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Everybody knows there is money in the web. If a newbie searches the web on how to earn money online (it may be the keyword - I guess or whatever) the new things he would learn within a few minutes is affiliate marketing, AdSense, Paid post and freelancing and etc.

But is it so easy to earn money online?

I don’t really think so. Unless you are seasoned in web and web industry, it is tough (if not impossible) to start earning from day one or even month one. Internet is still a goldmine but you must be a good digger and experienced enough to identify the cash spots to become rich.

To start earning money from day one, you must be a famous person online or have the capability to publicize your website in offline media to get visitors. Because, ultimately it is your visitors whom you would need to convert into real cash. And for a newbie, it is almost impossible to start getting visitors from day one (I would keep friends and relatives apart from visitor’s list for some obvious reasons).

I am not trying to discourage anyone who is planning to earn from internet (If I can earn, so can everyone). It is possible - but if you think you would become a millionaire on day one or if you think that people would start visiting your blog or website from day one and they would start commenting and participating, things would frustrate you soon.

It needs hard work and lots and lots of patience; especially if you are selling something that does not have direct monitory value. For example, if you are selling some products on eBay, you may start earning from day one; but if you are selling information in the form of a blog post or in a website, it would definitely take some time.

If you are a newbie in the web (I mean, if you are yet to start a website or a blog to taste the real world), I would recommend you to use the platforms that are already established apart from developing your own platform.

For example, start creating content in Squidoo or Hubpages or Associated Content - there are so many other similar revenue sharing websites that can offer you some income and a lot of experience on what people really want from you and how do deal with them. They already have an established platform and visitors would not be a big problem.

Shortcuts are often the longest roads - in case of web, the harder way lasts long.

As SEO Consultants, we almost always need to work on websites that are already running for quite sometime. I often call myself website doctors when I need to tell someone (who does not know much about web) about my job or job responsibilities.

Anyways, the trend is very simple; people start a website thinking that it would get them business. Or, after running a website for sometime, they come to know that SEO can improve their business. But by the time we get those websites, it is already late. Often we need to recommend complete remodeling of the website. And at this point, most of the clients are never too happy to implement any major change.

When should one start thinking about SEO?

SEO runs hand in hand with the business model - the goal you want to achieve after a certain point of time and after certain amount of investment (both time and money). And if your website is your only business outlet, there should not be any doubt about thinking SEO from the very beginning.

What should be the common website development flowchart when you have identified the goal or objective you want to attain?

Understanding the target market and competition > Brainstorming and identifying proper keywords > selecting a good domain name > Developing the website > Evaluating end user experience > Redeveloping the website (to be continued…) > Closing Goal

And in the “developing the website” section - some on page factors (content, design navigation, optimization etc.) and almost all the off page factors (link building, organic and inorganic promotion, tracking competitors etc.) get in and it continues throughout the lifecycle. But the whole process becomes tougher when the client has made some big mistakes in the initial stages of development. And more importantly, the problems become more acute when clients do not want to share the complete history of the website development process. It creates lots of puzzling situations for us.

But what if you consult a good SEO consultant when you have developed an idea to start your business online? He or she may guide you step by step. If this is a problem and you do not invest on consultation, please do some extensive research on SEO to get some idea about how to start a business online. At least, you would come to know what you need to do to stay in the first track of web business.

I often say one thing - a good idea is not good enough unless properly executed. Same rule applies to your business too.

While website acquisitions by big boys such as Google and News Corp. gets the most attention, there are thousands of small-scale websites that are being traded or “flipped” over from one person to another everyday. Basically, website flipping involves spotting an already existing website and improving almost everything about it including the content, the Page Rank, and its SEO and then selling it to another buyer at a profit.

Website flipping uses the same principle as “real estate” flipping except that it has the potential for exponential profit margin. This is because the website you acquired for $1,000 can be worth $25,000 in a few months assuming that you have dramatically improved its perceived market value. All kinds of websites can be candidates of flipping including blogs, entertainment sites, dating sites, and even mini sites. These kinds of sites needs varying levels of expertise to run so you need to be sure that you can run the site you acquired.

