1) The graphical design should be outstanding. It should be of the caliber that people and magazines will tell others, "You've just got to see this site!"

2) Despite 1) above, all images have to load very quickly.

3) It should make the experience of visiting it such that people will want to re-visit and keep re-visiting it and will tell others that they have to visit it. There should be so much in the way of interesting things to learn, see and do that people stay a long time, put it in their bookmarks and ensure that it gets recommended as "cool".

4) It should ADD VALUE to the experience -- it CANNOT just be the online equivalent of the company's traditional brochure or magazine ad. There have to be considerable extra benefits to be gained by visiting the site compared to reading the real-world brochure. It should be fun and entertaining and it should take full advantage of the INTERACTIVE nature of the Net.

5) It should be able to be easily found -- i.e. it should show up on all search engines and it should be so "netcool" that it constantly shows up on other sites' hotlink lists.

6) It cannot rely on purely internal Net promotion -- it should have a constant external PR campaign that is getting lots of magazine, press, TV, radio etc. showcasing the site, pointing to it and making people want to come to it. People should be directed to the site and then when they arrive, have a GREAT experience.

7) It should have a theme and that theme should be integrated throughout the site.

8) It should be easy to navigate with minimal explanation and it should clearly explain whatever needs to be explained. Also whenever there is anything to download, the size of the file should be stated.

9) It should, where possible and appropriate, employ cutting-edge technology -- e.g. RealAudio, 3D VR, Live Chat etc.

10) It should be organic and dynamic rather than static -- there should always be something new to see, learn or do so that people keep coming back.

11) It should provide superior and fascinating CONTENT in terms of information.

12) It should provide for two-way communication and interactivity via e-mail.

13) It would be ideal if it could be a "one-stop everything" integrated environment (on the relevant subject).

14) It shouldn't violate Net ethnics and it should embrace and take advantage of the community spirit of the Net.

15) Ordering goods or services should be painless, easy and secure. The page/site should also provide enough information to make an informed decision regarding purchasing the product.

16) The page should be selling something that is wanted by the current demographics of the Web bearing in mind that these are broadening rapidly.

17) The page/site owner should realize that the accepted language of the Net is NOT the accepted language of Madison Avenue advertising.

18) There should be rewards offered for taking the time to explore the site and read the product information as well as rewards for giving names and e-mail addresses.

19) It needs to have potential expansion built-in.

20) It should give something useful to the Net community.

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GUIDELINES FOR GETTING YOUR WEB STOREFRONT PUBLICIZED

How do people find the information they are looking for on the Web? By far the most popular way is using various "search engines": a search engine is typically a page you go to that asks you to type in a subject for it to search on. It then searches for documents or web sites that fit that subject. Many of them contain a directory of subjects, and along with each subject a list of addresses (URLs) and a description of the information located at each.

So how do you make sure that people find your site? The first thing to do is to make sure that the address (URL, i.e. "Uniform Resource Locator") of your site is listed in the various directories associated with these search engines. To do this, you notify the search engine of your address and what subjects it should be associated with.

This announcing is VITAL - we've noticed that sales often start occurring 2-3 months after a site starts appearing in the search engines. It usually takes anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks for the announcement to appear after you've submitted it.

The following data directs you to the most popular search engines on the WEB and how to register your site with them:

00. Promote-It at http://www.cam.org/~psarena/promote-it.html is a one-stop announcement page where you can announce your page to all the major directories - including usenet groups.

0. For another site that directly allows you to submit your site to numerous search engines, go to: http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~banister/submit-it/

1. For a comprehensive list of links to directories where you can announce your web site, go to: http ://www.earthlink.net/~annie/lists.html

This site lists Netscape, Yahoo, Lycos, WebCrawler, World Wide Yellow Pages, What's New, The Global On-Line Directory, and Commercial Sites Index Listing. These are all hyperlinks that put you directly into instructions on how to get your site listed in their directories.

Another great source of submission sites is Pointers to Pointers at: http://www.homecom.com/global/pointers.html

2. Yahoo - at: http://www.yahoo.com/bin/add (or from Yahoo's main menu at "http://www.yahoo.com/new/", click on "add")

This is a menu specifically for getting your site listed in Yahoo. Just follow the directions. Yahoo also lists other places that you can submit to announcements to.

