Apparently if you want to trade in your luxury sports car, these guys would be "happy" to give you a great deal on something more "economical."

I saw this and I started to laugh. I mean, you have to give these guys credit. They're pursuing a niche. But it also convinced me that it's time to publicly address some of rumors that have been flying around.

With media doomsayers spouting predictions of dot-com fallout, both investors and e-business owners are understandably nervous. And here at Internet Marketing Center, we've been fielding a lot of your questions about future of e-commerce.

Everyone wants to know, "What separates dot-coms from dot-bombs?"

It's a good question, but before I answer, I want you to think about something for a moment. Did you know that between 1998 and 2000, online shopping GREW A STAGGERING 580%?

It's true. Forrester Research reported growth from $7.8 billion US in 1998 to $45 billion US in 2000.

Now think about this. Online consumers couldn't care less about dot-coms dropping off Web. MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING ONLINE TO SHOP, and number of purchases that they're making each year are continuing to increase.

Those new to e-shopping are making 9 purchases a year and those with more Web experience (5+ years online) are making 20 purchases a year (Forrester Research).

So what's going on? Online spending is growing at fantastic speeds... e-Shopping is becoming a routine part of consumer life... yet all we're hearing about right now is failed dot- coms.

One by one, companies like Furniture.com, Pets.com, MotherNature.com, Toysmart.com, Living.com, Mortgage.com, Garden.com, etc... have closed their doors, and each time pink slips are handed out, media has a feeding frenzy.

Feature stories promising easy wealth and overnight success have now turned into dot-com obituaries. It's enough to make your head spin.

And that's why these statistics I've just shown you are important. Obviously whole story is not being told. If online shopping has increased by a whopping 580% in past 2 years... and if shopping online is becoming a regular part of consumer life... all of this money must be lining someone's pockets. But whose?

That's not as hard to figure out as you might think. First, let's take a critical look at dot-com failures -- "dot-bombs." You can learn a LOT by analyzing common mistakes that were made...

TOP THREE MISTAKES MADE BY DOT-COMS GONE DOT-BOMB:

MISTAKE #1: Tried to be everything to everyone.

Consider Pets.com for a moment. Their target market of Pet owners was HUGE! But so were obstacles they needed to overcome to turn a profit -- "Pets" is a very general market. There are dog owners, cat owners, hamster owners, bird owners, fish owners... I could go on! And each of these groups has different needs when it comes to pet food, pet supplies, pet toys, etc...

Marketing to and meeting needs of all these different groups of people, with all these different products and services, is no small undertaking. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just pointing out that it costs money... A lot of money.

And this leads us to next mistake...

MISTAKE #2: Threw millions of dollars of venture capital at an unproven business plan that required years of blood, sweat, and tears to reach profitability.

Creating a nationally recognized brand requires deep pockets and a whole lot of patience... and this means you need investors with really strong stomachs.

When market softened up this past year, many investors became frustrated -- and even panicked -- as dot-coms continued to vacuum up millions of dollars of investment capital without any sign of turning profitable.

Could these companies have succeeded with continued investment? For many, definitely. But when investors withdrew their support, they never got their chance.

So finally, we arrive at...

MISTAKE #3: Invested buckets of cash in unprofitable advertising. The simple truth is, banner advertising just isn't as profitable as it once was. Ads that once pulled 5 to 10 percent click-throughs are now lucky to pull 0.6% to 0.8%. Unfortunately, while this shift was happening, many dot-coms just continued to blindly throw millions of dollars at unproven, often untargeted, advertising that pulled extremely low returns.

Sadly, they might as well have been lighting piles of cash on fire -- at least they would have saved a few pennies heating their office space. But then, hindsight is always 20/20…

LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES AND BUILD LASTING, PROFITABLE SUCCESS WITH THE FOLLOWING RULES:

RULE #1: Focus on a well-defined niche market.

Mine used to be Infoseek. For a while Infoseek was only search engine I used, and name "Infoseek" was fixed on my mind as place to go whenever I wanted to find something on Internet.

But I could care less about Infoseek nowadays.

I never use it anymore.

After Disney bought Infoseek in 1998, they changed name to Go.com. "Alright", you might say, "can't you take a name change?" Well, problem is, it wasn't just a name change, it was a total elimination of Infoseek brand.

The whole visuals of site were changed, and what's even worse, Go.com site became an entertainment oriented search engine. It was still a search engine, but it neither looked nor felt same as good old Infoseek (and search results were not same as before).

Infoseek was struggling, which is why Disney bought it. But it was still a heck of a brand name, an asset which Disney completely neglected. The result is that a lot of people who used Infoseek before have now switched to other search engines.

In fact, brand kill was so destructive that Go.com doesn't maintain its own index anymore (it serves results from GoTo.com). Infoseek/Go.com is as good as dead, and brand change by Disney had without a doubt a profound role in failure.

What can be learnt from this? Well, first point: branding is very important. It can make or break a business venture.

Second point: branding is psychological. It exists in minds of customers and prospects. When I say, "Image is nothing. Thirst is everything", I can bet that name of a popular fizzy lemonade will pop up in your mind. That's power of branding for you.

And third point: repeated exposure to brand is vital to producing a successful brand. When Infoseek brand was gone, search engine somehow lost its "meaning".

And just to make it absolutely clear what Web branding really is, here's a short definition:

The purpose of branding is to get people to recall your company/product/service from memory. The ultimate aim is to get people to trust you more than competition, and to think of your Web site before they think of competition's Web site.

Branding isn't just for big companies. It's just as important to small business entrepreneur, especially online business owners. With cutthroat competition on Web, those who don't brand will probably go out of business.

Here are several hands-on branding strategies for you to apply to your own Web site, using your business name and your own name:

1. Repetition - This is very important: keep all of your design elements same from page to page. Most importantly, display your logo at top of each page, consistently throughout your Web site. Your Web site must have its own distinct "feel".