Why am I on the Web? (continued)

Continued from Page 1

Non-commercial Sites

Non-commercial sites exist for many, many reasons. To entertain, to inform, to educate, or simply because it's FUN to make a web site! If you are running a non-commercial site, you can relax a little... sure, you'd love to have lots of people visit your site, but at the end of the day you are not relying on your site to put bread and butter on the table. So you have more leeway to experiment with designs, to do your own thing stylistically... you don't have to worry as much about your visitors.

Unless you're extremely keen to bring people to your site, you'll probably want to stick to free promotional tactics, like posting to newsgroups or discussion groups, getting your site listed on the search engines, and exchanging links with other sites.

Conclusion

This overview of website types is deliberately brief, as I could go on for 100 pages and still not cover every possible reason for being on the Web.

Although a small number of sites drift into commercial territory through advertising or other means, success will come easier if you decide from the beginning which side of the fence you're on: on the Web to make money, or on the Web to have fun...

Next: Why should I get on the Web?