A few weeks back there was a full page ad in USA promoting something called the Boat Manufacturer's Outlet store. According to the ad (which cost at least $25,000), the Boat Outlet store had thousands of new boats at below wholesale prices.

Like a lot of people reading the ad, I decided I wanted to know more. The ad didn't include phone number, but did have two web site addresses. (Imagine paying $25,000 for a full page ad without a contact phone number!)

Anyway, I went to the internet and visited both web addresses shown in the ad - and in both cases I found sites that said 'under construction'. I couldn't believe it. I tried the web addresses several times, rechecked the ad, and still the sites showed the same 'under construction' message.

Because the ad didn't include a phone number or any other contact information, and because the web sites were 'under construction', it was impossible for me (on any other USA Today reader), to follow up on the ad.

The company placing the ad clearly jumped the gun. They paid big bucks to promote a business web site that didn't yet exist. Basically they wasted a lot of money and frustrated a lot of potential customers and lost the opportunity to get editorial referrals and links.

Moral - before you do any marketing or promotion of your own web site, be sure it is up and running and ready to handle visitors.

To avoid other 'fatal' marketing problems, see the 'Don't Do This' Checklist at bmyers.com.