The speed of ascent was dizzying. In early hours of AOL Time Warner announcement, news stories discussed a merger between Time Warner and AOL. Half of a day went by before I realized that Time Warner wasn't company doing buying. At that moment, it was still inconceivable that a dot com could buy leading offline company in its sector, no matter how big dot com. Of course, given what happened over succeeding year, it again seems inconceivable that a dot com could buy leading offline company in its sector. The dot com fall came fast and hard.

The fall actually came less than three months after AOL Time Warner announcement, in March 2000. But like coyote who runs off cliff chasing roadrunner and doesn't realize at first that he is no longer on solid ground, dot com world kept running along on thin air, not sensing it would soon come to a very painful crash. Yet for all its smugness, dot com world got hit harder than it deserved when it crunched into solid ground. AOL was one of very few companies that had wherewithal to grab ownership of a traditional company at high swell of dot com bubble.

Just this week, a member of my audience asked me following:

"Why would a local company, with a large investment in trained, professional sales people need a Web site?"

Great question! And you might be thinking same. . .

Maybe you already know many or all of your potential customers, maybe you have very defined processes and production cycles that don't change very quickly, maybe you're suspicious of Internet "hype" - especially now that so many e-companies are falling by wayside.

But we also know that Internet isn't going away. 407 million people are now estimated to have access - that includes 167 million in N. America, and 113 million in Europe. Younger people increasingly spend more time online than watching TV. And April edition of this magazine has an e-commerce focus . . .

The true challenge now - which personally I also see as a great opportunity, is to understand all ways in which using 'Net can help your business, and from this to strategise best investment of time and money.

So if it's here to stay, how can Internet benefit your business - and what's currently going wrong?

There are some key elements that prevent many Web site owners from maximizing potential of their Internet-based activities:

1. Tunnel vision on sales and new business: it takes at least five times time and expense to acquire a new customer as it does to keep a current one. Your Web site can be a great tool for providing ongoing customer service and support - and achieving significant cost savings to boot!

Most people access Internet for information on products and services that they either use now, or are considering buying. So, your Web site can be a great place to provide ongoing customer support for your products. If you're worried about giving away trade secrets to your competition, place these in a password-protected area.

The best way to build your content is to compile a list of questions that your customers most often ask. These may be sales related, but can also cover operations, quality assurance issues, etc. If you don't already know questions, have your receptionists and sales people keep a note pad for a week. Then, put questions, together with answers, on your site.

This provides a 24 hour a day, seven day a week availability of service for your customers, whether your office is open or not. And, it can save significant costs in terms of telephone support time.

2. Not "asking for business": I know this sounds obvious, but how many sites have you seen where it's quite unclear what site wants from you? Every page of your site should have a strategy, and be clear about inviting visitor interactions to achieve your goals.