Just like in real estate, the key to success in website flipping is understanding the “product” you are buying. For example, if in real estate you need to consider the location and the current condition of the house; you need to determine where the site appears when you do a Google search. You also need to look into its Alexa.com traffic results, its revenue figures, and how active the community is. These factors will determine how much you should offer for the site and how much you will charge for it after you had “renovated” it.

It has been said countless times that a web owner should treat his online venture as a serious business undertaking. Being able to meet various legal requirements of setting up a website is essential in this case. Complying with internet laws and regulations is actually more simple than you think; most of the time, web owners are actually complying with the laws without even being aware of it. Basically, there are two legal aspects every web owner should meet: the business notices and the legal notices.

Business Notices:

The About Us Page – this is important to let your visitors know about you and your company. You should include your name, the name of your company, and pictures if applicable. If you have other partners in the business, you should do the same for them.

The Contact Us Page – at the very least, the contact us page should include your e-mail address. And if you have an offline office, you should include the physical establishment of your company. However, try not to disclose your home address and personal phone number on the website.

The Affiliate Program Page – if you are using affiliate programs as a marketing method, you need to include a page wherein interested affiliates can look for more information. You need to describe your affiliate program, the payment terms, and the support affiliates can expect from your company.

Legal Notices:

Copyright – basically, this is just the copyright information of your website which needs to be included on the webpage. Be sure to include the word “Copyright” and the copyright symbol.

Disclaimer – this is the extent to which visitors can use the information available on your website. It should also state that your company will not shoulder any liability that may arise from using or downloading some information from the website.

Privacy Policy – when you need to gather contact information about your consumer, you need to make a “privacy policy” stating the purpose of gathering their data and what you will do with the information you gather.

Terms of Service – visitors should be informed about who is legally allowed to visit a particular website. You need to put an age statement as well.

If you are reading this article, chances are, you already have an existing site. But as every webmaster knows, a single site never seems to be enough because there is always the urge to develop another. It is true that focusing on one site instead of a hundred different site is easier; it also has the potential to give you as much revenue as the hundred sites if you do it correctly. Despite this knowledge, building a new website or blog seems to be irresistible for many. So if regret the domain name you choose before, try to make the right choice now. Here are a few tips to guide you:

1. Choose a short name – most popular domain names are relatively short for good reasons. It can be established as a better brand, it is difficult to misspell, and it can fit into logos easily. There are some companies who decide to name the whole company name their domain name; this can be unwise because it will look awkward and it would not fit into Google PPC ads.

2. Choose a memorable name – people will easily remember generic names such as House.com or RealEstate.com but most of these domains are already taken. The alternative is to look for fun and unique names that will catch the visitor’s attention; for example, Yahoo.com and Amazon.com can be considered as “fun” names.

3. Choose a name that relates to your business or business name – when searchers see your domain, it would be great for your site if the searchers immediately recognize your name and they know what to expect.

4. Choose a popular domain name extension – it is recommended for you to get a .com or a .net extension because this is the most commonly used extensions that are typed by searchers.

It’s been discussed a lot lately, and for a good reason: it works. The moment you start working ON the business instead of IN it, you can focus on growth of sales, cutting costs and achieving your goals. When dealing with minutia and doing all the work that your ‘employees’ should be doing, you’re not getting ahead very fast.

However, the moment you decide to spend more time working ON the business it rapidly grows. The tasks you can perform are strategy creation and improvement, setting up new marketing venues, setting up referral systems and creating To Do lists after carefully reviewing the past quarter.

The big difference here lays in the fact that once you work on the business, you take a different standpoint. You look over the whole business as being in a helicopter, and can easily pinpoint problem areas without losing time in the details. That’s where you get stuck working in the business, the smallest problems that come from details.

