Is this... a great many business web sites do little if anything for their businesses but can cost thousands to build and maintain.

Time and again I see 'beautiful' business web sites that are a credit to their designers, except for a couple of very important things:

• the sites aren't getting any traffic. (I know this because of a gadget on my web browser).

• even if they were they wouldn't be doing much with it! I know this too, just by looking for any sign of - 'marketing' - and compelling sales copy or even a process that collects leads or looks to close business.

"This seems like a massive wasted opportunity. Especially today when the economy and general business environment has never been tougher!"

So what to do? The key to online business success is understanding how marketing and sales works on the web, because, believe it or not, how you do it on the web is different from mainstream marketing, even if the objectives are the same.

Once you understand the concepts, principles and critical success factors of web marketing you can then go on to identify marketing processes you can design, build and implement - then rinse and repeat! All so your specific marketing and sales objectives are achieved.

What's built on your web site will of course make use of web pages, but use will also be made of, potentially, many other technologies - that in concert - will establish a web business presence for continued growth and profit.

"This, of course, is not what usually happens when you go to a web designer or new media agency!"

Because the temptation is always there for them to start with designing the website before figuring out what the business, marketing and sales requirements are.

But that's what you would expect because web designers and new media agencies are not based in web marketing! They're skills are based in web design, web technology and advertising.

For more information call me, Laurence Wilson at Reneagde Electron:

01202 656 829.