Creating a Website
Identify the purpose of your website. In order to attract any investors, customers, or advertisers, you must have a value proposition for them. Attracting advertisers must be your primary goal, as that is what will make your financial aspirations a success. Figure out what your website will actually bring readers or users first. Know what advertisers or ad placement algorithms are looking for in a website: generally, it's potential buyers with disposable income who visit your site. If you run a baseball blog, your advertisers might be selling mitts, bats, or game tickets. What you want in a site is to attract—and keep—a lot of visitors. The longer they stay, the more likely it is that they will eventually leave your site by clicking on your advertiser's links.
Find a market for your material. To generate the most traffic, be selective in your target market. While every demographic has its strong points and weak points, so figuring out what your users actually want is important when it comes to developing your content. Keep in mind that the goal is clicks, not sales. Clicks generate your revenue. Once the visitor has clicked out of your site, it's up to the merchant to make the sale. You get paid (most of the time) regardless of the outcome. Search the web for trends and ideas for websites. Find ideas that pique your interest. If it’s interesting to you, it will probably be interesting to someone else out there!
Secure the domain you want to use. The domain refers to the website URL. Aim to get creative with hyphens or unique spellings. For example, while "geeks.com" (and .net, .org, even .xxx) is taken, try something like “g33ks.com” or “thesite4geeks” instead. Once you find a name you like, buy it using a registrar like A2 or GoDaddy. If you can’t buy a domain, sign up with a service like Blogger or Wordpress—both of which will not only let you put your site name in front of their service name (e.g., geeks.wordpress.com), but give you that and a website for free. This is a great place to start if you aren’t sure how serious you want to go.
Build your website using templates. Use a registrar’s template (like the ones offered by Squarespace or Wix) or design your own website. What you do will be based almost entirely on the market you are attempting to reach. Whether you are ultimately offering a personal service, like automotive repair, or plan on running a blog, like about cooking, the goal is to keep people on your site. That means the content is king. If you're offering a service, your site could have content specific to your specialty. An auto shop, for example, might have some basic articles on changing oil, fixing a flat, or a FAQ about all those little sounds a car might make. A baking blog could feature, along with recipes, information such as weight and measure conversions, the differences between types of flours, and anecdotal tales of kitchen disasters and successes. In both cases, going beyond the basic service provided gives visitors a reason to stick around—and click on ads!
Keep it fresh by posting and updating regularly. Don't post one or two articles and call it a day. Remember that this is your income stream we're talking about developing, so think of it as your job—part-time or full-time, you have to devote some time to it every day if you want to see the paychecks come rolling in. The more you write, the more interest your site will hold. The more interest your site holds, the more people will follow it, and more importantly, the more relevant your site will appear to the ad placement algorithms. More ads = more clicks = more money. Never lose sight of that goal. It may take weeks or even months before your website generates enough clicks to attract advertisers, so stick with it!
Advertising and Promoting Your Site
Sign up for Google AdSense. Signing up for AdSense is basically step number one for any website. AdSense will place ads for goods and services that are relevant to your site's visitors, based on the content of your site. You get paid every time an ad appears on your site, or an ad is clicked on. You get paid a very small amount for each impression (view) or click. Therefore, the more traffic you generate, the more clicks and impressions you will have, and the more money you will receive. Google AdSense will also allow you to turn on banner ads (the ads that appear at the top or bottom of the page in horizontal blocks). These are typically the biggest earners, advertising-wise.
Promote your site via your social media accounts. Every time you post, every time you make a change, every time you change a period to an exclamation mark or correct “the” to “the,” let the world know via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and all the rest of the social media world. The key is to spread the word. Have accounts on all of the above platforms and make sure you have prominent links to your website on all of them. Start an email campaign as well. Once a week, publish a "best of my site" HTML email—frequent enough that people enjoy the content, but not so much that it becomes spammy.
Pay attention to your metrics and adjust accordingly. Find which ads work best, and do more ads and pages like those. At a certain point, you can even consider gearing your content directly toward the kind of material your advertisers are interested in. Google Analytics is a wealth of data, but you can also purchase a subscription for analytic software that offers more customizable info. By continually refining your process, each visit will be a higher value for revenue generation. Always remember: the longer they stay, the bigger your paycheck will be. Good luck!
Sign up as an affiliate with Amazon to earn commissions. Companies use affiliate programs to boost their online sales, and most of these affiliate programs are free to join. The best general affiliate program these days is run through Amazon, so start there. Every time a visitor buys an item through the affiliate link on your website, you earn an affiliate commission. You can even start creating promotional sponsored posts if businesses reach out to you personally once you get big!
Incorporate additional revenue streams that suit your style. Affiliate links and advertising are the two biggest ways most websites earn money, but they aren’t the only ones! If you discover another earning stream makes more sense to you (or more sense for your content), give them a shot. Options include: Skimlinks. Skimlinks is an affiliate network that automatically inserts affiliate links in your content and pays you a percentage. Courses. If your content focuses on a skill you’ve developed, consider designing and selling an online course for readers. Donations. Set up a portal or Patreon tab to begin accepting donations online. Memberships. If you’re selling goods or services on your site, selling memberships is a great way to normalize your income and stabilize costs.
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