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by Gauher Chaudhry

It is important to make your web site "sticky" if you want to increase your sales. When I refer to "sticky", I don't mean advertising glue products or adhesives for sale on your web site!

A "sticky" web site refers to a web site that can keep its visitors on their web pages for a long period of time and also get the same visitor to return for a future visit.

An example of a sticky site is one of the many search engines on the Internet. These sites keep their indexes fresh and provide new content every day. People return to these same search engines day after day.

These web sites generally make their revenue by providing banner advertisement on their web sites. They try to encourage the visitor to view as many pages as possible on their site. The more page views they generate, the more revenue they will make from banner ads.

Since their revenue is contingent on banner ads, it is important that these companies keep their web sites sticky. Many web sites on the Internet provide new content on a daily basis such as "Cartoon of the Day" or "Today's Horoscope", so that users will return daily to view the new content.

Statistics indicate that the longer you can keep a visitor at your web site is directly related to your sales.

Bottom line. The longer you keep someone at your site, the more likely they will buy your product or service.

Web sites that do not change their content or appearance generally do not do well in the long run. You should provide fresh content regularly if you want to be one of the web sites that succeed.

You could offer a weekly contest and list winners on the website. Maybe provide a series on continuing articles on a particular topic that will continually bring a visitor back to your web site.

Why not have your web site offer a service such as free postcards or free classifieds to keep people coming back to post more ads and send out more postcards?

There are many web sites on the Internet that will provide you with free content for your web site. All you have to do is carry a small logo of their web site or link to their web site.

This is a small price to pay for content that is updated regularly and in some cases on a daily basis.

The following is a small list of web sites that will provide you with free content for your web site.

ISyndicate - http://www.isyndicate.com/

7 AM - http://www.7am.com/

CNet Builder.com - http://www.builder.com/Authoring/FreeContent/

It is important to keep visitors at your web site and more importantly giving them a reason to return. Research indicates that customers sometimes need to see an advertisement over seven times before they will buy a product or service.

One visit to your web site will just not cut it. Give a visitor a reason to return to your web site and you give yourself a better chance to make a sale.

Content is king.

If you don't provide fresh content, you are just wasting web space.