A business owner is more of an investor. He sees his business as an investment and wants to make the most out of it. This is done by ruling over the company like a true entrepreneur, being strong in your decisions and actions. That could also mean the moment you get ‘honest’ with yourself you might decide to fire a lot of your employees, drop entire projects or even drop a complete set of customers.

You should do what is in the best interest of your company and your customers and lays within your strategy. Reviewing and reflecting once a quarter, keeping the strategy in mind will get you more profits than staying in the business. You’ll just keep struggling and spending time where it isn’t the most profitable.

What’s your business model?

This post was guest blogged by Alan Johnson, the author of The Online Business Handbook.

So you’re ready to spend a fortune on advertising your website? Can you just picture those profits rolling in? But wait a second, is the foundation upon which you plan on building solid to begin with?

A lot of webmasters make the mistake of concentrating on all sorts of aspects related to their future website promotion or monetization efforts and end up neglecting the most important part of any project:the business model. No matter how hard you try, a structure built on a shaky foundation has no chances of lasting.

Without a sound business model, every online entrepreneur will be in for a serious reality check. Let’s take blogging as an example andanalyze things for a moment. What is your business model as a blogger?

What exactly makes you stand out compared to the millions of similar resources out there? Why would a person want to visit your website in the first place? What would he or she have to gain and, most importantly, why would they want to return?

Most people underestimate the importance of these questions and, instead, devote their entire attention to planning their marketing campaign and/or monetizing their website. They don’t realize that they are actually trying to figure out how to market and make money with a
poor product, and that the chances at long-term success are, sadly, slim to none. Wouldn’t working on developing a product which is actually worth promoting be a wiser approach?

When asked why people should visit their website, most bloggers come up with answers such as so that I make money?. But in order to makemoney, your blog needs to provide value to the Web, that’s just the way things stand. Making money as a blogger is definitely possible, but that doesn’t mean that you can succeed without offering anything in return. Why not dedicate a part of the time you spend promoting the blog to creating quality content actually worth linking to and spreading the word about?

If your article is bad, you have to literally beg other people to mention it, you would have to spend hours and hours trying to generate exposure for that article. Couldn’t that time be put to better use?

Wouldn’t investing time in order to create better articles, resources which actually provide value to readers, articles people will gladly link to be a better decision?

You need to take things one step at a time. Don’t fall into the trap of seeing everything in figures, always understand that people, not numbers will be visiting and judging your website. In the end, your ability to provide value to each visitor will make or break you as a webmaster. Think about it this way: what do you do when you come across a useless website?

That’s right, you leave and never look back. Well, guess what, that?s exactly what others will do after visiting your website if the content you provide isn?t worth it. Are you willing to take that chance?

I’m going to try and not buy a reseller account from another reseller who has bought their account from a reseller (still with me) so if you’re going to start a hosting business you need to research very reliable Reseller hosts or look into a VPS or Dedicated server.

VPS stands for “Virtual Private Server” and gives you the feeling of having a stand-alone dedicated server but for less cost. VPS also offers you the features of dedicated server but it’s still being shared by others. A good VPS host will allocate enough resources on their VPS to manage the amount they are selling too (without overselling). One sleep-at-night benefit is being isolated from other clients, no matter how heavy their traffic is it won’t affect your website or customers.

For me, it all lies with technical support if I purchased a VPS, hence I would need to pay for Level One support as soon as I launch the site which is an added start up and ongoing cost. This is because of software installs and other technical issues.

The Reseller option is much different (this is why it sells well) it offers a one man band, the opportunity to get started and not worry about too much technical and server maintenance knowledge enabling more time to promote the service and offer customer support. With the Reseller option you are given a “Web Host Manager” software package and with this you can customise the hosting plans you sell (webspace, bandwidth etc.) for your customers.

I wasn’t going down this route but I think I may choose it to get some clients on board without worrying about server installs and purchasing expensive software which are crucial to operating your hosting business and competing with your competitors.

