The greatest breakthrough of the Web 2.0 age is the advances made in web page coding. Previously, an interactive web page would require you to click on the control to trigger the action, then the request would be sent to the web pages server, and you were stuck waiting for the page to reload. This is an inconvenience on your part, as you are stuck waiting. Similarly, if you are the owner of the webpage, it is an inconvenience to your users to have to wait. Furthermore, if you are offering your services or products, you are losing potential customers and gaining downtime on your webpage.

But AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a new type of web coding technology which allows you to create an interactive website that does not need to reload and communicate with the server every time an action is taken. For you as a web page owner, this means faster loading times for your customers, as well as more interaction with the page on the end users' side.

AJAX uses a combination of Java, XML, HTML, and CSS coding, all rolled into one to create a unique and interactive web pages.

Are you wondering where AJAX has been employed on the Web? Ever used Google Maps? Google Maps allows you to drag the map, zoom in and out, as well as set markers on the map without the need to bee constantly interacting with Google's server.

If you want to create a unique and interactive webpage with less loading time, allowing your members to view more in less time, AJAX coding is the way to go.

I've done quite a bit of research into web analytics lately, and I have found a couple of things. Google analytics Is a great tool, but it cannot be the only tool an organization relies on. Because it is a purely JavaScript based, it is unable to catch browsers that do not have JavaScript enabled, this includes the search engine robots, some hand held devices, as well as a percent of users that manually turn this off. That being said we need a tool to parse the log files from the server and to give us information about these users, as well as providing us with "on demand" stats where as Google's stats are next day. The server logs also contain a wealth of other information that we are collecting automatically, so we might as well take advantage of it.

I have come to the conclusion that we need to use Google Analytics but we also need a tool that reads the server logs. There are quite a variety of tools that would fill this need. Google recently purchased Urchin who's web analysis product runs Google analytics, costs about $3k and will work with the Google Mini, Urchin also gives the ability to read logs from server software other than IIS (like apache, the software used for open source applications) .

Urchin will be releasing another version shortly, and this will be the first release since the Google buyout. Another option is WebTrends Analytics it costs about $4k. It Like Urchin will read both IIS and Apache logs, and has a web interface for users. The last product is NetTracker, it runs about $4k for the software, and another grand for support. it was recently bought out by Unica. The administration of netTracker is not the smoothest, and the support seems to have declined on quality since the buy out.

I think the biggest mistake many of us make when we set out to build a website to make money is not to think out clearly how we are going to achieve this under our given set of circumstances.

We immediately jump on whatever bad wagon promises the best opportunity and hope to be able to achieve the same results. While hope is always nice it is action that will bring results. This is why it is imperative at the outset for you to figure out what you are prepared to do and how you are going to go about doing it.

For example list your strengths and what you are comfortable doing. Then you are going to look for ways and opportunities that will compliment your strengths.

If I had done this years ago I would have been a lot more successful. What I did instead was jump on the latest greatest opportunity, then when I would get the material I would be disappointed because many of the techniques listed where not in my field of expertise.

For example it would involve me having to cold call people to make sales and this is something I hate to do. So your first objective when setting out to build a website is to build it around a subject that you have some relationship with. Basically something that interests you.

Start out broad and be prepared to be taken down different paths that may yield more positive results in other words do not be too ridged.

Research is critical the more time spent researching the better your chances of success. Visit forums relative to your topics of choice and see what people are looking for - then with this information start to structure your site.

There are many site builders out there that can help. The one I used took care of the hosting and also helped me to market the site. This was very helpful especially starting out.

To conclude figure out what you want to do then be prepared to be adaptable based upon what the market demands. Then build a site that addresses their needs and provides solutions and you will make money.