Are you looking to lose weight? If you are, there is a good chance that you will start your own weight loss program. When many individuals start their own weight loss programs, they do so with the help of a number of weight loss products, like diet pills or exercise equipment. If you are interested in buying these types of weight loss products, you need to always be on the lookout of scams, as they do exist.

When it comes to weight loss products, like exercise equipment and diet pills, many people automatically wonder how they can tell if they are being scammed. Unfortunately, you often cannot tell by reading an advertisement in a magazine or online or by watching a television infomercial or even by looking at the weight loss product in question. The best way to determine if the weight loss product you are interested in buying is really worth your money is to do research first.

When it comes to researching weight loss products, there are a number of different ways that you can go about determining if the product or products you want to buy are worth the cost. One of the easiest ways to go about doing so is by visiting the online websites of retailers that allow their customers or the general public to rate or review their products. Many consumers like to alert others to a product that is a waste of money or even alert others to a product that is well worth the cost. If you are able to find weight loss product reviews, you are advised to read them.

When reading weight loss product reviews, like product reviews for diet pills or exercise equipment, it is important to remember that no product is perfect. Even the best products, like the ones that come highly rated and recommended, will have a few bad reviews. What you need to be cautious of is any weight loss product that has more bad reviews than it does good reviews. This is a surefire sign that the weight loss product in question may not be worth your money.

You can also find product reviews or just specific weight loss products being discussed by performing a standard internet search. When performing a standard internet search, you will want your search phrase to be the name of the weight loss product in question. Your standard internet search may lead you to online message boards where weight loss and other health issues are being discussed. These types of websites and message boards are a great way to also learn about weight loss products that you may not have otherwise came across.

Another way that you can determine if you are being scammed,by a weight loss product, is by examining the online website of the product distributor or manufacturer. When you buy a diet pill or another weight loss supplement, you should be provided with as much information as possible. Be cautious of any product whose website only claims to help you lose weight, but doesn’t explain how it is done. The same can be said for exercise equipment.

Another great way that you can determine if the weight loss products you are interested in buying are worth the money is by speaking with your doctor. Often times, you donít even have to schedule a visit; a telephone call should get you the answers that you were looking for. Most doctors can let you know if a weight loss pill or supplement that you are interested in buying is worth the money. If they canít tell you about the specific product in question, there is a good chance that they can at least review the ingredients with you. For exercise equipment, your physician may also be able to provide you with advice.

Of course, if you have the money to spend on weight loss products, you may be interested in going ahead and buying the product or products in question anyways. That is fine to do, but you also need to remember that many weight loss products, especially the ones featured on television infomercials are priced relatively high.

Over 70 years ago, one man had the answer to increasing
almost any product’s sales and literally crushing the
competition.

His name?

Claude Hopkins. And today his advice is even more valuable
than it was during the 1920s.

Hopkins was one of the most famous ad men and really the
Father of modern advertising. His two books “My Life in
Advertising” and “Scientific Advertising” are worth reading
and re-reading.

If you read on, I’ll share with you one of Hopkins’
greatest secrets for attracting more business.

Listen closely – the secret is *EDUCATION*.

By educating a prospect about how things are done in your
business, even it’s the same exact thing any one of your
competitors could tell, will produce a tremendous selling
advantage.

Don’t believe me?

Look around at nearly all the advertising being done based
on the plea: “Buy my brand”, “Come to my store”, “Give me
the money which you give to others”. Typically this falls
in the category of boasting and bragging advertising.
Frankly, consumers don’t care one lick about you or your
company, they care about the benefits they’ll get from
dealing with you.

Let me share with you how Hopkins used this advertising
secret to rocket a so-so beer brand from 5th place into a
tie for 1st place in just a matter of months. Listen to
this:

Schlitz Beer hired Hopkins to increase their falling market
share. Every beer manufacturer at this time was screaming
“PURE” in their ads. In fact, companies were spending a
fortune just advertising this 4 letter word as big and as
bold as they could. They even took out double pages ads to
put that word in even bigger letters. All this shouting and
no explaining was making zero impressions on the buying
public. Nobody ever explained what ‘pure’ really meant
until Hopkins came in.

The first thing Hopkins did was take a factory tour. On
this tour he was shown plate-glass rooms where beer was
dripping over pipes. Inquiring the reason for this, Hopkins
was told that those rooms were filled with filtered air, so
the beer could be cooled without any impurities.

Next, he was shown huge expensive filters filled with
white- wood pulp that provided a superior filtering
process. The manufacturer then went on to explain how they
cleaned every pump and pipe, twice daily to assure purity.
And also how each bottle was sterilized not once or twice,
but four times before being filled with beer.

Then, Hopkins was shown the 4,000 foot deep artesian wells
dug to provide the cleanest and purest water available,
even though the factory was right on the shore of Lake
Michigan. (At this time Lake Michigan was not polluted and
could provide clean water.)

