To see whether your site is performing up to par, I recommend that you do a self-audit.

The purpose is to determine how your previous actions affected your site performance and what you can do to improve.

While it is important to keep track of your revenue, it isn't something that you should be overly concerned with especially during the first few months of your business. As with any business, there are different strokes for different folks.  You have to continue trying out different methods to see which one delivers the goods for you. Keep in mind that success in the Internet business does not come overnight. While it is easy to enter, you must allow for some time for your efforts to bear fruits.  Most successful marketers struggled for a few months before they got the proverbial golden pot. The important thing to note, is that the Internet business does work.

For the raw measures, your weblogs give you the trendlines on a week-to-week and month-month basis. This allows you to see how you are performing. Is your traffic increasing or decreasing over time? If it is increasing, it can mean your marketing efforts are paying off. However, if it shows constant decrease and the visitors are not staying long enough to explore your site, it may indicate some problems with the site. Perhaps, the content is not compelling enough or the navigation frustrates visitors.

Another thing to take note is that a site needs constant promotion. With new sites with better content going live everyday, you should constantly fight for your share of the Web.  If your visitor stats continue to drop, reexamine your promotional strategies: Are you doing enough to promote your URL?

You can likewise use you site-specific measures to see how you are connecting with your audience. Make an Excel sheet and plot the number of emails you receive, the number of quiz participants, etc.

Your site is meeting its objectives and performing well.

if your site is meeting its financial objectives and the trend shows a healthy growth, you shouldn't plan any drastic changes to your site or its structure. You simply need to fine tune the contents and continue implementing the promotion strategies that you found effective.  The most important thing is to keep your site fresh by constantly adding fresh and innovative content.  This will keep your visitors coming back.

You may make certain changes to improve the site but keep these tips in mind so as not to disrupt your site's good performance:

  Unless you are experiencing problems with your core technologies, do not change them.  By core technologies, we refer to such things as operating systems, servers, etc.  If you are not having problems with your web host, don't switch just because you found a better offer.

  If you need to, make incremental changes to content or site navigation. But do not change too drastically, otherwise your visitors might feel alienated and frustrated that they need to relearn navigating your site.

  Continue to fix bugs, broken links and keep the site responsive. If your traffic continues to grow, ensure that you have enough bandwidth allocation to accomodate the traffic.

Your site is not performing as expected

If your site does not perform well in your parameters, you should examine your site in these aspects:

  Business Model - Did you choose the right model for your business?  Do you have enough revenue-pulling mechanisms in your site?  Supposing you manage to pull visitors to your site, is there enough incentive for them to stay and make a purchase?  If they do not make a purchase, do you have other alternatives to get to them again?  Do you have a mechanism to get their email so you can make a follow-up or offer a new product or service.

  Content -  If you manage to pull in visitors but find that they do not stay long enough to explore discover, and ultimately make a purchase, you must examine your site's contents.  Keep in mind that most users take to the Internet to find information, so keeping your content relevant is of paramount importance. 

How do you  know which of your contents you need to changed?

Your server log will tell you which pages your visitor visit the most and how long they stay in. You can also use inputs from emails you receive. Which pages receive words like "well, done!"? For these pages, all you need to do is keep on adding and updating. For the rest of the pages that needs some tweaking, here are some things you need to look at:

	Content mix -  Is your content written in the language that your target market can relate to. Do you provide enough "new" or compelling information?  How does your content compare with that of your competitors?   Content Presentation -  If there is nothing wrong with your content, check the way your content is presented.  How is the lay-out, style of your site.  Note that presentation is almost as important as the content itself.  The web visitor is spoilt for choice. A quick scan for a few seconds and he decides whether your site is worth his precious time.    Have you ever visited a site where you just don't know where to look?  A homepage that is so cluttered with every possible piece of information, and a steady stream of blinking banners and intrusive pop-ups?  How do you feel about this site?  As for me, my tendency is to click the close button. I prefer to visit clean sites where I can clearly see what it has to offer.   Another issue that you have to examine is the style or "look and feel" of your site.  Does your site's look and feel match the expectations of your visitors?  Let's say your site is a new mother's site, which look and feel would be more welcoming to your visitors?  A pastel, colored, airy, clean site with minimum distraction or a black-themed site with strong images?   Content navigation - Navigation is just as important as the first two. Complicated navigation turns off users. Too "deep" links do not impress visitors. If you need to click five times to get to read what you want, this is a sign of poor navigation.  Similarly, a site where a user is left guessing where he will click to find the information is also poorly navigated.  With the growing popularity of Zen-inspired and minimalist sites, you see a growing population of these sites.  While they may be visually impressive, it may not deliver the business.   Content transmission - How fast does your site load?  This is extremely important because web visitors are an impatient lot.  If your site is for business, ensure that you have more text than graphics, especially in your home page. Your headers must be in text rather than graphics so that your visitor can read what your site offers, the graphcs can come later.   You must also ensure that your site is compatible with the major browsers. Otherwise, your visitors would simply click away.   Low values in your hits and page views indicate that you may have a transmission problem.

  Promotion Strategy -  This is an extremely important review that you need to do. If your site is not enjoying an increasing traffic despite its good content, you may need to reexamine your promotion strategies. Here are some questions for you to ponder on.

Are you working on the right target market?

This is a very basic question that may seem totally out of place at this stage. However, can it be possible that you are marketing to a market that does not need your product? 

Ask yourself whether your product's marketing mix is suited to your desired audience. Is the price appropriate?

Is your promotion strategy reaching your target market?

To be able to answer this question satisfactorily, you need to have an intimate knowledge of your target market. Where can you find them? And if you know where to find them, are you using the right methods to communicate with them?

Let's go back to our example on "new mother" site.  Where can you find your target market? Which discussion forum should you join? Which magazines or sites should you advertise in?  And once you found them, how are you going to relay your marketing message to this group?

Is your current promotion strategy working?

If you believe you are working on the right target market and you are able to reach them, you need to examine why your promotion strategies are not working.  Ask yourself the following:

How many visits did you get from a specific promotion or marketing campaign?

How long did it take for the market to respond to your promotion?

How many of your visitors became clients through this promotion?

Based on the results of your evaluation, implement the necessary changes.  If your site is an active site and attracts a fair amount of visitors, implement the changes in small increments.

If your site is a dead site, meaning it is just around but nobody really cares, it is time to take things in its proper perspective.

Should you just scrap the site and build a totally new one?  Before you reach this point, you must ensure that you have thoroughly evaluated all the parameters. Small business sites, as compared to big corporate sites are not very expensive to maintain.  See if you can tweak your website to better suit the requirements of the market.

Monitoring and maintenance is a continuing process. Your site continues to evolve and so must you, as the Webmaster. Continue to be in the look-out for new opportunities and new business models. Build new websites. It doesn't cost much.  If you intend to make the Internet as your main source of living, you must continue to build your "virtual real estate". With determination and persistence, success is inevitable.

	Final Words I hope this site proved to be helpful to you. If you are serious in making a living from the Internet, I suggest you look at the following resources.  These books and resources are the same books that I use to build my Internet business:   Insider's Guide to Internet Marketing Warp Speed Wealth Success Secrets of Real-life Internet entrepreneurs The Internet Entrepreneur's Club   Internet Marketing is a dynamic and exciting business. It can yield fantastic returns but like any business, it requires work and determination. Do not be dissuaded if you do not see results in the first few months. Continue to persevere. Visit forums and ask for advice. Do not compare your achievements with what others have achieved. Most marketing claims are just that, "claims". In reality, most successful web entrepreneurs took months, even years to reach success.   Good Luck!