My main selling point (and YOU need one) its called a UPS (Unique Selling Point) is “We don’t just sell Web Hosting we sell Web Businesses” - I’m going to stand out by adding huge benefits - people buy benefits and solutions not technical jargon and specifications.

Note: a VPS is just a Dedicated Server which can be part/fully managed and can be a much cheaper option than Dedicated.

If you were to purchase a Dedicated Server to start your Hosting Business, you would need to have the most popular software installed to compete in this marketplace.

These are some rough costs for you:

Dedicated Server $3000
RackSpace (to house your new server) $280 p/m
Cpanel with WHM $ (yet to find a price)
Fantastico De Luxe $90 (there are lots of add on costs for more servers) and a Annual license renewal at $20.00
ClientExec $199.99 (optional billing, customer and package management)
MySQL $738
Webstats (AWStats) this is free under the GPL licence)
PHP5 (free to download)

I may have missed some bits out, but this gives you a good idea of why many if not all people who want to get into web hosting start with Reseller Account. These are big start-up costs but it’s beneficial to get started off with your right option that suits your business plan. I still think I can use easily get going on a VPS or Reseller Hosting option. I won’t be overselling to get clients so that will be an obvious bonus. (most hosts do this) I think I’m leaning toward VPS to make sure I start with a good structure to the business. I don’t like the idea of another person on my Shared Server killing bandwidth with his own sites or reselling at stupid prices and overselling webspace.

Once you are fully established and running a smooth operation (or maybe before this) and you’re comfortable with your clients and revenue, you can then upgrade and run a self managed Web Hosting Company. All with your own in house or outsourced management team made up of technical support and sales staff.

After searching WebHostingTalk a great forum for any new host to start asking questions. It really amazes me the amount of hosting businesses out there and the amount of people who want to get into this industry (most must be making some sort of living from it). I still believe a huge percentage are failing to get it right from the start.

Onto your name Choosing a Brandable Domain Name - you may think this is not important but it is “Always” you’re not going into this half hearted you should always see it as building a memorable name that will try to convey your USP within one or two words.

In the next part I will talk more about buying a brandable domain name and some options for the design of the site.

Note: I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I’m opting with the Linux Operating System for two reasons (price and flexibility) Microsoft are stupidly expensive and I just don’t see the benefits and never have.

This is just something I always wanted to do because I have a keen interest in Hosting and Servers etc…(geeky I know)

I did give this a start when I was very naive and new to the net I was quickly put off by so many forums stating there is to much competition out there. I still have my domain name and I had gotten used the billing software and even had fraud protection on orders in place from a third party company.

I think although the Market is saturated you can still compete on a smaller level as I 100% believe that 90% of hosting is Customer Service. Some of you who are already hosts may put me right on some pitfalls to watch for, it seems so many new money makers to the net want to jump into this business as they think it might be simple. Like any business it is hard work and I have been burnt by both hosting companies that have gone under and even domain registrars like RegisterFly which famously went under.

Even if you want to start from your home office or bedroom it can be done if you have the correct structure in place. You cannot expect to just get a reseller account and hope for the best!

I believe many newcomers see this as a great starter money maker because other Web Hosts offer unbelievable packages to Resell their Reseller package that you will then sell on. (makes me laugh)

I’m going to do it the Correct way and the way that you should too, if you want to Set-Up a Web Hosting Company and are serious about making it a success.

One thing you must identify is your best skills, mine are branding, organisation, marketing and customer service. I do understand scripts and some code and basic HTML but that’s about it. So with knowing this I’m going to have to get a small team together for the future of this new Hosting Company otherwise It will not run smoothly and I will lose all customers and my reputation. This is probably what happens to 1 in 3 start up hosts…

On that point…although huge saturation remember only a handfull actually offer outstanding support and this is Your MOST IMPORTANT responsibility. Sure, uptime has to be good but if a customer cannot get hold of you 24/7 in this industry you’re a gonna!

