn’t it? Wearing a red tie is certainly not evidence of any kind of personality trait, is it? Of course, if someone compliments you, you should react in an appropriate way. When you receive a compliment, simply smile and say “thank you”. By doing this, you do wonders for your confidence and you acknowledge the thoughtfulness (and courage) of the person who complimented you.

Become a great listener

Any conversation should follow the 80/20 rule. You do 20 percent of the talking and the rest of the time you’re listening. People like to talk, so let them talk. It makes them feel important and it turns you into a friend. And, the bonus is that they think you’re a great conversationalist. Sometimes its hard to get someone to open up. You can get them talking by …

Asking great questions

Ask elaborating questions that force a person to open up. Here are some examples: “Really?” “How did that make you feel?” “That must have been exciting. Tell me more.”

Try some of these tips next time you’re at a cocktail party or conference and become the person people want to listen to.

With a little effort and a sound, reusable structure, you can write articles to draw traffic to your website, ad copy to sell your products, and generally enhance your presence on the Internet. With these methods, you will gain the attention of those all-important search engines and get your products and ideas seen.

There is no mystery about the basic structure for writing website articles. Each article should have a beginning, or lead, middle, or content section, and an ending, or conclusion. Not that difficult, is it?

The extra ingredient you want for website articles or ad copy that will draw traffic is this: targeted keywords or phrases. Don’t be frightened by the idea of writing an article structured around keywords. It is much easier than it sounds. If you have researched a keyword(s) you want to get traffic for in the search engines, a good rule of thumb would be this: Use your keyword(s) once in the title, once in the beginning or lead, once in each paragraph of the article content, and once in the conclusion.

If you can use this basic structure — keyword(s) rich title, lead, content, and conclusion — you will find it easy to write content that will draw search engines to your website.

Take this sure-fire structure and combine it with a bit of research on the Internet or better yet in a nearby library.

Libraries are your “secret weapon” to find material for your sure-fire article structure. Here is the “offline” advantage — if people are writing articles targeting the keywords “electronic dog fences,” for example, by researching the Internet, they are bound to be seeing similar articles. This may not lead you to duplicate their content, but it certainly won’t help. If you go to a local library and find some magazines or newspaper articles about “electronic dog fences,” you’ll be ahead of the competition.

Use that research material with your keyword(s) and write something in the range of 300-500 words and you have your article. Don’t be frightened at the idea of writing 300-500 words. Think of it this way: One double-spaced page printed out with one-inch margins all around holds about 200-250 words. If you’ve read a few articles and taken notes, you probably have more than enough ideas and information for two double-spaced printed pages.

Using the above example “electronic dog fences,” you might try the title: “Four Ways Electronic Dog Fences Enhance Your Pet’s Life.” That isn’t the snappiest title you could find, but it does tell someone and the search engines what the article is about — while using the keywords “electronic dog fences.”

Then take the research you have done and come up with four major benefits for dogs and their owners related to electronic dog fences. Your lead might be something like: “Electronic dog fences not only make happy neighbors, they can make life better for your pet, too.”

Use each of the “four ways” you mentioned in the title as a section for your article. If you want a short article, make a paragraph for each of the “four ways,” a longer article may require two or three paragraphs about each of the “four ways.”

When you reach the conclusion, you want to do two things: Try to summarize the lead or title in the conclusion by using the “electronic dog fences” keyword(s) again, and quit.

Use this sure-fire structure and you’ll find you can build successful, keyword-rich articles for your website — even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer!

Ebay is probably the easiest way to start your own business. The reason eBay is successful is that they make selling so easy and inexpensive. Even if you’ve never had any experience with eBay before, in a matter of minutes you can get registered and start buying and selling.

Ebay uses a point system for buyers and sellers to give feedback on how each transaction went. Most buyers and sellers are very considerate about leaving feedback for transactions. If you are serious about starting a business on eBay, it is important to get your feedback rating as high as you can before you start selling. A 30 to 50 feedback rating is a good number to aim for. The more positive feedback points you have, the more trusting people will be to complete a transaction with you.

An easy and fast way to get your feedback rating higher is to buy as many inexpensive items as you can from different sellers. Why different sellers? On eBay, if you buy ten doodads from one seller, you will only get one feedback point for that transaction. It doesn’t matter whether you buy one or 100 items in a single transaction, you will only get one feedback point for that one transaction from that one seller. The easiest and cheapest items to buy would probably be ebooks. There are many sellers on eBay that sell ebooks for .01 just to get people into their store to buy the more expensive ebooks. So even though you might not be helping their business too much, you will be helping yourself by getting your feedback rating higher, and you will not have spent a fortune in the process!

Now that you’ve had a crash course on gaining trust from buyers by having a decent feedback rating, what should you sell on eBay? The easiest way to start is to find items around your house that you do not need anymore. This way, it doesn’t matter what you earn from the auction, and it will show you how the whole selling process works. The next venue might be garage sale and second-hand store items. This route might keep you happy for a while, but you most likely will not make a lot of money this way. You now need a way to find suppliers that have quantities of products, and products that are priced in such a way that you can still make a profit.

A great way to find suppliers are to visit local businesses and ask if they have overstock inventory that they need to get rid of. They might even let you list the items on their behalf and if they sell, wonderful, and if not, then nothing is lost except the few dollars you spent on eBay listing fees.

Another way to find product is to find drop shippers and wholesalers. Drop shippers are great because they stock the physical product and also ship the product to the customer. All you do is list the item and place the order when it sells. Be careful though, because drop shippers are notorious for having large amounts of products one day, and none the next! You will need to keep careful tabs on the amounts of products in stock.

Wholesalers are a wonderful resource if you have a little bit of money to buy products. These companies will sell products to you for greatly discounted prices. Most wholesalers require that you have a reseller’s tax ID number before you can do business with them. You may also have to place a minimum order amount. Make sure that you have researched your products well before loading up!

Foremost, to build your eBay business, you need products that are available in quantity and are available at prices that allow you to make a profit. When researching products to sell, besides making sure that they are items people want to buy, make sure you consider all the other costs that eat up your profits. Include eBay listing fees, final value fees, PayPal fees, packaging materials and any other costs that cut into profits. Find great products to sell, find great suppliers to work with, and you will be well on your way to being another eBay success story!