3. The Whole Internet Catalog:

At: http://gnn.digital.com/gnn/wic/index.html

"The Online Whole Internet Catalog is a collection of links to 1000 or so of the best resources on the Internet, divided into easy-to-surf subject areas.

To create the catalog, we took the resource catalog from the bestselling The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog, and checked and updated all the resource entries. Instead of verbal instructions for connecting to a resource, we provided live links for you to use. We scouted new Internet sites, checked out pointers and tips, and generally snuffled around to find the best and most interesting resources currently available on the Internet. We added new subjects, new resource entries, and links to new interfaces to resources previously listed, and arranged the entire catalog so you can navigate it in a few jumps."

Our suggestion is to search through the Online Whole Internet Catalog for links that relate to your particular business. Follow those links to see if they lead to directories or sites that may be interested in announcing or linking to your site.

4. The EINet Galaxy

At: http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html

"The Galaxy is a guide to worldwide information and services and is provided as a public service by ElNet and Galaxy guest editors. The information is organized by topic, and can be searched. You can also add your own information to Galaxy."

5. Query Interface to the WWW Home Pages Harvest Broker

At: http://town.hall.org/Harvest/brokers/www-home-pages/query.html

"The World Wide Web Home Page broker: search the content summaries from about 30,000 WWW home pages distributed among nearly 12,000 sites.

This Broker was built using the Harvest system. We use a variety of methods to discover home pages to index in this Broker, but inevitably we miss some. If you have some home pages that you'd like to add, please use our registration interface."

To add your site, click on "registration interface".

6. Virtual Yellow Pages:

At: http://www.imsworld.com/yp/

Virtual Yellow Pages charges to list your site, as follows: "Listing of your name and address with a brief description. Includes 3 lines and your logo $249.00"

To contact them: Virtual Yellow Pages is a division of Interactive Marketing Services 180 Oser Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788

http ://www.imsworld.com

(516) 273-2300 - Fax:(516) 273-2393 - E-mail: info@imsworld.com

7) Yahoo's list:

http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Announcement_Services/ is a big list of announcement services

8) IF YOU WANT SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO IT:

a) Quickie Home Page Registration Service at http://dct.com/~gbvcb/reg.html will register at least a dozen for $25- $35

b) The PostMaster at http://www.netcreations.com/postmaster/ will submit your URL to several hundred spots on the net automatically for about $500

c) I also saw a service that was priced at between $50 and $80 for a good number of submissions but unfortunately my bookmark file got corrupted and I haven't been able to find it since, but you may be able to.

9) We also highly recommend submitting your site to such malls as the All-Internet Shopping Directory at http://www.webcom.com/~tbrown/

Also, the Internet Mall at http://www.mecklerweb.com:80/imall/ will put a link to your storefront for free (at least they did the last time we checked).

If you are new to the Net, it would be a good idea to use a few of these search engines before posting your address to them. It will give you a feel for how people actually use them and could broaden your ideas of how to make yourself known.

It is one thing to put your message out on the WEB; it is another thing to attract the public you want. If you take a good look at the sites out there, you'll see the most popular ones take a very creative approach - not just in the design, but also in the links to and from other sites and various other means for promoting their sites. You may find yourself coming up with creative ideas on how to promote your own site.

You understand the business you are in and what it is that attracts your clients. The way to benefit the most from your web site is to gain enough understanding of the World Wide Web that you can see just how to leverage its advantages in your particular business.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

NEVER, under any circumstances SPAM an announcement about your store (Spamming is sending unasked for e-mail to huge numbers of usenet newsgroups, mail lists etc). Just so you know the seriousness of this, an access provider's client recently spammed a message about his web page and the resultant hate mail* crashed the access provider for days. They ended up having to hire three people just to handle cleaning up the mess. Needless to say, the person who did this had his Internet access terminated, as you will if you SPAM. It is OK to go and check out a newsgroup that is frequented by people who might be interested in your product (e.g. if you sell gardening tools, a gardening or homemaking newsgroup might be appropriate), and ask what the protocol for doing an announcement or press release posting to the members is.

* hate mail is highly insulting mail sent with the deliberate intention of overloading an Internet system

Also when describing your store, avoid "Madison Avenue-style hype". Give a pleasant accurate inviting description by all means but none of the annoying superlatives associated with bad advertising. Another thing you can do is send Press Releases to the print media. You should also use your Internet address in all your other promotion to direct people to your site.