How to Build a Website and Make Money from the InternetI often get asked how to build a website, and how it is possible to make money from the internet. On this page I will give you an outline of the way I did it, so that maybe you can do it too! Before creating www.history-for-kids.com, my only experience of the internet was email, news, ebay, wikipedia, etc. Then I signed up with a Canadian company called Sitesell, creators of SBI (Site Build It). As well as providing the software you need to physically create and host the site, SBI is a course that teaches you how to build a website, and how to make your site popular, and how to earn money from it. Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines, are a mystery to most people, but the course teaches you how they work, and what they look for when deciding how highly to "rank" a site. High ranking sites appear at the top of the list when a user searches for a relevant topic, and it is important to have as high a ranking as possible. The course teaches about keywords, and the importance of repeating the keyword a certain number of times, but not too often. The keyword for this page is "how to build a website". Notice how I slipped the keyword "how to build a website" in there in context, twice! That should improve the ranking for this page a little! Another technique is the "watermark":
how to build a website
SBI has split the course into ten steps (they refer to them as “ten days” but that is misleading) as follows: Q&AHow does a website make money?The simplest method is by adding adverts to the site. There are two main types of adverts. The first is the affiliate link, like this one from Amazon (USA): If someone clicks on this link, and subsequently buys something from Amazon, I will get a small percentage of what they spend. The second type is GoogleAds, which usually look like something like this: With GoogleAds, every time someone clicks on your advert you get a small commission – multiply that by a few thousand clicks, or a few hundred thousand clicks, and it becomes a very big commission. The exact amount per click varies from 1 cent up to about $50. It depends on the keywords on the site - "college loan consolidation","car insurance quotes", and "mesothelioma diagnosis" for example, pay very highly. SBI also helps you with other possible income streams too, such as creating eBooks and mp3s that can be sold online. If you want to set up a shop selling physical goods, SBI can help you with that too. Does history-for-kids.com make money? Yes. In the first year, the income was very small, starting off at a few cents a day, rising to a few dollars a day, and I did not quite cover all of my expenses. Now in year two though, the income more than covers the outgoings, and I have reason to believe it will continue to increase for quite some time. A relative of mine who runs a few sites, and has done for a few years, tells me that in a good month he makes thousands of dollars. The expectation he gave me was that I should aim to cover my outgoings in the first year, earn hundreds in the second year, then thousands in the third year, then after that who knows. He has given up his day-job. I am not so sure that I will ever be able to live off my site, but an extra few thousand a year would be very nice. I have actually set up a second site about classic black and white movies this year and hope to do a third one next year, and so on - perhaps one day I will be able to give up my day job. What are my outgoings? SBI membership is about $300 per year. However, they do regularly run special offers where it is possible to get it cheaper, although often in a "buy one get one half-price" deal - these tend to happen in the run up to Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, etc. Other expenses include optional paid-for directory listings (I paid for one, at $50) and licences for any pictures you use on the website (you can of course add them illegally if you want to, but the licences are surprisingly cheap, say a few dollars each) plus any extra software or research information you decide to buy. My total outgoings in the first year were about $400. Does SBI give you everything you need? In terms of software and training, yes. They also claim they can help you come up with the idea for the site theme. To be honest though I had the idea for the site theme and had written some poems before signing up to SBI, and if I do make lots of money it will be difficult to know how much of my success is down to SBI, and how much is down to that initial idea. What is certainly true though, is that I would not have had the confidence to attempt setting up the site were it not for the fact that I knew I was going to have all the advice and support I needed. How long does it take? As I already had an idea, I whizzed through steps 1-5 in an hour or two each. Step 6 is quite a lot of hard work though, and took me a few weeks working 2 hours a day. Step 7 also took a while, but then steps 8-10 are quicker again. Once I finished step 10 though, I went back to some of the earlier steps and added/refined things. It becomes an ongoing process really. I got quite enthusiastic about it and ended up spending most of my free time on it for several months, but I enjoyed doing something creative that was different to anything I had ever done before. What is good about SBI? The training is very good – A mixture of online videos and written guides. There is technical support and "forums" to discuss ideas and issues with other SBI users. The sense of community between SBI members is nice. The “Analyse it” software really helps you set up the pages right. The central repository of all the software is very useful and makes it easy to do the things you want to do very quickly. What is bad about SBI? The enthusiastic “you can do it” tone might not be to everyone’s taste, but you do find yourself getting swept along with it despite yourself. The software provided has a few limitations, so you cannot be a perfectionist. However you do not have to use their software, and you can use your own if you want to. It is not cheap. If your site fails and it takes you a few years to realise it has failed, you could be out of pocket. If you are not sure, I recommend waiting for one of SBI's special offers. Do I need SBI to set up a website? No. I am sure there are plenty books available that teach you how to do this. All the software that SBI provides is probably available elsewhere. One of my reasons for joining was partly that if I knew I had made a financial commitment, it would motivate me to follow the course and not give up. SBI do claim however, that they do a lot of boring technical stuff behind the scenes for you, so that you can concentrate on other things. Should I join? I have had a good experience with SBI, but I realise it is not for everyone. There is hard work involved, and despite what SBI say, not everyone will be able to cope with the technical side, or be creative enough to write an interesting website. I think most people will cope though, and I do recommend it as a decent second income for someone who wants to work from home, or wants a hobby that has the potential to make money rather than cost money. How do I join? If you click on the picture link below, it will take you through to SBI’s sales page, where you will get the hard sell. If you sign up after clicking this link, I do receive a small commission, for which I thank you.
Thank you for reading this. I have been as honest as I can, but the truth is I really do recommend it - I have had great fun setting up my website, and I hope it will make me a bit of money. Good luck to you too. Back to About Us from How to Build a Website
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