I saw an educational marketing course for sale by a highly respected Internet marketer. It sold for A LOT of money. But, the typos were horrendous. It made me feel as though someone was scraping their fingers across a chalkboard.

The gentleman has terrific information. I respect him, but I was at first, so turned off by the unprofessional ad copy that I didn't purchase his product.

Do you have sales letters, web pages, or ezine articles that are guilty of this sin? I'm not criticizing your product or your sincerity. My feeling is that as the owner of a business, you are busy wearing many hats. You quickly look at the text and think, It looks all right.

Let me tell you a fact. It's very hard to proof your own work. You're too close to the project. You know what you meant to say so you see it correctly.

The wise man knows how to delegate those things that he can't do as well or that he doesn't have the time to do. That's nothing of which to be ashamed. My company, Advanced Data Services, http://advanceddata.net couldn't exist if people didn't need those services.

I have one client who is a very successful Internet marketing guru. You see his marketing courses and manuals all over the web. But when I see them raw, I think, Whew! I've got my work cut out for me. But, you know what? That's what I'm good at. That's what I enjoy doing. I've been a secretary for over 12 years. I live and breathe proofreading. I go crazy when I see typos on very professional pages. My husband says I'm too picky. I say, I just want it right! I'm not a good sales person. I don't know how to write the killer ads. So I farm that out to those who can.

Do your site and sales materials have a professional appearance? Or when people see them, are they impressed, only to lose that when they read Please fill out our from instead of form?

Proofreading, grammar checks, web site design, and link checks are things you can let others do for you for reasonable rates. You need to save your time for more important things like writing your informational products, marketing your products, researching for new products, managing your business, and maybe, just maybe, a game of golf or a movie now and then.

My best advice to you is, Make sure your ad copy is free of typos and grammatical errors. Get an outside service to do it for you or do it yourself, but don't neglect this simple thing! You want your appearance to be great not grate.