Earlier this summer, I took my two nephews fishing at our family farm (near Flat Creek, Tenn coincidentally). The older brother, 9, carefully found just the right bait and gently cast his line into the water. The younger brother, 7, stomped up to the edge of the dock and threw his line in with a plop then began reeling it back at breakneck speed. I love both these kids, but the fruits of their labor that day reflected their approach. The 9-year-old spent much of the day pulling catfish and bass out of the water. The 7-year-old gave up in frustration shortly after his brother landed his third fish.

This story came to mind this morning after I found a link to this list of small business resources on a consulting firm’s website. My first reaction was, why would a consulting firm spend so much time putting together all these links? Don’t they have anything better to do? Why not just go to Allbusiness.com or Inc.com?

Then I realized that I was on their site, browsing around and finding out about their company. The link was sent by someone on a discussion board I belong to who found it browsing blogs like this one, so the company is getting some great buzz about their small business resource list. Not their core business, but it is driving site traffic and possibly driving business.

And that’s the point - is this relevant to their core business? This firm helps start-ups get in front of venture capitalists, so yes, it is exactly their target audience who will come to their site, browse around, and contact the company for more info. Are there resources you can make available on your website that would be of interest to your target market?

The analogy here is simple - taking the time to pick the right bait and using it patiently can make all the difference when it comes to results.