From what I have seen, Nintendo's online strategy seems to be to get people interested in their console every couple of weeks because there is something new. The virtual console gets new game releases every week (which seem to get decent press at mainstream sites), most of the Wii channels seem to have constant updates, and it seems like Nintendo is attempting to add a new Wii channel every 6 weeks or 2 months.
Certainly, this is no XBox Live or Playstation Home but I think Nintendo may be able to convince more people to connect their console to the internet through this approach than Microsoft and Sony ever have.