A second business beyond ad revenue
W3Schools, the world’s largest web developer resource with more than 60 million visitors a month, depended entirely on advertising revenue. Growth was steady but slow.
My contribution
Worked twelve months on site as Chief Growth Officer, leading the growth work with the PwC team. Turned billions of analytics data points into personas segmented by behaviour, geography and willingness to pay, shaped the dual innovation strategy and the case for spinning out W3Networks, designed the data-driven funnel with multi-routing, and ran the growth sprints, each measured on revenue.
Key decision Build personas from billions of analytics data points, then grow next to the core: spin out a new venture with its own products and business models instead of changing the ad-funded site.
Outcome W3Networks spun out with its own CEO. Its product Spaces passed 300,000 freemium users within a year, one product grew revenue by more than 50% within two sprints, and the new funnel showed 3x revenue potential.
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Situation
W3Schools is the world's largest web developer resource site, with more than 60 million visitors a month, run from Sandnes in Norway. The business model depended entirely on advertising revenue. Growth was consistent, but slow, and every new krone came from the same source.
Task
Find new revenue beyond advertising without putting the core site at risk, and turn the audience the site already had into customers who would pay.
Action
Architecture
Personas from the data, not from opinion. We analysed billions of Google Analytics data points to build detailed, statistically relevant personas, segmented by behaviour, geography and willingness to pay.
A dual innovation strategy. Instead of changing the ad-funded core, we proposed spinning out a new venture to serve the personas with new products and business models. The first focus was the "Try it" web editor.
Implementation
- A new company. W3Schools spun out W3Networks and hired a new CEO and team to run it.
- Spaces. A simple workflow for users to create their own website and buy a domain.
- A data-driven funnel with multi-routing. Users are routed to the offer that fits their persona, rather than one funnel for everyone.
- Growth sprints. Short cycles, each measured against revenue.
Verification
- Every sprint was measured on revenue, and the new product on freemium user milestones.
Result
- A new company and CEO. W3Networks was spun out with its own team.
- More than 300,000 users. Spaces grew exponentially and passed 100,000, 200,000 and 300,000 freemium users within a year.
- More than 50% revenue growth on one of the products within the first two sprints.
- 3x potential. We identified the potential to multiply revenue more than three times through the new funnel.
Skills evidenced
- Growth strategy for a high-traffic digital business with a single revenue source.
- Data-driven segmentation from large analytics datasets into actionable personas.
- New venture design: business models, product focus and the case for a spin-out.
- Funnel and experiment leadership in short, revenue-measured sprints.
Portable lessons
- Grow next to the core, not inside it. A spin-out can test new models without risking the business that pays the bills.
- Start from the audience you already have. The data on existing visitors pointed to the first product.
- Measure sprints on revenue. Activity metrics make every sprint look like a success.
Want to discuss the decisions behind it?
Over fifteen years of consulting and growth, and hands-on AI delivery from discovery to daily operations. I can share my CV and talk through how I connect business outcomes with systems that run.
Available for a chat. In person in Stavanger, or remotely worldwide.