Some people actually debate need to keep visitors on your web site for any length of time. I have heard argument that it doesn't matter how long they stay - you really just want them to purchase something and then leave. Unless you have created a very specific, extremely targeted, one or two page web site, then that thinking is hogwash.

Look, you've gone to a lot of work to create a wonderful web site. You have tons of great content for people to look at. Perhaps you have some awesome products to sell or a message to get across. The longer that people stay, more likely they are to see your message or purchase your products. You can almost translate length of their stay directly to interest in what you've got to say.

So how do you get people to stay on your site for any length of time? Well, you include great content which is linked together in such a way as to pull people deeper into your site. Give them plenty of ways to explore what you've got.

Don't design your site as one huge long page. Remember that you are creating a web site, so split those long pages up into short articles and link them together logically. Your visitors like seeing one or two screen's worth of information at a time ... any more and they will just not scroll down to see it.

Over years, I've found a few utilities that I have discovered which make my life easier. Thus, as I've moved from computer to computer I've tended to install these same programs without thinking, considering them to be "safe" as I've always had them.

About a year ago I started having problems with my computer system. Naturally, since I am an MIS professional, I don't follow advice that I give everyone else: install one thing at a time so you know what to uninstall when there is a problem. Following this procedure makes it easy to troubleshoot problems when occur - with Windows bluescreens and application issues are almost always results of last install. This is especially true if system was stable before any new programs were added.

No, I'm so smart that I don't need to follow my own advice (notice sarcasm here). What do I do? I get a new computer and install Windows NT with service pack 5 and Office 2000. So far so good (that's what I had before). Now I install my usual set of programs and everything is fine, then I have to go and add over two dozen new applications. The system appears to be stable, so I don't think much about it.

Over next few months, I realized that Windows Explorer was crashing occasionally. This is very annoying, because it causes all browser windows to close and all of tray icons to disappear. At this point I found I needed to log out and log back in. The system would remain stable for a while, then same thing would occur. There was not a pattern to failures that I could find.

After a while I had bright idea of upgrading to Windows 2000 as it is a much more stable, clean operating system. I also acquired a brand new machine (933mhtz) with a lot more disk space. I quickly realized that Windows 2000 definitely was worth hype - very clean, extremely fast and wonderfully full featured. I must admit that I fell in love with this operating system immediately and will never go back to Windows NT, 98 or 95 (I never used ME).

Except for one thing - Windows Explorer still crashed in exactly same manner. Every once in a while (generally no more than once per day) all of my Internet Explorer windows would close, tray icons would disappear and desktop would be refreshed. This was getting very frustrating. At first I thought it was Internet Explorer 5.5, so I installed earlier 5.01 version. The problem still occurred, but not as often.