Here's a brief one page summary of steps new online publishers can take to begin a profitable web site.
It's not possible to describe all the elements of any business in a single page, and that includes web publishing.
That said, we all have to start somewhere. If you're a new website owner, this article can help you get started in the right direction.
Let's talk about your first website.
STEP 1: What's Your Goal?
The most important part of reaching any goal is to be completely clear what the goal is.
What's the goal for your new site?
Is your goal to have fun, or to make money?
Both is not a good answer.
Pick one.
Fun?
Or Money?
Which?
Step 1 is to have a clear, simple and honest answer to this question.
If your goal is fun, ignore this article, and go do whatever makes you happy!
If your goal is to make money, keep reading.
STEP 2: Know Your Topic
Every reader that comes to your site will be asking themselves this question...
"
What's in it for me?"
It's essential that you have a good answer to this question.
There's no point in creating a web site until you have some interesting and useful information to share with your readers.
Step 2 is, before you start writing, have something to say.
Learn your topic.
STEP 3: Write A Book
New website owners typically want to dive right in to spending hours and hours and hours designing a nice looking site, often even before they know what their site is about.
If you want to be smart, and get on with the job of making money, you will skip this time wasting phase.
Instead, set your website aside.
Forget about it for now.
Take the knowledge of your topic that you acquired in Step 2, and go write at least two dozen interesting and informative articles about your topic.
Write articles that you would read carefully, if they weren't your articles.
Obviously, you're going to have to do this sooner or later.
So do it sooner, do it now.
Pretend you are writing a book. Think about it that way. Write a number of great articles first, before you turn your attention to the process of publishing them.
If you find you have little enthusiasm for writing articles on your topic, turn back now, pull the plug before you waste a lot of time, and consider another project instead.
Step 3 is to write some great articles.
Step Four: Get Some Links
You've written a couple dozen useful articles, and then added them to your site.
Now that you've published articles, it's time to promote them.
The number one mistake that most new webmasters make...
The number one reason so many fail is...
Most new webmasters invest all their time in making their site, and almost no time in promoting it.
If you want to be in that minority that succeed in the web publishing industry, you have no choice but to escape from this mindset at the earliest possible moment.
You need links to your site.
You need them now.
You'll need them tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, for the whole history of your site.
Step 4 is, go get some links to your site.
The more the better.
Step Five: Repeat The Routine
You've created quality content.
You've gotten links to your site.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Write more quality content. Get more links.
Step 5 is, become a fanatic about content and links.
Get in this routine.
Get excited about it!!
Content and links.
Repeat the cycle over and over again.
Step Six: Adsense
Once you've got about 50 quality articles on your site, and at least a few hundred incoming links, it's time to start making money.
Apply with Google for an
Adsense account.Be sure to have a good site up before you apply for an Adsense, or you might not be accepted.
If you are accepted, you'll be able to put Google ads on your site, and you'll get paid every time one of your reader's clicks on them.
(Please Note: NEVER click on your own Google ads, or you could lose your Adsense account. And yes, Google knows.)
There are many other ways you can make money with your site, but all these techniques are beyond the scope of this article.
Google Adsense is a good place to get started, and you'll naturally learn about other methods as you continue your webmaster education.
The Secret To Success
Everybody on the Net seems to want to know the inside secret to online publishing success.
So Ok, here it is.
This works just like any other business.
You learn the business, or you don't.
You do the work, or you don't.
You take the guidelines above seriously, or you ignore them.
If you learn the business, do the work, and take the basic principles of online publishing seriously, you've got a great shot at making a living online.
The secret is, there isn't a secret.
Learn the business, and do the work.
It's just like any other field.
Postscript
15 years of web publishing history shows us that...
Most of the people who read articles like this will ignore them.
Most new webmasters will skim over these principles at high speed, and then proceed with their own ideas about how web publishing should work.
Most of these people will fail. It's a pattern that's been repeated a million times.
This is not necessarily bad.
Web publishing is not the right field for everybody.
It might not be the right field for you, obviously I have no idea.
The point of this article is to try to help you gain a quick understanding of what web publishing for profit is all about, so you can make a somewhat informed decision about whether it's right for you.
If you decide it's not, remember, you can still create web sites for fun!
Additional Reading
If you'd like to get in to these topics in more detail, you may find the following resources useful.
Net Publishing For Beginners
Click here to subscribe to a ten part article series which will expand on what's been discussed on this page.
Net Publishing For Non-Profits
For even more detail, please
click here to visit a site that shows non-profit organizations how to succeed with online publishing.
Although that site is written for non-profits, you can easily adapt the tutorials to your own situation.
Your Page-Engine Account
If you use our free
Page-Engine service to create your site, you'll find additional tutorials installed inside your site builder control panel.
Good luck!
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