The Secret To Online Success

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.