Build a website

Earn money by building your own website and make money from it. Creating, your own website sounds too complicated for most people to even try but in fact building your own website can be fairly straightforward if you follow these instructions.

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Domain names

First of all you need to get yourself a domain name. A domain name is the address of your website and normally ends with .uk, .com, .net or .org amongst others. A domain name can say a lot about your site, so 123money.co.uk suggests that this website focuses on money issues. Try to keep the domain name as short as possible, relevant and something that is easy to remember. The main exception to this rule would be if you have a business name it would be more beneficial to use yourbusinessname.co.uk as this will be easier for your customers to remember.

If you want to build your first website then you probably do not want to spending large amounts of money on your site until you know what you are doing. For those of you in this situation check with your ISP (AOL, V21 etc) to see if they offer you a free domain and some webspace. Most ISPs currently provide this service, however, your domain name will probably be along the lines of isp.co.uk/yourname. If your ISP does not provide this service or you do not want to use them you can always try Bravenet who will allow you to have a domain name such as 123money.bravehost.com. Neither of these options gives you a short snappy easy to remember domain name. A way round this would be to use either your ISP or  Bravenet domain but to use dot.tk as well. At dot.tk you can choose your own domain and set it up so that when a visitor types in youwebsite.tk they are taken to your ISP/Bravenet domain. The only drawback with this suggestion is that dot.tk require to post a banner on your site but this should not be too intrusive and will allow you to have a better domain name for free.

If you would rather have your own domain name then you will have to use a domain registration company such as 1and1. You will have think of an original domain name as you will probably find most of the good domain names have already been taken. However, once you have bought the domain name, you own the website address and every e-mail address ending in that name.

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Hosting your website

A web host will store your website on their servers to allow people surfing the internet to access your website. In general the bigger your website the more it will cost you but similarly a paid host should provide a better service than a free one.

When picking free webspace make sure they will allow you to place your own adverts and preferably choose one which will not place their own competing adverts on your website. This will allow you to earn more money for yourself.

If you elected to use your ISP or Bravenet above then you will already have a host as your ISP/Bravenet will automatically host your site for you. The only disadvantage with this is that you may be restricted to a certain amount of space but in the beginning this should not be a major concern.

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Website content

Your website should focus on a topic that interest you and a wider audience. The more interesting your site the more people are likely to visit your site. It is not necessary to update your site regularly but if you do so it will encourage people to return to your site more often.

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Building your website

Most websites are created using HTML (hyper text markup language) code. An alternative to this are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors that allow you to build a website by just typing what you want on the screen and the editor automatically creates the HTML for you. WYSIWYG editors are great if this is your first site.

If you are using bravehost then they have WYSIWYG facility online that allows you to quickly and easily create your website. Examples of WYSIWYG editors are NetObjects, FrontPage and Dreamweaver.

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Publishing your site

Once you have built your site it is time to publish it. Again Bravenet users this has automatically been done for you but for everyone else you will need to use some FTP software. Some WYSIWYG editors have processes built in that automatically transfer your website to your host but for the rest of you you will need to download some FTP software to perform this task. It should be possible to download a free version of FTP Commander by clicking here. Remember that each time you change your website you will need to transfer your amended site to your host using FTP.

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Making money from your website

There are a large number of affiliate programs that will allow you to place adverts on your website. Each time someone click on one of these adverts or buys something using one of these adverts the affiliate programs will pay you money. Most affiliate programs are free to join and examples include Tradedoubler, Affiliate Future, AffiliateWindow and clixGalore.

Each affiliate normally runs adverts for a range of retailers but in order to maximise your potential income it is better to join (they should all be free to join) several. That will allow you access to all the relevant adverts and allow you to pick the ones that are most relevant to your site.

Another great way of earning additional money is to display Google text ads on your site, similar to those on the right hand side of this page. This affiliate program is again free and Google pays you each time someone clicks on one of the ads.

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Promoting your website

Finally you need to promote your website. The more visitors you attract the greater the potential income you can earn. Why not try i need hits or submitexpress to submit your site free to some of the top search engines? You can also submit your site to online directories such as Free Website Directory and UK Business Directory. In addition you can contact other relevant websites and see if they are willing to exchange links with you.

You can also add various tools such as counters, polls, clip art and guest books to make your website more appealing. Bravenet provide all of these tools and more for free, making them an excellent port of call for your website.

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