When does a site cross over from non-commercial to commercial?

[freshfish]

When does a site cross over form being non-commercial to commercial?
The PIR states “Noncommercial endeavors are those not conducted or maintained for the purpose of making a profit. This wide range includes (but isn't limited to) charitable, artistic, scientific, personal, educational, social, cultural, and religious endeavors. Many noncommercial organizations conduct commerce to support their activities. Examples include clubs that raise funds, hospitals, noncommercial Web sites that run advertising to support their operations, and so on”
I am planning on running a site (one person operation) that is not commercial per se but I will end up making a little money from paid listings. What is considered commercial? $1k/m $2k/m

[ergophobe]

It's not a dollar amount. Hey, many commercial sites lose thousands a month when trying to launch. If profit mattered, Amazon wouldn't have been commercial for the first several years of its existence.

Some not-for-profit groups take in millions of dollars in donations and have staffs of hundreds, but the goal is not commercial or for-profit. If you are trying to make a little bit of money, whether or not you actually do, you are a commercial site by the definition you give (as I read it anyway).

Tom

[freshfish]

Thats a good point. But if you are running a site as a not for profit, but you make say $2000 per month. That would be like a salary. Granted if you are a one man operation, and you are bringing in 10k per month, that obviously goes beyond covering time and expenses.

So, could a helpful/eductaional site that brings in $1000-2000 be considered for profit? I wonder

[diamondgrl]

It depends, presumably, on your organization's tax status and how you make money. If you sell advertising on your web site, I would say that's commercial. The local children's hospital doesn't do that kind of thing on their web site.

More importantly, though, if you have no organization and are representing yourself, I don't think you would be considered non-commercial unless you clearly had no visible source of support and were providing what clearly was a public service.