According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

• Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They i
  A Strategic Plan - A Lot of Money, Without Any Value
  A planning is like milk that you leave a day outside the fridge. Luckily, not all milk gets spoiled easily. But even the fact that a plan is overdue before you know it, the activity of planning is still very important. There are many areas where you are either unaware or consciously involved in planning. There is little chance that you succeed at the university if you do not (constantly) plan.To build a house you need a plan. In fact such a planning is quite stable; you have someone design the house, you discuss some changes, accept the terms and cost calculations and the house will be built – according to plan.To start a new business you also need a plan; a business plan. This is what you prepare once and than adjust when you are on you way. A business plan is less fixed than the former plan, but more constant than for example a strategy.Where a business plan is to guide an operation, a strategic plan is to guide the enterprise into the future. And this unique feature makes a strategic plan worthless. Yet strategic planning is very valuable.We cannot foresee even the nea
  Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.

  When and why does a dot-com become a dot-bomb?

  After checking few dozen defunct companies, I think the main reasons for dot-coms failure are:

  • Poor business plan. In the last years, a lot of investment capital was spent on poorly planned companies that clearly couldn't reach profitability.

  • Poor company promotion. This applies both offline and online. Two newspaper ads and word of mouth are not enough.

  • Poor financial management. Fancy offices, free food, does it ring a bell?

  • Poor Human Resources management. With lots of cash in their hands, many start-up companies hired too many people or, even worse, hired unqualified staff. The hiring of friends and relatives often returned no value on investments.

  • Errors in the company's Web site. Sometimes hundreds of errors could be found in one Web page. Yes, those Web site builders should go back to school- if they ever went to school for HTML at all.

  I'll focus my comments on the last reason:

  How Errors in the Web Site Can Affect the Company's Health

  It's clear that you can make money on the Web if you have customers. You have customers if you have viewers- "traffic" in the geek's language. And you get traffic if your site is easy to find -- near the top -- in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). That's not so easy to achieve.

  First of all your site has to be indexed by the search tools: Search Engines and Web Directories.

  Although some Search Engines will eventually find your site by themselves, most of the time this only happens if somebody links to your site. In the case of a NEW site, having existing links is almost impossible. Rather than wait for links to be made, start a submission campaign.

  A big no-no is submitting a Web site using submission software. Using software of this type may be quick and easy, but some Web Directories and Search Engines do NOT accept automated submissions.

  It's true that manual submission is a time consuming process -- you'll have to read AND follow each Search Engines' submission guidelines, to effectively perform the submission – but it's a necessary step.

  Most of the defunct sites I've checked had only a modest presence and visibility in the Search Engines.

  Let's say that you submitted your site correctly, you waited a reasonable amount of time - usually few weeks – for the Search Engines to process your submission, but your site does not appear near the top in the Search Engine Results Pages.

  You're wondering why, right? Well, one or more of the following reasons might apply:

  1) Your submission was not accepted by the Search Engines. If you used spamming techniques, such as:

  • Repeating keywords in the keyword meta tag or using text in the same color as the background, some Search Engines might refuse to index your site.

  • Page redirection -- including cloaking -- or building artificial links farms can sometimes be seen as spam by some Search Engines. These links farms involve building Web pages for the sole purpose of creating links to the targeted site. For more about spam please read my article:

  "Search Engine Spamming Sucks!" [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

  Some Search Engines also have difficulty in indexing pages that use frames or Flash.

  2) Your submission was accepted, but your site is not listed in the Top 10-30. Because very few people check pages after the first 30 results, you want to be in the Top 10-30. There are many reasons why a site is not listed high.

  The most common reasons are:

  • The lack of your main keywords in the content of the page, in the Title tag and in the Description and Keyword meta tags. Ultimately it all depends of the Search Engines’ algorithm- the criteria used by the Search Engines to rank pages.

