With each conversation, book, seminar, e-book and teleconference I added to my own arsenal of information. Over a period of about a year and a half, I had acquired quite a storehouse of knowledge.

Knowledge alone wouldn’t lend itself to being successful in this new branch of my business. As with other products and services I have made available at various times to my market, I had to make sure that products I would be introducing would sell. It’s all very nice to have something you think is great, but will there be people who will actually pay for what you are selling?

I also had to make sure most of kinks would be worked out prior to launching products. This took a considerable amount of time meeting with my webmaster. Together we worked on vision and how everything would link together.

Many people are very skeptical about informational products being sold on Internet. They have every right to be as there is a lot of garbage out there. There are people claiming to be experts when in fact, they aren’t.

I also know we live in a “try before you buy” world. People have to feel comfortable with purchases they make. Communication is key. Before, during and after.

Offering something at no cost prior to asking for a sale is an incredible way to build trust. It is also important to offer multiple choices in products and prices. Some people are more comfortable making a smaller purchase before they make a larger purchase.

For this reason, I have multiple free information products as well as a very cost effective e-book for only $8.95. As you will see when you visit my site and products page, I have several choices I offer.

As with a brick and mortar business, it is easier to sell to existing customers rather than selling to a stranger. This definitely proved to be true with products I introduced. I have thousands of people in my database. I treat my database like gold because it is. I keep in touch with people in my database.

This is an area that I often see people lose substantial amounts of revenue. They fail to constantly mine their database or keep their name fresh in people’s minds. As a result they are not able to fully realize profits that come with a well groomed database and name recognition. As with any type of business, my continued success with this stream of revenues will be determined by whether or not I keep in touch with people, how I market my products and how valuable my information is.

Yes, you can make money “while you sleep.” And yes, it can be very profitable. However, your level of success will be directly proportionate to your level of commitment and professionalism in this avenue of your business as with any avenue of your business.

Google provides a slightly different approach to payments, with primary difference being that you can set daily spend limits (as opposed to Overture’s monthly limit formula). This is an interesting and desirable approach as it lets you assure that your ad will last a particular period of time without exceeding your budget.

The Overture program is more expensive to setup. They require a US $ 50 set up fee and also impose a US$ 20 monthly minimum on all accounts. There is no set up fee or monthly minimum on Google.

Managing multiple campaigns in multiple markets is more difficult on Overture. Different branches of Overture family (say, Overture Korea) have different payment and account policies than main Overture site. Google gives you one point of contact for all your campaigns, with one consistent pricing policy. If you wish to run global campaigns in native languages, Google is clearly superior on this point as Overture complicates your billing and incurs much more management overhead.

A final point worth mentioning is turn-around times of these two competitors and related editorial policies. Google lets you get up and running immediately. You simply go to Google, set up your account, and create your ads and you are off and running. The ads are live almost immediately. Editorial oversight is an afterthought. In contrast, Overture imposes a three to five day turnaround time on ads, with their editorial review occurring before ads are allowed to go live.

So which program is right for you? While Google is certainly easier to deal with and provides more control, I have to say that at this point in Internet marketing, you need to be on both services if you are serious about reaching your audiences. If you go with Google only, you are turning your back on not insignificant audiences attached to Yahoo! and MSN. So, while it may require an increase in effort and complexity, maximum benefit is to be found by balancing your campaign across these two very similar competitive programs.

written by: Ric Shreves, http://www.waterandstone.com