Earn money by having a site (Online Perks in general)

Member Name: .com

Product:	Online Perks in general
Date:	10/03/01 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Make Money

Disadvantages: None

If you want to try to earn a little money with your website there are some things you will have to learn first in order to be successful with it.

The first thing, of course, is to have a popular website. However, even if this criteria is not met you can still make money, it just won't be as much or come as quickly.

Some popular websites are free graphics sites, tutorial sites {everyone knows something), and, of course, free greetings sites. The key thing though to remember is not to insult your visitors. They can spot it a mile away if your site was put up just for the money and you don't care about the topic at hand.

Which brings me to my next tip. Make your site well designed. A site that loads quickly, makes good use of a few colors {2 or 3 per page} at most, is browser compatible and resolution compatible will take you much further. It shows that you put time and effort into it. If your site looks like it was just thrown together as quickly as possible to start earning you money, it won't. Your visitors will not stay very long.

Another thing is to provide content. Be careful in doing so that you do not infringe on any copyrights. Images are easy to get but most are copyrighted. The best thing you can do is to get a graphics program. I use Paint Shop Pro. Anyone can afford this as it is very reasonably priced and does just as well as the more expensive programs. Also the people at Jasc are great and they listen to us when they are making a new version. To learn more about Paint Shop Pro you can download a 30 day trial for free at http://www.jasc.com or come to the newsgroup for Paint Shop Pro at comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro.

There are tutorials on how to use Paint Shop Pro all over the web and you can be up and running making stunning graphics in no time at all. The best place to find links to all the Paint Shop Pro tutorials and extras I have found is http://www.pspbook.com . This site is truly a
mazing with listings for tutorials, tubes, and brushes that can be used with Paint Shop Pro.

To learn what is considered good design there are two places I would highly recommend making a visit to. One is a newsgroup and my advice here is to lurk awhile and just absorb what is going on. Read the posts and the F.A.Q. The group is called alt.www.webmaster and we are a pretty friendly lot there as long as the rules are followed. It is a fun place to be and we have all ages in there.

There is also a website that provides an excellent education by showing you what not to do when designing a website. The site is http://www.websitesthatsuck.com and yes that is the actual url. *smile*. It teaches you in a fun way what not to do when designing your site.

Lastly you would need to keep your site updated often or your visitors will lose interest in it eventually. Keeping the content fresh and quality will not only keep existing visitors but will gain you new ones as the visitors may suggest your site to their friends.

My policy when designing is to K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stupid. I keep the animation to a minimum and above all my navigation is very clear. IF your visitors can't get where they want to go they will leave and not return.

All this has an affect on how well you will do with earning money from your website through the use of advertising. I have left the single most important point for last...

Match your advertising to your websites content. Match your advertising to your websites content. Match your advertising to your websites content.

Okay I repeated that three times because it is really vital. I see too many sites in my travels that really do poorly in this area. I have a game site that I like to play games at. While I am there I am thinking games. Yet I see advertising for music, videos, books, etc. They should have advertising for video games, PC games and, heck, even board games. That
is where my mind is at that moment.

One advertiser they teamed up with made me think of work and that was the last thing I wanted to do at that moment. Talk about a mood killer. Oh and did I forget to mention I did not click on that ad either?

Don't try to sell ice to Eskimos either. If you are offering a service, like say webdesign, do not advertise other webdesigners on your site. Instead advertise webmaster tools, software of interest to webmasters etc. Keep your content relevent but don't cut your own service off. Find similar services that do not offer direct competition but enhance it.

There are many excellent sources of finding companies that will pay you to put their advertising on your site. The best and easiest I have found is Commission Junction located at http://www.cj.com and boy do I ever envy that domain name. *smile* I have all my websites listed there under one account and over a thousand companies to affiliate with.

I pick and choose carefully. I still get rejected by some but that is okay. One of their competitors accepted me and so they will get my business. Commission Junction really simplifies things for you and once you get comfortable there you can look elsewhere or even sign up with companies that do not use any outside help like Commission Junction.

I am not saying that this will guarantee you earnings but it is a start. This requires work. It will not be easy nor will the money immediately roll in on an armored truck. I can say that learning what I have learned in the past three years I now have companies coming to me and asking me to promote their products.

That is a wonderful feeling in most cases when you realize that the company is truly being selective. I recently had this happen concerning my graphics site and it really made my day. They liked my site and selected it to promote their product. It was great not to seek out the companies but to have them come to me. r>
I wish you luck in earning with your website but remember.. Keep your site about providing excellent useful content and keep the advertising relevant and to a minimum.