Choosing the right hook and baiting it properly is crucial. Do you buy a flashy lure or just dig a few worms from the bottom of your garden? If you've done your research you can find highly targeted ways to reach the fish you want at little or no cost and with the right image.

If you missed my first article in this 3-part series, Planning Your Fishing Trip, you can read it here.

What will attract fish to your hook? The easiest way to get a reaction is to go for their basic instincts: curiosity, greed and laziness. The more sophisticated and knowledgeable your audience, the less directly you are going to be able to appeal to these base motivations. But appeal to them you must if you want a big catch from your small ads.

The first thing any fish thinks when bait is dangled in front of him is "what's in it for me?" This means making your bait from your biggest benefit. DON'T tell your fishy friends about you and your company. DON'T tell them how many functions your widget has. Tell them how your widget will make things better, more profitable, or easier. Fish love to hear "look, here's how I can help you..."

Some fishermen think really shiny false lures, like bits of tin foil, pull in the fish. They might dazzle a few with hype and get a bite, but it's not worth trying. Word soon gets round that it's just tin foil. Then the fish are going to avoid those shiny hyped hooks like the plague. And that's really going to hurt profitability.

Trust and credibility are the key things for long-term success as a cyber fisherman. You start building these the moment the fish spot your bait. You'll have to wait for my last article in this series, Landing Your Catch, to find out just how important this can be.

Fish, being wary, are reassured by what other fish have to say. This is one of the most powerful baits you can use. If one of your catches drops you a line (ouch!) and says that the hook didn't hurt and they were treated very well, got good value and great service, USE IT. Work a testimonial or two into your bait to make it look a whole lot tastier.

Ground bait is very useful for getting lots of fish close to your hook ready to eat. You can do this by writing articles for newsletters and ezines. You're going to gain credibility and create interest and the fishes can judge whether they like your style (or not!). A short resource box at the end of the piece should hook you a good catch.

When you planned your fishing trip, probably the most important thing you did was to find out where your fish hang out. More specifically, you should know what ezines, newsletters, websites and discussion/news groups they like.

Advertising in ezines and newsletters is the favor of the moment because you know pretty well what type of fish read them. Don't just go for high circulation, try to find publishers that cater for the kind of fish you want. You can also get some great bargins buying banner ad space direct from webmasters, rather than using an exchange. And never cast your line into a discussion or news group without a well baited sig file.

Your own opt-in email list is going to come from the fish you catch. But what about getting some new bites from someone else's opt-in list? I'm not talking about throwing a spam hand grenade in the water to see what floats to the top. Done right, using other people's lists can be amazingly profitable. Again, it's all a matter of trust. Fish will act on a recommendation from someone they have grown to trust through the value they add to their life.

This is the "big game fishing" of Internet marketing. Using the live bait of an endorsement from a respected webmaster/publisher. You will get something like 5 to 20 times more responses from an endorsement than from a cold mailing. This sort of fishing is quite rare, but the rewards can be outstanding. Endorsement marketing is a big subject that I'll have to cover in another article. Till then...

Looks like I've got a nibble, so time to go. Enjoy your fishing and I hope you catch everything you want.