How to Create a Profitable Web Site

Creating a profitable website, with only a computer and knowledge, is not as difficult as many believe.

The Internet is full of possibilities from providing your services (writing, graphic design and programming among other things) to creating a blog or a website that attracts enough visitors to earn a steady income. Creating a profitable website does take time but if you provide quality content, optimize your site and keep it up to date, attracting visitors should be as easy as pie. The more visitors you get, the more money you make.

Things You'll Need

• Domain name
• Hosting plan
• Website design or designer
• Monetizing methods

Instructions

1. Choose a domain name. When choosing your domain name, keep in mind that your main goal is to attract visitors. Long URLs are not nearly as attractive as the shorter, simpler ones. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember so that your visitors may find their way back.

2. Register your domain name. There are many domain name registration companies, GoDaddy is the most popular. If your '.com' domain of choice is taken, you may use a different TLD (top-level domain) like ".net", ".org", or ".info" instead.

3. Sign up for a hosting plan that best fits your needs. If you are an inexperienced webmaster, it's best to choose a host with top-notch customer support as it's logical to believe that you'll be asking a lot of questions and will need more assistance than experienced webmasters. Choose an inexpensive plan as you will not need any extra features until your site really takes off. You can always upgrade later.

4. Create an eye-catching design that will appeal to your visitors. The site should be organized and easy to navigate. If you're not into programming and design, you might want to hire a freelancer to do the work for you. Check his rates and review his portfolio and samples of his work in order to determine whether or not he's the right designer for your site.

5. Try out different website monetizing methods, including PPC (pay-per-click), text links, image ads, reviews, and product promotion. Find out which works best for your website and get rid of the methods that don't work. Google Adsense is one way to start out. Implement a number of different methods in order to get the most out of your website.

6. Focus on your content. This is the most important part of your website. It's what visitors come to your site to see and it's what keeps people coming back. Content, to search engines, is extremely important when searching through pages. If you don't have time to generate content yourself or if writing is not your subject, consider using user-generated content. These articles may be published on your site in exchange for a link to the author's page. You may also hire freelance writers or allow guest-writers to submit content in exchange for credit and traffic to their site.

7. Optimize your website. Learn SEO (search engine optimization) and take advantage of it. When optimizing your website, you are prepping it so that search engines will be able to find it. All the pages on your site should have a separate title and your URLs should be short and to the point, as mentioned in step one. Headers and bold tags should be used when necessary.

8. Edit your website and make any necessary changes. Be sure that all links are working and check to make sure that there are no grammatical errors. Scripts, plug-ins and anything else used on your site should be working and your contact information should be up-to-date. Publish the final draft of your site. Submit the link of your website to friends with websites and blogs. Advertise on social networking sites and forums (read the rules first!). Activate your campaigns with PPC networks.

9. Launch your website (make it public).

Tips & Warnings

• Write articles for your website in advance so that if you're too busy to create one, you'll have a database where you can pick and choose. If you're unprepared or under-prepared, this could spell disaster for your site.

• Always keep your eye open for possible link exchanges (posting someone's link on your site in exchange for your link on theirs).

• Look for new ways to promote your website all of the time. The possibilities are endless.

• Update your site often.

• Do not use the same company for your domain name registration and hosting as you may not be able to transfer your domain. This could cause problems in the future if you wish to switch to a different host.

References

• The Rating Blog: Domain Name Registration & Hosting
• The Rating Blog: Website Creation and Monetization
• The Rating Blog: Content
• The Rating Blog: SEO and Social Media Optimization
• The Rating Blog: Launching Your Website

Resources

• GoDaddy
• Google Adsense
• Work: Guide to Learning Search Engine Optimization