Stickiness! Webmasters are also faced with challenge of keeping their site sticky. CBSMarketwatch.com is a good example of a sticky site. This stock/investment related site contains timely news and excellent company data. The vast amount of information results in a good number of page views per visitor. Plus, visitors return on a daily basis to get latest-and-greatest market news and stock data. Lots of page views per visitor AND repeat visits. now that's what you could call really sticky.

Here are some additional suggestions: A) Make your site a portal of information. It encourages your visitors to return and stay. Hotsheet.com is one example of a one-page portal. B) Add games to your site. You can get some here: www.uproar.co.uk or at www.pogo.com/affiliates. C) Make your site interactive with a guest book, forum, tell-a-friend link, webring, customizable news, contests, polls, e-card, and free for all links. Bizland.com allows you to sign up for an account and place code on your site. D) Provide links to freebies, get-paid-to-surf sites, contests, incentives, jokes, quotes, mp3, and gnutella. Just don't forget to opt in for at least their email address before they can actually download stuff from your site.

Find Your Web Host It's critical to find right Web host. Although you may need to get your own server when your site gets one million page views per month, most sites that are starting out do not require complex and expensive task of managing your own servers. There are many Web hosting providers that are willing to provide starting at 40gb of Web space. You can also look and compare different Web hosting providers on these sites: www.webhostdir.com, www.hostfinders.com, www.hostindex.com, www.hostsearch.com, and www.findahost.com. I always recommend advanced search, which allows you to specify your budget and specific features you will need.

Think Globally Keep site international in its appeal. Babelfish.altavista.com allows you to place snippets of code into your site that will automatically translate your English site to a different language, such as Spanish, Italian, German, or Polish. As webmasters, we must remember that we cannot filter countries on our site. We must be able to communicate with them.

Search Engine Submissions Webmasters love to promote their sites on message boards, newsgroups, link exchanges, and even email, but they often forgot best source of traffic. Submission sites like www.jimtools.com, www.weblord2000.com/submit.htm, and www.beseen.com can be used to submit your site for free. You don't need to submit to all of them, only to major ones, like Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, Hotbot, Infoseek/Go.com, Lycos, and Northern Light. I hope that you have found these tips helpful. For more information, please visit my site, www.webtor.org.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nabaza.com provides solutions to everyday webmastery task like search engine submissions, internet promotion, and sticking your visitors to your site. Become a member now for as low as U.S. $100.00 a year. Nabaza.comspecializes in building, designing, implementing, managing and maintaining corporate website to boost sales of your company. Email william@nabaza.com for information on functional, dynamic webpage designing with affordable packages. Subscribe for free!

(7) Testimonials. These will also dramatically increase your sales. If you don't have any, ask your customers for them. Every testimonial will always contain a key phrase or benefit - make that phrase leap out at reader by using bold type. Always provide website and/or email address of person who wrote testimonial. If you make website URL and active link, you'll get more testimonials - but you'll also lose traffic when your visitors click on those links.

(8) Bonus Gifts. Offering freebies with your product is an old trick in web marketing - nearly everyone does it. My advice is take freebies off. Why? Firstly, chances are freebies you offer are also being offered by hundreds of other websites - your visitors have seen them all before and are not impressed. Secondly, offering freebies sends message that your product is not really worth it on its own.

(9) Unique Selling Proposition. You must differentiate your product from your competitors' products. One way to do this is to have a 'Warning' near bottom of your page that says "Do not buy an eBook on XYZ unless it meets following criteria..." And then list unique features of your eBook (or product).

(10) A Call to Action. This is biggest cause of lost sales. Most people procrastinate - so you must create a sense of urgency. You can do this in various ways - a price rise after a certain date, a price rise after a certain number of copies have been sold, or a bonus report for next 15 orders.

(c) 2003 by Michael Southon