How to build a money making website? That is the question that everybody wants to know.. I will do my best to answer that question for you in this post.
For those interested in making money from a website and starting an online business, creating that dreaded website for the first time can certainly be a daunting and intimidating task.
I don’t know about you, but to me, the thought of spending money on an expensive web designer makes me cringe, especially when you are just getting started and on a limited budget.
In years past, designing and creating a website on your own was practically impossible to do, unless you were an experienced computer programmer and knew how to write code.
But not anymore!
Today, with all the tools and information that is available, just about anybody can follow a few simple steps for building a fully functional website, from the ground up.
Domain Name & Hosting
The process of finding a hosting company and registering a domain name the first thing and the two most important things to do before you can start building your new website.
Your domain name is the web address of your business that someone will type into the search bar of a web browser when they want to find you.
Web hosting is a service from a company that will store your websites data-base and files on their servers. These hosting companies will provide all the service and technology to make your website live and visible to just about every person on the planet.
When a user types your web address into the browser of their computer, the computer will then connect to the hosting company’s server and all of your web pages will be viewable for everyone to see.
There are many places you can go to buy and register your domain name and hosting services. Both the domain name registration and hosting can usually be purchased from the same company, or they can be bought separately from different places.
Just to get an idea, for a domain that ends in a .com, .org, or .net, these will cost you between $10 to $15 a year, and once you buy your domain, nobody will ever be able to use the same name, and it is yours to keep, as long as you keep renewing it every year.
Hosting prices vary depending on what company you choose and how many websites you want them to host for you. The price range can be less than $3 a month to $200 or more a month. For beginners you are just getting started, you can plan on your hosting costing anywhere between $3 to $10 a month.
Getting Started
Like I mentioned at the top of this page, building your very own revenue producing website really is simple and doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
I am going to tell you the two different ways I have personally done it in the past, and what steps you need to take in order to get your website up and running, and live on the internet for millions of people around the world to see.
Step #1: Get Your Domain Name
Often times, trying to come up with a domain for you business website is not always an easy task. Right now there are millions and millions of domain names that already have been taken, so coming up with a clever name that describes your business, and hasn’t been taken can be a bit frustrating.
When going thru the process of your name selection, it is always a good idea to follow a few guidelines if possible.
A few suggestions are listed below and are pretty much self explanatory.
- Keep the name as short as possible, preferably no more than three or four words
- Make it easy to spell and pronounce
- Avoid numbers, hyphens and other special characters
- Using a .com, .org, or .net extension is preferred
- Easy for someone to remember
Exact Match Domain
Some experts say having a desirable keyword embedded into your domain can be a benefit for your users and can have an effect on SEO, while other experts say it really doesn’t matter one way or the other.
For example and looking for an exact match domain, maybe you are creating a website for your affiliate marketing business, and you are building your business upon survival knives. An exact match domain would be something like www.bestsurvivalknives.com.
I will tell you that if survival knives are your thing, and you like that domain name, that name is available as of this writing, but it will cost you almost $1000.00 up front.
But something like “topsurvivalknives.com” is also available and would only cost you about twelve bucks a year.
So you see, it’s just a matter of taking the time to do your research to find a name that tells your audience exactly what your website is all about.
If you want to see where I found the availability of these domains and the amount of search volume on those keywords, you can read my detailed post on a great keyword research tool.
Brandable Name
A brandable domain name can be used instead of an exact match domain, but it isn’t tied to one specific product or service, which gives you the flexibility to add different products and services as you go along.
It won’t make a lot of sense to your audience to create a website like topsurvivalknives.com, and then also promote or write reviews on vacuum cleaners or health supplements.
But if you had a brandable name like XYZ.com, your website could literally be about anything. ( XYZ.com is already taken too)
Anyway, an example of a brandable domain name would be something like Amazon.com, Target.com, or Budweiser.com. A good idea might even have your own name as your domain, like www.JohnSmith.com.
But if your name is John Smith, and you want that name, it is available, but be prepared to pay a huge chunk of change for it. How does a million dollars sound?
Seriously!
Buying Your Domain Name
When it comes to buying and registering your domain name, there are no shortages of places you can choose from, but a few of the more popular ones are GoDaddy and Namecheap.
Sometimes you can find a special deal with GoDaddy where the cost of your domain name will only cost you a few dollars a year, but you have to commit to two years, and then the price can go up to about $20 a year.
I have personally bought quite a few domains through GoDaddy, but sometimes the price gets a bit out of hand by time you get finished with all the up-sells and extra features that are not included in the base price.
They will usually charge extra for privacy protection ($9.99 and $14.99 a year), and a domain specific email ($1.99 and $9.99 per month), where other places you can go are already included in the price.
It’s always best to shop around and do your research to see what each plan has to offer, and then go with the one you feel more comfortable with, because it all adds up when you start adding in some much-needed features for your business.
Step #2: Get Your Web Hosting
Just like having multiple choices for your domain registrar, you will also have an abundance of hosting companies to choose from as well.
