Summer is coming. Do you have an extra stash, ready to withdraw for that vacation you’ve been dying to take?
If not, then you should develop a plan and initiate action as soon as possible. The sooner you start earning an income, the sooner you can start doing more of the things you love.
One way to get started is to try building a website. It’s relatively easy to get your feet wet, but you must learn how to do it right if you expect to tap into the income potential, without getting stuck on the nickel and dimers.
Here is a straightforward guide to having a profitable website.
Step 1 – Set up your blog or website
Sounds like cake, but you must know how to do it right. A properly built blog or website is one that fills a visitor’s needs, and broadcasts their purpose with clarity.
If you have expertise in a field where people need help, you can turn that expertise into a business. If you can promote a product people love, you can spin your online words into gold.
If you don’t have an immediate expertise, build one. Find a place where people need you, then service that need.
Make a list of all the things you love and love to do. Then, search Amazon for book reviews in that area. Look for one-star reviews – these are the people who aren’t getting their needs met. You can step in and help.
When you provide a service or publish information that people need and want, you establish credibility.
Step 2 – Earn their trust
Start by making a name for yourself. When people know you want to help them (and you’re not just out to make a buck), they’ll repeatedly return to hear your advice.
Meeting their needs makes you their hero, and makes them want to help you in return.
Step 3 – Find products you love
Look for products that your readers need and can use. If you love it, tell your readers all about it. High quality products are useful and will pay better in the long run. Yes, there are plenty of sites where you can go and sign up for any and every available product, but you won’t be passing quality links to your readers, or earning anything close to the income you wanted.
Once your readers see you shuffling whatever you can over to them, they’ll stop wanting to come and eventually never return to your site.
The goal is promote what you love.
Step 4 – Promote sparingly
Once you’re a credible blogger, you must be smart about what and how you promote. Never inundate your readers or come across as a beggar. You want your readers to know they can trust your opinions, so you must post them with wisdom, and sparingly, so you don’t lose readers.
You must also always let people know when you might be compensated by promoting a product (it’s FTC regulation, anyway). Post a disclaimer to tell your readers they should naturally assume that any products you talk about could potentially bring you income. This is smart, honest business.
When promoting, make sure you’re promoting products or services you’re familiar with, and can fully stand behind.
Step 5 – If you use it, you can back it
Your readers will come to trust that you will lead them in the right direction. Maintain that credibility by affiliating yourself with systems or products you’ve actually used.
You should be able to sell your reader on the products you want them to buy. But you can’t do that, unless you’ve tried it yourself first.
Make sure you know all about the item you’re promoting in case your readers have questions before the sale. This continues to reinforce their trust in you
Your website, done well, can bring you a nice income. Enough to thicken your savings, or help you earn that vacation you’re longing to take. But you must invest your time. Rather than sitting in the evening with nothing to do, start building your affiliate empire instead.
Idle time is wasted money.
Use your time well and earn additional income you can be proud of.
{ read the comments below or add one }
Basic tips yet effective. Running a profitable website is not as easy as some advertisements make it out to be, it takes serious dedication, time and commitment. Great share!
How does one make money from the website?
Good tips. As far as possible, it’s important to have a set plan before proceeding. Know what you want to achieve and be realistic with that, especially if you’re new to it.
-Jean
Unfortunately it is not so easy to make money on the internet, many people try and give up after a few months, there are very few who succeed. It takes patience, knowledge of a niche and a lot of hard work to succeed.
That’s absolutely true.. it does take a LOT of hard work, research, and time.. Not for everyone I suppose!
Building a website today is so much easier than it may have been at one time! I got my site up and running in probably an hour or two- using a free WordPress template – and I am not even that good at technology. I think my total cost was like $15 to set it up (including domain name) and under $5 a month to run it. You could never start a brick-and-morter business that cheap with the potential of making decent extra income.
It’s also easier than ever to create products that can be sold as well. PDF’s make creating e-books super easy, and if you are writing high quality stuff that can actually help people, it will sell. I’m in process of creating a beginner’s real estate investing course – and I am amazed at how easy it is to do!
Thanks for a great post! I’m looking forward to hearing more from your site!
Thanks for the quick tips! It is pretty much along the lines of what I had planned to do but it is nice to see someone else say that I’m following the right path.
I love your idea about finding one-star reviews, it is looking at a situation from a different perspective. We can all use that advice in our current careers.