The secret to online success is: Know who your customers are, and then design your site for them. You'll know you're successful when your customers start to act like they own your site.

What I'm really talking about here is building an institution. Anyone that has ever loved a high school, a gym, a college or even a bakery will refer to it as, "My high school, my gym, my college or my bakery." With online companies, I'm sure you've heard, "my MySpace page" or "my Amazon wish list" or "my shopping cart."

To achieve a customer sense of ownership, you'll have to give away some of your site - for free. That means getting your customers involved interactively. The best companies on the web give a lot away for free - from email addresses to web pages. In fact, they make their websites indispensable.

Start thinking about how you can get your customers involved with your site and product. It can be as simple as the bookmark button you see at the end of this blog.

I ran into an old friend last night who is going through a "rough patch." No, he's not one of the foreclosure casualties of the subprime mortgage debacle. He's an ordinary professional guy who was laid-off from his job. Now his unemployment has run out, his cobra payments are $900 per month - and he's having some health problems (treatable, but nevertheless costly).

When I hear a story like this - all I can think about is, "take your future into your own hands" -because the government is not going to help you. Let's face it, if you're over 40 in this country, your job prospects are becoming more and more narrow with each day you age. So, if you've been putting off your online eCommerce idea - perhaps now is the time to reconsider.

I'm not telling you to quit your day job, what I'm advising is that you start your night job - working for yourself. Supplement your income. Make sure you have more than one revenue stream. If your moonlighting efforts happen to take off - then leave your day job - on your terms - not when your company decides to put you out to pasture at the ripe old age of 38, 45 or 55. They'll leave you high and dry - I've seen it many, many times - and what that means is that it's necessary to be self-reliant.

I wanted to sign up to be a dealer for a new product today so I decided to call the company directly. A nice receptionist answered the phone and advised me that the fastest way would be to fill out the online new dealer inquiry form. I filled out the form, clicked submit and it returned a very ugly error page. I tried a different browser but the error was the same.

So, I called the company back -but this time a different receptionist answered and advised me to print the form (which had quite a few drop-down menus), fill it out, and then fax it over. I mentioned that the form wasn't set up for that - but she said in an arrogant tone, "Well that's how other people do it when they get that error page."

Just for kicks and giggles, I decided to click the developer's link at the bottom of the website. After a quick visit, the first half of the mystery (the shoddy web work) was solved. The second half of the mystery (which will remain unsolved) has two parts:

1. Why is this obviously busy and well-funded company's website a piece of junk?
2. Why is this obviously busy and well-funded company putting up with a rude receptionist?

There's no excuse for broken forms on a basic website because the technology is too simple get right the first time and/or fix. Second, hire a firm to randomly call your company so they can rate the receptionists and customer service staff. Make sure that your staff is informed that this is company standard operating procedure and you'll find that their performance is more professional.