Make Money with Your Own Site on the Web

Making Money with Your Own Web Site

Earning Money with a Web Site of Your Own

I have received many emails asking me how to make money with a web site and if it is profitable. Yes it is profitable and it is not very hard to do. If you are willing to take the time to learn how to create a web site (unless you can spend the money to have someone else do it for you) then you have a great chance of creating yourself a work at home job that pays!

Many people shy away from creating a web site because of the “technical” aspects of it. Actually, there are programs such as MS FrontPage and Dreamweaver that will do the entire HTML coding for you. You just drop in your images, content and links. I HIGHLY recommend getting a beginners book on creating a web site to assist you ( I recommend some below)! It will be a valuable resource to you.

Before you go headlong into building the project here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. What type of web site am I interested in creating?
2. Will it keep visitors coming back?
3. It is something I will stay interested in for months to come?

The hardest part is figuring out what type of web site to create. I recommend doing something you like or are very interested in. That way you will not become bored with it in the future. Maybe you like crafts, then you would create a web site with projects, how-to’s, links to other crafting sites and you can even sell crafting materials as well. Basically, if you are interested in the topic, I am sure there are others out there looking for the same information!

Now, I am not going to get into how to create a web site, I suggest picking up a book on it and slowly learning the techniques. I am going to show you how a web site makes its money. I however strongly suggest making your web site as professional looking as possible! Go to Coolhomepages and get some great ideas on what looks good for web design! Or if you are just not the creative type, PAY to have it done, in the long run it will PAY for itself and you will be happy you had it professionally done!Most web sites join “affiliate” programs. Companies such as Amazon, Reel, Bigstar and Fog Dog will PAY YOU to have their ads, banners and links on your web site. So, if a visitor comes to your web site and clicks on a Amazon.com link and then buys $50.00 worth of books you get a 10% commission or $5.00 from the sale.

Looking for an easier way than tracking down individual affiliate programs that fit your content? I recommend the following sites to make your affiliate program search SO much easier:

OffersQuest.com
MaxBounty
They also have programs that pay per lead, pay per click and so on. Most banners pay a “per-click” rate that can be anywhere from .01 to .50 per click. Most pay about 3-10 cents per click. In other words if you have 300 people click on that banner that pays ten cents per click you would receive $30.00 for those clicks. My favorite is the “pay-per-lead” programs that will pay you a flat fee for everyone that “signs up” for the specific program. For example, you will be paid $1.00 for every visitor who signs up for the My Points program. So, in one month you had 230 people sign up for the program, which would be $230.00 in your pocket! Do you see the potential? It is really easy and fun once you start.

The only way to make money with your web site is to attract traffic. No traffic=NO MONEY. So you will need to learn a few marketing skills. There are dozens of free ways to promote your web site and attract visitors. It will take time and persistence on you part however. I recommend spending an hour a day just promoting your web site. Here are some common and free ways to promote:
1. Web rings-Join related web rings and place the ring on your web site.
2. Banner exchanges-Create a banner and submit it into a banner exchange program.
3. Submit your web site to search engines and free for all pages.
4. Exchange links with other web sites like yours.
5. Join discussion groups and put your web site in your signature.
6. Place free classified ads
7. Make sure you optimize your pages for your carefully chosen keywords. (Use WordTracker for fabulous keyword searching -I use it religiously!)
There are many other ways and a whole truckload of web sites that will show you how to do it! Just type in “web site promotion” or “web site marketing” in any search engine for more tips and tricks.
The potential for making money with a web site is great if you are willing to work at it. It took me about 4 months to really start making decent money. If your web site gets about 500 visitors a day and you have really good banners and programs that interest your visitors you can expect to make about $500+ per month. The more visitors you get the more money you will make. I also suggest starting a newsletter to keep visitors interested and returning to your site. Good luck and have fun!

Getting your site to rank in the search engines, once it’s built….Please see our section on SEO for your website.

Recommended further reading: Everyone’s Blogging – But Are They Making Money?

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