I can hear them say, "Ha! I don't need you! Away with you! Be gone! Look at me NOOOOW! I built it, and they are a-coming! Check out MY piece of world! Ha!"

Any online business owners who believe surefire road to maximum business sales success is strictly through allowing Internet to replace any offline promotional efforts, are certainly misleading themselves.

And, reason it is misleading is, primarily, due to fact that greater number of consumers (and potential buyers), for whatever reason, are still without Internet access. Though that is difficult to accept most times, nevertheless, one certainly can't afford to ignore this particular sector of population.

But, same is, otherwise, true of business operators who are still functioning, primarily or exclusively, WITHOUT promoting their businesses via Internet. What this particular group sacrifices in its promotional efforts and successful results by NOT using Internet, is time and ability to quickly establish business relationships in long-term promotional process.

Now, a detour for a moment in translating above football elements to your business:

4th quarter = You are almost there...poised for success.

4th and goal = You're poised to overtake your competition.

Opposing team leads = Your competition is still ahead.

Run ball instead of punting = You make a wrong decision that is not considered smart, possibly, due to a state of greed.

"No! Don't do it!" = Your common sense attempts at all costs to intervene and save you from disaster.

Your yells and screams go unheeded = You throw caution to wind.

Murphy's Law premonition = "Uh-oh..."

Murphy's Law is upon you = "Oh, no! What have I DONE?" Resistance is futile...disaster is imminent.

Crash! Boom! Knock! "Ouch! Oomph! Ugh! = Dare I utter, "Translation complete?"

What BOTH of above types of business operators need to understand is that, in order to get maximum yardage out of whole business playing field, they must utilize BOTH ends (online/offline) of field, together and effectively. Learning to utilize both ends of business field today equally well, in regard to marketing, promotion and, distribution, is only way to score a business touchdown and, ultimately, a win.

Love fest The result was a love fest. The gift giver looked like a spontaneous Santa Claus. The recipients were excited because they received an unexpected goodie from a friend. Lastly, our company got more mileage out of campaign than a '76 Datsun in Tijuana. First, a vast majority of registrants opted in to our e-mail list, so we ended up with a big database of potential customers to whom we could send relevant and tailored marketing messages. (Ten percent of number of people we originally e-mailed ended up on our opt-in list.) Second, we gained a detailed snapshot into our prospective customer, as thousands of people told us everything from income to dressing style. Lastly, nature of gift and spirit of campaign reflected well on our brand.

All told, it cost us less than $3 to acquire an opt-in user about whom we have several data points. By comparison, it can cost more than $7 to execute same campaign through a big affiliate network (the "per form" deal). With venture community growing increasingly critical of viability of B2C business models, a humble e-mail marketing campaign with a twist might make more sense than a Times Square billboard.