Key points 1. Unless you are a ridiculously huge consumer internet site, you have to build up your revenues through brand advertising sales. It’s very hard to

Key points 1. Unless you are a ridiculously huge consumer internet site, you have to build up your revenues through brand advertising sales. It’s very hard to just use ad networks like Google AdSense to sustain yourself: just do the math using 10 to 25 cent CPMs and you’ll quickly see why. 2. The users of your website are not really your customers. Your actual customers are the ad agencies and advertisers. Your Web 2.0 consumer startup is actually a B2B that sells inventory to brand advertisers. 3. How to avoid this: directly monetize your users by coming up with something so compelling people will pay for it through subscriptions, virtual goods, or other E-commerce models.