Business people spend millions – no billions – on advertising and promotions each year. For years though, no-one has been sure of the true impact of the advertising. For instance, someone who advertises on TV has no real way of measuring its impact on sales. There is that famous line that business people know half their advertising works, they just don’t know which half.

Now though, new research points the way to what many people have suspected for years. The study shows that the most important factor in deciding whether or not to buy a product or service is a recommendation from a friend. Next is information sent by email from specific mailing lists that you have signed up to. The third most important method of getting people to buy something from you is TV advertising while fourth is direct mail.

Way down the bottom of the list – less than one hundredth as effective as a personal recommendation – are pop up adverts and those “floaty” adverts that appear over a web page. Some Internet marketers who claim they know a thing or two will try to get you to buy software that makes such advertising. Don’t waste your money.

Instead, concentrate on getting people to mention what you do and what you sell on their blogs. Blogs are the online equivalent to personal recommendation and so it brings you straight up to the top of the list. If you want to sell more online, get other people blogging about you and your products. That will be far more effective than any form of advertising – and it’s free…!