Ten ways to make your nonprofit Web site profitable

How to create an effective Web site on a limited budget

Although most communicators at nonprofits don’t have big Web budgets, they can get the most out of their site for a small amount of money.

Kirsten Lambert, principal of Watermark Communications, shares advice on how to stretch a shoestring budget.

Here are her tips:

1. Get to know your users

Learn their age, sex, occupation, geographic location, what kind of lifestyle they lead and when they surf the Web. This will help determine why and how people use your Web site. “An elderly person would probably not listen to a podcast as much as, say, someone who goes on the Web a lot and owns a multimedia device such as an iPod,” Lambert says. A good place to start is your organization’s member database. Here, you can find out about a person’s age, sex, profession and contact information.

Be sure to also check out expert Jakob Nielsen’s Useit.com for best practices for the Web, Lambert suggests.

2. Track trends