posted by Success on Sep 13

If you have a computer and a brain there is no reason why you shouldn’t be making money online from the comfort of your home! I’ve been doing it for over 3 years now and I am still amazed at how easy it is!

Follow my step by step guide and get in on the action!

Step 1 – Plan of Action

What’s your Expertise? You are going to need a website so choose a subject that you are passionate about. Something that you know a lot about. We all are experts in our own right. We all have something that we know that not many other people know about or something that others want to learn more about. It could be anything, from cooking to gardening, electronics or computers. The possibilities are endless. Maybe you are familiar with repairing things or operating “XYZ widgets”. You may even know which widget is better than other widgets. My point is to choose a subject that you like and if you are not already an expert at it, then become one. Research it, visit the library or other websites and put the information into your own words. It may sound like a lot of work and it very well may be, however, it does not have to be too extensive in order to get started. You bacically need to create a decent website first, you can always make changes and additions later. Once you have completed this step, you are on your way and most of the hard work will be done. Go Here to learn more on turning your knowledge into revenue.

If you are not good at writing there are plenty of authors that make a living writing articles and will provide you with free content to post on your website. Just do a search for “free website content”. You can actually build a website and most of your content can be articles written by other people.There are also companies that will write customized articles for you for a fee.

This is very IMPORTANT! There is a certain process to building a website that will attract visitors and make money. Which are your two main objectives. In short it’s done through creating content, attracting targeted traffic, pre-selling to your targeted visitors and then monetizing. If you want to become successful in affiliate marketing, learn this formula and master it. It is the KEY to making money online. If you feel you are ready to learn what it takes to make money online Click here for a detailed analysis of this valuable formula.

Step 2 – Choose Your Domain Name

Once you have figured out your websites content, you need to choose a domain name accordingly. You should choose a domain name that is directly related to the content of your site. If at all possible your domain name should be your website name and the name that you use to market your product (your brand name).

You should avoid long names if at all possible. The shorter the name the better in my opinon. Potential customers will remember a shorter domain name faster than a longer one and will be able to type it into their browser more readily because they will have it memorized. Which means more traffic for your website and in most cases, more traffic means more business for you.

Avoid hyphenated DN’s if you can, however if a particular name that you want has been taken and you can get the same name(words) in a hyphenated version, I would suggest getting the hyphenated DN. Especially if there are key words in the name that would be helpful in the search engines.

Domain name extentions – You should choose a .com above all others if available and .net if the .com is not available. I say this only because these two are more popular and most surfers will indentify with them. There are many new domain name extentions to choose from these days (.biz, .com, .net, .org, .cc, .info, .tv, .ws, and as far as your websites search engine rankings are concerned, the DN ext. will have no bearing it. Go here for more info on choosing your domain name.

Step 3 – Get Reliable Web Hosting

Choosing a host is an important decision. You will hopefully have a long relationship with whatever host you choose. To make this decision you need to first decide what it is you need then visit the sites of several hosting providers and evaluate what they have to offer in the light of your requirements. If you choose wisely you should get good value for your money, reliability, and prompt knowledgeable support.

Your web hosting company is your sites link to the outside world, one glitch on their end and your site is out of commission with nothing you can do as your visitors head to a competitors website never to return. Get referrals before signing with anyone, talk to people you trust. A bad hosting experience is one you’ll never forget and can be a very expensive mistake. Make a decision on what features you will need then compare the quality, affordability. Before you make a purchase be sure you are getting all the features you need to market your site an affordable package, and a company that has a track record of good tech support. These are exactly what any business needs to get started online. That’s why I highly recommend Yahoo Business Hosting. It’s a name you know and a name you can trust. Yahoo has 3 business hosting plans available, starting at $8.96 per month.

There are literally thousands of hosting companies. Finding a good hosting company can be a difficult and confusing task. If you don’t want to go with my recommendation above you can also go here for a detailed comparison of some of the popular web hosting providers.

Once you have secured your web hosting the next thing that you have to do is point your domain name server (DNS) to your web space (hosting server address) . Basically this is simply connecting you domain name to your webspace. The company that you bought your domain from will help you wth this. Just contact their tech support and give them the address that was provided to you by your hosting service and they will tell you exactly what you need to do. Some domain registrars will even do it for you.

