Lifestyle in a way to make money online

There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images

If you have decided you or your company is in need of a website, you will have to purchase web hosting services from a hosting company. There are many different web-hosting companies to choose from, and they can easily be found on the internet. If you do a quick search for them in any search engine, you will find that there are almost too many to count. Choosing the company that is right for you can be a harrowing experience, but there are really only a few basic things to consider.

The first factor to consider when choosing a web hosting company is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation.

Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name.

You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go.

Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always freelance web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself.

Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images.

However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.

A blog is an easy to update website that looks sort of like a journal

Blogs are here to stay, and many Wahms are taking advantage of the trend. Making money with blogs is a popular choice for many work at home moms. Blogs are simple to set up, and relatively easy to update. This is especially true when you compare blogs to other types of websites. Within just a few minutes, you can set up a professional looking blog for free and start your Wahm blogging business.

A blog is an easy to update website that looks sort of like a journal. Entries are made at a minimum of each week, and the newest entries appear at the top. Entries are normally short articles of 200 to 500 words. Readers visit the blog or read the new blog entries through a blog reading program. Readers can also comment on entries and provide links between their own blogs and your blog.

With blogs, the opportunities are wide open. Choosing a blog topic is as easy as looking at your own life for inspiration. There are blogs about everything from celebrity news to bathroom cleaning tips. Before you start a blog, do some research on the Internet to see if people are interested in your possible blog topic. Your topic doesn’t have to be popular, but it does have to have a dedicated group of people who are interested in the topic.

When you pick a topic, make sure to stay within a fairly small “niche.” The term niche is used to describe a group of people who have a similar interest. There are big niches – like working at home – and small niches – like tips for training your cat to sit on the toilet. Try to find a happy medium between a popular topic and a niche interest so your blog has plenty of readers. Some topics, like working at home or parenting, are too broad and have too much competition for readers.

You can set up your blog through a free blogging platform, like www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. There are also a half dozen others to choose from. The blogging platform will walk you through making your first entry into your blog.

After you’ve made a few entries into your blog, its time to monetize your blog. This means you’ll be making specific changes to your blog in order to make money. One of the most popular ways to gain income from a blog is by using a contextual advertising program, like Google Adsense or Chitika. Contextual advertising pays you for each time a reader clicks on one of the advertising links on your page. The advertising program will scan your blog entries for keywords, and then place advertising on your page that relates to your page content.

For example, if you have a blog on children’s television and write an article about Sesame Street, the ads appearing next to that article will have to do with that program. They might be links to shopping for Sesame Street items, or an ad for vintage Sesame Street collectables selling on ebay.

One thing to note with contextual advertising is that you won’t have to worry about placing the ads yourself each day. Once you enter the code on your blog, the program will automatically refresh the advertising when you make a new post. You will be paid several cents for each click. It doesn’t seem like a lot per click, but it sure does add up quickly.

Contextual advertising is just one way to make money from your Wahm blog. You can also make product recommendations and suggest information products (e-books) to your readers. Each time someone buys a product you recommend, you will get a commission. Many bloggers find that making gentle product recommendations throughout their blogs are a way to garner extra income.

Finally, some companies will pay bloggers to create posts that suggest certain products or services. These companies pay a few dollars per post, and are fairly easy to use. The only drawback is that you’ll have advertising posts throughout your blog content. However, many bloggers have found a way around this by putting “And now a word from our sponsers” at the beginning of each of their required advertising posts. This helps the advertising appear less intrusive.

There's no magic in this online home based business stuff

A few years ago when I first started my online home business I didn't have a clue regarding how to go about it. I had never done any Internet marketing, and didn't know anything about websites or search engines or any of that other online business stuff...in short, I was a complete rookie. In retrospect, the two major things that really helped me was that I refused to be intimidated and I kept a realistic perspective (both in terms of initial financial results and the time frame necessary to become successful).

I know from my own years of experience that relatively few business ventures are started on the Internet by people with the experience, motivation, determination, backing, and support that it takes to even have a reasonable chance of success.

Real online business people are those who work hard, who immerse themselves deeply in marketing and advertising, and who put in long hours in the beginning in order to see their Internet-based businesses succeed.

Achieving success in an online business is not difficult to comprehend. There is indeed a learning curve, but it's not brain surgery. The process of learning isn't as much the issue as are the personal traits of motivation and determination.

Develop your marketing plan and execute it. There's no magic in this online home based business stuff. We're talking real world here. It's not nearly as romantic as winning the lottery, yet many of the thousands of people I have helped to start up their home businesses on the Internet clearly came in with what I have come to refer to as the "magic/lottery" mentality. Many of those folks went off to chase another rainbow after a few months, but some of them also came to their senses and buckled down to develop very successful home based businesses.