So to summarise -

- Be amazing at customer service
- Get an easy to use and customisable billing software
- Offer your customer the best service you can without comprimising on price
- Have a good support team in mind or (one person when starting out)
- Research and look for a great sales team (one person again at start)
- Get the most reliable Server in a fantastic data center (to support you when your Hosting Business grows)
- Get a unique design and do not use a template. Tons of other start up hosts will be doing this and you need to stand out (I’ve seen loads I would not touch that look like this)
- Make it easy to purchase your packages

I know a UK host who outsources the whole business and this makes me un-easy as I think he’s using ThirdWorld services. Please note, you have to make 100% sure these guys know their servers and technical information otherwise you’ll be sinking under so quickly.

At first, outsource to one or two key areas of the business and maybe you can take care of sales/customer service billing etc…If your skill is server based then employ a good person to do all sales/support, this shouldn’t be hard to do. In either case it can be done, finding the right people is the hardest part.

In the next parts we will be looking at:

- Server
- Software
- Design
- Brand name

A friend of mine Adnan over at Blogtrepreneur.com got in touch to say he was selling his blog. Blogs are hot property and very sort after right now, selling for great prices. This takes me on to what you should look for when buying and selling any website online through sites such as Sitepoint.

I think I am perfectly poised to offer advice in this area having purchased over $19k worth in websites over the course of this year all from Sitepoint a website and other from Sitepoint this year..

For me, buying sites is a fun activity (when I have the cash of course). I made a decision earlier this year to start buying sites instead of starting one from scratch, personally because I no longer enjoy the start up process involved in making a successful site (some might say that is exciting) because I have been online for years I find it tedious and boring now and would rather leave that to someone else. I actually enjoy the day to day running and looking for new opportunities once a site is established.

When browsing Sitepoint, I like to see how much money a site is making (like most do I would imagine), take a quick look at their marketplace, make sure I can see long term potential value and then make a decision to purchase. I do not waste much time on this, I have found I can spot great opportunities quickly by summing up a few important factors. I also love the speed at which you can spot a site for a good price, workout their marketplace (numbers of consumers etc) then ball park their exact revenue based on traffic and product/service for instance. This for me is by far the easiest way to make money online.

Like anything though experience matters I think, having been online for many years I feel I can sum up a good site from a bad one easier than I could of, let’s say 5 years ago. I love it that it takes only a matter of hours to do some research and then buy a site. I have decided to outline what I deem as important factors you should look for when purchasing a website online.

Here is my Checklist “Due Diligence” for a website Buyer.

1. Website Validation

So much you can do here really ecompasses the whole amount - Check Whois first, name, contact email name of ownership, look at the date of the site as this is a great indication of (has it just been built last week) and is currently earning $100k per month (alarm bells) leave this one and move on. Check traffic data making sure to check for valid URLs (is it false paid for traffic, visit the URLs yourself to see) speak to the owner via instant messenger or other, even better phone to get a solid understanding of the sale and why they are selling.

Note: PR is not as important as it used to be, just make sure the site has the traffic is states and you’re happy with that. Do not purchase a site purely on PageRank!

2. Seller Validation

On sites like Sitepoint do a thorough check on the seller to see who he/she says they are, search their name/username/forum name etc…(ask them for this if you cannot find it) in Google this should bring up valuable data on sites they may own and if they have left comments on blogs or forums.

3. Managing the Website

Make sure the seller is going to set up the website and/or offer some form of after support in the price of the sale. Databases are commonly used on many sites and problems will arise if they are not transferred to your hosting provider correctly. Also the seller may use third party scripts to enable functions on their site (you need to have a full understanding of how they work and how to use them).

4. Understand how the Site Makes its Money

(be anal about this). Make sure the seller is going to guide you through how they sell their service/product, to who, from who, where too, everything you can. If they cannot do this do not buy the site. Unless you understand their market very well and have ties to the same industries as them you should be ok, otherwise this will cause you major headaches.

