Logging into Google, Yahoo, Bing or whichever a viewer’s favorite search engine is, and seeing dozens of great websites is inspiring, but when it comes to actually build your own website, the challenge can be a little overwhelming unless good support is close at hand.
I know from experience because I started online as an absolute beginner with no-one to help me, not even my family. Websites were not their thing but I didn’t let that hold me back. To add to that, I wasn’t young and techie, but I didn’t let that stop me either. I believed that I would succeed with internet marketing and I have done so.
Helping You to Get Started With Your First Website
It Is Important to Decide On What Your Website Will Be About
- It is a good idea to build your first website about something that you are really interested in such as pets, crafts, sports, music, art or whatever you feel comfortable with.
- There are opinions that it is not necessary to start a first website around our interests, but I believe that when we have a passion it is easier to keep focused on the tasks we need to do to promote our website. We need to write content for our website and to be knowledgeable about our subject is a great advantage.
Do you have your own products to sell on your website?
- If you are creative and have items to sell such as art, photographs, or e-books you may be intending to build your website around those products.
Do you plan to promote other people’s products?
- You can become an affiliate marketer and promote other people’s products. To do this you will need to search online for products that you are interested in promoting.
Your Domain Name
- When you have decided on what your website will be about it is time to purchase a Domain Name.
Website Hosting
- This will host your Domain and needs to be purchased when you have bought your Domain Name.
How to Start Building Your Website
There are thousands of websites promoting how to earn money online but you need to do your research to find a trusted source of information.
Be sure not to get caught by the scams that are out there on the internet. Regrettably, it is not always easy to identify a scam but beware of those who say that you can earn thousands of dollars in a day, or even a week, or a month. It is not so!
Becoming a successful internet marketer is seldom, or maybe never, achieved by following a Get Rich Quick Scheme. A get-rich-quick mindset is not the way to build an online business.
Earning a good income online is achievable with dedication and focus on the job in hand.
How Long Does It Take To Earn Money From a Website?
It takes time to build a website that will bring you sufficient income.
Admittedly, if you have a large budget to invest in paid advertising, then maybe you will make a larger income in a smaller time frame. However, I do not have experience with such investments and therefore cannot recommend them in any way.
What I can and do recommend is Affiliate Marketing which is a popular way of making money online because there are so many products that you can market through your website and get paid commission for your efforts.
If you choose to do Affiliate Marketing which is promoting other people’s products, this is what you would require to get started.
- Decide on what products you would like to promote. A good way to help with your decision is to go to Amazon.com and look at their Best Sellers. There are thousands of products for sale on their website to help you to decide what you would like to promote on your first website.
- Another way to find products to promote is to go to Google Search and enter the words ‘How to’, and many ideas will come up. For instance, if you are interested in promoting Hair products, you could enter into Google search ‘How to make my hair shine’, and you will find what people are searching for with respect to their hair.
Your Domain Name
- I recommend purchasing your domain name from Namecheap.com, as their domains are reasonably priced. To buy a Domain Name, you will need to open an account. But, you can go to their website and search for a domain before opening your account if you so wish.
Website Hosting
- There are many website hosting companies. Hostgator provides an excellent service. I have used Hostgator since 2010, and I can recommend their service.
- What I like about Hostgator is their reporting, their Help Chat sessions, and access to the cPanel of my account. Like all aspects of internet marketing, learning about Hosting and using a cPanel takes time, but Hostgator provides sufficient information within the cPanel to upskill one’s self if needed. If I require help, I rely on their Chat session for the correct answers.
- Hostgator offers a choice of monthly plans. Also, you have the option of having multiple domains hosted on your monthly account.
WordPress
There is a choice of website platforms available, but the most widely used platform these days is WordPress.
WordPress is simple to use. It has a text editor so that you can type your content directly into this editor and publish it to your website.
WordPress Themes are available free of charge, and there is a huge selection of themes to choose from that will enhance your website.
The information provided above is the basics of learning online marketing, with an emphasis on affiliate marketing.
More About Affiliate Marketing
If you are interested in learning more about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend taking a look at Wealthy Affiliate, which is a trustworthy and reliable program I have been working with since 2015.
Not only is this affiliate marketing program trustworthy and reliable, but it also offers a free subscription, including free hosting and free domain name, plus an easy and quick way to create your first website.
A free subscription to a quality training program is a true bonus to finding your way to building your own website.
Learn more about how Wealthy Affiliate’s FREE subscription will help you to become a successful Affiliate Marketer.
I wish you all the best with your online venture. Please leave your questions or comments below.
With all of the Affiliate Marketing lately crammed into so much that it makes heads spin with overload of gotta do this and do that it is just nice once in awhile to stop and slow down while reading an intro like this that quietly puts my head into a focused perspective again and continue on down the calm road to my destination so thank you for supplying that just now!! I am following you over at WA and am so glad I had found you there!!
Claire
Hi Claire, I’m delighted to receive your comment and apologize for the delay in responding.
Getting our head around the learning of affiliate marketing can be tiresome. I work at my own pace and get there in the end.
I’m pleased to know that you are at Wealthy Affiliate and I will certainly make contact with you there.
With best wishes,
Valerie
Nice site Valerie.
