Although regular use of a dictionary will help, and a spell checker will find many, sound-a-likes are quite elusive. Sound-a-likes are called homophones. They are words that sound same but have different meanings. For example: there - their - they’re; meet - meat; stares - stairs; fare – fair; herd – heard; currant – current; buy – by – bye; rain - rein – reign. Its and it’s are similar errors, but for different reasons.

You can buy a grammar book in paperback for about $5.00. Most of them have common spelling and grammatical error pages right in front. If you familiarize yourself with those, and it reflects in your articles and web pages, then you have just made a huge step in giving yourself a more knowledgeable and competent appearance. For a business person, it can make all difference.

Kathleen Jerauld-Brack,BFA. Is recipient of many Art and Literature Awards. She is Webmaster of: http://www.BestPlacetoEat.com http://www.BestRestaurants.us.

8)Do you take a credit cards?

I shouldn't really have to ask this now should I? It's a plain fact that you are going to lose a huge amount of customers if you don't accept them.

9)Are you absolutely sure there's a market for it?

Does anyone else sell anything similar -if so, there should be a market for it. If it's a highly unique product, did you do a survey or market research to see if anyone wanted to buy it? If not, canvass opinion from forums and newsgroups.

10)Is your website easy on eye?

Strong colors can make text difficult to read -it doesn't matter how good your offer is, if someone gets a headache looking at screen there going to give up.

11)Do you offer a guarantee?

Most people are wary of getting "scammed" online, so remove those doubts - offer a guarantee. Make it as unconditional as you can.

12)Can you compete with your competitors?

Do you have any big competitors who are just cornering market and "blowing you away"? Are customers just visiting your site to "comparison shop" and returning to your competitor to buy. If this is a possibility, try to devise a unique selling point (USP) which differentiates your product from others - perhaps you can compete on quality, benefits, or price. Emphasise differences and advantages of your product. Research your market and familiarize yourself with what else is on offer. Then carve out a niche for your product.

Once you can honestly answer "yes" to all above questions, it's just a matter of constant fine-tuning until you get a decent level of sales. You're never going to sell to everyone who visits your site, but you can do lots to increase odds in your favor. I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.