If at first you don't succeed try again - making it online

One of the most common reasons for people failing to make money online is that they give up too early. Making money on the internet is often a long slow process, where you make very little in the beginning at the time where you need to put in the most effort and hard work.

The good thing is that you don't need to spend a lot of money. You can create pages here for example which costs nothing but your time. Turn off the television for an hour a day and you can be on your way to creating your web empire. If you decide to create your own website, the basic investment you will need to make is $10 for a domain and hosting which might cost around $100 a year or even less.

It is important to have some kind of plan written down. This doesn't mean that you need to create a formal business plan, but it will help to get your thinking sorted. Think of what you want to do, how you plan to go about it and if it is your goal how you might monetize your idea. Your ideas will probably develop over time, but you will always have this basic plan to go back to.

A notebook and a pen for jotting down any ideas you have could be the best investment you make to making money online. Carry it with you everywhere and you it won't be long before you have it filled with potential money making ideas.

So what are you going to create your website about? At least for your first website think of things you like doing, your hobbies, your interests, your passions. Television, movies, sports, work, business, whatever you are interested in, is a potential topic for your website.

If you love golf for example, don't be discouraged because you see the 1000s of websites already on golf. Think of the hundreds of possible sub-categories or niches that you could write about. Golf courses, equipment, improving your swing etc. It is going to be difficult to even write about just one of these things, so you could niche it even further. Golf courses around your home for example.

Check how many people are searching on your keywords using a tool like wordtracker. The greater the number of searches, the greater the interest in your niche but also more chance of competition.

Spend some time Googling your niche and see what other sites already exist. Start jotting ideas as to how you might be able to do something better.

Don't post your ideas on an internet, but get some feedback from colleagues or family that might have some interest in your niche.

Start writing some articles on your niche. This is a good test to see if you do actually have some comittment to the whole project. You don't have to be an expert writer. Try to write clear, concise text free of jargon. Read it back over again to yourself to iron out any grammar problems.

I can't really cover every detail here, but if you have made it this far you are already well on your way to getting your site up. If you don't want to spend any money yet, register for a blog on blogger.com and put your articles there. If you think you really want to make your own site, register your domain name at a popular domain register.

The next decision will be how to set up your site there are so many options from creating it all in HTML using software like Frontpage or Dreamweaver or from using a Content Management System like Joomla or Drupal, or even writing your own blog. If you are really stuck here, drop me an email and I would be happy to help.

If you thought writing articles for your site was hard, getting traffic for a new site is even harder. This is where many people give up. There are so many ways to getting traffic I can't list them all here. I have written a couple of hubs which might help you to get started. The important thing to remember is never spam and what ever you do, always try to create value.

Once you have traffic, monetizing your site is fairly easy and is often one thing that most people enjoy. A small taste of some money is a great motivator to hitting the keyboard and writing some articles. I guarantee you will be totally hooked once you receive your first affiliate check.

I was fortunate I had some good people who helped me out when I was getting started. I like trying to help people, so if you have any questions I would be happy to try and assist. I might not be able to answer every question, but I can certainly try and point you in the right direction.

Making money online is not a get rich quick scheme. It is not rocket science either. The important things to keep in mind are persistence, patience and good old hard work.