Before I reveal it, a few observations.

Like anything else in life, web site success demands strong goal orientation. Common sense right, but how often do we see web sites that scream, "We know you're expecting a web site, so here it is, do what you want with it"?

You should already know that there are two main goals for a having web site, and they are making sales, & generating leads.

But how do you leverage the inherent qualities of the Net to reach those goals?

The net is cheap, relative to other forms of media, so it's a great place to fail. You read that right. It's a great place to fail. And what's more, it's the perfect place to fail fast.

Allow me to explain.

Automation drives costs out of messaging, but even more importantly, it dramatically shortens the feedback loop. Picture yourself advertising in a magazine. What if you misread the market, and your ads didn't pull? If it's a monthly publication, it will take at least two months for you to find out, and another month to do something about it. And it's also going to cost you an arm and a leg to republish your ad.

On the net, and with the right tools, you could know in hours, and make changes, literally on the fly. So you have every incentive to experiment. And the more you experiment, the more successful you'll become. So fail fast, & fail often.

The secret to online success lies in the study of direct response marketing, also known as scientific advertising.

The same principles apply.

Take mail order for example. In the early days of mail order, marketers who took a scientific approach to response discovered that tiny changes in the wording of advertisements often created sizable differences in response, particularly in the headline text.

At the turn of the century, there was a big demand for music lessons, as people where beginning to have more time for leisure, and in those days if you wanted music, someone had to play it.

One successful ad of the period, featured the headline, "Put Music in Your Life". Well one day the printers made an error in preparing the publication, and instead printed, "Puts Music in Your Life", and to the advertisers dismay, sales increased dramatically.

The addition of that little "s" created an appeal to the reader's natural human inclination toward laziness. And it drew more people into the body of the ad, resulting in more sales. Isn't it amazing how the subconscious mind will respond to something so subtle?

The moral of the story is this. The web is the holy grail of direct response marketing, because of the sheer speed of turnaround. Your ability to gauge a response, and alter your approach is unparalleled.

He who tests everything, and adjusts for maximum response wins!

But few web site publishers track response.

Daniel Levis is a freelance marketing consulting & promotional copywriter in Toronto Canada. author of "Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies - From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century"