As far as who you select for your domain, it really doesn’t matter much, but when it comes to your hosting, who you choose is a big deal, and the price should not be the main factor when deciding. Too many headaches could be in store for you down the road if you don’t pick the right hosing company.
Think about it. When it comes to your online business, you want to be in it for the long haul. You should be focusing on building and growing your business, not worrying about why your website takes so long to load, and why it keeps crashing.
I’m not just blowing smoke, but when it comes to hosting, the cheapest isn’t always the better deal.
With that said, I try not to write negative reviews and give bad information on specific companies, but I would rather offer you recommendations on companies that I currently use and have had good success with.
So, like I mentioned earlier, GoDaddy is a place where you can go for domain registration, but they also offer different hosting packages as well. On top of the domain, privacy & security, and email, you can expect to tack on another $3.00 to $10.00 a month, depending on how many domains you want to host.
One of the most popular and recognizable hosting companies that I recommend is HostGator. Again, I have bought numerous domain names through GoDaddy, so there is nothing wrong with getting your domain through them if you want, but I would personally stay away from using their hosting.
Like I said, I have used both HostGator and GoDaddy in the past, but I just prefer the web hosting at HostGator over GoDaddy, but it’s completely up to you which one you choose. And since your web hosting is not a huge expense, you can always switch later if you are unhappy with the service.
When I was first getting my online business started, I bought the cheapest plan I could find, but I ran into problems because of the limited amounts of websites I could host of those basic and inexpensive plans.
Again, always look around and compare more than just the pricing. Look at the features of each plan, and make your decision based off of how serious you are when it comes to growing your business in the future.
I’m not saying to go with the most expensive plan that can host 100 websites, but in my opinion, it’s much easier to find a plan you are comfortable with that will allow for growth later.
Features To Look For In A Hosting Company
Because you have an online business, your business is dependent on the three S’s. Security, Speed, and Support. You are relying on your hosting company and their servers to protect you and your visitors.
Security: Malware. Hackers. Spam. When it comes to computers, I think everybody already knows that those three little words are bad for business, and bad for your customers.
Knowing that the hosting company you choose to protect your website has your back, and knowing they are taking care of problems before they actually happen can give you piece of mind and less to worry about.
One of the main security features of a website is a SSL certificate, and some companies don’t offer it, and some charge extra for it, and some already come included in the service.
SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and it is a security feature that protects a visitors personal and sensitive information, like credit card numbers. In essence, it creates a barrier between the web browser of the consumer and the server of the hosting company.
Do not go without it!
Speed: There is nothing more annoying than when you click on a link to a website and the page take forever to load, or won’t load at all. It’s kinda like the Energizer Bunny…. It just keeps going and going and going, until you get tired of waiting and try a different website instead.
Not only does your visitor hate a slow loading website, the search engines don’t like it either. Your website rankings with the search engine results pages (SERPS) can, and will be drastically effected by a website that is moving slower than a three-toed sloth.
Support: I wish I could say that once you have your website up a going, nothing will ever go wrong. But eventually it will. It’s just the nature of the beast and part of cyberspace.
Sometimes websites crash and sometimes servers go down for a short time.
There is nothing you can do about it, but you are at the mercy of your hosting company, their technology, and their customer support.
Think about it. For most internet marketers, your website is the lifeline of your business and is the way you make money. If your website is down, it means no customers, and no customers means no money.
How long are you gonna have to wait before it gets fixed? Having a way to quickly contact tech support and getting your website back online as soon as possible is crucial to the success of your business.
Daily Backups: It is very important to always backup your website, just in case something goes wrong. Most people don’t do it themselves. It just easier to rely on the hosting company to do it for you.
Whether you need to restore your computer to an earlier date because of a major technical problem, or because you somehow accidentally broke the code on your site, a daily backup of your website should be done every single day.
Installing WordPress On Your Computer
Now that you have your domain name picked out and registered, along with your hosting company, you actually now own your very own money making website.
Hooray!
So here comes the fun part of building out your website with content, images, videos, and affiliate links, so you can start attracting visitors and making some money.
I hope that’s why you are here, isn’t it?
And finally, it’s time to install your content management system (CMS) on your computer. There are quite of few website builders around, but by far, the most popular and widely used website builder is WordPress, and that is what I use for all my websites. Not to mention that it is free, which makes it even better.
When it comes to installing WordPress, many hosting companies like HostGator have a 1-click install button which makes it very simple to install WordPress on your computer. However, if the hosting company that you choose does not provide a way to easily download and install WordPress, you must do it the old-fashioned way, and install it yourself.
But, if you decided to use HostGator as your web host, you will get an email with instructions on how to easily integrate and install WordPress on your computer, and you will be able to do this directly from your new hosting control panel.
If you want to get started quickly with a cheap web hosting plan, look at the video below on how to integrate HostGator and WordPress together.
But Now What Do You Do?
I know you are wanting to make money online with either a blog or with affiliate marketing, or you probably wouldn’t still be here reading this.
