On other hand, virtually all true marketing experts preach about importance of testing your advertising and marketing. Yes, marketing "geniuses" are usually very big on testing! Why?

Because even professional marketers often find it very hard - if not impossible - to predict how prospects will react in a given marketing situation. So even if you have some marketing savvy, testing can show you how to boost response that much further.

You don't have to be able to write a perfect sales letter on first draft, or second, or third. You don't have to instinctively know what most profitable price is for your new product or service. You don't have to guess which of your potential headlines will pull most response.

By scientific testing, true value of all theories, opinions and educated guesses are laid bare. If they truly contribute toward marketing success, testing will prove it. If they don't, testing will prove that, too.

In short, you don't have to be a literal marketing genius to generate better response from your marketing efforts. Nor do you have to listen to marketing advice of others, which may be inaccurate and unprofitable, although well-meaning.

Your prospects and customers can show you exactly which marketing approaches are truly most profitable in above areas, and many more, if you only test.

MORAL: Stick to basics. _____________

GREAT MYTH 6: It's Come As You Are

It's okay to work in your underwear in your partially remodeled basement as long as everyone assumes you're wearing a suit in a high-rise on Success Avenue.

It's NOT okay to broadcast your slovenly habits to world at large via ill-formatted email, poor spelling, sloppy grammar and inept punctuation.

If every second line of your email breaks after first word, we're done.

You see, if I'm gonna buy a hotdog from you--a scary prospect at best--I wanna be pretty dang sure you're not a shortcut kinda guy, know what I mean?

MORAL: Don't slouch. _____________

GREAT MYTH 7: There's No Such Thing As Excess

There is.

Caps. Exclamation points. Red. Hyperbole. Blinking... (actually, ANY blinking is excessive).

MORAL: It's a hotdog, not second coming. Settle down. _____________

GREAT MYTH 8: Banners Work

Banners should only be used by big companies for branding and for hyperinflating IPO prices, not by hotdog stands for traffic generation.

MORAL: Banners suck. Free banners suck for free. _____________

GREAT MYTH 9: Get Rich Quick

The internet is still real life. Cyber doesn't mean fantasy. WWW doesn't stand for Whatever We Want.

Set up an honest business, cook a decent hotdog, pay for advertising and don't quit your day job just yet.

MORAL: Get rich slowly. _____________

GREAT MYTH 10: Free Marketing

I saved this point for last to emphasize it.

Overfondness for free marketing methods is number one killer of happy success stories on net...

But wait!

You CAN send 100,000 spam-free emails a month with your own free-for-all links page, right?

And you CAN reach tens of thousands with multisubmitters and free classifieds, right?

And you CAN email millions by subscribing to hundreds of opt-in lists, right?

And 94 million netizens WOULD swallow a little spam to get to one of your hotdogs, right?

Sure! And you CAN save money by eating out of dumpsters, right?

Yeah, but DO you?

MORAL: Uh... don't eat out of dumpsters?