If you don't know what needs doing to put your site on track, get some help. Look for forums or newsgroups into site performance. Swap your time in evaluating sites of others, for their's in examining yours.

If you can afford it, hire a professional. Learn what he or she knows that will help. Then go find another. No one individual has whole of this game in hand.

Learn The Rules

If you've been online for a time, you already know some rules. You may need to learn more. Use Verdana or Ariel on a white background, for either is much easier to read on a monitor than Times Roman. Limit main or bounding table widths to 600 pixels. Narrow cells/columns as required so that line lengths are a maximum of 65 characters. These are simple things. While many continue to debate them, it is wasted effort.

While breaking these rules may not turn away ten percent of your visitors as our hypothetical WalMart greeter did, why risk it? Why do anything that annoys a visitor, thus encouraging him or her to leave? While it's true you can not please everyone, it also makes sense to minimize site characteristics that may annoy.

About Branding

Of continuing debates about doing business on Web, one I ignore completely is notion of branding.

"..., quicker picker upper." This is branding. Chances are you connect this immediately to Bounty paper towels. You may even remember one of actresses featured in TV commercials.

If I were standing before a shelf of paper towels, all things being equal, I'd probably reach for Bounty. But when I think of megabucks expended in boosting this name, it's difficult to believe manufacturer has recovered costs. There's not much profit margin in paper towels.

Forget It

On Web, branding is often associated with splash or entry pages, those artsy slow-loading presentations within which you must find a link to main site.

This won't work for a small business. You have no chance of obtaining brand name recognition without a major corporate presence and an awesome dollar commitment. So forget branding. And forget those splash pages.

Are You Turning Away N% Of Your Visitors?

The validity of many rules can be difficult to demonstrate. This is a no-brainer. Check hits on your splash page and compare count to that of page it links to.

Now tell me you are confident you can succeed in business turning away over ten percent of your potential customers. WalMart couldn't make it happen. And neither can you.

Support Is Central

In every aspect of your business, assure that your eagerness to support your customers shines through. Make this a fundamental thrust in all you do. The name of your game must be: Build customer loyalty.

Can Customer Loyalty Be Sustained?

Many argue that it can not. Auto makers spend heavily each year to assure you come back and buy your next new car from them. Yet only about a third do. Not exciting results considering bucks expended.

Many also argue that on Web, this is most certainly true. That people shop for price. Period. There are two points overlooked in such a statement.

First, businesses that sell only on price will not succeed in long term. Those selling at low prices will tend to disappear. As they do, your fair price becomes more competitive. This trend has been in place for a time, and will continue.

Second, suppose you do waste some time and/or resources only to lose to a lower price. So what? Those who recognize support you offer will pay your price. They want reassurance you'll be handy if problems arise. As above, expect this trend to continue.

Your Business Productivity Plan

Still, your business can benefit from efforts to improve productivity. Nothing fancy is required. Simply ask yourself if there are any elements on your site that require resources, particularly time, that can be discarded.

In a sense, this may also amount to discarding potential customers. Still, if you are spending an hour a month maintaining a page that generates only ten bucks, take a close look. It's at least a candidate to be discarded. Else convert it to a static offer that makes no further demands on your time.

Wrapping Up

Track down customers being discarded by big business as they focus on downsizing and productivity. Grab them for yourself. Then hold on to them with great customer support. While you may lose a few to price, those who appreciate your efforts will buy from you again.

And it may pay to look closely at your business with view of profitability held by big business. If cutting some near-dead wood frees up valuable time, it may need doing.