Riding the information superhighway: the Internet is great for retrieving information, but can it help businesses drum up clients and boost sales?

Black Enterprise, March, 1996 by Patrick Henry Bass

"Because of our Web site, more people than ever have been exposed to the comic strip Dilbert, which makes it easier for us to sell Dilbert [ancillary] products online," says Derricks.

WBE-net's Roosevelt Roby says that the key to attracting people to a Web site is to market and advertise its product or services. He says a site can get 40 to 50 hits with no advertising, mainly from people who "are browsing and bump into your site." But, "if you advertise your site via industry magazines, local newspapers, online catalogs, usenet groups and electronic bulletin boards, and if your site is engaging, you can bring 3,000 or more users a day to your site." Roby claims he gets 5,000 hits a day.

The biggest problem, and one that grows by the day as more people get on the Internet, is it is easy to get lost in the mass of cyberspace. "Those who don't understand the system will fail," predicts Roby. People who know how to place their pages in the right search engines will do well because the first thing online subscribers do is a search, he says.

Your company should come up under a hundred different listings or buzz words beyond the company's name. Roby notes that to get listed in, say, 200 search engines could cost you about $170 to $200.

As the base of Web users continues to explode, the debate will continue to rage as to whether or not the information superhighway is a road to financial glory. Some insiders maintain it's just too soon to tell how much money businesses stand to make by posting Web pages.

Still, others argue that it boils down to the haves and have-nots and that African American businesses can't risk being in the latter group. "The Internet affords us a chance to share, connect and create in a way that didn't exist even 20 years ago," says Derricks. "We should take advantage of this technology. My worst fear is that years from now we'll be sitting on the sidelines asking why we weren't represented."

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The Internet has not been without its share of drawbacks, from computer hackers to pornographers. Security is cited as a chief issue among business owners and consumers.

"Providers are increasing their security features. Confidentiality and transactions are not protected. Hackers and pirates con steal information, including credit card numbers," warns Mario Drummonds, chief information officer of New York-based Chocolate Chips Electronic Office (chips@infochip.com), a not-for-profit information and technology training company. The company paid about $2,000 to develop a digital gateway to the Internet utilizing the services of Nynex, New York's local telephone and telecommunications giant, and SpaceLab Net, a local Internet service provider.

There ore no guarantees, adds Drummonds, who also points out that people often give their credit cord numbers freely over the telephone.

Efforts to design tamper-proof electronic payment systems are under way. MasterCard is introducing new software in April for credit card protection, and Visa and Microsoft are designing an alternative system to safeguard credit card numbers from online tampering.