Step 4 – Build Your Web Pages

Once you have completed steps 1 thru 3 you are now ready to build your web pages.

You don’t have to be an expert to build a website, you only need to learn some simple basic html code, and get yourself a good HTML editor. Go here to download this free html editor. This is the editor I used when I started and I didn’t know a thing about building a website. It’s very easy to use. If you are not familiar with html, don’t worry because this editor has a help file to explain all the basics of html and building a website.

I have several websites and I built them all by myself from scratch. If I can do it, so can you! Just practice and experiment using the html editor until you become familiar with it. You’ll be making web pages in no time, but you must practice until you learn it. It’s really quite easy to do.

After you have your content pages completed, simply upload them to your website.In order to make this an easy task you should use a file transfer application. I use WS_FTP, it makes things very simple and easy to do once you get the hang of it. You can download the free version here.

Step 5 – Join Affiliate Programs

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs for you to join. A good place to start is LinkShare Corporation. This is a network of internet affiliate programs and you will find a wide selection of affiliate programs to join. You must have a website to join and there is an approval process. Click here to become a LinkShare Affiliate!

Another affiliate programs network is Clickbank. Clickbank will provide you with thousands of products to promote. At Clickbank affiliates earn anywhere from 1% to 75% of generated sales. Clickbank only deals with digital products that can be delivered (downloaded) instantly after purchase . These are just 2 popular affiliate program networks. There are thousands of other companies online that have individual affiliate programs. Simple search for relevant products and join the affiliate programs of your choice, from the companies website. Usually there’s an “Affiliate Program” or “Webmaster” link either at the very top or bottom of the websites home page.

You’ll have to decide which affiliate program and product(s) you want to promote. Simply use the promotional material that is provided to you. There are many types of promo to use to get your prospect to the venders website (pop-up consoles, email advertising, banners and text links etc.) I have found that text links work best for me. Banners are not as effective as they once were so I recommend using more text links than banners. Text links are even more effective when incorporated directly into a paragraph of your existing content.

Step 6 – Get Some Traffic To Your Site

Now that you have your content pages and your affiliate links in place you need to get targeted visitors to your site to click on them. The best and most effective way to do this is search engines. Another good source of traffic is link exchanges. So find some websites that are similar to yours and exchange links with them. This will increase your link popularity and hopefully give you a better ranking with the search engines. It can take search engines weeks and even sometimes months to index your website, so in the mean time you should exchange links with as many websites as possible. So go and submit your site to all the major search engines and website directories and start trading links with other (relevant) websites. Go here for more ways to get website traffic and a huge list of major search engines and website directories.

Remember, this is simply a basic guide, you will have to do some experimentation with different ways to promote and advertise your affiliate programs. Continue to tweak your site until you get the look and feel that you want. Keep in mind that the majority of your time should be utilized trying to get more traffic to your site. The more link exchanges you have, the more traffic you will receive. Which in turn will increase your link popularity with the search engines. A good place to start your link campaign is here: The Best Free Link Exchange Directory On The Web – Link Market It’s easy to use and free.It will save you hours of work.

Step 7 – Become a Top Earning Affiliate

Would you like to know all the secrets to becoming a high earning affiliate champion?

Most affiliates have no idea what it takes to make a living online. Are you running in circles trying to figure out which programs to join or how to collect a paycheck from the programs that you are promoting?

If this sounds familiar I highly recommend that you take our free affiliate program email course. The Affiliate Masters Course by Ken Envoy… is an intensive 5-day e-mail course on becoming a high-earning affiliate champion. How? By building income through content.

Ken Envoy is the founder of SiteSell Inc. and the creator of the revolutionary Web site-building system, Site Build It! Dr. Evoy is also the author of a series of widely-acclaimed “best on the Net” e-commerce books and courses, which have empowered hundreds-of-thousands of people and small businesses around the world to succeed on the Web. Due to Dr. Evoy’s efforts, the SiteSell brand is highly-respected by top influential Internet business personalities around the world.

This 5 day free course is by far the best free info I have ever read. It has helped me a whole lot and I highly recommend it. Table of Contents.

About the Author

Preston Williams is the owner of http://www.getnpaid.com He offers many articles, resources, and ideas on how to make money online. He has been making money online for over 3 years. Please visit his website if you are interested in finding new opportunities for making money online. More details on how to work from home. –