Sunday, July 27, 2008

Starting a Website to Make Money

Starting a website is the first step you need to make in starting an online business and making money. How well you setup that website and what goals you have with it will greatly impact your online success.

You first need to determine what the purpose will be for your new website. Is your goal to get visitors to fill out a form so that you can contact them later or is it more of an informational website that exists just to get the word out? Are you going to sell products on your site or are you just setting up a blog to see how many readers you can get?

Even if you are successful in getting large amounts of traffic, your site will not be successful unless that traffic is doing what you want them to do. Visitors alone does not mean much if they are just passing through and are not the targeted visitors you are trying to get. Usually, it is a website's goal to not only get visitors but to also have them do something when they get there.

If you have a goal of getting your visitors to fill out a form or clicking an ad, you need to be concerned about the conversion rate. For example, if you are getting 3000 people a day to your site but only 30 of them are doing what you want them to (filling out the form), your conversion rate is 1%. That is a very low figure and one that you would need to get much higher. In that case, the 3000 hits a day may be a good amount but if those visitors are not doing what you want them to once they reach your site, much of the benefit is lost.

This is what makes online marketing so difficult. Not only do you have to figure out how to get visitors to your site but you also have to figure out how to "convert" them once you get them there. If your conversions are low, you may need to redefine your goal or else figure out what is wrong. If your goal is to get someone to make a purchase, are the products presented well and priced reasonably? Are the people that actually reach your site the right kind of people who are looking for what you are selling? Is it easy for them to make the purchase on your site?

The things you do online with your website will determine whether you are ultimately successful. It is a never ending evaluation process to make sure that your website is performing at peak efficiency. Your website is like a living entity that interacts with your customers and visitors and you need to constantly monitor it just like you would an employee. Once you learn how to evaluate it's performance and to make the necessary changes, you will finally have a website that can be productive and hopefully benefit you.

Are you interested in learning some great ways to make money online? If you are please visit my website Work From Home Jobs for some cool ideas.