"touch" your product or service, so to speak. Chances are you have 

provided an email addresses, but that s not enough. The key to Internet 

activity is interactivity.

People tend to retain information that provided them with some type 

hands on opportunity. Reams of text may be informative, but they can 

also be mind numbing. Ask visitors, even challenge them, for feedback. 

Your website won t achieve its intended purpose if it does not inspire 

interaction, and assuming people will "get it" on their own...well, you 

know the story of what happens when you assume something. Direct them 

toward a specific action; better yet, provide more than one opportunity. 

Web sites serve different functions: some are for information only, 

others are created to facilitate online sales, still others are an 

adjunct to core businesses. But, the success of all depends on visitors 

actually doing something, a CALL TO ACTION. This can be providing a 

discount to first time buyers, including a short survey or comment field, 

or linking to newsgroups about related topics. If your site is akin to 

being an off ramp along the information highway, it should also offer 

several options for retaining traffic. Otherwise, it becomes little 

more than a gas or bathroom break for travelers who are soon back on the 

road.

Engagement of visitors allows you to play to the strengths of the 

Internet. Almost no site stands alone. By sparking interaction, you 

may not only find customers, you may uncover partners whose products 

or services are closely related to yours. In future editions of this 

column, we ll further explore the benefits and practical applications of 

collaborating with other entrepreneurs. 

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5. NEW FEATURES AND TECHNOLOGY AT AIT 

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As you know, AIT s Mcart is part of every hosting solution. Mcart 

turns your site into a Web store and is the first step toward full 

ecommerce capability. See all of the benefits associated with 

Mcart, and learn about installation, administration, and features of 

this unique tool. You can also see a demonstration at http://mcart.com. 

For your convenience, AIT has simplified billing with an online 

system. In order to log in, use your customer number for user name and password. This feature is also 

laid out in Spanish, Korean, and

Chinese: https://billing.aitcom.net/ait/. 

AIT has created the DBManager in support of the MySQL Database. 

MySQL is a database for the Linux platforms, but most such tools do 

not have a web interface that allows you to manipulate data. That s 

where the DBManager comes in. Check it out: http://aitcom.net/sql.