I also read your comments on Lynn Drew’s site. Very supportive.
WA is a refreshingly unique lily pad in what can be a somewhat stagnant swamp.
The best to you.
Hi Dennis
Thanks for visiting my site and for leaving your comment.
WA certainly is unique. There is no other affiliate marketing training that can touch it!
All the best to you too.
Valerie
Hi Valerie,
I just wanted to take a minute from WA and stop by your website for a quick peek. You certainly know what you’re doing. Great job on the site and this article. You obviously know the difference between selling and affiliate marketing and it shows.
Keep up the great work and I look forward to following you at WA!
Cheers!
~Jim
Hi Jim
Thank you very much for visiting my website, and thank you also for your kind words.
What you said about knowing the difference between selling and affiliate marketing is very important. I try to make visitors feel welcome and not pressured with sales pitches. That builds trust, I believe.
I look forward to seeing you at WA 🙂
Cheers
Valerie
Hi Valarie,
It was a great article, and I agree with you.
Mike
Hi Mike
Thanks very much for leaving your comment.
I’m pleased you enjoyed the article.
Best wishes.
Valerie
Hi Valerie — I think you’ve done a great job building this site, and your answer to Bill was completely honest and informative. I’ll be exploring your site further, and will share it on G+.
Much Success with your websites!
Deborah
Hi Deborah
Thank you very much for visiting my website and for leaving your comment.
I appreciate your time in doing that, and for sharing the site on G+.
My best wishes,
Valerie
Nice article. I don’t think you answered the question about how long it takes to make money from doing this. I am thinking about getting involved, but would like to know how long it takes to make a real income? I see it is free to join but then cost you $47 a month to be part of this training program. That adds up quickly. How long do you think it takes on average to start making your investment back?
Are you able to make a living off doing this? or is it more of a side income?
Thank you.
Hi Bill
Thanks very much for visiting my website and leaving your comment.
I would very much like to give you a definite answer on how long it takes to make money from doing affiliate marketing. The truth of the matter is that the length of time it takes to make money depends on whether you already have skills with online marketing, or at least have built a website of your own. Not that you would necessarily use that website but if you are already skilled in the process of building a WordPress website that would be a great advantage.
Another advantage of making money online is the number of hours you can dedicate to working an affiliate site as a business, as well as the quality of work you would put into those hours.
It really is up to each person’s desire, or not, to have their own affiliate marketing business. I cannot tell you that you will make money in a certain length of time for the reasons I have explained.
If you have a passion for online marketing and a desire to be a successful affiliate marketer then I recommend that you try Wealthy Affiliate at Starter level. This gives you 7 days FREE access to the entire program where you can view the training available, and take part in the community where you will get a feel for what others are doing.
There is no way that you can lose anything by exploring Wealthy Affiliate at Starter Level. After the first 7 days you can remain at Starter level without full access to the program.
To answer your last question – yes you can make a living off affiliate marketing if you are prepared to do the work necessary, as well as to understand that your affiliate marketing website would take possibly up to 3 months to achieve rankings in Google; an important factor when it comes to your website being found.
If you have further questions, please let me know.
Best wishes
Valerie
Hi Valerie, this is a wonderful site, clean,fresh and full of information, well done and keep up the good work,
best Craig
Thanks Craig for your comment. It is much appreciated.
Best wishes
Valerie
Hi Valerie
Great article and well written.
I can relate with many things there.
just keep up.
Regards
Hi Auberlin
Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment.
I appreciate it.
Best wishes.
Hi Valerie
It’s been great discovering WA and very nice meeting you too 🙂
Best
Deb
Hi Deb
The feeling is mutual.
Thanks for visiting my website.
All the best
You are definitely headed in the right direction Valerie, keep up the good work!
Great article, I can really relate to a lot of the things you are saying here.
Hi Faith,
Thanks for visiting my site.
Thanks also for leaving a comment, I really appreciate it.
All the best.
Hi!
I have read your article and I must say that I agree with you 100%.
I started my online adventure 6 months ago, also ate the Wealthy Affiliate. Now, I have 4 websites, indexed by Google and a very interesting future ahead.
So, my message for those who have their honest doubts: “Go for it, try WA, make the Free Account and decide after if that is the best decision for you”
Great article and well written.
Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Thanks Doru for your great comments – Much appreciated.
It was a pleasure sharing – and a greater pleasure receiving your comment.
All the best!
Great information. Thank you for the walk thru. This will definitely some information to keep in mind. Great job.
Dave
Thanks very much Dave for your comments.
Greatly appreciated.
Valerie
Wonderful article and very well written! You held my attention from the opening sentence to the closing sentence! I like how you gradually added WA at the end and didn’t try to do a hard sell from the get-go. Your article was very “human” as well. It didn’t feel canned at all, and I commend you for that. Not a lot of people can do that!!
Thank you very much Valerie for your comments about this article.
I very much appreciate your feedback.
Best wishes
ValerieJoy
Hi Myo – Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment. It is much appreciated.
Best wishes
Valerie
Hey ValerieJoy!
It’s great to read your website. You’ve a step by step training to getting start an online business.
I wish your website more successful in the very near future.
Myo.