Pointers

Modern society tends to have a bumper-sticker mentality. In response, here are key pointers about doing business on the Internet.

It takes a minimum of 1,000 hours of work to launch a promotional web site and operate it for a year.

The two main parts to a web business are: (1) creating a site that accomplishes its mission and (2) promoting the business to draw visitors to it.

Psychographics are more important than demographics. How visitors will react to the site means more than where they're from or who they are.

Make the site appeal to the imagination and emotions of the visitor. Words alone can make us laugh or cry. Images alone can give us shivers or yearnings.

Use technology sparingly and purposefully so that animations, sound, frames and Java do no more than reinforce the mission.

Get the main site message into as few words as possible. The five per cent of visitors looking for more details can drill deeper if they want to.

On average, you need 100 site visits to get one additional visit through a banner exchange program. Before putting much effort into such programs, ask yourself how you got the first 100 visits. Whatever it was, keep on doing it!

When getting your site listed in search engines and directories, think hard about where people will look for what you are offering and the keywords they will use for their search.