Several surveys have confirmed that the main growth in the use of the Internet is in the area of "networking". Whether that's using the Internet to route telephone calls, or the use of web sites to discuss things with like-minded people, there is little doubt that "connecting people" is a significant part of the Internet.

Until recently, the only way of being connected was via email. That is mostly one-to-one, has inherent delays and is also limited in what you can achieve. Nowadays, you can share text, audio and video using social networking sites. These are not one-to-one, but many-to-many and are also immediate. That has significant appeal for many Internet users.

In a sense, what we are now witnessing online is what has happened offline for centuries. Groups of like-minded people are getting together, chatting, swapping information, passing on useful ideas and products and having a good old gossip. With the interconnectivity offered by many web sites nowadays you can achieve all this online without having to go out in the cold weather!

But for those people trying to earn money online, it's good to understand the fact that there is this essential human need for people to interconnect when online. If your business web site doesn't have any means of interconnection, you are less likely to attract the modern Internet user, who sees interaction as fundamental. No longer can your business rely on an email address or a "contact us" form.

These days you need to allow your web site visitors to interact with you AND with each other. That means you need a forum, for instance, or at the very least a blog where people can comment on what you've written. You could also do with the ability for people to add content to your web site, such as articles or video clip. Such features in a business web site will help create a sense of belonging, of identity.

In the future a good business web site will be one where a community of people meet together to discuss what the business offers. No longer can you afford to have a static, brochure style web site. Internet users in the modern broadband connected world want interactivity. If your web site doesn't offer some kind of interactive feature, you will lose out to competing web sites that do.