4 (a). If the site just sells a product that anyone can buy and you can order it from a certain wholesaler (for instance) that is fine (simple process). It will get more complicated If the site uses Affiliate Marketing to make its revenue. This is where you will need to join Affiliated Networks to set-up your own Account, you need to find out if you can you join the same one’s to make similar money. If for some reason you cannot get an account with the same provider (say you’re in the UK and they only offer their service to US residents) that would mean a serious problem for you and your earnings.

5. Design and Usability

Website owners overlook this important aspect their website(s). A well designed site can and will improve usability for your visitors/consumers ten fold. A site that states it is making lets say $3k per month can jump to $4.5k with a simple re-design that may cost you $500-$1000 USD this is money well spent. Always make sure to see the value in a well designed an usable site.

6. Revenue - this is most commonly over inflated in website sales. Never completely believe their revenue details as they will always inflate this to a certain amount to get more visitors to their sale.

Disclaimer: The following guide is not a 100% full proof way to work out the amount of revenue a site is making, but, It will give you a ball park figure to set against a Seller is he or she is inflating the revenue details a little too much to get the sale.

How I work this Out

Hit Google and search the sites product/service, if it makes money from Advertising search the Network it uses. Get information like Retail price for products, Average Service prices comparing three other Services in the same arena and for Advertising you want information on CPA, CPC, CPM, like if a visitor visits their site one they get paid $0.01 cents etc.

Working it out Approximately

For products it is easy - My false product is weight loss pills so say this website just sells this one product and the owner is stating he makes $20k per year selling this one product. Without asking them any questions you can do some due diligence on their revenue claims. I would visit a wholesaler (plenty online selling this type of product to get a rough purchase price) I get a cost price of $10 I know by looking at competing retailers this product is selling at $24.99 for 100 tablets.

I can now work off a margin of 40%. So here we have a product that has $10 to buy and sells for $24.99 (this is gross) without advertising costs. They stated in their sale, all traffic is organic so costs are Zero apart from a Hosting charge which is $300 per year. Ok, so they would need to have sold (approx) 1350 units over the year at $24.99 to make roughly this type of revenue after costs.

Now to work out how many visitors to their site based on this product. Google the product name “weight loss pills 100n” (example) find out how many times this has been searched for in a month say 40,000 times and their Google listing for this term is on the first page. This could give them at least 5% of that traffic per month (if they are above the fold in first three results) which would amount too (approx) 66 visits per day (this is conservative) product names will not get many searches per month but are much more targeted unlike a broad keyword like “loss weight”.

In this market it is safe to say they would hit a sales conversion rate of 3% (I would like to think) So we have 66 visits converting at 3% which is almost 2 people at $24.99 this would be over a year period $17,892.72 (less hosting cost) USD per year. They are almost spot on with their evaluations of revenue, therefore I would be happy to take this website on without even asking any further questions.

Websites that make money are summed up like this “Numbers Game” put more faces to your Places! that is it for the most before looking at the quality of service or product etc.. they are selling.

Never, Ever think you will make the same money a previous owner made, they are different to you and have different desires, determinations for making their site a success. You may take it to another level or you may make less money. All sites and owners are not created equal, remember that…

Also, Never, Ever presume you can leave things in the hands of the Seller as nine times of ten you cannot. They will make mistakes and forget important things you need (I promise) - not being able to get hold them for after support when you need their help is a major problem.

When a site is fairly old the previous owner may have joined (lots) of online services under their name. This can and will cause issues unless they tell the service owner you are going to join up under the same domain name for instance. If this is not done correctly you will have a problem of ownership, this will mean you having to prove ownership. This has proved a problem for me even now and has annoyed me a tad and wasted countless hours messing about when all I needed was a list of what service the previous owner used to promote the website and username/passwords etc.

I did name this post “How to Buy and Sell Websites Online” seeing as I haven’t yet sold a website I will leave this for a later post, as I am planning to sell a site before the new year.

Good Luck!