The basics of marketing—product, place, price, promotion—apply to more than businesses selling the newest flavor of soda. These keys fit every time you want something from someone else: a job, a used bicycle, a tenant, a stellar stock. The next time you seek, consider implementing these four points. See where they take you.

The classified ads lured me this morning with a few things:

First, an item I didn’t ever think I could want, let alone need–

Product: WWII radios who in her right mind would want these things? …I almost called because of the tempting description of something else that I didn’t need. The product wasn’t just a radio—it was the best radio, or so said the ad. These radios were in breathtaking oak frames, functioned like new, and had been maintained since day one.

Place: location, location, location I can get these radios here in town?! Or they’ll provide shipping on my online order? Hmmm—prime downtown pawnshop?

Price: I think that a product has to be the cheapest possible (aka Walmart) or the best of the best in quality Ummm—fully functional, ancient radios? Best of the best, not KMapart as Todd calls KMart

Promotion: How will we know about the product? Radio, word of mouth, county fair, door to door? Advertising a radio on the radio could have a nice ring to it, but honestly, Rick Dee’s Weekly Top 40 is playing right now, and I’m not sure his youthful listeners are interested in these radios. The best advertising– Newspaper: classifieds: items under $100. Perfect Is someone obsessed with James Blunt also going to go gaga over this item? Know the demographics of your target–stuff like age, race, lifestyle, sex.

Second–

And which of these would you think to rent from today’s paper?
1. XYZ Property Mgmt 999-9999 * 2 bdrm house
2. Exquisite 4 bdrm Ranch House on 1,000-Acre Ranch. River to forest service. A naturalist’s dream location. Spectacular environment. 10 Mi. S. of town $xxxx/mo 999-999-9999
3. Spacious 4 bed w/ fenced yard near Lincoln Park: dishwasher, garage $xxxx. Andrew: 999-9999
4. Avail now; 2 bdrm, very clean, w/fridge. Stove + hookups, no garage, no pets/non smoking, $xxxx/mo + 1st, last, dep. 999-9999

*the last one cracks me up—why would you pay per line to tell readers that you have a fridge and stove provided in your rental? Isn’t that a norm? Should have done their research.

It is quite possible that somebody has their eye on you now. Who exactly are they? And what exactly are they watching for? They are waiting for you to mess up.

Before you run off to pick up a tinfoil hat or label me as a conspiracy theorist, hear me out.

For the purpose of this post, ‘they’ are not necessarily people who would benefit from your business or your reputation going through rough times. This is all about managing your image really and the need to actively work to improve it.

Take for example Rockefeller. He was not a bad person; however by not controlling his image, he was not well liked. Anyone who makes massive amounts of money is easily targeted by those not as fortunate and Rockefeller was certainly no exception.

It took him years of philanthropic work to recoup the ground he had lost from the public’s eye. When he died in 1937, he had spent almost 40 years of his life trying to regain his image.

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Welcome to the carnival of business. It looks like everyone has quite a bit of reading to do because we’ve got a lot of great articles for you to read.

Scott Allen is up first with his article Pricing IS Marketing posted at About.com Entrepreneur’s Guide.

Shay has just launched his new web business Boomawang. It’s in the format of an online magazine coming out once a week. It looks good so far!

David Maister presents Alignment and Accountability posted at David Maister’s Passion, People and Principles.

Ohad Gliksman presents Google VS Microsoft posted at Ohad’s Internet News. See how google’s entrance into the online office application market will affect MS’s plans

Supermom_in_ny breaks down what her motivations are and asks what yours are Home Based Businesses: What Motivates Me to Succeed posted at Getting Out of Debt.

Steve presents Team Building - Four Stages posted at Small Business CEO.

Henry Habgood has an idea on how we should handle Customer Service for the e-business owner posted at The Online Lifestyle.

Trent presents Hewitt (HEW): When a Share Buyback Should be Viewed as a Warning posted at Stock Market Beat.

A Samuel presents Munich property shortage posted at Off Plan Properties Blog.

Chris Brunner is next up to help you start Reducing Taxable Income Through Retirement Funds posted at The Small Business Buzz.

Starling gives us some thoughts on Cruises and Cruising posted at The Business of America is Business.

Daniel Scocco presents First Mover Advantage Revisited posted at Future Tech Web.

Dave Lorenzo gives usStep One to a New E-mail Lifestyle posted at Career Intensity Blog - David V. Lorenzo.

Black presents Online business - Blogging money fantasy - can you make a living blogging posted at Leverage Your Effort.

Harrison presents The 10 “Q” in Business

I’m sure you have heard of Multi-Level-Marketing before, heck if you read Aridni just yesterday there was an article supporting it. Today’s article is not going to be quite as affirmative.

If I were to start up one of these companies, for the example we’ll call it “Todd’s super-cool MLM company” the first step I would take would be to find some product to sell. Okay how about we sell lemonade and lemonade accessories.

I’ll get my catalog all set up and good to go with all kinds of exotic lemons, juicers, squeezers, mixers, pitchers, and those big wooden spoons. Now it’s time to take TSCMC out to make some money.

I go around to some houses selling overpriced lemonade and find out one big thing. It’s only a matter of time before I discover that selling things is hard work and not very much fun.

My next step is to get an army of cronies to go door to door. I’ll sit at home watching movies while they fill the streets selling my lemonade and lemonade accessories. Now for every piece they sell we both make money.

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**Editor’s Note- The following article does not represent Aridni’s views on Multi Level Marketing. Any company, product, or service mentioned in the following article is not endorsed by Aridni in any way, shape or form. It is important to note that all writers are defined independently based on their own work. This particular piece represents only the particular writer and not the entity of Aridni**

We all want to find meaningful ways to achieve financial freedom outside the traditional 9-5 timetable. Network marketing is a perfect way to realize this goal because it enables you to be a self employed business owner while retaining many of the perks of working for a company.

For starters, your product and all the advertising/marketing has already been designed for you. Whether you are selling Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperware, Amway, or Xango you don’t have to put any time or effort into manufacturing a marketable product. All you need to do is sell the product and get others to sign up to sell it under you. Then, you earn commission or residual income from the sales of people in your down line. No, I am not talking about a pyramid scheme where one has to put up thousands of dollars upfront to get into a company and where lots of people have lost a lot of money in the process. Network marketing is NOT a scam. In as little as a few years, people go on to make millions. The best part is that those who succeed can “retire” in a few years and are taken care of for life. Better than the 30 year plan, isn’t it? (Continue reading this article…)

There are people everywhere who have the name of their company plastered to the side of their car. I’m sure you have seen hundreds of them, heck as a reader of Aridni, you might be driving one.

But as I journeyed across the country to new and exotic places, I saw my fair share of these. But what is really interesting is when you get cut off by these people.

Some people either fail to realize, or flat out just don’t care that when they have their company name on their car, they are representing their company. So by driving carelessly you give the impression of a careless company.

By being a responsible courteous driver, that reflects back on your company. Do you want people to think your business is a bunch of maniacs or just you the person?