Finally, Hopkins was lead into a laboratory and was shown
the mother yeast cell, that was a product of 1,200
experiments to bring out the robust flavor. And he was told
all the yeast used in making Schlitz beer was developed
from that original yeast cell.

After his tour Hopkins exclaimed, “Why don’t you tell
people these things?”

The manufacturer’s response was because every beer
manufacturer does it the same way.

And to that Hopkins replied, “But, others have never told
this story…” And he went off to create an advertising
campaign explaining to people what makes Schlitz beer pure.
Once again he told the same story any brewer could have but
he gave a meaning to purity. And this is what took Schlitz
from 5th place to a tie for 1st place in market share.

Really, this whole process is just educating.

Educating prospects about the how’s, the why’s, the good,
the bad and the ugly. You simply cannot over educate
people.

Now maybe you’re thinking anything from the 1920’s can’t
possibly work today — WRONG!

Murray Raphel, a retail direct marketing consultant, tells
the story of how he was visiting one of his clients, Ethan
Allen Furniture, and he noticed carpenters in the back room
repairing furniture. He asked, “Do you make furniture
here?”

The reply from the manager of this store was, “No, those
are carpenters doing work on Ethan Allen wood furniture.”
He went on to explain how every customer is given a
lifetime guarantee on all their wood pieces. And he quickly
added, “But all Ethan Allen stores do this.”

But of course no other store advertises this fact.

Soon Raphel ran an ad stating *Every Piece of Ethan Allen
Wooden Furniture is Guaranteed For Your Lifetime!*

And wouldn’t you know it, a competitor soon ran the same
guarantee in their ad. But guess who got the credit for the
guarantee?

That’s right — the original store.

So here’s the bottom line: Take the time right now to write
down exactly what you do in your business (even if it’s the
exact same as any other competitor). Write down absolutely
everything and tell people everything. Don’t suffer from
the curse of assumption – let people know and they’ll knock
down your door to order!

(c) Surefire Marketing, Inc.

==========================================================
Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on
creating automatic, moneymaking websites…and he still
doesn’t know how to put up a website.

He is the author, co-author or creator of several best-
selling online marketing books and tools, which can be
found at http://www.SurefireMarketing.com
==========================================================

As an aspiring inventor, you may have quite a few ideas up your sleeve.  You may have already had one of your ideas patented.  You may think that once your idea becomes patented and has reached consumers through a successful marketing campaign, your worries are over.  However, there could be many headaches for you in the future.  Aside from the fact that in the long run your patented item might be improved upon by someone else and you’ll lose sales, there’s a chance you might become patent trolled.

Patent trolling, which has been around since the early 1990’s, is the practice of purchasing relatively aged and/or inactive patents specifically to sue companies that have built upon them.   It may be hard to understand why people do this.  A simple example of patent trolling could be described as follows:

You invented instant lemonade.  You patented the creation, it became very popular, and it sold for a long time.  A competitor decided to add electrolytes to the instant lemonade, patented it, and eventually, over time, the electrolyte lemonade put the regular lemonade out of business.  A guy who has a bit of money bought the patent of the instant lemonade from you, telling you he planned to sell more instant lemonade and make the product marketable again.  Once he completed the sale, instead of selling the lemonade, he filed a lawsuit claiming that the electrolyte lemonade infringed on his idea, and wants the electrolyte lemonade company to pay him damages.

It may sound unfair, but this practice has become a major problem for inventors in recent years.  As a result, many inventors have felt that if they improve upon an existing idea, they might just be subject to lawsuits in the future by opportunists that make their money specifically from litigation.  Even if the inventor wins the battle, it can be time consuming and expensive, with legal costs running into the millions of dollars.

Patent trolls can easily acquire patents.  Usually, if a company is near bankruptcy, they may try to auction their patents off to avoid further hardship.  Patent trolls can purchase the patents at a very low price, in this case.  Some patent trolls own hundreds of patents and are chronically involved in lawsuits.  They keep their eye on recent patents filed by larger companies that have improved upon a product and target them due to their high amounts of revenue.

The problem has led to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Federal Trade Commission to be on the look out for patent trolls.  Regulation to prevent frivolous litigation is currently in the works, but as an inventor, you can take steps to ensure that your invention won’t be subject to patent trolling.  Keep in mind that you are only open to being patent trolled if your invention improves upon something that already exists.

The first defense you can take against being patent trolled is to create a ‘design-around’.   In other words, you can change your invention in a small way so that by definition, its functionality is technically not based upon a previous invention.  Secondly, there is insurance available to the inventor to avoid having to deal with patent infringement litigation, but it is not considered inexpensive.  Finally, if you find yourself capitalizing heavily on an invention that you based on one that is simpler, you may want to use some of your earnings to purchase the older patent before patent trolls do.