People love to be in company of an expert, and they also love to do business with an expert they trust.

ACTION STEP TWO: Be prepared to give away some free, quality advice. Don’t skirt issue. You won’t be able to establish yourself as an expert unless you "prove" to others that you know what you’re talking about.

Getting Referrals and Leads

Forums have started coming into their own in area of referral and lead generation. Because "lurkers" can quietly click through forums to see who has said what, they have opportunity to get to know you "behind scenes."

Be careful what you post on forums. You never know who’s watching! Be friendly, professional, and on guard. There are hundreds (even thousands) of prospective customers out there watching your every move.

However, this is truly a good thing. When you actively post quality information in forums, you leave a legacy that shows world you’re good at what you do. Anytime this happens, referrals and leads are bound to come your way.

ACTION STEP THREE: Find one or two quality forums that attract those you’d like to do business with. Then put your best foot forward. Don’t downgrade your competition. Be professional, friendly, and helpful.

The next time you think you don’t have a few extra minutes to "fool around" in a forum, think again. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by making time. From simply sharing your knowledge and experience with others, you could very well end up with stronger search engine rankings and more clients!

Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com

6. Use a headline that catches attention of your target audience. One of most effective ways is to use a free offer as your headline. The "shocking claim" headline can also be effective, provided that you can back up your claim, of course.

7. Make your ad's keywords and phrases stand out by enlarging text. This technique works wonders with headlines and sub headlines.

8. Make your products list of benefits and features stand out by using a symbol in front of each of them. The symbol could be a dash, solid circle, star, etc.

9. Use sub headlines to break up your ad copy andto capture a skimmers eye. You could make them even more powerful by highlighting them with color.

10. Use attention grabbing adjectives to describe your product. For example sizzling, incredible, high power, ultramodern, killer, eye popping, etc. But, be careful not to overdo it.

Using above methods should dramatically improve chances that your ad will get noticed by potential customers. And that is first step to ultimately making sale.