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Estimated Time: The lesson should take you about 90 minutes to complete.

What will I learn? This is a multi-part series on how to monetize your website. In this lesson, you will learn the basics of evaluating your site, content and audience to determine what can be monetized.

Equipment/ software needed: You need a computer, an Internet connection, and a relatively recent Web browser. We recommend Firefox or Safari.

Introduction: We know that you want to make money on the web.  Everyone does.  But just because you build a website doesn’t mean that people will pay to access your content or to advertise with you.  
In Part One of this series, we'll help you identify your audience.

Why you should care: In the past few years, countless media organizations have closed their doors. Companies have had to cut back on staff and lots of talented people are out of work.  Why?  It’s not just because the economy has been bad. Some of the problem stems from our assumption that advertising will sustain any website.  These days, that’s no longer true.  In this multi-part series on monetizing websites, we’re going to show you how to ensure that your site is worthy of someone’s hard-eared cash, and we’ll offer some alternative streams for revenue for you to try.

Note on Activity: Because this lesson asks you to try various tools in the In-Depth Explanation section, there is no separate activity.

In-Depth Explanation: You’ve heard the line before. “If you build it, they will come.”  Not anymore, they won’t.  Sorry, but that’s the way it is folks. It doesn’t matter if you’re the New York Times or one of the Twilight stars...just having a web presence isn’t enough.  You need to really understand your audience and to think hard about what you’re offering them.

First, do you know who’s visiting your website?  Do you have a metrics tool, such as Google Analytics or StatCounter, installed?  Don’t just look at the number of page views.  Trace them back.  Where are people coming from?

Below are two screenshots from StatCounter.  You can easily see what city people are in, the date and time that they visited, the kind of computer and screen they’re using, and their IP address.  In some cases, you can also see what companies they’re from.

Using a metrics tool, you can (and should!) drill down to get lots of additional information, such as:

• Which of your pages are most popular
• On what pages people entered your site
• On what pages people existed your site
• Which keywords people searched to find your site
• What people are downloading
• How long people have spent on your site
• Whether people were referred from another site or web service

You should monitor your websites statistics every day as a regular practice.

Next, what about your audience’s interests?  Consider making a online poll to ask questions about what your visitors think about your content and your website.  Ask them to give you candid responses about your content, about your site’s design and usability.  But also ask them about their personal interests, needs and backgrounds.

There are a number of free tools that you can use, but try SurveyMonkey first.  It’s free and very simple to configure.

Finally, take some time to search for your URL and your brand name throughout various real-time tracking networks. Search for your site and/or your content on the following sites:

• SocialMention
• Twitter Search
• Samepoint

Are there any conversations about your site or your site’s content?  What are people saying?  Click through all of the options at SocialMention and Samepoint (they’re both free).  If you’re not seeing any entries, that’s a good sign that you’ve not yet build a solid, reliable audience.

Next, start searching your competition.  You can use SocialMention, Samepoint and Twitter Search again to research keywords associated with your content or the brand names of your competitors. What are people saying about their websites and content?  Pay careful attention -- what can you learn?

Finally, take an honest, realistic look at the content on your website. Compared to your competition, is what you’re offering good enough to warrant a payment?  Is your content distinguishable from the rest?  Is it niche, necessary and compelling?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, it’s time for Your Website version 2.0.

And if the process of self-evaluation is too painful -- it can be, I understand -- use that SurveyMonkey tool to ask your friends and family for their cold, hard, anonymous feedback.

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