It seems so simple selecting a topic for your website that many people simply skim over this important process.
Selecting a topic for your website is not as easy as you think. Everyone is looking for the same thing; starting the next FaceBook or YouTube, and making a ton of money online.
Coming up with a neat idea, building a great website, selling it for millions and getting rich, isn’t quite that easy to do.
If you are looking to make money with your website, as most of us are, I highly recommend a simple approach.
The programming and technical knowledge needed to create and maintain a site like MySpace or FaceBook is vast, and for the average “Joe”, just not feasible.
If you are considering outsourcing the technical stuff, it would cost you thousands of dollars for a programmer, and hundreds of dollars more per month for dedicated hosting space.
A site like FaceBook or MySpace, could never be hosted with a cheap $8 to $15 per month hosting plan plus, there a lot of hidden costs you never realize until you actually start. For the average “Joe”, to start making money, selecting a topic for your website like FaceBook, wouldn’t be at all practical.
The best approach to selecting a topic for your website in order to make money; is to create websites on topics that interest you, generate traffic to the websites, and make money from affiliate programs like Google’s AdSense, and other ClickBank or Commission Junction affiliates, that sell products related to your topic.
An affiliate site like this much easier to create and maintain, than some huge MySpace or FaceBook like website.
With free programs like Kompozer and FileZilla, you can easily manage the site yourself and save a ton of money.
If you have little to no programming skills, there are sites online like Site Build It, that specialize in helping people earn money, regardless of what topic for your website you select.
With this simple approach, you make money from the Google ads and from other affiliate products that your visitors find interesting.
There are thousands of affiliate programs out there to choose from, and at the end of the month, all you do is deposit the commission check you receive from the sales generated.
When selecting a topic for your website, avoid the “Internet Marketing” and “Make Money Online” topics.
Many newcomers who are getting online training, can’t decide on a topic for their site, so they select what they are learning about.
Unless you have experience with either topic, stay away. Both topics are extremely hard to break into because millions of people are already there, and the market is saturated.
Google either topic for yourself and look at the millions of sites already there!
It’s always better to start small with a simple site, and when the traffic and money starts rolling in, expanding to something more complex like the FaceBook model.
When selecting a topic for your website, look for a niche that you have some interest in and that is not overly saturated, if you really want to make some money online.
One of the greatest disadvantages to using free web hosts, is the fact that the search engines may ignore you.
When you are trying to make money online and attract free traffic to your site; the last thing you need, is to be ignored by the search engines.
Being listed or indexed with the major search engines, is an excellent way to receive free targeted traffic to your website.
There is little evidence that your website can achieve its greatest potential, and get listed with a high ranking on Google or Yahoo, using free web hosts.
Using free web hosts several years ago was not the problem it is now.
Getting your website listed was super easy, regardless of what kind of site you maintained, however with all of the spam techniques that are used on free websites, the search engines have become relatively selective about who they index.
Here are a few reasons why search engines may ignore you when using free web hosts.
Most websites using free web hosts are relatively small, and offer very little useful information about a specific concept or topic.
Smaller websites usually have fewer internal links to their own web pages and generally link more to external sites.
Google and Yahoo in particular look for websites that have good content, at least 20 pages, and provide useful information on specific themes.
A large percentage of people using free web hosts, abandon their websites within a few weeks of putting them online. This causes broken links, missing content, and other problems.
When the search engines see sites that are using free web hosts, they may rank them lower, if they rank them at all.
Search engine algorithms are constantly being updated and the engines are getting smarter by the day.
Although I don’t know it for a fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the search engines either totally ignore web sites using free web hosts, or rank them lower than the dot com sites.
Too many people who contact me say that they have problems getting their sites highly ranked by Google or Yahoo, when using free web hosts servers.
Do a Google search for yourself and see how many web sites, if any, show up that are using free web hosts.
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No Backlinks To Your Website
Many webmasters and highly ranked web directories refrain from linking to websites using free web hosts.
People hesitate to give a back link to poorly developed, unprofessional websites cluttered with banners and pop ups.
