Let me ask you a question: What's the most important thing you need to build a successful online business?

Think about this for a moment. Is it a great product? Super domain name? Hot ads and a beautiful design?

Well, all of that helps. But it's not enough. Without this one secret ingredient, your sales will not come close to their full potential. Doesn't matter whether you are into affiliate marketing, or selling in online auctions, or producing your own information products.

What am I talking about? What's the secret?

It's the ability to communicate the features and benefits of your product in a way that makes people want to buy.

I know what you are thinking. "That's it? That's the secret? But that's obvious!"

No, it isn't. And I will tell you why.

Can you remember the last advertisement or sales letter you saw? Can you remember the words, the headline, the reasons to buy? Do you remember price? Or how you felt when you read it? And the most important question of all: Did you buy whatever they were selling?

Probably not.

In fact, I bet you can't even remember the last advertisement you saw. Most people don't. It probably passed before your eyes and you didn't give it a second thought.

But some company spent a lot of money on that ad. Money that was wasted, because you ignored it. And that is exactly what I am talking about.

Whoever wrote that ad might have had a great product, but they did not know the secret.

Chances are, the ad was poorly written, or the offer wasn't compelling, or you just weren't in the market for the product. Those are all mistakes that the advertiser made...mistakes that cost money.

And the sad thing is, those mistakes could have been avoided.

So it must be a secret, right? I mean, nobody would knowingly – intentionally – waste money on ineffective marketing, right?

So there's only one explanation. They don't know what they are doing.

Now you know why I said it's a secret. Very few people know how to create great marketing communications.

And that, my friend, is the very definition of "secret."