I’ve been studying and writing ad copy for 30 years. My eyes and ears have experienced tons of advertising messages. Some are out of the ordinary to say the least. Take a look at what’s around you. Every consumer product is branded with some type of logo, either on Television, in a newspaper, magazine, flyer, or on the product itself. A few however, stick out like a sore thumb. It’s like the winning team waving a victory flag after a close game!

Advertisers want to be noticed, and with today’s economic turmoil, some go to the extreme to get attention. In fact, these oddball promotions made a huge impact on their business.

Here’s my top ten of all time…

#10. Bald Head Web Address: I’m sure you’ve heard of people placing advertisements on their body parts up for the highest bidder on eBay, Right? Well, recently I attended a fundraiser for our local homeless shelter. I noticed this well dressed young man walking up to donate. He wasn’t wearing a hat and was completely bald. Except for the tattoos around his head. His entire head was tattooed with many web site URLs. I approached this young fellow and asked him how many web addresses were on his head. He said, “26 total.” And that he was working on one more. He told me he owns a tattoo parlor, and he gets $250 per URL. I then asked, “What happens if one of those web sites dies off?” He replied, “I’ll get rid of it for another advertiser!” Go Figure.

#9. Going Out Of Business: A long time clothing store decided it wasn’t working out with the state of the economy. The store owner came up with the idea of placing two dump trucks back-to-back in front of the building. Both trucks were loaded with fake clothes and other items that appeared in the store. A huge sign stretched from bumper-to-bumper: “Going Out Of Business Sale. One Week Only. What Don’t Sell Will Be Hauled To The Dump.” They reported selling every single item from 60-80 percent off.

#8. Fishing Tournament Trailer: A popular fishing club that hosts a tournament trail at one of our local lakes has a one-of-a-kind trailer. They use it to haul around their gear, tents, scales, and other items needed for their fishing tournaments. It’s a 12 foot tandem axle panel trailer loaded with small ads all over the sides, back, front, and even the top. Each ad represents a sponsor. A one foot square logo with address and phone number covers the entire trailer. From a distance it looks like the trailer is camouflaged, but when you get a closer look, it’s littered with advertisements. In fact, is has so many ads it took me 30 minutes just to glance at all. And I thought Pixel advertising was so unique!

#7. Beauty Solon Hair Knots: During a business trip, I stumbled upon a small, yet busy Beauty Solon. I decided to get a quick hair trim before the meeting. I walked inside and was fortunate to get a chair. One of the young ladies finished with her client and motioned for me to come forward. While she was trimming my hair, I noticed a tall, well dressed female mannequin standing only a few feet away. But, the hair was full of twisted knots and made of several colors. The mannequin stood upright, pointing to what appeared to be a special looking shampoo and conditioner. I asked the young lady, “What is with the knots in the mannequin’s hair?” She explained to me the shampoo and conditioner will help eliminate tangles and will aide in bright and colorful hair. She further stated that since they placed the mannequin in their Solon they couldn’t keep it on the shelves. Only two packages were available and I witnessed a sale right before my eyes!

#6. Rotating Car-On-A-Pole: An auto parts facility (junk yard) has what it takes to be noticed. Approximately 60 feet high sits a Voltswagon that rotates on top of a huge 36 inch diameter steel pole. The junk yard is roughly a quarter mile off the highway and can be seen while driving past the entrance to their road. Their name and phone number is displayed on both the car and the pole itself. The car stops rotating after 5:00 PM when the junk yard closes. And, that’s exactly what is says on the sign: “Junkyard Closed When Car Stops.”

#5. Sawmill Giant: A replica of Paul Bunyan stands handsomely holding its ax in one hand, while pointing the way to the sawmill with the other. Only thing is, it towers above 25 feet!. The name of the sawmill is on its chest with a dark colored beard, hat, suspenders, bluejeans, and work boots. If you have trouble finding the sawmill, just look for big Paul Bunyan by the Highway. Believe me, you can’t miss it.

