Avoid ridiculous claims on order of "Make $20,000 every day just by sending email!!!!!". Email what - ransom notes?

Write exciting copy, of course. Just keep it honest and see that it's well-written. If you need help, get it. It's your future.

Present your product or service in best possible light, certainly. But do it with integrity and sincerity. If they don't trust you, they won't buy from you.

And if what you're selling doesn't measure up to your claims, you'll experience many complaints and returns. And you'll probably get bad-mouthed all over internet. And you'll probably deserve it. Fortunately, you're a straight shooter so you needn't worry about that stuff. Right?

I once knew an Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealer whose television commercials consisted of beautiful scenes and relaxing music. A slide across top of screen read simply "XYZ Oldsmobile - Cadillac, Fourth and Main, Ourtown". In about last 12-15 seconds a pleasant voice offered an invitation to come see dealer for all your automotive needs.

Prospects were well-treated and customers treasured. About only way a customer would buy elsewhere was at gunpoint, I think. His word-of-mouth advertising, even from people who weren't his customers, was priceless.

You can make a strong profit, have a fine reputation, good traffic to your site and loyal customers. Go First Class and everyone benefits. Aren't you worth it?

Guideline #3: The Price Is Not a Secret. I'll be honest. This practice annoys me a lot, and it has me mystified. It's peculiar online sales tactic of making customer work really hard to discover what something costs. You go to a Web site or you receive a piece of email promoting a particular product or service. However, no pricing information is available. It may not even be readily apparent that item is for sale. You click your way through a big Web site, finally to locate pricing information in tiny print in an obscure corner. Sometimes there's just an invitation to phone them or to send an email for more information. I dunno…It seems to me customer should not have to work really hard to buy something. However, I'm open to hearing opposing viewpoints. If someone out there knows of a good reason why it's best to avoid mentioning money when conducting e-commerce, I'd be pleased to hear what it is.

Guideline #4: Forget Jargon. I received a press release that went like this: "Our remarkable new solution that promotes integrated data management of media content that will realize better return on investment (ROI), and that, in fact GISTICS has evaluated potential ROI to be as high as 16:1. (GISTICS, 1997) with general benefits …." Nuff said. If anyone understands what devil they're selling, let me know.