How to Start Making Money on the Internet

You’ve heard the stories about people making millions on the Internet. Make money while you sleep, make money 24 hours a day, make money with little or no effort, and many other enticing phrases. It’s so bad that more than likely you’ve even heard these things on the radio or television. There is no illusion - you can really can make money on the web, and lots of it. The misnomer is that it’s easy. If it was easy wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

Working on the Internet is very similar to starting a new business, only your investment doesn’t have to be in money as much as it does in time. You could invest tons of money in your new web site if you wanted to, but you can just as easily start for less than $10. What will determine your success or failure is how much time you decide to invest in your web site. Those that succeed are true entrepreneurs. You will have lots of research and reading to do. You will have lots of choices. You will need to learn to write effectively. You will become an expert in selling and marketing your site. You will tirelessly work on your web site(s) each and every day without fail. Failure will not be an option and you will not give up. Did I mention that this will take lots of time on your part?? Your sacrifice will not be without benefits. If you work hard enough - there will come a day (and maybe sooner when you think), when you really can go away for the weekend and your web site will make you money the entire time your gone effortlessly. But an empire does not build itself. You will create your kingdom brick by brick, with your own two hands.

Your First Task - Selecting a Web Site Domain Name

Your very first task is to select a domain name if you don’t already have one. There are tons of guides and tips you can find through a simple search on google about selecting a domain name. I personally own a couple dozen domain names, some are better than others.

Here are some pointers from personal experience that I’ve learned over the course of time (about 10 years to be exact):

To Dot com or not to dot com

You have to decide whether or not ‘typed in discovery’ is important to you or not. Will you expect your users to remember your web site URL and just type it in the browser address bar when coming to your site? Or will the bulk of your users find you in a search engine? Everyone remembers the “.com” names first - so having a “.net” if someone has the “.com” version isn’t the greatest idea. You’re bound to lose traffic. There are other domains like “.info” and “.us” that can be useful in certain scenarios, but most times I wouldn’t want to use these. “cellphone.info” would be a great domain, but “cellphone.biz” I wouldn’t be a fan of. I only own one straight “.net” web site. It’s my biggest one, but I’ve built it up over 8 years. I wouldn’t buy another .net site by itself again. All my other sites are “.com”, and I bought the “.net” and “.org” companions to some of those to keep competitors from setting up similar sites.

Decide what extension your domain name will have.

How long is acceptible - and dash or no dash?

My personal rule of thumb is that domain names should be under 20 characters. Also, in most cases I try not to use dashes. There are of course exceptions to every rule. I personally try to make each domain name I choose memorable, and almost rhyming whenever possible. For some reason most of my domain names end up being three words. In most cases just one or two words would be preferred, but there are so many domains registered, sometimes you just can’t get exactly what you want with so few words. Some of my better domain names are cellphonehowto.com, celebritynewslive.com, and secretsexguide.com. They are all memorable, easily recognizable - and most importantly are very easy to spell!! I have a few domains where I use a dash - like this one. Many say that dashes aren’t as professional in a domain name, and you lost that “typed-in” factor. On a site like this one, I don’t care as much, because once someone visits - they will come back over and over to read other lessons and most likely use an RSS feed, email, or bookmark when they visit again.

How long will your domain name be, and will you use dashes between the words in the URL or not?

Where will you register your domain name?

There are tons of places where you can register your domain name. You could go to Network Solutions, Yahoo!, and I think even Google does it now. There area tons of small domain registrars, and just about every hosting company out there on the market offers to register your domain name along with your hosting package. I have had dozens of web hosts, I’ve registered domains with a half a dozen companies over the years. My recommendation would be for your to register all of your domain names through godaddy.com. The only exception would be if you are hosting an adult web site. If you are going to host a site with adult or x-rated content - my only recommendation would be to register your domain name with Servage.

Why register with Servage.com? You can’t host adult or x-rated content at Godaddy, so if that’s the type of content you will have in your site - you need to register with an adult specific host. Servage is unique in that they will register your domain name for free when you sign up for hosting. You own your own domain, and if you terminate your hosting with servage, you can take your name somewhere else if you want. But I found it very handy to register my domain name when I signed up for hosting. And they renew your domain name for free as long as you have hosting with them. They offer only one hosting package at one rock bottom low price. My site has never been down with them, and their service has been impeccable whenever I have submitted a support ticket. Last I checked they hosted more than 60,000 web sites.

Where will you register your domain name?

Who will you choose as your web hosting company?

In the last section I talked about choosing a domain name. When you register a domain name - all you own is the name, you don’t actually have a “web site” just yet. On the Internet, you have to register and pay for your domain name or “address” first, and then you have to choose a company to lease you “web space” - just like you would an apartment. You can register your domain anywhere, and you can choose to lease web space anywhere. Where you lease your web space is your “web hosting provider”.

As fate would have it, and as I described in the last section - both godaddy and servage can register your domain name, and host are web hosting providers. Personally - if you have a non-adult web site I would recommend registering your web site with godaddy, and then signing up for web space with them as well. You can get space for as little as $3 per month with them, and you just can’t beat that anywhere - especially for their reliability. If you are going to have an adult web site with adult content - then my recommendation would be for you to register your domain name with servage while signing up with them for web space. Their fee for space is only $7.50 per month - and you just can’t beat that (or their other features) with a stick for adult web hosting. They are well known and reliable.

Who will you choose as a web hosting provider?

Summary: In this lesson you should have learned that building a web site (business) will take a lot of time, how to choose a domain name and it’s syntax, and considerations for registering the domain name and obtaining web space.