Not sure how other people get their little kids to behave, but we use outright bribery, and it seems to work pretty well.

Every night before bed, the kids get two treats. One is of the edible variety (a sweet, or something else they like), and the other is an activity (bouncing on their bed, getting a piggy-back ride, etc).

Throughout the day, when they misbehave, we threaten them with the loss of one of their treats. This has been pretty effective for us. One of our kids typically loses one of his treats, but his behavior does improve noticeably when you start taking about "losing a treat".