Your industry may have other hot button offers that always get response. The only way to know is to test different ads. Also pay attention to what works for your competitors. If they have used same offer for years, it probably works like gangbusters.

Problem 4. You super charge your ad with a great offer, but still get only a trickle of response. Great ads don't always work first time they appear. In fact, first ad rarely gets an avalanche of results. Once you develop an ad that seems to be hitting home with customers, repeat it over and over.

During many years I worked in media, we figured it took a minimum of two weeks of heavy promotion to get an idea across to our audience. It often took six weeks to really do job right. Promoting for only a week virtually insured we wouldn't get much response (and that was with an exciting ad running EVERY hour of day).

So what if your ad budget is just a small monthly amount? Find a good ad, then repeat it week after week and month after month. Watch closely to see if sales gradually mount. The business world is full of examples where a small business put a tiny display ad in Sunday paper month after month. After a year or two, almost all their new business comes from ad.

Problem 5. Your ad pulls lots of interest, but nobody buys. We see this a lot with advertising on Internet. A site will run a great ad in an email newsletter and get plenty of clicks, but nobody buys. In this case, problem isn't with ad, but with web site. Frequently web copy fails to do its job. The ad gets customers through door, but copy is too flat, too short, or doesn't encourage customer confidence.

The same kind of thing happens in retail stores. We did a wildly successful promotion for an auto dealer. Hundreds of people came into dealership each hour of promotion. The store's sales people were completely unrepaired for that kind of response. They stood around grinning with their hands in their pockets. Not once did a sales person offer to help hordes streaming through door. At end of day, not a single car had been sold.

Solve this problem by making sure your sales or support staff know all details of your advertised offer. When a prospect sees your ad and calls, anyone who answers phone should immediately know what customer is asking about.

Most ads fall short because of one of these five problems. All have definent symptoms and easy solutions. Listen to what your marketing is telling you. Then fix problems and encourage your successes. You will quickly take mystery out of marketing and make it a reliable partner.

6. Test your ads by using autoresponders. You can have people e-mail your autoresponders to get more information and you just check your traffic reports.

7. Create credibility and trust with your visitors by telling them something they already know. They'll know for sure you're not lying to them.

8. Make residual income from your customers by selling back end products. If you don't have any, you could sign up to related affiliate programs.

9. Use a redirect page to boost your sales. People think long affiliate URLs look unprofessional in e-mail so you could redirect them to a web link.

10. Create an extra income from your web site by charging for consulting. The consulting should be related to your web site's theme.