TITLE : MAKE YOUR WEBSITE WORK FOR YOU: HOW TO CONVERT YOUR ONLINE CONTENT INTO PROFITS.

If your business isn't online already, run-don't walk-to your nearest ISR And if your business isn't engaging in, or at least seriously exploring electronic commerce, now is the time.

The learning curve is steep, the pitfalls are man~, and the investment doesn't come cheap, yet stragglers and laggards will be left on the I-way like so much cyber-roadkill.

Companies that are quick to try, to learn, to adapt-and to make the inevitable mistakes-will win. Some of the biggest successes on the Internet today began their journey many years ago, long before it was thought possible to make a single dollar off the Internet. The brokerage firm Charles Schwab, for example, began offering online stock trading to its clients back in 1984, fully a decade before the Web's commercial birth. With this much learning under its belt, Schwab was able to grow from 336,000 online accounts in 1995 to 1.6 million in May of 1998.

And it's not just large companies that are reaping the benefits. Small businesses can now get their feet wet with ecommerce for as little as $25 a month by taking advantage of storefront hosting services.

There are three major power shifts in our midst that will make the Internet an even bigger opportunity (or threat) for online businesses over the next several years. These are:

Power Shift Number One: From Large to Small Businesses

Over the next couple of years, there will be a major movement online among small businesses. The Internet will eventually serve as the great equalizer, giving small firms the opportunity to reach a truly global audience at a substantially reduced cost.

As management guru Peter Drucker has said, "The Fortune 500 is over." Of course, he wasn't suggesting the Fortune 500 will go away, merely that the advantage of being huge will no longer be as important as it once was. At the beginning of this century, giant corporations were created to exploit vast economies of scale in manufacturing and distribution. But now that our economy is focused more on services and information, particularly digital information, economies of scale are less critical.

Power Shift Humber Two: From Seliers to Buyers

The Web-in a way no other medium can-allows for the free flow of information on price, product, delivery, distribution, and payment terms, resulting in what Bill Gates calls "friction-free capitalism." This will inevitably put more power in the hands of the buyers of our economyboth business buyers and end-user consumer buyers.

Increasing numbers of businesses are participating in, or creating, value-added trading centers. Business-to-business intermediaries are emerging and setting up vast electronic commerce hubs to bring thousands of buyers and sellers together for the purpose of'exchanging information for price quotes, placing bids, providing customer service, and conducting actual transactions over the Net.

Power Shift Humber Three: From Direct Seliers to Intermediaries

Aggregation, particularly in the context of the Internet, is not a new concept, but aggregation predicated on a particular customer's needs and wants is new and different.

Imagine walking into a supermarket where everything is arranged, not by product category, but by company manufacturer. All of the Procter & Gamble products, from toothpaste to cold remedies, are in one display aisle, and all the Colgate-Palmolive brands are in another. Comparing toothpaste would mean running back and forth between aisles.

Entirely new businesses will emerge dedicated to aggregating content for a particular type of customer. These businesses may not have any relation to, or even an understanding of, the industry or market segment they aggregate, but they will know their customer and what he or she is seeking.

The Internet is the most customer-centric medium we have ever seen, but it seems many online businesses have not grasped this concept. You can create a Web site for your business; invest thousands of dollars in an elaborate, state-of-the-art ecommerce system; purchase banner ads on all the "right" portals and niche-targeted sites; but if you fail to listen to your customer and provide them with the information they are looking for, you are doomed to failure.

The Internet is like any other medium. Like television, radio, or print, it is a component to be incorporated ip a marketing campaign, not as a stand-alone. This does not mean you should not be on the Web. It means you also need to rely on traditional media. Consider the Internet as an add-on to your traditional media mix. Treat the Internet as a part of your business, not an electronic hole in the ground in which to throw precious marketing dollars.

With this book, Mr. Cannon has created an outline for doing this for building an online presence that makes business sense. Keep in mind some of the trends I have outlined. Apply them to your online plans. Most important, do it quickly, because this kind of opportunity only comes along once in a lifetime.

Geoffrey Ramsey Statsmaster-eMarketer