I was recently spammed with this article   -  uncharacteristically I read it, what's more liked very much the advice given by the author.  It is reproduced here for all to see. Thanks junk mailer for this useful article!

Why The "Do Nothing" Approach To Making Money With Your Web Site Will Always Fail

By S. Hunter
Here's a common scenario. The young entrepreneur with dollars in his eyes places a web page on the Internet. He waits in anticipation for the 60 million Internet users to land on his site, join his opportunity and make him rich! After a few days he's surprised that he's had no response. He checks
his web page to make sure its accessible and skims the headline, "Make $165,000 a week with no effort - Sign Up Today!" He thinks to himself, "I've got an eye-catching headline, that's not the problem". He scans down lower on the site, past the flashing graphics, and makes sure the phone number
is correct, yes that's fine too. A few weeks and then a few months go by and still he's had no response. Frustrated he writes the Internet off as a load of hype and vows never to fall victim to such hype again.


What's wrong here.
This individual, like many out there has convinced himself that making money with a web site on the Internet takes no effort. He has placed a site on a free web page service and expected to have his phone ring off the hook. When this didn't happen he blamed the Internet when the fault lay with hi
mself and his lack of effort to make it a success.


Anyone who wants to make money with their web site must know the following critical elements.

1. To be successful your web site must be credible. Screaming out at
visitors that they can make a very unbelievable $165,000 a week
without effort will immediately turn off most smart people. With just
that headline you've already caused visitors to lose interest. Make an
effort to create a site that offers credibility and confidence to
everyone who reads it. Your products and services should speak to each
visitor and how they personally will benefit from them. Of course it
goes without saying that what you offer must be of good quality and
value to generate interest.
2. To be successful your web site must look professional. Flashing this
and flashing that is annoying and the last thing you want to do is
annoy a potential customer. Make an effort to ensure that your site is
informative, sleek, classy, and graphics are quick to load. Amateur
sites are easy to spot and a run-away web site address that just won't
end is a dead giveaway. Domain addresses are best
(www.yourbusinessname.com) as they convey stability and
professionalism immediately to your visitors.
3. To be successful your web site must have a way to gather visitor
information. Work at this by offering a Guest Book or Feedback form
where visitors can request product or service information, offer you
feedback on your site, tell you how they found out about your site,
etc. Provide a form where visitors can leave their contact information
so you can follow up with them in the future.
4. To be successful your web site must be compelling and interactive. A
static one-page site that tells visitors about your company is not
enough. Invest some labor in creating a multi-page site that motivates
visitors to take action, to click here, to click there, to order
today, to contact you today, to enter your contest, to request more
information, to explore your site. Once you've got people to respond
at your site make sure you work at effectively managing prompt
responses to inquiries, order and customer service matters.
5. To be successful your web site must offer visitors easy ways to
contact you and this means offering choices. Provide a phone number,
fax number, e-mail address, toll free number, and mailing address and
place this information in an easy to locate area on your web page.
Ideally place it on your home page.
6. To be successful your web site must be promoted. This all-important
success factor means that you MUST invest continuos sweat equity in
making people aware that your site exists. How do you do this?
Register your site with search engines, directories, with free
classified sites, and web page indexes. Investigate link exchanges,
e-zines, and consider purchasing links, banners or a web site in high
traffic malls. You can pay services to do some of this promotion
yourself but it's best to know how to do it yourself and continually
be on the lookout for more places to promote your site. Afterall the
person who cares most about the success of your site is you so
accordingly invest in this with time and effort.
To make money with your web site requires ongoing effort on your part to improve it, update it and continually promote it. If you can't develop a site that is professional, if you can't promote it yourself or find ways to do so, then hire someone to assist you with this. Take ownership for the su
ccess of your site and be proactive!


Sandi Hunter, BST., BSW., BA, is the Director of Web Site Development for
Worldprofit Malls and the President of Incor Enterprises Inc.

For the Complete Guide to Successful Internet Marketing Click Here