Create a Website

It is easier than ever to create a website and make money from it. These are the steps you need to follow:

Build the website

First of all you need an idea and know what type of website you are going to create. You have several options available:

  • Informational – Upload information on just about any topic that you are interested in.
  • E-commerce – A site that allows you to sell item’s or goods, offer some sort of service or course.
  • Forums – Allows people to come together to discuss topics.
  • Directories – A place to catalogue items in certain industries or topics.
  • Gaming – Offer a site where people can play games.
  • Video – Upload videos for people to watch on the topic of your choice.
  • Photo – Showcase your photographs.
  • Blog – A place to write about your interests.

A lot of websites don’t have to fall into one single category. For instance you may have an informational website on how to care for your pets with a forum included. Or a blog where you upload photographs and videos.

Next you will need to register a domain name which is the name of your site, e.g mywebsite, with a top level domain such as .com or .co.uk on the end of it, e.g mywebsite.com You register the domain name with a web host that will allow you to keep your website online. We recommend Builderall which has all the tools you need to set up a website or Dreamhost as they are cheap and reliable and allow you to use WordPress.

Once you have a domain name registered you will need to decide how you are going to build the website. You really have one of two options. You can build the entire website from scratch in either HTML, PHP, flash or javascript if you are able to code or hire someone with coding experience. However, more than likely you will want to use a Content Management System. This is simply a piece of software such as WordPress which allows you to log in behind the scenes of your website and add content with a user friendly interface.

Create content

Once you have your website up and running you need to start creating content. You can either produce content yourself or you can hire a freelancer to do it for you. If you are doing it yourself the best way to do this is to set yourself a schedule to regularly create and upload content. It is vital you have a website where you are passionate about what you are creating so that you don’t lose interest in this phase.

Drive traffic

The hardest part of making money from your website is to drive traffic to your website. i.e get people to visit your site. There are multiple ways to do this:

  • Paid advertising on other sites with similar audience to your own or large sites such as google.
  • Sharing on social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, etc.
  • Search Engine Optimisation – Ensuring that your site shows up high in search engines.
  • Email list – Capture emails from people who visit your site so you can stay in touch with them.
  • Write in forums which are relevant to your site and include links in your signature.
  • Writing guest articles or commenting on other established blogs/websites with a similar audience to yours.
  • Run a competition which you give away something relevant to your site.
  • Offline advertising – printed merchandise, adverts in newspapers/magazines.

Monetize

If you have the dedication and persistence to complete all the previous steps, the final thing to do is to monetize your website. You can of course monetize it before growing traffic but generally there is very little point in monetizing something without anyone viewing it. There are a number of ways you can do this which we have listed here:

  • Affiliate marketing 
  • Sell adverts on your site – sponsored articles, text links, banners, video shout outs.
  • Sell products, courses, eBooks, software etc
  • Hold workshops, conferences, meetups, online webinars
  • Offer services – coaching, consulting, public speaking, training.
  • Accept donations

Extra Cash

Once you have a website you can use many different ways to build different revenue streams alongside it such as running a youtube account and selling items on your site.

Top Tip

Having a website is crucial if you are going to make serious money online. However there are no short cuts to  success other than persevering with creating content, driving traffic and monetizing your site.

Recommended Reading

Create your own website the easy way – An amazing guide on how to build websites yourself

Making Websites Win – Apply the Customer-Centric Methodology That Has Doubled the Sales of Many Leading Websites

Sites to use

Builderall – Complete online solution to start building and promoting your website including hosting, email list, sales funnels, image editors etc.

Dreamhost – Complete control over your website. Register you domain and host your website from $2.59 a month with one click install for WordPress