What are you doing about this statistic? Most sites do nothing about it. Other sites add a link somewhere that says something like "recommend this site to a friend". The former is a marketing crime, latter is not enough. Internet users are busy and impatient. If they see a link somewhere on your site that asks them to recommend your site to a friend, they most likely will not click on it because they are in a hurry (and are lazy, too, sometimes). But they do definitely want to recommend your site. So what do you do? You should somewhat force them to recommend your site, but make it very easy to do so and pleasant. And you should remind them at least once, in their face, on every visit to your site. That will take a little JavaScript.

What we are going to do is this: we want our visitors to our web site to come into our site as usual, use site uninterrupted as usual. If at any time they decide to leave site from any page, a new browser window will launch on side and thank them for their visit, wish them a nice day and invite them to come again. That is all in two or three short sentences. Then comes killer. Below those kind words, you should have a simple way for them to tell their friends about your site! It should be absolutely simple, and fun for them, and they will do it for sure. You have two choices:

1. You can use a form that simply asks them for their friends' email addresses and any personal note they wish to include. Then take that information and insert it into a template that holds an invitation letter you have written out and sends that letter plus personal note to all email addresses entered. To accomplish this I recommend that you use AlienForm CGI script, which is free at http://cgi.tj/scripts/alienform/. I personally prefer this method because it is easier and faster for user. 2. You can use Recommend-It's service at http://www.recommend-it.com/, which is also free and sometimes runs competitions whereby your users stand a chance of winning something if they recommend their friends (which increases recommendations). This method is easier for you but a little harder for user because they have to click on a button, go to Recommend-It's site, fill out a form, and then they are done. The more steps they have to go through more likely they may abort whole thing and not recommend new friends next time.

This is a very powerful formula because whenever your visitor is done visiting your site, they are automatically given an absolutely easy way through which they can recommend your site to their friends. And it is in their face so it has their undivided attention.

Now we need to build this capability into our web pages.

Step 1

Build a fast loading web page that thanks your visitor for their visit, wishes them a nice day, and invites them to come again. That is all in two or three short sentences, not a whole paragraph. Below that, have your recommendation form or button from Recommend-It. That's it. Save it somewhere in your site. Let us say URL to this page is http://www.yourcompany.com hankyou.htm.

Step 2

1) Only do business with those that follow this rule, "The customer is always right!"

2) Follow that rule when you conduct business even when customer does not appear to be right!

3) Do not act spontaneously when it comes to advertising! Always research company, check their references and do not even bother to read testimonials. Testimonials have to be gooooood and can easily be staged.

4) Never spend what you do not have, in other words do not count chickens before they hatch.

5) Always take half of your profits and reinvest it into marketing and advertising.

6) Be patient. Nothing worth while even happens over night!

7) If something sounds too good to be true, it may or may not be. Be wise and research, put on your thinking caps and be a detective if you must, but do not always assume that things that sound too good to be true are too good to be true. Take lotto for example, all you have to do is spend $1 and you can get $1,000,000 back for doing nothing at all? So just be wise and research.