#4. Audio and Video Store: A 1957 panel van is outfitted with enough sound system to hear miles away. But, buried beneath the speakers is a lift away console, which emerges into a full surround sound theater. Once inside two people can sit comfortably and watch their favorite video on four wide screen Television monitors. This incredible mobile entertainment center is simply awesome to see and hear. And, of course, their advertisement is beautifully displayed on the exterior. But, that’s not all this fancy shop engages in for advertising. Once a week they place their entire catalog on two FULL pages of the newspaper – under the Obituary section – the most read section of any newspaper. WOW – That’s nearly 250 products!

#3. Real Estate Broker Lights: While driving through a nice rural neighborhood one night, I noticed a house that had Christmas lights lit up all over the place. Bright lights were on the chimney, gable ends, doors, windows, and even on the brokerage sign. Here it is July and this house is brighter than Yankees Stadium at night. I wrote down the phone number off the signage and called the broker the next day to see if the house was available. The broker answered and told me the house was sold an hour ago!

#2. Port-O-Jon Rental T-Shirt: One day nature called while on a construction job site. While inside the Port-O-Jon, a truck pulls alongside and a worker begins to clean each one out. When I made my exit, the worker stood ready to clean the one I used. He had a bright red t-shirt on with BIG black letters that said the following: “You Dump – We Pump – Give Us A Call.”

#1. Direct Snail Mail Smell: A local furniture store mailed me a sales letter one day. This was a regular two page letter that outlined many super bargains. But, that’s not all that accompanied the letter…it had a wonderful perfume aroma. I read it over and checked out the envelope and began to sniff. I thought, “Boy, does this letter smell great.” I knew the couple who owned the furniture store, so I decided to give the owners a call to see what they were up to. I told them both I received their letter with a strong perfume smell to it.

They told me a surprising story. John and Kristy tried direct mail in the past, but failed every time to yield a good return. This time, John asked Kristy if he could barrow her best bottle of perfume as he prepared to mail 5000 sales letters. John carefully sprinkled a few drops of this expensive perfume on each letterhead. They both took part inserting the letters into the envelopes and sealed each one with postage.

Approximately three days later, John started to receive customers and began to make sales. He coded the letter with instructions to bring in a coupon for the items on sale. In fact, they sold out the bargain item, then worked on selling out their entire inventory of kitchen tables and chairs, mattress sets, and sofas. This popular furniture store sold $32,000.00 worth of furniture in two weeks time – all due to the smelly sales letters. However, it dealt a not so rosy smell to women of the house. It appeared the women had something to say to their husbands, why they were receiving such a smelly letter, and who sent it. Nevertheless, John and Kristy had an astonishing 72% open rate!

Expressing how much you value your customers are worth every penny and effort to retain their loyalty. Any company who doesn’t take care of their customers is a darn fool!

Approximately 60 miles away from my office sits a small country store that strongly believes in caring for their customers. Every year the store owner brings in country cookers to brew up their favorite stew, BBQ, and other tasty treats.

A small group of ladies also bring home cooked pies and pastries for the crowd to enjoy. There’s even more home cooked goodies available, and served hot while various local bands play music for all ages. People dancing, eating, and swapping fish stories – what a Day!

It’s a special time of the year when people from around the community and abroad come together to fellowship and have fun – all because of one store owner’s compassion for great customer care. Each year is filled with something new with vibrant foods always present. And to top off the day, each event manages to gather dozens of new customers.

Showing your customers you appreciate them simply makes good business sense. It reinforces a common bond between your business and the customer. It’s a time when you must make a great impression and say, “Thanks for being such a loyal customer.”

The greatest thing about this is you can do it, too. Don’t limit yourself by saying, “this won’t work in my business.” You have viable ways to do this no matter what business you’re in. Don’t make excuses. Just think about who makes money when you make money. Care for your customers and they will care for you!

I sat down with Internet marketing professional, Abe Cherian to grill him on what makes his Internet Empire so unique and profitable. I wanted to get a real, in-depth approach to his many long hours of hard work.

