No Money..No Problem..How Your Website Can Earn you Cash Today.

A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Money Making Website...

So you want to start earning a little extra money on the side, but you don't have much cash to invest? No problem..You can start making money by the end of the day today. There's a lot of money out there to be made, and while most of us aren't going to get rich from the internet, there is absolutely no reason you can't make some extra money on the side to help with you bills, school costs, or to just have some extra pocket cash. We're going to focus on creating a simple website, monetizing it with some pay per click advertising programs, and maybe even touch on affiliate sales, if your site is appropriate for this type of business. We're going to assume you have some basic knowledge of web design or you wouldn't be here.

First thing you need to do is decide what your website is going to be about. Two schools of thought on this, ether pick something you're really interested in, so you don't get bored with it, or find a hot product or niche that not many other people are into yet, and cash in. For this exercise, we'll focus on the first method.

Pick Your Niche.
So lets just pretend for a minute that you are a huge enthusiast of hang gliding. Why not make a site that gives free information about different hang gliding spots around the world. It may not be the most profitable niche, but it's something you enjoy and you will make money from this site. The content of your site will be about different hang gliding locations around the world, and reviews of the latest and greatest hang gliding gear and accessories.

Buy a Good Domain Name
Since you're new found niche is about hang gliding, it will be best to choose a domain name that contains those keywords. Something like www.HangGlidingReviews.com would be good, or a variation of that. Having your keywords, i.e. Hang Gliding, in the domain name helps the search engines understand what your site is about. A .com domain name will run you about $9.00 a year from the popular www.GoDaddy.com

Cheap Web Hosting is a Must
Since you're not starting out with much capitol, you need to be frugal about where you get your web hosting. You don't need a gazillion Gigabyets of bandwidth, just a minimum will do to get your site going. You can get unlimited domain hosting only $9.95 a month at HostGator.com
They have good servers and I've been using them for years without a single issue to speak of.

--Alternative to Web Hosting.
If you WAY short on cash, you can setup a free blog account at Google Blog Spot. This will cost you absolutely nothing, and you can even use your unique domain name that you recently purchased. Google Blogspot will allow you to do regular posting and updates, PLUS you don't need to have expensive web authoring software. It's a very easy format to use and you can add as much content as often as you like. In addition, it works very well with Google Adsense, so making money is a breeze.

Get a Google Adsense Account (You need this to start making $$)
Ok, before you create your website, you should probably get going on your application for the Google Adsense program. Once you're accepted, you can get specific codes for your site that will automatically display relevant ads on your site, and when people click them, you make money. Click on the banner to the right of this post to get your Adsense account going ---->

Create Your Site
If you decide not to use Google Blog spot then you have to create a site on your own. Hopefully you have some basic knowledge of how to create simple websites. They don't have to be overly complex pages. Usually a basic table structure with a good header image and good content will get the job done. Be sure to use good title tags, description tags, and keyword tags...however the latter isn't as important anymore.

Get the Money Makers on Your Site
Hopefully your Adsense account is approved and ready to install. Log into your account manager and choose the ad sizes for your site and install the code. Always be sure to follow Google Adsense Terms of Service..and NEVER CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADs. You'll be banned from the program, and you won't make a dime. It can take a few minutes for the ads to load on your pages, so be patient...they'll show up. You can log into your Adsense account at any time to see how much money you have made for the day...when you start making some money it can really get addictive to see how much your generating.

Promote Your Sites and Get Traffic
To really make good money from your advertisements, you need to get some traffic. The best way to get this going it so submit your website to Google, Digg, Delicious, and other social bookmarking sites. Submit your site to Web Directories to help you get backlinks. Search engines love sites that have lots of good backlinks (one way links to your site from another site), and you will be rewarded with higher search engine rankings. Remember, you need to keep quality, fresh content on your website for it to do well. No one will visit a site that hasn't been updated in 6 months, and the search engines will punish you as well.

We hope this tutorial will help you get a basic site up and running and begin to make you some extra cash by using Google Adsense. Next time we will discuss some affiliate programs that you can join and begin to set up your own online store, making you even more income...stay tuned.