How to make money off a website

Here's a brief overview. If you'd just like to know how to monetize, scroll all the way down! I'll go more in depth later.

There are only three things you need to succeed at creating a website:

1. A good idea
2. Good content
3. Consistency

Have A Good Idea

It's as simple as this. If you want to create a website, you first, of course, must have a solid idea of what you want it to be about. When you do, there are several questions you must ask yourself:

1. Does my idea provide something?
2. Do I have expert knowledge in this area?
3. Is it something new or something I can contribute in?
4. Is it something I can provide content in?

Think about what interests you. Think about the types of abilities and skills you have. Think about what you excel in. Almost any skill or idea can be made into a good money making website with the right know how.

Think about something you love and refine that into something you can provide to the world. Do you like music? Are you really good at playing an instrument? Then make a website/blog than can provide tips or advise to people who want to play that instrument. Are you an artist? Perhaps then you should create a webcomic or a website to post your art portfolio.

Maybe, you don't have any special skills, there's always the knowledge you hold that's specific to you that you can share. Maybe you know how a car works really well, or you have specific experiences in a foreign country you can share. The options are unlimited.

Create your website

Okay, first things first, you have a great idea but you don't know where the heck to start.

1. Register a domain name + get a host
   
2. Create your website/upload a template

If you want to create your own website with your own domain name, you should follow the above steps. However, if you're completely new to websites, I would suggets you first create a free blog from either wordpress or blogger. These websites are great. Not only can you still generate a lot of traffic and make a lot of money from blogger and wordpress, it's a good experience and if you decide blogging or website creating isn't for you, you can always quit without losing any money.

However, if your goal is to create your OWN website then let's go through the steps on how to do that.

Registering a domain name and getting a host

First thing you have to do is register your domain name. What's a domain name? Well, you know website address? For example, www.nytimes.com, "nytimes" is the domain name.

Certain websites I would recommend for this is either namecheap or godaddy I personally prefer godaddy. Alternatively, you can also register your domain name at sites that also simultaneously provide you with a host. This is a good idea and most recommended. I can't name many websites off the top of my head, but you can do a quick google search and figure out which option is best for you. For me, when I first started I used bluehost this was a pretty good host. It was everything you can ask for, cheap and reliable.

Create your website/upload a template

Okay, you have your domain registered and your host, how do you get your website to actually something? Well, if you're fluent in .css and html, you can go ahead and create your website from scratch. For the rest of us, we need a little bit of help.

The best advise I can give beginning web creators is to use a premade html template and just upload it to your site. The best I can recommend is wordpress. Wordpress is a great GREAT tool for ANYONE beginners and professionals alike. It is a great tool for making your life so much easier with editing your post and uploading your content. If you'd like to start a blog or pretty much anything, wordpress is where to look.

Provide Content

Now that you have your website up, you have to provide the content. I can't really help you out much here. All I have are a couple of tips:

• Make sure your website has gravitas, good content on a sketchy looking site is a no-no
• The best way to attract visitors is consistency. If you build it, they will come
• Utilize different sites to bring in traffic such as uploading your post to Digg or Readdit
• Have fun with it! Web building is a marathon, not a short sprint! Do something you love, then money will come!
  

Monetizing

This is the part you've probably all been waiting for: monetizing. How exactly does a website earn money? For the most part, large websites earn money through advertisement. The way it works is that when a website becomes popular, the website starts to generate "traffic" or people who come to the site. The higher the site traffic, the more advertisers know how popular your site is. Advertisers will then bid on your webspace to put their ads in. Bingo! That's cash in your pocket!

Now that you get the idea, there are a couple of ways of making money off of ads.

The first way, and the best way is ProjectWonderful. This site is like eBay for webspace. Basically, you post up your web URL and bidders take a look at your traffic and website then proceed to bid on your space. Whoever is the highest bidder gets to put their ad on your website and you get the money.

Another way, the easiest way, is through Google Adsense. Adsense is a Google tool which allows web creators to place google ads on their website. Depending on how many visitors click these ads, you'll get paid. Adsense is super easy to use and that's why it's so popular. There are rumors that some people get paid upwards of 20k a month just from google adsense alone! Wow!

Final Words

Well, sorry if I disappointed you and didn't give you exactly a step by step guide on how to make money off a website. The fact is, there isn't really a rubric on how succeed. I can only give you certain starting tips. The rest is for you to do. Go out there! Try it! Just remember all you need is:

1. A good idea
2. Good content
3. Consistency

Get Rich Quick

Hi guys, I'm the webmaster to "Get Rich Quick Plans". I'm not here to scam you or anything, I'd just thought there'd be people out there that could benefit from my experience. I'll be here blogging about various "Get rich quick" ideas and that I've tried out in the past. I'll fill you in how to jump in on the band wagon help give you ideas on how to succeed!

Well, here goes nothing!