  • HTML errors. Examples include unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, improperly nested tags, missing the ALT attribute on images. Any of these will affect your site's accessibility, reducing your potential client pool.

  A Web site with HTML errors can look fine in Explorer, strange in Netscape or Opera and totally unreadable in a text browser. Although Explorer has the largest market share, an important percentage of net surfers use other browsers. Don't forget the more than 50 million people in the USA with disabilities. Many of the latter use text/voice browsers.

  Other Types of Errors in Web Sites

  Proper HTML coding is very important but the structure and the layout of the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no "contact page". I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so "heavy" that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

  According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

  I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

  So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

  The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

  How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

  Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

  • Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They i
    Search Engine Optimization [SEO]
    Search Engine Optimization:Search engines are by far the most common starting point for Internet users in their quest for finding information, products or services. Currently, there are 938 million people online throughout the world. This number is growing larger daily at an unprecedented rate. Internet studies now show that over 85% of the 938 million people online use search engines on a daily basis when they’re surfing the Internet. With this in mind, it is no mystery why search engine optimization has become one of the hottest topics within Internet marketing. With 938 million people online, the amount of daily search engine traffic is staggering. For an individual or company who is thinking of marketing their products or services, the Internet can be a virtually limitless gold mine of potential customers. The Internet traffic originates from the major search engines and directories daily. Getting websites listed with the major portals is essential for success of any online venture.Search engine Promotion has shown to deliver the highest ROI (return on investme
    ey on the Web if you have customers. You have customers if you have viewers- "traffic" in the geek's language. And you get traffic if your site is easy to find -- near the top -- in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). That's not so easy to achieve.

    First of all your site has to be indexed by the search tools: Search Engines and Web Directories.

    Although some Search Engines will eventually find your site by themselves, most of the time this only happens if somebody links to your site. In the case of a NEW site, having existing links is almost impossible. Rather than wait for links to be made, start a submission campaign.

    A big no-no is submitting a Web site using submission software. Using software of this type may be quick and easy, but some Web Directories and Search Engines do NOT accept automated submissions.

    It's true that manual submission is a time consuming process -- you'll have to read AND follow each Search Engines' submission guidelines, to effectively perform the submission – but it's a necessary step.

    Most of the defunct sites I've checked had only a modest presence and visibility in the Search Engines.

    Let's say that you submitted your site correctly, you waited a reasonable amount of time - usually few weeks – for the Search Engines to process your submission, but your site does not appear near the top in the Search Engine Results Pages.

    You're wondering why, right? Well, one or more of the following reasons might apply:

    1) Your submission was not accepted by the Search Engines. If you used spamming techniques, such as:

    • Repeating keywords in the keyword meta tag or using text in the same color as the background, some Search Engines might refuse to index your site.

    • Page redirection -- including cloaking -- or building artificial links farms can sometimes be seen as spam by some Search Engines. These links farms involve building Web pages for the sole purpose of creating links to the targeted site. For more about spam please read my article:

    "Search Engine Spamming Sucks!" [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

    Some Search Engines also have difficulty in indexing pages that use frames or Flash.

    2) Your submission was accepted, but your site is not listed in the Top 10-30. Because very few people check pages after the first 30 results, you want to be in the Top 10-30. There are many reasons why a site is not listed high.

    The most common reasons are:

    • The lack of your main keywords in the content of the page, in the Title tag and in the Description and Keyword meta tags. Ultimately it all depends of the Search Engines’ algorithm- the criteria used by the Search Engines to rank pages.

    • HTML errors. Examples include unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, improperly nested tags, missing the ALT attribute on images. Any of these will affect your site's accessibility, reducing your potential client pool.

    A Web site with HTML errors can look fine in Explorer, strange in Netscape or Opera and totally unreadable in a text browser. Although Explorer has the largest market share, an important percentage of net surfers use other browsers. Don't forget the more than 50 million people in the USA with disabilities. Many of the latter use text/voice browsers.

