By Glenn Murray - Copywriter *

What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?

Your answer to this question may determine success of your website. So think carefully...

How we define what a website is all depends on which side of fence we're on. I suspect that most - if not all - vendors and service providers would say their website is a sales tool. But this is a fundamentally flawed perspective. Adopt this position, and sooner or later you'll pay for it.

To really understand what a website is for, we need to think about who Internet serves. It's tempting to think cynically and argue that it serves commercial interests, but that's getting cart before horse. The Internet serves buyers and information seekers. That's what most people use it for.

What your visitors are really looking for is a website that helps them. A website that helps them buy when they want to buy. Helps them understand when they want to understand. And - most importantly - a website that helps them decide when they want to decide.

So if you really want to build trust, credibility, authority, and site loyalty, helping visitors is way to go. Of course, that's not to say you have to do it for free. We're all in business to make money after all. In fact, main aim of many of your visitors will be to buy something. But it's important that you focus on them, not on you. For example, your visitors don't want to know what you have to sell. They want to know what they can choose to buy. If your primary focus is sales, your visitors will pick up on it.

To generate revenue from our websites - either directly or indirectly - we need to build them to help our readers. Don't start by asking "How can I sell?" Instead, start by asking "How can I help?" (Even "How can I help them buy?" is a step in right direction.)

We need to build our websites from ground up to be a form of online help. Think of your website as a cousin of online help provided with Microsoft Office. (If you think of Microsoft's help as slow-witted cousin, you're on right track...)

With advent of 'Service Pack 2' for Windows XP operating system, Microsoft have really made forums hum.

Every forum on computer problems is replete with complaints that since downloading and installing 'SP2', many 'third party' applications don't work.

This service pack was needed to keep viruses and trojans out of people's computers when they are on internet, but it has caused a world wide backlash against software giant because people's favored applications won't work, or computer crashes when they try to open them. Many people have said they will buy a Mac or try Linux instead.

What causes all this fury against Microsoft who are only trying to make surfing internet safer?

Maybe there was an almighty rush to release this service pack before it had been thoroughly beta tested on all applications to see what issues would be.

The complexity of this service pack is such that you really need to have a degree in I.T. just to set it's parameters, instead of relying on it's default settings, before you can successfully use it. It really needed a dvd movie to accompany it to visually show what you had to set before starting up any 'third party' applications, but this was not thought necessary because Microsoft were offering free technical support via a free phone number.

Some applications require that you open ports manually, but who would know that without clear instructions?