When is a full-time webmaster needed for a company?

[ralpho]

I work for a brick-n-mortar store as a manager, and the part-time webmaster.

For three years I've been dedicating a few hours each week to updating the site. The site requires weekly updates to add times for various events, specials, etc.

The company itself in the past 3 years has expanded from 1 location employing 20 people to 6 locations, employing almost 400.

In that time the website has transformed into a simple 1 page table of events & times to a php/mysql driven site, with 30+ pages. To save myself from endless data entry, the website now interfaces with software at each storefront to gather information, and I allow space for each manager per location to add their own information and customize some of the info.

Currently, the site gets anywhere from 25-50k visits per month. The storefronts themselves generate the revenue, but I do have a link to an e-commerce partner which sells tickets to our events and that brings in anywhere between several hundred to the low thousands of dollars per month.

I've been doing this with 5-10 hours a week, though some weeks I've certainly worked more. Lately, its been taking more and more time, but its still not 40 hours a week. Though it could be (at least for a while) if I started working on all the changes and improvements I have in mind.

So my question is... Does anyone have guidelines on what size a company might typically grow to before a full-time webmaster is needed? I know that 50k visitors to a site is pretty small-time in the web world, and I have no idea how many of those are paying customers. But what level of traffic would you expect before you would recommend a person dedicated to a site?

Naturally it varies between companies, I'm just hoping for some real-world examples of transitions between a part-time and full-time web job, and what the driving factors behind it were.

[Warren]

To me is the same as any other position within a growing company.

In small/growing companies you end up wearing serveral hats. Once one particular "hat" gets to be the the major part of someone's time, that is the time for it to be given its own person to wear that hat.

Sounds like you need to do a business case on what it is worth to your company to be a full time webmaster:

Costs:
* Your Salary
* Your work station and tools
* Your replacements salary

Benefits
* Increased focus would increase sales
* Your replacement at your old role would be full time

You may find that extra sales could justify the cost alone.

[stealthmag]

Yes do the business case. That's the only way to work it out.