(or, how to make sure they do.) part 1, by Lenny Intonti
mailto:lennyi@wholefamily.com

This is column, I hope, to quote Humphrey Bogart talking to Claude Raines at the end of "Casablanca", is" ...the start of a beautiful relationship". A bit melodramatic, but, then again, so am I when it comes to the Internet. Sometimes I feel that the medium was created just for me.

I have been in Marketing for almost 20 years and have "been there, done that" so often that I wanted to leave my chosen profession and become a professional gambler, but I don't care for the odds. Even as a "troubleshooter" for Volkswagen of America, I found very few really new and exciting things to do.

Then, there was the internet; and it is very good.

When you put a website on the internet, you are opening a window to the entire world. The window you choose is the key to success, however. If it gives the right impression and information to the passers-by (which is what surfers really are) they will come in for a closer look.

Just as no shop owner or department store would place their store where there is no traffic; no site, to be effective, can be placed where no one will see it. But, the internet is not a street, a mall, or a souk; it is literally a free-for-all. But this particular free-for-all can be manipulated, if you know how.

Well, in the coming (weeks), I will first build a case for manipulating the market; then try to show you how (without giving away too much; I am a consultant and earn a fairly nice living doing this stuff, you know). So, lets see if I can show you the light.