Dan Forootan

If there's any business looking for affordable methods of advertising and marketing, it's the dollar store. These establishments appeal to people in every income bracket, from those seeking good deals to families whose limited budgets make it necessary to shop at the dollar store.

In many ways, women's clothing stores that rent and sell prom dresses and wedding dresses are self-sustaining operations. After all, proms and weddings happen every year! Plus, with senior proms taking place nationwide, and June the most popular month for lovebirds to tie the knot, spring is the busiest time of the year for those who rent and sell dresses for the prom and for weddings.

The spring is perhaps the best time of the year for stores offering tuxedo rentals and sales. June is, of course, the most popular month for weddings, and high school proms are taking place from April through June.Add it all up and there's plenty of opportunity for men's clothing stores to rent and sell tuxedos to men seeking that perfect outfit for the perfect day or night. But how do these vendors tap into these lucrative markets? A marriage of tuxedo rentals and email marketing is the answer!

Advertising remains simple for musical acts that are hip and hot enough to headline arenas. Massive promoters such as Live Nation have plenty of money at their disposal to flood the television and radio airwaves with advertisements enticing local residents to come out and see the show.

The way in which we consume media and information has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, to the point where the printed word is on the verge of becoming obsolete as people electronically consume one-time household staples such as newspapers, magazines and books on devices such as the Kindle, the Nook and tablet computers such as the iPad.

The 2010 remake of "The Karate Kid" was good for karate studios. But karate teachers can't count on movies and Hollywood generating new business! While karate is a timeless sport, both for self-defense and self-esteem purposes, it is a challenge for these studios to attract new students. Word of mouth only goes so far, and with the economy still struggling along, many families aren't actively searching for additional activities for their children.

It's that time of year again! Time to crank up John Fogerty's "Centerfield," warble a few verses of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and become reacquainted with the sights, sounds and smells of baseball stadiums. The return of baseball is even better for parents whose children play Little League, because there's nothing better than seeing the game through their eyes.

Competitive dancing is one of the few activities that children can enjoy well into their teenage years. While sports teams inevitably move from the all-inclusive lower levels of baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer to teams that are built during tryouts later in junior high school and high school, dancers of all skill levels can continue to take lessons at dance studios and participate in their recitals up to the day they depart for college.

Even with the whole world at your fingertips these days and the ability to research just about any historical fact—arcane and otherwise—with a few keystrokes, there's nothing quite like going to a museum and seeing history "live" and up close. It's an unforgettable experience, for young and old.

Advertising used to be pretty easy for magazines. Remember those omnipresent subscription cards inserted in magazines—and how often they did the trick? Thumb through a magazine in a store, like what you read, take out the subscription card, fill it out, mail it in and voila—six weeks later your first copy arrived in the mailbox!