Responsible Advertising - Is it Still Around?

Am I alone?

Recently I've noticed a growth in what once would have been condemned as misleading advertising. You know the kind of thing I mean - advertisements that appear to say clearly what the advantages of a given product are, yet nevertheless (intentionally?) mislead.

I'm currently on an extended holiday in the UK and have seen numerous examples on British TV.

Example: A hair spray commercial that shows a well known celebrity's beautiful hair as a result of using a certain product - but look closely and you'll see text at the bottom of the screen that tells you that the celebrity is actually wearing hair extensions!

Another example: A mascara ad purporting to show that a certain product enhances the appearance of eyelashes, but look at the text at the bottom of the screen and you'll see that the model is wearing false eyelashes!

British TV is not the only culprit though.

In my own field (on line business) I see countless examples every day of advertisements that can at best be described as "adventurous".

All too often, this or that product's sales promo hails the absolute necessity to buy the product in order to achieve (greater) success in on line marketing.

However, in my experience, although there are many useful - even essential - tools to aid the on line marketer, many of the claims made are wildly exaggerated.

It is my view that most on line marketers need the following key components for their business:

• A good hosting service
• Good website design
• Tried and tested product(s) with strong market demand
• A traffic generation program
• An auto-responder to follow-up with visitors/purchasers

These are the basic ingredients, and all that "newbies" need.

Many people fail at setting up their own Internet marketing business because they jump at every "opportunity" they see. The result is they either select without researching, or become swamped and lose focus. To succeed you need to get quality key components and focus on those, developing your business as your business gets established.

It's because the failure rate is so high that I've developed my own site to identify only quality programs, and help new Internet marketers avoid all the many pitfalls, hype, and time wasting. If I don't rate it I won't list it. The same is true of my newsletter.

Take my tip: look very carefully at every "opportunity", and read the fine print before opening your wallet.

• Ask yourself:
• What will this do for ME?
• Is it going to be cost effective?
• Is this product a key component that I'm missing, or simply another "riches overnight" over-hyped product?

Be selective, do your research, evaluate your market, and spend your hard earned cash sparingly and wisely. Once established, focus on developing your core business.

Here's to your success.

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