They say the internet is all about information. And that’s true. But the consequence of so much available content – good, bad and yuck! – is the ever present scourge of ‘information overload’

And you don’t have to be online for too long before you get infected.

With millions of web sites, each competing for our attention, you can soon find yourself being wrenched in many different directions by web masters insisting that we visit their site. And once there, they do their best to persuade us to buy something.

Now, I’m not objecting to that.

I’m all for making money online selling a quality product that people want. But, so often, my visit to a site is fruitless because the offer is never exactly what I’m looking for. So from a web master’s viewpoint, that’s wasted traffic and precious advertising budget down the drain. And usually the visitor has left your site never to be seen again.

So the questions arise, putting on my web masters’ hat for a moment:

What if we knew exactly what all those visitors really wanted?
Would this help the online business owner to make the most of his hard earned traffic?
And would the visitor enjoy a more fruitful internet experience?

I think we can safely answer ‘yes’ to these vital questions.

And my own experience leads me to conclude that many web business owners are not taking full advantage of one vital piece of information – something that is so easily available – that can immediately boost their business.

But, before I reveal this little marketing secret, let’s imagine that instead of an online business, you operate the bricks and mortar type. And that’s not necessarily a bad choice. It all depends.

Now when someone leaves your store, without asking for anything in particular, you have no idea just what that visitor really wanted. Unless, of course, you asked them as they made there way to the door. But by then it’s probably too late.

For an online business, however, we can get a pretty good idea of what a visitor was looking for or what attracted their interest on your site. And this knowledge is not be underestimated because it can dramatically increase your sales.

So, I hear you ask, were is this vital information? How do I get at it?

I’m going to illustrate my answer with a true story about a fellow online entrepreneur who knew enough to uncover this important information. He then became a real web master – very much in charge of his earnings – rather than just a web slave, hoping for the best.

This individual was an accomplished artist who created an extensive site offering mainly artist supplies To begin with, he started listing everything by category on his site, adding a small “free stuff” page – just really as a gimmick.

However, he soon noticed that his freebie page was receiving consistently more traffic than all his other pages put together!

So, after some careful consideration, he made a crucial decision that catapulted his site into the top echelon within his niche, attracting over 1.5 million visitors a month.

So what exactly did he do and what was the evidence that led him to make such an important decision?

Seeing that his free page was generating so much traffic, he changed his focus by creating a totally “free stuff” site, still packed with excellent content and an invitation to all visitors to join his free newsletter.

He very quickly reached a subscriber base of over 120,000 for his newsletter from which he was able to sell associated products. His income increased dramatically.

And the evidence? Quite simply, he acted upon the crucial information he found in his site’s log files.

His log files gave him a very precise indication of what his visitors were interested in on his site. They left their footprint and he capitalized on their tracks.

Perhaps it’s time you had a good look at your log files. Take the time to understand and interpret them. And if you discover that you have pages on your site that seem to really attract visitors then maybe you need to sit up and listen.

Are your visitors trying to tell you something?

Is it time to give your visitors more of what they want and turn them into customers?

After all, the customer is always right.