They understand that many of these websites, for whatever reason, don’t last long and when the search engines find that no one is linking back to your site, they may ignore it.
Back links to your website are important only if they are from important websites that have a high search engine ranking.
These days, if you hope to achieve a high search engine rank; you need to be careful about who links back to your site.
The fact is that you get very little respect on the Internet and the search engines may ignore you when using free web hosts for your business website.
Below are 6 proven methods that will make money on the Internet for you if you have the right attitude and mindset.
First of all, if you’re looking for a quick fix to find a way to make “easy money” without putting any effort into it, you’re due for a reality check.
There are several ways to make money on the Internet that do earn you substantial sums of money quickly; but without putting in any effort, you are certain to be disappointed.
1. Make Money On The Internet As An Affiliate
This is the most convenient way to make money on the Internet and one of the quickest ways for “newbies” to earn money.
As an affiliate, you earn a commission when you refer your visitors to various company websites and they purchase your affiliate’s product or service.
As an affiliate, you function as the middleman, or “broker” to the transaction.
You don’t have the hassle of dealing with customer service, taking orders, following up on shipments, or dealing with payments and customer refunds.
Your affiliates will provide you with tracking links, banners, and other sales tools that direct traffic and link to their website. These tracking links are embedded with your unique ID to track any sales you generate.
Most affiliate programs are free to join, and only require that you register with enough information so you can receive payment from seller.
Once registered, the company will immediately furnish you with all the links and banners you need to use on your website or blog. In addition, many will provide you with email promotional content to use with your auto responders on your list.
To make money on the Internet and be successful as an affiliate; you need to build a content rich, informative web site around a subject you really enjoy, optimize your website, so your pages get ranked high in the search engines, and monetize it by joining affiliate programs that pertain to your subject niche.
Many affiliates go the extra step and add Google AdSense to their sites, or get other advertisers to advertise on your site.
2. Make Money On The Internet By Selling Your Physical Products.
Although you have to put up with a lot of headaches selling your own physical product online; it is probably the most profitable way to make money on the Internet for the long term. You dictate your own price, set your own profit margin, and have complete control over every aspect of your business.
However, selling your own product means that you are directly responsible for everything that occurs in the business.
Your responsibilities include customer service, sales, advertising, receiving payments, collections, product development, shipping, tracking, and everything else a storefront business entails.
It’s a lot of work selling your physical products online, but the rewards are a long term steady income.
3. Make Money On The Internet By Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products that can be easily transferred or downloaded, such as ebooks or software, is a popular way for entrepreneurs to make money on the Internet.
Unlike physical products, digital products are easier to deal with. You never run out of inventory, you never have to worry about shipping, and payment is immediate.
The digital products are downloaded by the customer immediately after payment is made by electronic means.
Ebooks are the most common digital product sold on the Internet today.
They can be easily created using several free software programs, usually in .PDF format, and are easily uploaded. Or, you can purchase MRR, or PLR products from various online sites and resell them on your site.
4. Make Money On The Internet By Starting An eBay Auction
Everyone has excess stuff they have accumulated and need to get rid of. Many people make money on the internet by starting eBay auction sites and selling excess goods from their home.
No website is needed to start selling, all you need to do is sign up for an eBay account and you’re off to the races.
You can learn more about eBay selling here and here.
5. Make Money On The Internet By Selling A Service
If you perform any type of service and if you are a writer, consultant, web site designer, or web programmer; you can sell your services online, or through sites like Elance.com.
Elance is a type of “headhunter” website that will facilitate connecting you with people who need your services.
Dropshipping is a great way to make money on the Internet that does not require any inventory.
You, as an online retailer, transfer the customer orders and shipment information directly to wholesalers, who then ship the goods directly to the customer.
You make money by buying goods at the wholesale price, and then selling to your customers at retail.
A Google search will help you research what people are buying, and give you a list of companies that drop ship, along with any minimum quantities that may be required by them.
Some companies like WordWideBrands, will help you do the research, and will even tell you where to buy the goods, as well as how to sell it.
These proven methods will make money on the Internet for you, as long as you put in the effort.