    Other Types of Errors in Web Sites

    Proper HTML coding is very important but the structure and the layout of the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no "contact page". I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so "heavy" that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

    According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

    I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

    So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

    The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

    How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

    Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

    • Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They i
      How to Accelerate Word of Mouth Marketing
      If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Simply put, it is word of mouth. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. It is the most honest form of marketing, building upon people’s innate desire to share their experiences with family, friends and co-workers.Word of mouth for a brand is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do extraordinary things well. People notice that over time. While there are no shortcuts to generate word of mouth, you can use specific techniques to accelerate the process. Here are a few of them:Look at the customer as a friend or a family member and not as part of some vague demographic group.Develop entertaining and informative ads that can be easily forwarded.Work actively with social networks.Host discussions and message boards about your brand.Identify people who are able to influence your target customers.Inform these influencers about what your brand is all about and motivate them to spread the word.Recruit new evangelists, teach them about the
      submitted your site correctly, you waited a reasonable amount of time - usually few weeks – for the Search Engines to process your submission, but your site does not appear near the top in the Search Engine Results Pages.

      You're wondering why, right? Well, one or more of the following reasons might apply:

      1) Your submission was not accepted by the Search Engines. If you used spamming techniques, such as:

      • Repeating keywords in the keyword meta tag or using text in the same color as the background, some Search Engines might refuse to index your site.

      • Page redirection -- including cloaking -- or building artificial links farms can sometimes be seen as spam by some Search Engines. These links farms involve building Web pages for the sole purpose of creating links to the targeted site. For more about spam please read my article:

      "Search Engine Spamming Sucks!" [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

      Some Search Engines also have difficulty in indexing pages that use frames or Flash.

      2) Your submission was accepted, but your site is not listed in the Top 10-30. Because very few people check pages after the first 30 results, you want to be in the Top 10-30. There are many reasons why a site is not listed high.

      The most common reasons are:

      • The lack of your main keywords in the content of the page, in the Title tag and in the Description and Keyword meta tags. Ultimately it all depends of the Search Engines’ algorithm- the criteria used by the Search Engines to rank pages.

      • HTML errors. Examples include unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, improperly nested tags, missing the ALT attribute on images. Any of these will affect your site's accessibility, reducing your potential client pool.

      A Web site with HTML errors can look fine in Explorer, strange in Netscape or Opera and totally unreadable in a text browser. Although Explorer has the largest market share, an important percentage of net surfers use other browsers. Don't forget the more than 50 million people in the USA with disabilities. Many of the latter use text/voice browsers.

      Other Types of Errors in Web Sites

      Proper HTML coding is very important but the structure and the layout of the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no "contact page". I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so "heavy" that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

      According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

      I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

      So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

      The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

      How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

      Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

      • Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They i
        SEO Mistakes You Should Avoid For Your Real Estate Website
        Handling a real estate business online isn’t all about clicks and browse. There’s more to the business and it’s not even appropriate for any real estate agents to skip a day without checking the status or conditions of his/her real estate website. The fact is, search engines never stop crawling through websites and if you update or take care of your real estate business and website regularly, there’s a good chance your site get acknowledged for the hard work done.However, there are more rules that a real estate agent (or any online marketer) should follow or else, there’s a great chance of getting your real estate website de-indexed. Although most of the SEO experts teach you and even share with you the coolest and easiest way of getting your website ranked, there are more unspoken warnings about what someone like you shouldn’t do when dealing with this type of business. Also, search engines don’t like websites that are flawlessly designed only to increase page rankings.First and foremost, search engines don’t like stolen contents from another website. This is a grave offense especially
        your site is not listed in the Top 10-30. Because very few people check pages after the first 30 results, you want to be in the Top 10-30. There are many reasons why a site is not listed high.

        The most common reasons are:

        • The lack of your main keywords in the content of the page, in the Title tag and in the Description and Keyword meta tags. Ultimately it all depends of the Search Engines’ algorithm- the criteria used by the Search Engines to rank pages.