Run, don't walk, away from all of those people that offer you "shortcuts" or "success secrets" (probably in exchange for some of your money). I mean, if they had it all figured out, why would they sell this "magic answer" to you for a few bucks instead of just keeping it private and then making tons of money for themselves? (I'll leave it to you to connect the dots)

A key point to always keep in mind is that...business is business. Regardless of whether you are on the Internet or operating a business in a shopping mall. The same fundamental principles apply to both businesses.

You need to have a product, or products, to sell.
You need to advertise to get customers to buy your products.
You need to provide support to your customers who buy your products as a result of your advertising efforts.
You need to build a loyal customer following, so you can maintain a profitable business over a period of time.

Many people fall into the trap of believing that because they are doing business on the Internet, some of these steps can either be skipped or they need to overemphasize one area or another.

The bottom line regarding an online business is that you will need to advertise and you will need to take care of your customers.

Run your online home business just like a real company because it is, in fact, a real business and you have a real opportunity to either be successful or to fail. The primary difference between an online business and a traditional business is location (no traditional "storefront"). Nearly everything else is essentially the same. You have products and your objective is to sell those products to people who want/need your products.

Remember, building a business takes time, determination, and patience. Far too many people seem to think that the traffic is just going to pour in once they have put up their own website on the Internet. As anyone who has had a website for a while knows...this simply is not true, but it is often the reason people get frustrated and quit. The fact of the matter is that you need to diligently promote/advertise your website in order for your online home based business to flourish and prosper.

One of the most important bits of advice that I can pass on to you is that you must be patient. Most people start their online home business with great enthusiasm and high expectations. Often, after a few months, they become disappointed and frustrated because they are not already making a large amount of money.

These impatient home business entrepreneurs then often start to jump from one program to another every few months (never allowing themselves enough time to succeed at any of them) and, finally, throw up their hands in frustration and declare that they just can’t make money online.

Stick with your business and don’t give up. Dogged persistence (much like the tenacity of a pit bull) is an absolutely vital key to your eventual success. Don’t give up when things become frustrating and you are not achieving the immediate success you expected. Give your online home based business sufficient time to develop and you realize the success you are seeking.

There is nothing magical about running an online home based business. It should be run the same as any traditional "bricks and mortar" business and it will succeed or fail depending on the time and effort you put into it.

There are many very ordinary people working at home and making a very good living on the Internet, will you be the next one?

If content is King, then relevance is Queen!

We've all heard the phrases "Content is King" and "If content is King, then relevance is Queen!". So I'm going to share with you how to build a site based on these principles for profit!

Website Building tools:

I used DreamWeaver as my html editor. Any good html editor will work such as Frontpage. Basically you need a good editor that will update links site wide automatically. Give you reports on broken links, and do search and replace site wide, file specific, and etc... Also very important is a good table building capability.

For the content I pulled articles from various free content sites. As long as you adhere to the terms of fair use, you will have access to thousands of content rich articles that you can put in your own website.

You don't have to be an html expert. Just having some basic programming knowlege is enough. For example, understanding head, body, and building tables. Inserting variables and doing global changes. Any good html editor will help with that. You really need to become an expert at building tables. They are fast loading and can really make an impact on a site. If you are into css, even better!

Key Features for SEO: Keyword Rich and Relevant!

Building with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind. Use these techniques when building your site!

Niche Site: Pick a very specific topic. I chose "Making Money Online with Content Rich Sites" for this example.

Use a simple structure. Index page to "Index of Articles". Then "Index of Articles" to each individual article page. Two levels, easy to manage, easy to spider!

Make your site surfer friendly: No hidden pages, re-directs, pop-ups, spyware, java, or scripts. Just use ".html" files with text links to full text content rich pages which are also easily spidered with useful relevant information for the visitor. Include lots of articles including a few unique pages that you have written yourself.

Now start building your basic template for all the pages on your site. How you build your template will greatly depend on what editor and tools you'll be using. For example: most times you'll do something like Huge Content Rich Websites for Profit. When you go to build your 1000+ page site, the editor will replace the title tag with the appropriate text dynamically.

Title Tag and Description Tags and all other meta tags should be relevant and keyword rich.

Page Title

Use relevant keywords on each index page to the articles
Use the article title which will have additional relevant keywords for each article page.

H1 Tags - Keyword rich and relevant ex: "Make Money Online", "Home Based Business"

H2 Tags - Use the article title in the article pages. ex: "10 Ways To Make Money Online"

robot.txt file for spiders - just a simple two line file in your root directory

User-agent: *

Disallow:

Body text - Use content rich articles. Also use high color contrast between the text and the background so the search engine doesn't think your trying to hide anything and penalize you. Plus it's just plain easier to read. Use arial or verdana font.

