For His Own Good

Eric List, HTML programmer and client account representative:

1. "The biggest drawback to the site is the time it takes to load. It took several seconds to load on my cable connection-not good."

2. "The next issue, and perhaps most important to a site like this, is the lack of a search engine."

3. "The ads should be sectioned off in different areas of the page; for example, you should put a couple at the top, a couple halfway down the page, and a few at the bottom of the page."

4. "There are already a large number of portal sites, but the successful few have something that makes them stand out. This site doesn't have any remarkable aspect that lets it compete with the successful sites. The users this site targets remain nebulous. You need to decide who your customers are before you open your store."

This article was originally published in the December 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: For His Own Good.