Hula-Hoop It Up

• Entertain your audience. Sixty million-plus Web sites are already out there; 100 million more are expected before the end of the year. Let's say you have a prestigious investment firm. Yawn. Making money is great, but Roth IRAs and savings bonds aren't as zany as, say, that Web site with the dancing hamsters. So splash some pictures of nude Sumo wrestlers all over your firm's home page. I guarantee people will be talking about your company.

• Get the media to notice you. Hire a publicist, get a guest spot on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? or stand outside Sam Donaldson's window and serenade him. Just get noticed. The one thing all the aforementioned Web sites have in common is that reporters wrote about them. Lots of reporters wrote about them. We media types hate feeling left out. If USA Today writes about a Web site, you'd better believe The Today Show will follow.

• Enjoy your Web site, because the chances are great that you will be the only one and why should you waste your life on something no one else will see. Or, of course, it's entirely possible that everybody will see it. "It's all subjective," says Mike Corso, owner of Internet phenomenon; he suggests you simply "build a Web site based on your passion, your interests." Then let the magic begin.

This article was originally published in the July 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Hula-Hoop It Up.