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An article in the most recent issue of Entrepreneur magazine, the one with Richard Branson on the cover, had a number of interesting articles. But a comment in one of them caused some dismay. One of the featured entrepreneurs has a business that receives 30,000 “hits” per month. This figure was quoted for what was supposed to be a very successful company.

It may be that 30,000 hits per month is perfectly OK, but based on the description of the company my best guess is that his is not very good at all. So where is the problem?

Most likely Entrepreneur should have said that the business’s Web site was receiving 30,000 visitors per month. Why is that a big deal? Why is it important?

The phrase “hits” refers to the number of file download requests at a Web site receives. Here’s a very loose explanation of how this works. Let’s say that you have a home page with 5 photos on it. (Web technical gurus will probably have disagreements with this example, but it is close enough for the occasion.) When a visitor goes to your Web site there are six hits! Why six? It is because the visitor’s browser asks for the HTML page, the home page, and each of the five photos. That is a total of six requests, hence, six hits.

If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely visit the Million Dollar Home Page at www.milliondollarhomepage.com. The creator of this amazing site sold each of one million pixels for $1 each! Image how many hits this site can get if there is one image for each pixel. If anybody promises that he or she will get you millions of hits, ask them how it will be done. Maybe they are going to turn your home page into the “almost-one-million-image-home-page.”

I suspect that what Entrepreneur should have said is that the business’s Web site was attracting 30,000 visitors each month. This is much important because the number of visitors each month is a business statistic while the number of hits is a technical figure. At 30,000 visitors per month that Web site is attracting a respectable number of potential customers.

Ultimately, however, the real gauge of success is how many conversions results from these 30,000 visits. If there are 100 sales for the month, then there is a 300 to 1 conversion rate. Is that good? It depends on the size of the sale. On a $2 sale it isn’t very good. But on a $10,000 sale it is radically better. On the other hand, if there are 1000 sales per month, then a $2 sale looks pretty good, although it would be very time consuming packing a thousand small orders.

Those details can be included in a discussion on another day. For the moment let’s sum it up by saying that hits and visits are radically different things and that it is not wise to confuse the two.

We have launched the WF Enterprises Web site to much fanfare. WF’s new site is at www.wfentprises.com and is currently in what we are calling the Phase I state. The company manufactures highly specialized materials handling equipment and tools that are used by shops that make custom stone counter tops.

Stone is, as everyone knows, extremely heavy and fragile. Errors in handling can result in costly mistakes. The devices that WF Enterprises builds and sells reduce problems that can be encountered during storage of raw materials and assembly of finished products.

Details are available at the WF Enterprises Web site and we encourage everyone to visit today.

Some people are putting their lives and businesses on hold while the congress debates whether or not to bail out the Wall Street financial institutions that have managed to goof. Do not fall into this trap. Right now it is important to remember that while some folks are milling around in a daze you should be filling the gaps that have suddenly opened up.

Your Web site is the perfect low-cost tool to do this. Update and get your message across. Where should your clients be going for news and information about the kinds of products and services you offer? You only get one answer. They should be going to YOU. And your Web site will allow you to keep in touch quicker and less expensively than if you ran TV ads or printed brochures.

Now is the time to update your site, start a blog, and prepare an email campaign. Do it today!