Which is where emotional factor kicks in. Who wants to be dropped? Isn't that like being in high school again and not wanting to be excluded from a popular group? Isn't there an eternal desire to belong? With this appeal to my insecurities and ambitions, copywriters have forced me to think about my decision not to renew. I can't just make a 'business as usual' decision; it must be a personal as well as business decision. And when a message gets 'personal,' it demands more involvement from reader or listener. More involvement, in turn, means more attention to message, making it more persuasive.

If you sell, this idea won't come as much of a surprise. But, if you try to influence behaviors in other ways, you may wish to add emotion to your communication toolbox. It's something you do by getting 'personal,' by tapping into hopes, fears, or aspirations of those with whom you're communicating.

Of course, we must use emotion ethically and responsibly. If you plan to use it, step back and ask yourself how you would respond if someone else directed that kind of a message to you. That's always a simple but helpful litmus test. I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

But after a year, we built a contraption to separate worms from dirt, and hand delivered our first year's crop of worms to company we bought starter package from. I don't remember how much we got from that transaction, but I can say with absolute certainty that it was less than $1000.

Where did we go wrong in that venture?

First of all, we never investigated further to see if information that was given to us was valid. The company that sold us that starter package could have been telling us lie after lie just to get our money. Those pages of numbers could have been completely made up for all we really knew. And newspaper clippings? I know now that there are companies that offer printing on newspaper stock for a fee.

Another mistake we made was not checking with other 'earthworm farmers' about their experience. If we had talked to others who had pursued earthworm farming opportunity, we would have learned that money wasn't going to be rolling in as we thought.

In short, our main mistake was not having enough information to make an informed decision. Had we spent a few days (or even a few hours) checking into claims made, we would have known that it was a waste of time and we'd be better off in another business.

Before you jump into another business opportunity, make sure you have enough information to know you're not biting a flashy lure.

============================================================ Alan Tutt is author of new book "Keys To Power Prosperity", in which he teaches core principles of unlimited prosperity and offers a strategy for expanding your personal prosperity no matter what you do for a living. To learn more, visit http://www.KeysToPowerProsperity.com. ============================================================