1. Most important criteria:

The company and hypnotherapist that produced the tape or CD are the most important decision factor:

• who is the hypnotherapist that created the sessions, is it specialist in the field, what are her or his credentials ?
• what level of support does the company offer to it's clients ?
• is there a physical address published on their web, and any means of contact ?
• do they promise miracles, or are they realistic in their promotional materials ?
• do they offer an unconditional money back guarantee ?
• are there any free samples on their website

2. What almost certainly doesn't work, except for amusement:

• anonymous products (no author or bogus author)
• subliminal tapes

3. The testimonials and tests run in independent unbiased environment

Testimonials are not much important, but at least look whether there are any and if they sound believable. As with everything, some put bogus testimonials on their sites, others are very honest.

Independent tests are good though often touching only the surface of the problem, as these are mostly TV shows and other amusing events run by non-professional testers. For example, weight loss hypnosis program from Wendi Friesen was tested on the Dateline TV show with very favorable result.

4. Example of kind of quality and professionalism to look for

Though this is a biased opinion, I have found Hypnosis Network to be the publisher with highest standards on the market, cooperating only with professional (PhD level) educated therapists specialized in their respective field, with top notch user support. You don't have to buy anything from them, I'm only using them as an example of what kind of quality and information you shall look for with any other publisher or hypnotherapist.

^{_{This guide was last updated on October 5th, 2005}}