With fluctuations in the economy, business decision making becomes critical to survive. What Abe shared with me about his unique selling advantage and his profitable enterprise with powerful management tools paved the way to critical elements of modern Internet business thinking.

Steven: Millions of people from various cultures feel they need to know more ways to survive. One such way, as you mentioned earlier, is for them to take their own entrepreneurial journey. What do you say to someone who comes to you asking for this type of advice?

Abe: Great question, Steven. Entrepreneurship is not really a means to survive, but an opportunity to thrive. I mean, no body dreams of just ’surviving.’ Often times, dreams are about huge successes.

To be an Entrepreneur means turning ones dream into reality.

Being an Entrepreneur also means, a person who organizes and manages any enterprise. An employer of productive ideas and labor. A person who creates further prosperity, jobs, and opportunity in the community. A person who brings in value to the marketplace.

To me, that is a huge responsibility.

The good news is, Entrepreneurship is ‘initiated’ by a person. Nobody is born as an Entrepreneur, but any one can ‘initiate’ it.

The good news is, anyone can learn the skills necessary to run an enterprise and bring value into the marketplace.

Today we as humans have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Sooner or later, you will learn that, ‘knowing’ is one thing, but having the tenacity to ‘act on that knowledge’ is what makes every day people turn into entrepreneurs.

I would say to any one, who is pondering on the idea of starting a business, act on it quickly. Once you decide that this is the path that you want to take, then it becomes a journey. But, what a journey it will be.

Steven: Thinking back when you first started your business, did you have any idea you were going to become successful by doing what you are passionate about?

Abe: I have heard from other successful people, that when you do what you love to do, you will most likely enjoy success. Like most people starting out, my goal was financial freedom, but I did not have a clue that it could happen so quickly.

Success means different things to different people. I think success comes in stages. When you reach your goal of financial freedom, then success means something much greater than money.

I have a lot of work to do.

Steven: Realizing that we are still in a recession, and that millions of workers are out of a job, what impact have you seen in the Internet advertising industry as a whole from online companies going out of business? And, does it actually impact you at all?

Abe: Jim Rohn said…

“Life and business are like the changing seasons. A major lesson in life to learn is how to handle the winters. Winter time allows you to get stronger, wiser, better. The winters won’t change, but you can.

Think like a Farmer. For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It’s then when he must work around the clock, up before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.”

Fortunately, following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort.”

Jim’s attitude and philosophy has a lot of Impact on me, and how I run my business. Watch out, spring time is coming soon! And then harvest time, and winter again for sure. The cycles are never going to change. It hasn’t for over 6000 years.

Steven: With so much business creation, start ups, and product development information available on the Internet, what sets your business apart from other Internet media marketing companies? I mean, you’re one of the leading experts in this field, what has been the key to lasting this long?

Abe: During the California Gold Rush in the 1840’s, a lot more entrepreneurs made money by selling ‘picks’ and ’shovels’. The Internet is still in the gold rush period, and my business sells them ‘picks’ and ’shovels’ that makes it possible for entrepreneurs to make profits, (tools and channels necessary for the wealth miners on the Internet).

When I started this business in 1998, I knew it was going to be a Journey of a lifetime for me. Quiting was not an option for me. I guess that is the main reason, why my business lasted over 10 years. It is one of the best things that happened in my life, so I feel no need to stop now.

Steven: I’m going to switch gears on you and would like to know your thoughts about building relationships and the core to your lead generating success. Without displacing any secrets, what core model would you consider vital to your business?

Abe: I think ‘consistency’ and ‘discipline’ is probably the best practice for building relationships and generating leads. If you are consistently searching and providing the best solutions for your clients, in a highly disciplined way, then you will see growth in your business.

The models that we use are no secret. It’s about working on strengthening the pillars that hold up the fort. The pillars are your model.

For a business to sustain and bring value into the marketplace, the first and most important model to put in place, is your ‘Cash Flow Model.’

