Earning Revenues Online

If you are serious about earning revenues online, then you should pick out two to three hobbies that you are serious about, and will not move away from them for a considerable period. The reason I say that is because, website building, the content along with it, and many other variables that go into building and maintaining websites take time, a lot of time. As such, you need to pick a hobby that you are truly interest in, and in addition to have a stake in it as well. For example, if you are a college student in engineering major, an ideal topic that you would build your website has to be engineering related. The benefits of this are numerous as you have an intimate knowledge of the field, and a future stake in the profession. So, even if you take a break from the website, you can come back and restart the website with more content, whether it is your personal experience in the field, or how the profession is shaping. Basically, you know what's going on in the field, and are never out of touch with the realities of the profession.

A lot of webmasters who start out building websites, and who's primary purpose is solely to make money, build websites that try to maximize revenues. So, they end up making websites that are financials, gambling, or medical related websites even though they have no personal stake in it beyond looking up a few articles online, and paraphrasing it in their own words, or outright stealing content from others, and displaying on their website  as their own. Some do end up making money, but most don't and when the website's success doesn't materialize they just move on to something else. This tactic will not help you earn any money, but also will be wasting your precious time instead which could have been used to building a website that caters to your interests.

For me, any project that is worth wile has to earn about $500 plus. Why is that? If you take hosting costs, computer costs, domain registration costs, marketing costs, and especially your time - which most people dismiss, you will end up putting significant amount of expenses. As such, you need a certain amount of revenues to justify building websites. To me $500 a month is quite an acceptable goal, although for newcomers it might seem impossible, but if you are dedicated enough, and have website topic in mind that you have a long stake in, a well nurtured site for 6-9 months can bring in those kinds of revenues. 

Once you know the topic you are going to build your site on, the best thing would be take an empty notebook, and write down the topic you are going to cover, along with any related fields, then write down 10 articles or issues you are going to cover. You are not immediately writing 10 articles, but just jotting down the issues you are going to cover in the topic. Now, don't concern yourself with the website layout, or the domain name, just concern yourself with the topic your website is going to cover, and the issues that you are going to write. Now, once you know what topic your website is going to cover, along with the first 10 articles you are going to write, go online and see what other websites are in the field. Check out your competition, and see what they are doing - what topics they are covering, the major websites for the topic, the most prominent keywords being used, their link structure, how their domains are named, and the frequency their content is updated. 

Now that you know the competition and field you are in, you should now start writing the 10 issues that you first jotted down, write at least 500 words for each article, although you can go for lower number of words, but I prefer having articles with at least 500 words. After you have written down your 10 articles, it is now time to consider the domain you are considering to register. 

Why do I consider with the domain registration now, instead of it being the first thing? Well, in my experience people get too wrapped up in the domain they are going to register, and once they register and have the site working for a few weeks, they just lose interest. In order to guard against, and make sure that you know for yourself that you are serious about it, I would like future website builders to actually focus on the content, as that is the real king, not building websites. You will build website once, but content - you have do it over and over again. So, writing 10 articles beforehand gives you an idea of the commitment that is required in order to build and successfully maintain a website. It isn't enough that you built a website, but what is important is that the site you have built is successful, that is what that's going to bring you money.

Once you have registered yourself a domain name, make a layout for your website, and if you are not much of graphics person you can get others to build a layout for you. You can also alternatively look into content management systems, which will build the websites for you, and all you have to do is write content. I myself use these CMS's. Earlier, I used to use Coranto, and nowadays I use Movable Type. Either way, it is up to you on how you want to proceed. 

After you have decided on how to build the website, it is now time to get a web hosting service that will be the home of your domain name. A good hosting service is essential; you can go to websites like webmasterworld, where you can see what hosting service companies are reliable. I myself have been using Servint for the past few years, and although it is expensive, it does the job, and I am more than satisfactory.

With the website up and running on the hosting service, it is now time to submit the content that you wrote earlier. Post the content on the website, and make sure you make any changes to the website whether it is visual or any changes in terms of the vision your site is going to pursue. At this point, your site has to be "read" or completely done, and the only thing that it will require additionally from now on would be content. 

As your website is now ready, make sure you have a sitemap for your site; a sitemap will help your site get indexed faster as all the pages will be listed in one page, so Google or other search engines can easily index your web pages. Once you have your website ready along with your sitemap, it is now time to submit it to Google, or submit a press release so that Google can index your webpage from that press release.

Now, don't rush in and start putting ads on your site, wait 2-3 months, yes 2-3 months, and see how your site is progressing , whether it's' traffic has increased or any additional changes that are needed to done. My policy is to not put ads on a site that isn't mature, so the best thing to do would be to wait a while. A lot of people are too wrapped up in making money, and completely ignore the importance of content or anything else, and just wait for the dollars to roll. Instead keep on building new content, so that you won't get distracted by lack of money you are making or haven't succeeded in your venture.

The above ideas provided followed carefully should put you in a path of earning significant revenues online. Focus on content instead of website first. Having a good list of articles you are going to write before hand is always helpful as it gives you an idea where your site is headed. Don't rush in and put ads on your site, as it will only get you distracted or discourage you with disappointing results.

I hope this article is helpful to you in your money making ventures online!