How to start a website from scratch make it,market it and make money off it!

Ok so you want a website where to start.

Firstly you need a domain name well the best domain name you can either get a .info,.com,.net or any type of domain available the type isn't the most important thing , the most important thing is the domain name which need to intergrate your keywords. For example if my site was about cheap dog food I would try to get this domain www.cheap-dogfood.com or bargaindogfood.com both domains are related the keywords you are trying to build the domain around.

Once you have a domain you need a host me I have multiple hosts on www.hostgator.com , but the best value for money I have found is dreamhost which for $97 gives you 200gb of space and 2tb of bandwith not that you every really use that much space just nice to have, if you need vouchers to get it cheaper I have some on my site .

Ok now we have a domain and somewhere to host it , now we need something on our site for an example site I have chosen cheap dog food , next step is stick up a wordpress blog ( www.wordpress.org ) on you site with a good template, templates can also be found on Wordpress's site . You can use just normal pages with content but I have found that a blog is the easiest way for someone starting out with webpages to setup a site.

Now we have our wordpress site with template all setup , you need some keyword rich articles about cheap dog food to put on that page, so you go to www.getafreelancer.com , www.freelancer.com and get some one to write unique articles about this topic for you to stick on your site shouldn't cost you alot, most companies will do this fairly cheap for you.

Once you have stuck articles into blog, you need to get some adds on site so you can make some money off it easiest way to get started is to get Google Adsense Manager for Wordpress and stick ads on either side of template and one at top of page. Also look around place like www.clickbank.com and www.commisionjunction.com for affilate programs related to your posts , then in the posts look for places you would be able to suggest your products and put a link to the affilate programs.

Woah that was a lot of work now we have it ready to go , so now we need people to visit it our site a good quick way to get traffic is to put the digg topic plugin into your site which can also be found on Wordpress's site. Then digg a few of your articles this will get some quick intial traffic to your site. The step after that is to get some quality links to your site by submitting your link to directories ( a good list of directories can be found here : http://keepingyourich.com/category/marketing/ under my marketing section. Also is alot of other good marketing tips to get your site to get visitors.

Also you can try paid methods such as google adwords www.google.com , www.adbrite.com and the many other PPC sites out there.

Ok that wraps it up from me today hope that helps people getting started out

 

That's a great post to get started.

One of the things I would add as a general statement
is to get an autoresponder service and add an opt-in
form to start building a list.

ncsu95

 

You have pretty much said it all.

But the most important point would be to find a unique selling point for yourself in a market where there are enough buyers. The difficult thing is to find the market and to be able to profit from them.

Nice post though.

bye,
faraz

 

Interesting read for people just getting started.

This doesn't really have much to do with marketing, but you'd want to make sure that you keep your WordPress software up to date and things like that too.

 

Hi Guys, thanks for all the great feedback, I'd love to hear some other people thoughts and additional cause the more we help each other the more we all benefit

 

Hello all --- brand newbie here.

I have owned a "Brick & Mortar" retail biz for over 20 years. Being an old hat at what I do, and realizing that I need to move into the 21st century (are we there yet? ), I paid someone to put together a website for me last year. Not being savvy on how any of this works I stumbled onto your wonderful website and found this thread. I am intrigued. Here is my question:

80% + of my annual revenues are from sales of merchandise that I have to sell to my local market... spas, fireplaces, swimming pools, etc. I won't sell to someone that I cannot service. I had my site developed to have a place for people in my market area to go to look at what I have to offer. That being said, would the extra effort and expense to garner leads as described here be worth it for a business like mine? Currently I only get, on average, maybe one or two leads in my market area a month. I'm just trying to figure out how to best use the internet / my website to drive traffic from my local market into my retail store.
Steve

 

its good for new people getting started i've been doing most of that for a while now good post there, i just dont go with the affiliate programs

 

Any of your newbies to websites and marketing I'm currently chasing a few websites to help them market there sites as case studies for my blog articles if you are interested PM me thanks. Glad I can help people

 

nice post.

One thing I will add about the articles is you might try to research a PLR (private label rights) pack or monthly membership to a PLR site where you can have access to great articles that you can "tweak" just a little so the content on your site will be original.

I am a member of a PLR site that provides 30 articles/month, 10 product reviews/month, and a special report/month all for $18/month. It is a very specific niche so I know the content will be relevant to my site and I can change the content anyway I see fit.

I use the special report to build my email list.

 

Since you won't actually be selling your products online, your best bet is to have an informational website, with pictures of your products and contact details that sort of thing. Make sure you have a domain name and it is easy to remember, then plaster it over any paper correspondance you have with your customers, maybe if you have a van or something for your company get it on there too. If you advertise in local papers, put your url on it too.

In this case, i guess it's sort of best to use your presence online to supplement your physical presence. Sort of make it possible for prospective customers to browse what you have to offer without having to come down to the shop.

A local business in my area created a web directory only for local business, and all the businesses are using this together to promote. They actually have an amazing marketing campaign and got Prince Charles to open their restaurant

 

dreamweaver69,

I agree with Andy Peters. Everything he said is top notch advice. For my local customers, and I never tire of talking about this, I have them work hard at doing a newsletter, both offline and off. The newsletter contains industry news, customer stories, contests, coupons. Tell a story that speaks to how your customers use what you sell them, how you are always there to sevice them, etc. This stuff is powerful!

I got the idea from Dan Kennedy who is amazing. He spoke of clients who sold high-end, custom built backyard sheds. They had a "tell us your story on video" contest and people were only too happy to oblige. One couple even had his-n-hers sheds!

Make the customers get involved. An electronic newsletter is agreat way to go.

Something just occured to me. What if you used the net to sell nationally and sold even higher end stuff outside your market. When your customers need service, you can refer them to a local service person and get a referral fee. You just call up the provider and say "Hey, I just sold two pools and one pool lining, these people need it installed", and then work out a deal.

Hope this helps.

 

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you need some of advertising and promotion of your site. there are 2 things you can do
1. Internet promotion : do all the ways to promote your site on the internet. SEOs, Dirs Submit, PPC, and so on
2. Local promotion. do the advertising in your local area to let them know your website. that can be by newspaper, magazine, flyers, and so on.
let them know your site and more customers will come. ^^

 

Great to see everyone adding more resources to this post

 

It's simple but very useful for people who just start doing an online business. great article. ^^ this thread surely will get more visitor to come. can i copy it to my blog? (of course with your name as a writer and source)

 

Very interesting
Thank you originalthechad for your tips

 

BTW, I would like to add that you should do some research first on Google to see what some good key words to optimize your site around are.

Ex: Searching Cheap Dog Food on Google: 2,800,000 Results.
You would have to beat < 2,800,000 other people to get that number one spot. The number one spot is dog.com, which will be very hard considering it's an old domain.

Searching Cheap Iams Dog Food on Google: 104,000 Results. This is a much better key word to optimize your site for. See the different size in results. You could even build your site around all types of dog food. Ex. Cheap {dog food name} Dog Food. This would greatly improve your chances of gaining a number one spot.

Hope this helps!

 

Nice post! Thanx for sharing

 

Andy,

Even in my ignorance, what you have described is pretty much what I have done.... kind of. I have a site that has the basic information with which people can ascertain who / what I am, contact details, etc. I put it on all my correspondence, email campaigns. etc. as well...... having it on our delivery trucks and service vans is a good idea... hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the tip. I put it on all our printed colateral.. newspaper ads, magazine, etc. as well.

 

Hey Guys, I'm really enjoying helping people marketing there site atm so anyone wanting help to market there website for free please PM and I will write a review on how to market your site