2. There is so much hype and false promises. A lot of people have been led garden path and are loosing confidence it is even safe to do business online.

A few dishonest and unscrupulous people are making majority of Internet marketers' life harder than ever. If you want to be successful online, your #1 goal is to establish a trustworthy relationship with your potential customers.

Instead of shouting about your products or services right off bat, try to know their needs first!

Do that everyday and experience difference it makes to your business. As we know, a good reputation takes years to be built and only seconds to be ruined.

Keep that in mind my friend and happy marketing!

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Always remember: you can't direct wind but you can adjust sails and shorten journey leading to your success.

© 2004 - Dan Hamilton - All rights reserved

The survey further showed that fewer than 5% (4.6%) said they always test and more than 19% (19.5%) said they usually test marketing communications tactics before rolling them out.

Based on those who do test:

A little over 41% (41.1%) percent said audience was most important thing to test; Nearly 39% (38.7%) said offer was most important thing to test; Almost 15% (14.9%) said copy was most important thing to test; Just over 5% (5.38%) said media was most important thing to test.

Successful direct marketers have always touted value of testing in making scientific decisions about their campaigns. In today’s economy, sadly, testing appears to be considered an optional activity; one that is used only for very large campaigns or when prospecting for new audiences.

This is an alarming trend. Eliminating testing because of cost is like playing Russian Roulette with your marketing campaign. Sometimes you’ll be safe, and campaign will bring results. But you'll never really understand why. And unfortunately, one major marketing failure could put a massive hole in your growth strategy. †

Think long term vs. short term to reap sure-fire benefits that testing will give to your marketing campaign.