        • HTML errors. Examples include unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, improperly nested tags, missing the ALT attribute on images. Any of these will affect your site's accessibility, reducing your potential client pool.

        A Web site with HTML errors can look fine in Explorer, strange in Netscape or Opera and totally unreadable in a text browser. Although Explorer has the largest market share, an important percentage of net surfers use other browsers. Don't forget the more than 50 million people in the USA with disabilities. Many of the latter use text/voice browsers.

        Other Types of Errors in Web Sites

        Proper HTML coding is very important but the structure and the layout of the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no "contact page". I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so "heavy" that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

        According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

        I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

        So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

        The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

        How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

        Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

        • Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They i
          Selling Business Notes for Quicker Cash
          In about 85 percent of all business sales, sellers accept a cash down payment and a promissory note to pay the balance in installments. The note is personally guaranteed by the buyer, and it is secured by the business and its assets in case the buyer defaults. Providing owner financing allows sellers to cater to a broader pool of potential buyers.However, many sellers don’t want to be in the lending business and would prefer not to hold business notes. The good news is: they don’t have to. If you created a business note to unload your company, you can sell the note to someone else. This way you can get instant cash out of the business, instead of waiting to receive periodic payments in the future. You can use the cash for a variety of purposes, including: capitalizing on other investment opportunities, paying off debts, funding college tuition and making major purchases.How Selling Business Notes WorksBusiness notes are purchased at a discount—like all notes sold on the secondary market—to make them attractive to potential buyers. Without a discount, there is no incentive for inv
          the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no "contact page". I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so "heavy" that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

          According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

          I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies' Web sites.

          So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

          The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

          How can a dot-com become profitable? I don't pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

          Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

          • Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They invest less and are more selective in this risky business. They want value returned for their money. After all, statistics show that 9 out of 10 startups fail.

          • Handle your money wisely. Enough said.

          • Hire only the people you REALLY need and be sure ALL of them are professionals.

          Advice Regarding the Web Site that Supports Your Company:

          • Do the right thing when you prepare the Web site. Hire reputable professionals to build and promote your cyber adventure. If you already have a Web site, remember that a Web site can easily be redesigned and properly resubmitted to search tools.

          • Have your site designed according to W3C Recommendations - the Official HTML coding rules. Yes, this takes time and it's much easier to use an HTML editor, but the results are much better when properly coded by hand. Watch your site's accessibility and usability. Don't forget to test and validate the code. Talking about testing, do yourself a favor: check the spelling on your pages.

          • Do not use spamming techniques. You might not be caught today, but one day the Search Engines OR your competitors will find you. Search Engines sometimes will use this reason to ban your site FOR LIFE.

          For more about spam please read my article:

          "Search Engine Spamming Sucks!" [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

          • Avoid gizmos: JavaScripts, Flash or frames. Bells and whistles will NEVER help your page' ranking. In fact, it will hurt your site's indexing or ranking in the Search Engines and will annoy most of your viewers. So, just don't do it!

          • Have interesting content in your pages, content that grabs your viewer's attention. No matter how beautiful your site is, no matter how much professional promotion you made, if the site doesn't grab viewer's interest, he will leave – you guessed it -- to your competitors' sites.

          Also, use the Title tag, the Keyword and Description meta tags in your HTML coding to list targeted keywords from the contents of your pages. This helps the Search Engines rank your site higher.

          • Promote the site thoroughly. Submit the site properly to Search Engines and Web Directories and pay special attention to the link popularity issue- contact Webmasters of related sites to ask them to include a link to your site. Yes, it takes time, but it's worth it.

          So, let's see: do we dot-com or not? You bet we do! There are tremendous opportunities on the Internet. Find your niche, follow the rules, work hard and you'll make it.

          It will not be easy but if you believe in your dream and set realistic expectations, you'll be successful.

          Good luck!