This is the whole concept behind web advertising. Hey, DominoPower is no exception: you see other companies advertising their products and services. And, they are literally banking on the fact that you might click on their banner, and possibly buy their products. [Thankfully, many of you do! --DG] There are no guarantees. However, the costs are typically lower than virtually any other medium, and the results are encouraging. Plus, you get to advertise in full color, with animation and sometimes even sound.

If you are contemplating selling advertising space on your web site, you will need to be able to prove that your site is generating traffic. The server log files hold the key to this information. However, to cull this information into meaningful reports, you will probably need to invest in a log file analysis program. The one I'm most familiar with is WebTrends, and it seems to do a good job. However, keep in mind that log file analysis tools can only tell you the number of user sessions, what happened during a user session, and statistics relating to where your traffic came from. They can not tell you anything about the visitor (except for perhaps their operating system, browser, and browser version). Your site design should include mechanisms for capturing the useful information. Hmmm...could be the topic for my next piece...see you next month!

James D. Cimino is the President of Bright Ideas Software, Inc., a Lotus Notes Business Partner who specializes in Intranet and Domino development. You can contact him at ciminoj@bright-ideas.com.