My method for starting a website and making money online.

[decipher]

Hi Everyone,

I had some extra time on my hands today so I thought I would write up a basic steps list for fellow webmasters seeking advice.

Like everyone else, I'm sure you want to establish your presence online & make money while doing it! There are millions of ways to profit from online resources. All you need is a good head on your shoulders and a push in the right direction. In doing so I have listed a couple good pointers I personally recommend you keep in mind when pursuing an online venture...


Note: I'm using a Webmaster marketing blog website as an example in this thread.


Deciding the niche and what to sell:
Firstly you need to decide what kind of website you would like to have, and how you can profit from that website; make sure that there is a market for the niche. Once decided do some in-depth research on the niche so you know all about it front to end.

For example: If you wanted to start a webmaster marketing blog, you obviously need to know what you’re talking about and present it in a way that your end-users will know and understand. By doing so your viewers will be more active assuring you more success.

Once you have covered your research you will need to figure out how to profit from it. In this example I would do a search for similar sites and see what they have to offer to get ideas from them. With this said there are many ways to profit; to mention a couple... marketing services, eBook(s), adsense, text links, and banner spots. Find out what you want to do and apply it, if you don’t know how to make products like software and/or eBooks, there are many places across the net that provide these services at decent rates. (freelance websites, marketplaces, forums, and other websites.)


Where and how to promote the site:
All sites are nice and profitable in their own way, however without a good target audience they are nothing. So if you’re running a marketing blog it would obviously be a waste of time getting traffic from unrelated niches, so don't waste your time getting crap traffic to your site as it will only hurt your serps. (search engine ranking positions)

To start off I recommend using what I like to call the B.A.S.E tactics...

B- Blog posting
Find a good relevant list of blogs online that are in relation to your niche...

Here are some recommended search terms for a Marketing Blog:
> SEO Marketing Blogs
> Webmaster Blogs
> Marketing Blogs
> Promotion Blogs
etc...

Now take those key phrases and every 2-3 days do a search on each one in the bigger search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.. and post your comments about the blogs. (about the blog NOT your site; don't spam!) While doing so enter your anchor text (example: Marketing Blog) In the comment name field then enter your sites url & comment. I recommend changing up the keywords you use. Most all blogs will accept your comment if not automatically accepted as long as you stay on topic with the blog in your actual comment. Doing this every couple days will benefit your site very well.


A- Article & Directory Submission
Create a couple unique articles packed with good content relevant to your niche. If you’re not a writer you can outsource this to freelancers for a decent rate via means of freelance sites, forums, websites, etc.. now when the article is complete you will want to have a link to your site in it, I personally choose the keyword/key phrase (anchor text) I’m targeting for seo. From here choose a couple good article directories that have targeted traffic for your particular niche and submit your articles to them. (in NICHE categories!).


S- Search Engine Submission
Some choose to submit their sites to many search engines... I don't, all I do is submit to the more popular ones like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Please keep in mind; when submitting your site just submit 1 page url of your site NOT multiple page urls! And when doing so make sure you enter a targeted description that is relevant to your sites description and keywords you are wanting to rank good for.

E- Exchanging Links
Do a search on all the main search engines for websites similar to yours and send them a link exchange request email. I personally send an email request to all the top 10-30 website results per keyword I use with my Link Building Software.


NOTE: To make these tasks easier and faster you can use seo software’s like IPB and SEO Elite etc..


In short... I personally recommend keeping these pointers in mind when trying to achieve your goal. I hope this helps you in your online ventures as a profitable webmaster. Feel free to respond to this thread as you wish with any input, questions, and/or concerns.

Thanks!

[Kay]

Nice post, decipher! Thanks for sharing your knowledge there. Any particular order you'd follow your BASE tactics in or do you just start at B?

I'd be interested to hear about how the link exchange works out for you too. Do you find many take you up on it right away?

[decipher]

Nice post, decipher! Thanks for sharing your knowledge there. Any particular order you'd follow your BASE tactics in or do you just start at B?

I'd be interested to hear about how the link exchange works out for you too. Do you find many take you up on it right away?

Hi Kay,

Not really there is no order they should be done in, I just thought it was cool that i came up with that (B.A.S.E. Tactics) as it is easy to remember. I can say that out of all the tactics i have used (and this included purchasing those 1-2k advertisement spots on the BIG sites!) that the most effective method for not only SEO but also converting sales is surely the Blog Posting and requesting Link Exchanges. These methods might not give you lots of traffic but the traffic you do get converts at a better rate and after some time (usually 2-4 weeks) you get HIGH SERPS and this means more $$$

Normally I nail 15-25% out of all the sites I request links from. Personally I think a lot has to do with the looks of your site and the quality. I have noticed that if i take a site and deck it out real nice I get WAY better results when trying to swap links.

Glad I could be of help, if you have any other questions; ask away..

Thanks!

[Kay]

Thanks for the additional info, decipher. Yes, B.A.S.E. is catchy indeed! And I can understand why link exchanges would fare better the nicer your site is. After all, the person exchanging links is going to be associated with the visitor's perception of your site by having their link there, so the nicer the better.

What I do like about blog posting too is the speed it gets picked up by the search engines compared to a normal web page. It's definitely much faster.

[decipher]

Tell me about it, i have had a couple sites i was establishing and started out with blog submissions and believe it or not I actually nailed a couple Google first page rankings for some pretty good key phrases with in a matter of 2-3 days! Blog posting (if done right) is surely one of the best methods.

Thanks!

[syuxx]

I always found a hard time to decide a niche.
A lot of research need to be done to decide which niche should I do.
because it is the first step to set your website, you should spend more time with this.
Or other work after that is useless.

[decipher]

I always found a hard time to decide a niche.
A lot of research need to be done to decide which niche should I do.
because it is the first step to set your website, you should spend more time with this.
Or other work after that is useless.

I couldn't agree more... the hardest part for me is finding the niche i would like to persue. From there I use the B.A.S.E. tactics to get it going.

Thanks!

[theartfuldodger]

thanks that was a great post, and it was very well detailed. I'm sure that even you've really thought it out, you will find yourself regularly refining your approach, as that is progress

[presli]

I think that there are like a billion ways to earn online revenue, but most of them are just simple on words, but very hard to be done
Thats my own opinion - talking from my own experience

[dhaanish]

You are write. Creating a website or a blog and monetizing it with ppc and affiliate marketing seems to be the choice of making money online. I personally created many websites and found the SEO the most tough part..