Last night, as I watched Baseball All Star Home Run Derby and visited Major League Baseball's Web site, it struck me. The league is doing many things to effectively find and attract targeted Web customers, while simultaneously generating revenue.

In fact, I noticed numerous lessons from Major League Baseball you can consider to profitably target your own customers. Here are six of them:

Think Through Your Business Models

Free information and activities are present, but well thought out, revenue generating business models are also evident.

Lesson 1: Make your profit generators stand out.

MLB.com has a separate, prominent navigation menu for profit producing activities - MLB Shop, Tickets, Auctions, Subscriptions - which appears in upper right on all pages, where potential paying customers cannot miss it.

Importantly, each corresponding area of site is narrowly focused on visitors' interests. For example, shop sells baseball - and only baseball - items. This is readily apparent from slogan "For all things baseball".

Lesson 2: Sell subscriptions.

Subject: 809 Area Code

We actually received a call last week from 809 area code. The woman said "Hey, this is Karen. Sorry I missed you--get back to us quickly. Have something important to tell you." Then she repeated a phone number beginning with 809. We didn't respond.

Then this week, we received following e-mail:

Subject: DON'T EVER DIAL AREA CODE 809, 284 AND 876

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION PROVIDED TO US BY AT&T. DON'T EVER DIAL AREA CODE 809

This one is being distributed all over US. This is pretty scary, especially given way they try to get you to call. Be sure you read this and pass it on to all your friends and family so they don't get scammed! MAJOR SCAM: Don't respond to Emails, phone calls, or web pages which tell you to call an "809" area Phone Number.

This is a very important issue of Scam Busters because it alerts you to a scam that is spreading *extremely* quickly, can easily cost you $2400 or more, and is difficult to avoid unless you are aware of it.

We'd like to thank Verizon for bringing this scam to our attention. This scam has also been identified by National Fraud Information Center and is costing victims a lots of money.

There are lots of different permutations of this scam.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

You will receive a message on your answering machine or your pager, which asks you to call a number beginning with area code 809. The reason you're asked to call varies. It can be to receive information about a family member who has been ill, to tell you someone has-been arrested, died, to let you know you have won a wonderful prize, etc. In each case, you are told to call 809 number right away. Since there are so many new area codes these days, people unknowingly return these calls.