If you are looking to make some money online then you could write articles and submit them to sites like Word Wolf, Hub Pages and Infobarrel. On these sites you can share in the revenue that the site makes from adsense so when someone reads your article then clicks on an ad you get a share in the money earned. Find more information on how to make money writing articles online and How To Make Money With A Website. In this article we will look at how to make money by making your own website.

Hosting for Your Own Website

There are some places you can make a free website such as Blogger and Blinkweb but I will be explaining how to make money by having a website that you control yourself. This doesn't have to cost very much and you will be in complete control. Domain names are around $9 each and you can set up hosting for around $9 a month. This is not just for one website however. Most of these deals allow you to host 'unlimited' websites for this monthly cost. Although it says 'unlimited' there are usually limits on the disk space you can use but I have 20 sites on one Hostgator account and could easily add some more.

There are lots of hosting companies that offer very cheap deals for hosting sites and I don't want to get into a hosting review here. For sites that you care about go for a reliable, well known hosting company like Hostgator. I have used them for a long time now and they are reliable. if you do decide to cut costs with a cheaper company do your homework first and always keep a copy of your website files and database just in case!

Choosing a Domain Name for Your Website

This is not quite as easy as picking a name you fancy and going over to Go Daddy to buy it. You'll need to do some research first on which keywords you are going to be aiming for. Choosing keywords is a huge subject and there is more information on this at Understanding Free Website Traffic. Try to get your keywords into your domain name if at all possible. If the domain name you want is not available you could add another word to it like best or shop. One thing to be careful of is to avoid using a copyrighted name. You don't want to make a site with a domain such as amazonbargains.com as sooner or later Amazon will come along and shut you down!

Building Your Website

There are many ways to build a website but one of the easiest ways for a beginner is to use WordPress. You may think that's just for blogs but, in fact, WordPress is adaptable for many different kinds of sites. Most hosting companies have something called Fantastico (accessed via the control panel) which will install WordPress for you. There are a huge number of plugins available that can be used to make your site behave exactly how you want. I have yet to think of something I would like to do with WordPress and not find a plugin available. The majority are free although some plugins for commercial purposes may cost. There are also a huge number of themes available but if you are aiming to make money from your site a simpler design is recommended. It's easy to add content to your WordPress site by writing and publishing a post or a page. Although WordPress is fairly easy to use it will take you some time to get your first site exactly how you want it but after that you will be able to produce more sites relatively easily.

How Can You Make Money With Your Own Website?

Before you even buy a domain name you should decide how you will monetise your site. Are you going to use Adsense or promote Amazon, eBay or other affiliate products? There are a number of plugins available to include these types of products on your website. One thing to be careful of is to add plenty of unique content to your site as well as any affiliate products. Google clearly does not like what are termed 'thin' affiliate sites and you risk Google dropping you from its index if your sites are devoid of content. Make your site interesting and full of useful information for the visitors.

Research, Research and more Research!

Making money with your own website can be fun but it will be WORK! You can't expect to make a full time living by working ten minutes a day despite what some people online would like you to believe! You will either need to make a lot of small, niche sites that each make a small amount each day (which can add up to a good income) or invest your time in just a few larger. authority sites. Either way you will need to be commited to putting in the work required to learn how to make money online by doing keyword research, learning how to set up your website and then learning how to get your site to the top of the search engine pages! We haven't even touched how to get traffic to your site! Understanding Free Website Traffic  for more information on this HUGE topic! And don't forget, once your website is up and running, to come back to WordWolf and write an article with a link back to your site.