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There was a huge increase from last year to this year in the amount of money companies are spending on Web sites. The average expenditure more than doubled to $1,518,000 from $629,000 last year. The number of companies spending $1 million or more on Web sites rose to 15 percent from 8 percent.

How do companies measure the success of their Web sites? Sixty-two percent go by the number of "hits" or page views, 39 percent by the number of unique visits or visitors and 21 percent by whether they are meeting revenue goals.

The increase in Web-related activity is generating greater demand for professionals skilled in Web technology and management, and this appears to be having an impact on salaries and other compensation in the market. The average annual compensation of all the participants in this year's survey, including bonuses, incentives and overtime, is $59,600. That's up nearly 9 percent from the average $54,800 these same professionals were earning in 1997. Reported compensations this year range from less than $30,000 (9 percent of respondents) to $120,000 or more (3 percent).

Web professionals are getting a variety of non-salary perks, the most common of which is 401(k) plans, received by 61 percent of the people. About 37 percent are getting bonuses or another form of incentive, 26 percent pensions, 23 percent comp time, 22 percent stock options, 15 percent profit sharing, 11 percent overtime and 9 percent a company car. Fourteen percent of the survey respondents said they do not receive any compensation beyond salary, bonuses and overtime.

Lenzner says more companies can be expected to offer more non-salary benefits to Web professionals as demand for their services continues to increase. "Compensation and recruitment for these individuals is fiercely competitive," he says. "Large organizations are offering bonuses, profit sharing and corporate incentives, while the smaller companies are offering incentives such as stock options, flexible hours and remote living arrangements."

About 48 percent of those surveyed believe their salary and other compensation is fair, the same percentage as in last year's survey. Thirty-five percent said they don't consider their compensation fair and 17 percent are not sure. The level of salary apparently has a lot to do with the fairness factor. The average compensation of those who think their pay is fair is $67,600, while the compensation for those who feel they are being unfairly compensated is $48,600.

The Paycheck's in the E-Mail

Those professionals who described their primary skill area as being in messaging, groupware and collaborative computing pulled down the highest average compensation in the group surveyed, at $71,000. Here's the breakdown of average compensation for other skill areas: network infrastructure, $66,900; application development, $65,800; databases and data warehouses, $61,200; intranet and internal Web site design and management, $60,900; content development and management, $58,500; network and server operating systems, $56,100; Web site design and management, $51,000; desktop operating systems and desktop applications, $46,400; and multimedia and graphics, $41,400.

As far as job function, the highest paid are consultants, who receive an average annual compensation of $71,500. Other salaries by job function: departmental and divisional IS management, $67,300; application development, $67,300; central IS management, $63,200; IS specialist, $59,600; intranet management, $58,800; telecom management, $57,500; network/LAN specialist, $54,200; and Web management, $46,300.

Those people who possess skills in Internet and intranet security technology are in especially high demand, Lenzner says. "Firewall, Web server, design, administrative, tactical and strategic professionals are in short supply and increasing demand, " she says. People "with technical expertise in these areas, coupled with computer security backgrounds are highly sought."

Web professionals who work in the New England area earn the highest average compensation, at $69,400. Other regions, with average compensation: California and Hawaii, $68,600; New York metro area, $68,400; Mida-Atlantic, $65,500; Mid-East/North Central, $57,900; Southeast, $55,800; Rocky Mountain, $55,300; South, $51,000; Texas/Southwest, $48,800; Midwest, $46,700; Pacific Northwest and Alaska, $45,900.