Thinking about Launching a Website?
Having your own website can be quite profitable. You may think that developing a website might seem like a daunting task, but with determination and planning, you can launch your own website and turn a profit in a number of ways.
One of the first things to consider is why you should launch a website and what the content will be focused on. Do you want to sell birdhouses online? Do you want to showcase your graphic design skills? Do people tell you that you are a great organizer and you find yourself giving advice about it to others? You can turn any of these actions into a great website.
Profitable websites all offer a product, service or just interesting advice and opinions that others will want to find online. Building a profitable website is first and foremost about finding your niche. Your niche is that one thing or topic that you know you can dedicate the time and energy to in building an online presence and audience. Above all, build your website around something you are passionate about.
Getting Started:
The first thing you need to do is come up with a website name and register your domain. This is your address on the world wide web.
If you can afford to have someone build a professional website, I would suggest you do that. However, in this day and age, there are lots of easy ways to establish a great web presence with a functional and attractive website using ready-made templates and other web-builder tools.
- Start with these resources:
WordPress (free website and blog themes)
1&1 Web Hosting (web hosting and website builder tools)
Cyber Chimps (website themes)
iPage (domains, web hosting, website builder tools and more)
Creating Content and Monetizing Your Site
Affiliate programs allow you to easily monetize your website. Affiliate programs pay website owners a commission based on sales of advertised goods or services. Companies like Amazon, Groupon, Wal-mart and hundreds of others offer commissions for web publishers who place their advertisements on websites. There are a number of ways that you can employ these affiliate programs on your site – banners, in-text advertising, text links and more.
- Check out these Affiliate Networks:
Getting Traffic to your Site
Once you’ve launched your site and you are producing content and put your affiliate programs in place, it’s important to continually optimize your site to get traffic to your site. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing come into play.
SEO involves choosing the right keywords so that search engines will be able to rank and index your site and direct those individuals who are looking for the type of information/products/services you offer to your website. One of the first things you should do is submit your website to as many search engines as possible. Do a general web search on “search engine optimization” and “submitting your website to search engines” and you will find a wealth of information that you can use.
You should spend some time marketing your website to get more traffic. You can employ a lot of different methods to get the word out and drive traffic to your site. Some of the ways to market your website are:
Free Online Classifieds
Social Media – Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn
Email Marketing
Forums
Guest Blogging
Sponsorship Ads
Press Releases
Article Promotion
Just remember that to reap great rewards, that you should continually try and develop new content that speaks to your audience’s interest. Focus on the look and feel of your website and solicit feedback from your readers. They will help you shape your website better, based on what they are interested in. Above all, have fun with it.
