Sir hesitates, then takes bookmark.

"It features nine habits of maximum happiness."

Sir studies bookmark.

"Same habits as in my book right here."

Sir looks up at display for a moment. Then he starts moving again, staring down at bookmark, mumbling something under his breath and BANG! hits support beam. "Ooh," I thought. "A few thousand more times and that beam might not hold. That could be dangerous."

Fortunately, I decided to relocate, standing with my back to beam so people would pass safely to one side. Don't kill your customers: a brilliant idea whose time had come. I learned my third lesson after running through just 34 first aid kits.

I went through same routine with Broad-eyed Lady and her husband, except that she missed beam. She continued walking as she read 9 habits of happiness on bookmark, then suddenly slapped it against her husband's chest. "Here. Read this," she commanded.

Ouch. That's gotta hurt. Good thing I was giving away bookmarks and not paperweights.

I thought Broad-eyed Lady was a unique character, until Hunched Old Lady did same thing. And so did Spunky Crew-cut Girl. And Grizzly Guy, too. I guess it's easy to expect others to change, rather than ourselves.

In fairness, few people used my happiness bookmark as a domestic weapon, a fact judge took into consideration later that day. He even commended me for not giving away paperweights.

But he did order me to recount, without looking at my notes, lessons I had learned watching people at flea market. Let's see ...

Slow down, or you'll never spend your kids' inheritance on priceless knick knacks.

Grab people's attention or they will just whiz by.

Don't kill your customers

Don't expect people to change for you, even if you do wield a loaded bookmark.

The third reality that we must face is that building a thriving on-line business can be hard work. I've put in many 18-hour days and fell asleep at my keyboard many times. It takes time to build a list and to build credibility. I haven't discovered any foolproof shortcut to this reality.

Having faced above realities, I go on with my clients to look at what they are doing to build their businesses and how they can improve them. On internet it all boils down to traffic... to reaching an audience and convincing them that your product offers solution to their wants or needs. That means using search engines and email to attract traffic. It also means learning to write good copy or getting someone else to do it for you. I don't see any shortcuts there. Words sell, and putting right words in right order is a science. It's something anyone can learn. Poor webcopy is biggest problem on most of websites I visit that aren't making any money.

There are literally hundreds of ways to reach your target audience and attract them to your website. The first step is properly identifying who you should be targeting. That one step allows you to spend your promotional dollars in right place ... place where you will get greatest return. For some products, and some businesses, paid-for search engine listings are a great option. For others buying banners on other websites (exit popups, etc.) are a great idea. I gain great exposure by having my articles appear in others' ezines and on others' websites. This takes time to build up momentum though. I also have an army of affiliates driving traffic to my sites. This also takes time.

When I look at my secrets to success, building relationships with a lot of prospects over past seven years has played a big part. That's just path that I took. I've seen people achieve incredible success in a matter of month, but I have seen many more fail. The one thing that I want all of my clients to ask themselves is, "If it was so easy to come on-line and make your fortune, why aren't many more quitting their off-line jobs and doing it." That's a very important question to at-least contemplate.

Hopefully, this article wasn't too negative. I just see a lot of similarities between envelope stuffing schemes I fell victim to in early 1970s and on-line world today. Fortunes are being made on-line. It takes a product or service that people need and want, and then you have to make them aware of it. That often takes a lot of hard work. However, when you finally make your breakthrough, it will be worth every ounce of effort. Make absolutely certain that you start out with right products though.

To your success.