The “cash flow model” we use are as follows, in order…

1. Front end lead generation product
2. Relationship building and support
3. Subscription products
4. Advanced relationship building
5. Up sells and one time offers
6. High ticket services
7. Constant improvement in systems and products

Pretty basic stuff. But, it is powerful if you apply it in a consistent and disciplined manner. That is why I value ‘Consistency’  and ‘Discipline’ as the core practice. Models may change from time to time, but with any model, again, consistency and discipline is the key.

Steven: I remember one conversation you and I had years ago about social networking. It was lengthy and full of ideas. What is your take on the social networking craze, and what adjustments have you made in your business to fit in?

Abe: Social Networking is one of several ‘Pillars of Marketing’. It is powerful, but it is only one of several channels to keep your ‘lead generation funnel’ stocked.

At Multiple Stream Media, we use almost all major Social Marketing channels, like Twitter and MySpace — but we have realized that ‘hosting’ a Social Networking platform gives you the most leverage of time. We launched http://www.startupnet.com with that in mind, and have been experiencing a viral growth because of it.

Anyone can start a social networking website that is geared toward a specific market with the help of Social Networking platforms like the Ning Network, (ning.com).

It’s Exciting.

Steven: You are the true pioneer of multiple stream media. Many other Internet marketing firms still believe email is the driving force behind the success of their online business. What challenges have you faced and overcome using email as technology advances?

Abe: According to a survey we did on our blog, (Msmediablog.com) a month or so ago, email marketing still rules the roost. Here are the results:

Question: What 3 Internet Marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 3 months?

Option 1: Email Marketing – 63%
Option 2: Pay-per-click – 57%
Option 3: Social Networking – 48%
Option 4: Blogging – 34%
Option 5: SEO Optimization – 31%
Option 6: Offline Advertorials – 8%
Option 7: Video Marketing – 8%

Email marketing has it’s challenges; but with any challenge, there are other sub-industries who take advantage of the opportunity, and come up with solutions. Email companies can now take advantage of ‘Certified Email’ services like Goodmail.com to obtain more deliverability.

Entrepreneurs who wish to profit from Email Marketing without worrying about major deliverability issues and spam, can use the list management service that we provide, http://www.imediamarketingtools.com to boost sales and build relationships.

Steven: Obviously, the best website with the best offer doesn’t necessarily mean people will purchase from you. How do you know what tools online business owners want?

Abe: True, creating a great offer is only the first stage in marketing. In order for people to purchase your product, you obviously have to find strategies that will give you maximum leverage in reaching your target audience.

Entrepreneurs now have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Testing is key, and there are many tools available to test and determine what will work for you. We offer tracking and survey tools with the iMediaMarketingTools.com service.

Tools are available for every stage of marketing your website.

Steven: I understand you are accepting one-on-one consultations with people who haven’t quite discovered their dreams or aspirations. How do you manage to nurture someone new to the Internet business model where they learn to empower others to become good at it, too?

Abe: For years, my team and I have been helping many aspiring entrepreneurs understand and take advantage of the Internet Medium to grow their business.

We offer free phone consultations, and one-on-one webinars on how to correctly use the tools to profit from their efforts. Anyone can call us and seek help. (845) 247 2565 Ext2.

I am working on publishing a book that will nurture, and empower, hidden dreams, and aspirations, from within people and motivate them to take action toward the first step (Stage One) in their Entrepreneurial Journey.

As you already know, Steven, I approached you for help with this book. Your experience in Marketing, and as a Journalist and writer, I realize that we can make this information available to thousands of people globally.

There are many business books available about success and self help.

What I want to share with others in this book, is my own experience in building an online business from $0 to 1 Million in sales. It’s a combination of my story and a how to book.

Steven: In closing, online advertising has challenges like any other business. Where do you see promotion on the Internet headed to in 2012?

Abe: Business owners in any Industry face challenges. Challenges are opportunities to learn. Without obstacles, no business will know what to avoid. The online advertising business is no different.

In 2012, it will be the same. Marketers will still want to find ways to promote their products. Consumers will still buy and consume goods and services. Authorities will still put in place rules and regulations that creates a safe environment for online surfers. Nothing will change. There will be huge opportunities, there will be challenges.

The only change that will happen is within YOU.