Web-site startup forecasts
Submitted by jeroku on April 22, 2008 - 12:45.
Thanks a lot for you help before, Gil.
Today I am planning the financials for another web startup, and have the following questions:
- Forecasting the amounts of users for the website - I know that this should be done per month for the initial 1-2 years at least, and general figures could be obtained from sampling similar existing websites for their statistics - but are there any tips on what the initial figures would be for the first 6 months for example, after it is merely launched, and marketed via ad networks / traffic exchange networks / google ads / etc. - for example whether the amounts of visitors double each month, what's the regular growth rate, etc.
- Marketing strategy - as stated above, there could be various methods to market the website after launch, including the use of traffic networks that promise to bring certain amounts of users per month, the use of advertising networks, etc. - any general words of advice on this issue?
- Forecasting conversion rate - the website will contain non-free content aside regular free content, are there any generic conversion rates in the sales world I could rely my initial forecasts on?
Thank you for your time and help.
Web guerrila marketing
I have another comment about getting initial traffic. These days you can use the web for promotion without advertising costs.
You can approach relevant bloggers, participate in discussion groups, use social network sites to spread the word about your service.
If you're story is interesting, you can get a lot of traffic. For example a post an Techrunch or Digg homepage create tens of thousand entries to your site.
Good luck!
All of these questions are
All of these questions are very tough. number depend on the market you are targeting (gaming? travel? gadgets? finance?)
Usually I don't trust "ad networks" that promise a certain number of users. Those will probably be very not targeted, and if you want targeted users it will be expansive. Same goes for AdWords - I'm not sure if a new site should 'buy users'.
Unless you *want* non-targeted traffic (if you are building a video site, for example).
Conversion rates also vary... they mostly depend on what you're trying to sell, how expansive is it (cheap products convert more) and the "mindset" of your visitors - did they come to "buy" or to "read"?
I think the best way for you to proceed is to find comparable sites, and try to find their numbers, and you can project on your own.