While it is true that every online business starts with a website, that website will be the foundation for the business to be built upon.
Unfortunately, just having a live working website is not a golden ticket to making money. There is way more to the process of creating a profitable online business.
It’s not easy, but it is simple to do.
There is a difference between easy and simple. The process of starting an online business with affiliate is basically just four simple steps, and you already completed one step by creating your first website.
But turning your business and website into something that can bring you passive income and something you can be proud of is not easy.
It takes hard work and you have to commit to treating it like a real business.
As long as you have the right mindset, along with the right tools and resources, you can definitely succeed in the online world.
Did you know that almost four billion people from all over the world use the internet every single day, looking for products, services, and answers to some of their problems? There really is no mistaking the potential for making money online has never been greater.
But let me tell you something real quick. Even with that many people surfing the net, the chances of them finding your website is virtually zero to none unless you do the things necessary, like proper keyword research and optimizing all of your web pages.
And if you don’t want to take the time to do things the right way, you can compare someone stumbling across your website to a blind squirrel that finds a nut once in a while. It won’t happen very often.
If I was a beginner and trying to figure out what kind of online business to start, I would for sure go the affiliate marketing route.
It is such a low-cost investment, and having the option to promote and offer millions of products to your audience is a no-brainer.
How Do You Do It?
It all begins with a niche. Do you have a hobby or a genuine interest in a specific topic that you are passionate about?
If you can’t think of one, don’t sweat. I will tell you where you can get help choosing a starting niche for your online business.
By now, after doing a little brainstorming, I will assume you have a basic idea on which way you want to go as far as your niche market is concerned.
Great!
Now how are you going to get those four billion people to visit your website? What good is it to have a website that is waiting to generate revenue for you if it is buried so far into cyberspace that nobody will every find you?
I will answer that for you. It doesn’t!
So you much learn the techniques to learn how to get your website on the 1st page of the search engines and drive massive amounts of traffic to your website.
Of course, you could pay for GoogleAds and Facebook ads, but that can get pretty expensive, and most beginners don’t have the money for that.
Making use of free traffic with search engine optimization (SEO) is the way to go. Even though it is free, there still are steps you need to take that your website and all of your pages and posts are optimized, so your pages and post start showing high is the search engine results pages (SERPS).
One thing you must do before creating your blog and content, is knowing what keywords people are actually searching for, and how many are searching for it too.
The information that you are looking for can be found in a good keyword word research tool. You can go here to read a detailed review on the keyword tool that I use for every post, and it is what I recommend you use too.
Final Thoughts & Conclusion
Often times, people constantly are falling for the “shiny object syndrome” and go from one thing to another, hoping they can find an easy way to make a lot of cash fast.
This way of making money doesn’t exist.
Like I said earlier, making money online with affiliate marketing is NOT EASY, but it is SIMPLE!
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a personal mentor that could teach you everything you need to know to one day work from the comfort of your own home.
To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t even know where to find a local business coach, mentor, or affiliate marketing expert if I had to.
But who could afford it anyway? I would say not too many.
But I have some good news for you….as long as you are serious about doing this online thing.
I want to tell you about a place that has everything, and I mean everything, to start your own online business from the ground up.
It has a detailed, step-by-step training course consisting of 50 task based lessons that will allow you to work at your own pace before moving on to the next lesson.
It also has an advanced keyword tool integrated into the platform, so you can get the most accurate and up-to-date information on the keywords your are targeting.
Ok there’s more.
You also have access to a live (not prerecorded) webinar every single week of the year. These webinars go over everything related to affiliate marketing and how to get the best out of your business.
There are also 12 classrooms, live chat available 24/7, and a place to ask questions and get answers from other successful affiliate marketers.
The best part is your can start for FREE with a starter membership. There is absolutely no commitment on your part and you can stay a free member for as long as you want.
Oh, and you do not need a credit card or provide any personal information to get started. Of course this starter membership is limited on some features you get with the premium membership, but it is designed for you to get your feet wet and see if affiliate marketing is the answer for you…. Without spending a penny.
One last thing I almost forgot to tell you. If you did not register your domain name and set-up your hosting yet, you will also get TWO FREE WEBSITES, which will allow you to earn while you learn, and all 10 lessons in the first phase of the Online Entrepreneur Certification course, just by joining as a free starter member.
In case you don’t already know, the all-in-one platform that I am talking about is Wealthy Affiliate. Wealthy Affiliate has been helping people from all over the globe build successful online businesses for more than 14 years, and they can definitely help you too.
I don’t know what your current job status is, or your present financial situation, but if you are looking to make a small change, or even a big change in your life, I sincerely hope you give Wealthy Affiliate a test drive and see why I think it is the #1 recommended affiliate marketing training program you can find.
Let Wealthy Affiliate and a whole community of affiliate marketers help you get your online business started the right way.
Are You Ready To Start Your Online Business Today?
All The Tools & Training That You Need To Create Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business Is Included When You Join The Wealthy Affiliate Community
If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you. Just leave them below and I will get back to you.
Todd
