You website, your shopfront if you like, is sitting there proudly in cyberspace attracting, you hope, relevant and motivated customers. Do you really know who is visiting your site, where they are from, and what they look at? No, well let us explore this now.

Even if you are not the person in charge of administering your site, you can (and should) still take an active interest in the statistics available regarding it.

What on earth does this mean? Well it means introducing advertising to your website to create new channels of income. Let us have a look at the good, the bad and the ugly choices out there.

A brand spanking new website, whatever its purpose is, will typically have a home page, a contact page, perhaps some links and a faq page. Depending on the purpose of the site, there may well be other specific pages as well.

Yes, it is yet another internet term! You are undoubtedly familiar with what a link is in cyberspace, but do you know what Backlinks are, and how they can help you grow your internet business?

If you look at just about any website out there, you will see a page set aside for links. For example Pete the plumber has a website. He has pages to tell his customers all about his products and services, and how to contact him.

It is all very well, just fantastic in fact, to have a steadily growing sales portfolio, achieved through your website. How are you travelling in the way you deal with returns? Are you achieving the balance between a robust and sustainable system, and a nightmare for your customers that will see them abandoning you in droves?

It really does not matter whether you sell products or sell services through your website.

Whatever product or service you market on your website, you undoubtedly receive any number of enquiries from both your existing and potential customers. How well do you handle these communications? Do you even want to receive questions from your web customers in the first place? Sales are at stake here, so let us look at this issue.

If you equate a sales orientated website with a bricks and mortar shop, (and it is my suggestion that that is exactly what it is, in the cyber age), then I would ask you to equate an email or message from a visitor, as a ringing phone or a customer patiently tapping on your counter with their wallet out.

You have products to sell, a website to sell them through, but the sales are patchy or simply not coming? Perhaps your customers are there, but find it hard to buy from you. Let us explore how to fix this.

I know this sounds a bit odd, but sometimes it is a forgotten part of your business. A good close look at your websites pathways to purchase can really pep up those flagging sales.

I'm sure you all know the typical commercial advertising site. It's totally swamped with BUY THIS NOW banners, popups and every other sort of 'catch me if you can' advertising. Well it doesn't have to be like that! It is possible to run a commercial site, with ads, while making it informative and good value. Here is how.

First and foremost when you are designing your own commercial site, or are in the market to purchase a template, be your customer.

What am I on about? Well, go to your site now, (after you finish reading this excellent article that is), and take a good look at it. Do this from the perspective of a customer, and note down your first impressions. Why? Because the feel of your site has a huge impact on who uses it, who returns to it, and how many of your products they buy. Interested? Read on.

So you have created or commissioned your brand new website. Well done, as you have taken the first steps to online marketing. Who can find your site, other than you? Oh dear, it's one of the millions of other undiscovered masterpieces out there. How depressing. Here is a free and reliable solution.

Having a website is great. Making it work commercially for you is also great, but not as simple as it may appear.