Inbound links: Set up link partners. If you can, have them place the link to your site using a keyword instead of the domain name itself. ex: Make Money Online Click Here.

Outbound links: Do the same for your link partners. Set up links using text that is relevant to their topic which should be relevant to your site but not competing if possible. If you sell computers, link to a company that sells computer desks.

Make same site links with relevant text. ex: "make money at home" will link to a page within your own site.

Make Image alt text use primary keywords. ex: "money online"

Add HTML comment tags that use primary keywords. These are not seen buy the surfer, but can be seen by search engine spiders. No one has proven this helps, but it doesn't hurt!

Now add money making adsense and affiliate links on every page. Put them top center between the article title and article content. Adjust the colors so that is blends in with your web page content.

Google adsense will pick up the page title, h1 and h2 tags to target the ad. When someone clicks on it, you get paid!.

Another important thing you can do: Add dynamic RSS content by keyword. I'll follow up on this in my next article.

Have you noticed the explosion of Websites related to love, matchmaking, relationships, etc.?

They're popping up all over the place. Why the sudden popularity you ask? Well, the reason for this "gold rush" towards Online Dating & Relationship Oriented Websites is really quite simple: people are making a lot of money with them!

So how can you claim your share of this exploding marketplace?

Well you could go off and start your own Online Dating service to compete with the likes of eHarmony and Match.com (if that's your idea of fun) but that's really not the best way for small business owners to make money in this, or any, new marketplace.

In reality, the easiest and surest way to make money in any gold rush is selling tools to the prospectors! I think you'll see what I mean in a moment.

In the Beginning...

Consider, if you will, that whenever any new industry begins there are always hundreds of other businesses needed to support it and make it truly complete. For example, just think of all the businesses that are now connected with the automotive industry. Tire companies, glass companies, mechanics, insurance agencies, driving schools, etc..

Your very own Dating & Relationship oriented website could be one of the complimentary businesses supporting the new Online Dating marketplace while generating thousands of dollars of profit in the process.

Complimentary businesses such as relationship advice sites, personal matchmaking services, astrological compatibility testing sites, personal appearance "make over" sites, background checking services, etc., etc., are all possible product or service "tools" needed by today's "romance prospectors" searching for love on the Internet. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with other product and service ideas too if you think about it.

So what other types of relationship oriented businesses are springing up based on the technologies and business models pioneered by the Online Dating sites?

Setting Up Shop.

Okay, so now that you know the best way to make money online is to sell tools, the next big question you'll need to answer is whether your new Website will be a general store carrying all types of tools or a specialty store providing some type of specific expert service or product. Let's talk about the general merchandise store first.

The General Store

Imagine if you will an 1849's old west general store loaded with canned goods, clothing, kerosene lamps, picks, shovels; everything the local prospectors needed. What would be today's Online Dating equivalent to the general store? Well in our analogy it would be a Dating Directory Website. Here's how they work.

Dating Directory Websites provide a service to their customers by collecting information about all the various Online Dating services in one centralized location. This allows their visitors to comparison shop among the various dating service companies while also making convenience purchases of advice eBooks, romantic gifts, sexy lingerie, etc., while they're browsing the entire "general store." Dating directories make their money from the affiliate sales commissions they are paid by the producers of the products they carry.

If you're thinking of getting into the Online Dating & Relationship Marketplace, setting up your own Dating Directory general store is probably the easiest way to get started. All that's required is the construction of a "store front" Website and then registration with multiple affiliate programs for the products that you want to sell.

Dating Directory startups are easy, low cost and can be built up over time with products you really enjoy selling. In addition, no product development expertise is required because you are essentially just the "shop keeper" selling someone else's products.

However, before you decide to open up your own Online Dating & Relationship product general store, you may what to consider specializing in one particular area of the market where you can carve out a niche of your own. Let's talk about this strategy for a moment.

The Specialty Shop

When it comes to the Online Dating & Relationship marketplace everyone's an expert. Including you!

It's true. Whether you're young or old, single or married, gay or straight, everyone has their own special knowledge about Dating and Relationships that can provide you with the background and knowledge needed to write a newsletter or eBook of your own.

And while I'll admit that writing an entire eBook and setting up your "specialty shop" Website is more work than running a general store Website, the potential rewards are much greater due to the uniqueness of your specialty product and the value you can deliver to your customers. So whatever you do, don't underestimate the power of the knowledge you have to offer. Get started on that newsletter or Ebook today!

Bottom Line...

If you're thinking about starting your own online business, check out this fast growing marketplace. It could be right for you. And remember, if you want to make money without risking the large amounts of capital required to compete with the big guys, don't try to start your own Online Dating "gold mine", sell the dating & relationship "picks and shovels" instead. That's where the little guys win.

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