Easy Ways to Make Money With Your Website

I used to hate waking up in the morning. Lying in bed in the morning was the time of the day where I didn't have to worry about my Blackberry ringing, or my email inbox dinging, or my pets meowing and barking, or my wife nagging (sorry honey), or whatever other sounds that required my immediate attention. Now, waking up is my favorite part of the day. When I wake up now, I run to check my email and see how many book orders I have received. It's a great feeling knowing that I was making money while I was sleeping. I want you to share that feeling with me. In order for you to experience the joy of making money while you sleep, you have to have a great website. I have a news flash for you, Amazon isn't going to make you wealthy. An attractive website with rich content and good search engine optimization will make you wealthy.

To build a money making website, you need to choose one of the three main choices. These choices will take you from point A (having no website) to point B (having a website that makes you money). I will share with you what I did to get from point A to point B in the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective manner. Don't worry; you don't have to be a computer genius to follow these steps.

Choice 1: Find someone to completely build your website

Advantage: Takes very little of your time; best route to take if you know nothing about computers

Disadvantage: Expensive; finding reliable and honest help is tough; little control over finished product

TIP: Choosing a web designer is more difficult than you might think. I have tried, with varying success; web designers from www.Elance.com (see the chapter entitled The Elance Factor). If you choose to use Elance, pay attention to the reviews of these individuals or companies written by previous clients.

Choice 2: Find a template and insert the text and pictures by yourself

Advantage: Great way to produce a professional website with little time and money

Disadvantage: Requires some programming knowledge

TIP: There are dozens of websites which offer free, and low cost, website templates. Be sure to pick a template that looks professional and matches the image of your book cover. If your book cover has a classic look, then choose a template with a classic look. Here are some websites to consider when choosing a website template:

Freebies: freewebsitetemplates.com templatemonster.com freewebtemplates.com websitetemplates.com freesitetemplates.com buytemplates.net

Choice 3: Build the website from scratch

Advantage: Ultimate control over final product; highly customizable for future website edits

Disadvantage: Very time consuming; requires significant knowledge of computer programming

It doesn't matter if you think your website is great, it matters only if Google thinks it's great. Google is the king of search engines. If you rank high on Google, you will most likely rank high on other websites such as MSN.com and Yahoo.com. With that said, I will caution you about two major aspects of a website that will waste a huge amount of time and resources.

1. Flash: Flash images are lightweight moving graphics that are designed for websites. They look great and there are thousands of pre-made flash images you can incorporate on your site (or you can pay someone to create a flash file for you). Although flash files look great, it doesn't handle text well, and Google loves text.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): As my father always told me, when you're looking to spend money, someone will always be willing to take it, and SEO is no exception. As soon as your website gets noticed, you will receive emails on a daily basis about companies promising to take you to the top of the search engine rankings. All they want is a few hundred dollars and access to your website. SEO isn't rocket science. Save your money, do a little research online and 90% of the SEO you need in your website will be completed at no cost to you.


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This article is an exerpt from the book Social Networking for Authors, which can be found at http://www.SellaTonofBooks.com , is the easiest and most comprehensive resource for authors to unlock the revenue potential their book deserves.