How to make money on the Internet

How to make a website and make money on the Internet: The basics

Today it seems that everybody has a website and is making money on the Internet! Here are a few tips to know before you create a web site of your own and how to get started.

Different types of websites:

There are a few different types of websites on the Internet. Some very simple to build and maintain, others extremely complex and expensive. Understanding the differences and knowing what you want to accomplish in advance will help you choose which type of web-site is right for you.

Free Internet Website hosts

There are several companies that provide free web hosting on the Internet. This means they will provide a web server and allow you to create your own web page. Free web hosts usually provide only a small amount of storage, meaning you can only create a small and simple website, and they usually make their money by forcing pop-up advertising whenever someone views your web page. Because these free web-server hosts display their own advertising you may not be able to use advertising systems such as Adsense (see below).

RECOMMENDED: Virtual website hosts

A virtual web hosting company provides web servers and an internet connection shared by more than one customer. They provide full functionality and usually large amounts of storage for your website. Virtual web hosts are usually the best choice for most non-commercial web sites. Because of the balance of low-price and high reliability, grownupgeek.com began on a virtual web host. Our first host, Powweb is highly recommended as a low-priced ($5-$8 per month depending on the plan and promotion), easy way to start your own website. You can click the Powweb icon on the left to see what they offer or sign up for their low-priced services. PowWeb offers pre-made website templates, they are very easy to setup, and have very good customer support. You can even choose your domain-name with PowWeb all at the same time. If you want to get your new website online fast and don't want to spend a lot of money PowWeb is a smart choice. Click here for more info about PowWeb.

Other low-cost Internet Webserver hosts:

There are literally thousands of Internet website hosting providers to choose from. Here are a few other low-cost web hosts to choose from. By comparing prices and features you can choose one that's best suited to your needs and budget.

• www.Web.com
• Aplus.Net Website Hosting
• New! Virtual Private Servers (VPS) from 1&1.com

Dedicated website hosts

A dedicated web-hosting company provides highly reliable and high speed internet web servers and dedicated internet connections. These services are extremely fast and reliable, but can also be very expensive. Companies like iPowerWeb.com offer good priced dedicated web servers.

Self Internet Website Hosting

Hosting an internet web server of your own requires a high speed connection to the internet and expertise in firewall and security configuration, and can quickly become a full time job. Because of the level of expertise required and because most internet service providers prohibit the use of web servers on non-business internet connection accounts, trying to host your own web-server is not recommended and highly discouraged.

Web page creation software

Some web hosts such as PowWeb allow you to easily create web pages using simple web-based editing tools, know as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. This type of page creation is very easy and all you need is a web browser (such as Firefox). The trade-off is that the type of pages you can create is very limited. Most virtual web-hosting companies including PowWeb will allow you to use web-page creation software of your own such as Microsoft Front Page, Dreamweaver, or other site-builder programs. You will need to purchase and learn how to use your web-page editing software, but this will give you more control and capabilities in the long term. Hosts such as PowWeb offer great pre-made and easy to setup website templates that make creating your website quick and easy. Click here for more info about PowWeb's easy website setups.

The fun part: Make MONEY on the internet with your website!

The two common ways to make money with your website are selling products or selling advertising. We will focus on selling advertising since it's easy, and ANY website can do it.

Google AdSense

Google's AdSense has revolutionized the way people make money on the Internet and is by far the easiest way to make money online. Now virtually any website can make money, with virtually no limits to what you can earn! Google Adsense automatically delivers "targeted" text ads to your website giving your readers what they are looking for. For example: If you have a website about how to make money on the Internet, Google Adsense will display advertisements about creating websites, making money on the internet, or web hosting solutions.

Google Adsense is FREE and easy to use!

Signing up for Google Adsense is absolutely free and takes only a few minutes. Simply fill out a form online to create your account and you're done. After your account is created, simply copy & paste your ad-code onto your website and start making money online! It is literally that easy! Of course how well you do and how much money you make depends on many factors, mainly the amount of traffic & visitors that come to your website. A website that gets a #1 or #2 search result in Google or Yahoo can easily get many thousands of visitors per day, and earn thousands of dollars per month.

After building your website make it easy to find

The key to making money with your website is traffic. The more people that come to your website, the more money you can make with affiliate advertisers. They key to getting people to your website is Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimazation (SEO) is the process of getting your website into search engines (such as Yahoo and Google) and getting it listed at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). If you build a website about Widgets, you want to be sure that anyone searching on Yahoo or Google for "Widgets" sees your webpage at the number one position, and not somebody else's webpage.

Basic Steps of SEO

• Submit your website to DMOZ.ORG. DMOZ is the 'mother' of Internet Directores
• Submit your website to the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. All the major search engines allow you to submit your site so they can start adding your pages into their search index.
• Solicit links from other websites to your website. When a site links to your site, it's like a 'vote' that your website has good content. Search engines take into account how many other sites link to your site when deciding what to list in the SERPs. Links from other sites also make it easier for search engines to find your website
• Read and learn! There are entire books, websites and forums dedicated to making websites "search engine friendly". Two good sources are www.webmasterworld.com and www.digitalpoint.com.

Advertise Your Website or Blog

Most advertising is going to cost you money, so for beginners I recommend BlogRush. BlogRush is a free advertising system based on pageview-credits. Basically this means the more times someone views your website or blog, the more times your blog is displayed on the internet on other sites or blogs. All you do is sign up for a free account, and paste a small bit of code on your blog or web-site. This code will display a "Live from the Blogosphere" section that displays links to other sites and blogs related to yours (look to the left for an example). Other sites in the BlogRush network will display your website in this same section on their website.
For more information go to www.BlogRush.com

Paid Advertising

Got your website all setup but want to bring even more visitors FAST? Then paid-advertising might be the best option.

Google AdWords

Google's Adwords service is by far the largest and most effective internet-based advertising system on the web today. Using Adwords, website publishers can display simple, easy to create text ads that are displayed on Google's search-page results and on websites in the Adsense publishing network. With Adwords your advertisement be in front of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of internet users in minutes. Advertising with Adwords is very easy and signing up is free, and most advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their advertisement. If you sell a product on your website, Adwords is an almost guaranteed way to bring targeted traffic (people looking for your product) in minutes.

Add new content and lots of it, then wait

After creating your website and learning SEO, the next step is to wait (unless you opt for paid advertising). It can take anywhere from weeks to months for the search engines to begin listing your website. Use this time to add unique and interesting pages and information to your website and keep it growing.

Earning money with your website might take a few weeks: Use the time to your advantage

As we said above, it can take time before you start getting traffic to your website and making money on the internet. Use this time to learn more about making your site better, and make it better. Making money with a website is not a get-rich scheme, and it takes hard work, dedication and patience, but the payoff can be well worth it.