Making Money with Your Website: Transform Your Website Into A Success

You’ve chosen your niche, researched the best (but not too competitive) keywords, found two or three related products to promote, and built your website. You’re ready for the traffic to start rolling in; you can barely contain your excitement!

If only it were that easy; unless you concentrate on making your website a real business and focus on effective marketing tactics, it’s likely that great website will never be seen, let alone generate you any money! If you’re looking for a little guidance on making money with your website, you’ll find the tips below very helpful.

Focus On Crafting Content For Your Audience First!

Too much emphasis is often placed on keyword optimization; in fact, many website owners focus so much on key terms and phrases, the text becomes garbled and makes little sense to readers. Focus on your targeted visitors first and foremost; let them know that you feel their pain or understand their problem, and offer effective solutions. Be sincere and transparent. In the course of writing your content in a way that offers value to your visitor, the keywords will fall in place naturally.

Offer Only HONEST Product Reviews

Until you have used a product yourself and know its benefits, you cannot write an effective review. People are “internet savvy” today; they’ve seen all kinds of faked reviews, and can usually tell whether a review is sincere, or was written solely for the purpose of selling a product. Use the products you promote, and you’ll find it much easier to recommend it to others in a way that persuades your visitor to buy.

Avoid Too Many Banners & Ads

Making money with your website is much easier if your site looks professional and well-organized, not covered with banners and ads. A few well-placed ads are fine, but concentrate primarily on a clean site with quality content, a professional looking design and simple navigation. Nothing is more frustrating than landing on a website and not being able to get to the information you are looking for! Most people get frustrated and go in search of the answer elsewhere – most likely, your competition!

The Most Important Tactic Of All – BUILD A LIST!

If you’re practicing the “hit and miss” method of making money with your website, you will never reach your full potential – or great success. You cannot simply place affiliate links and banner ads on your website and expect to make a fortune. Building relationships is a must, and that is done through a list of subscribers.

Sign up with a reputable email marketing provider such as AWeber and set up an autoresponder series of emails to go to those who sign up to your list. Build your list by offering a free ebook, video or email course. Be absolutely certain that the “freebie” you give away in exchange for an email address is of high quality – this is where you can start building your visitors’ trust in you. The more those on your list trust you and feel that you are an authority in your niche, the more likely they are to buy from you. Don’t think that building a list is too much work or “too hard;” without it, you may as well go back to your day job.

For more information, read our in-depth ‘AWeber Review‘.

You can’t make money with your website without traffic! Getting traffic is a major stumbling block for many website owners. Using pay-per-click ads such as Google Adwords can burn a hole in your pocket in no time flat, and most new marketers simply do not have a big advertising budget. So, how can you drive targeted traffic to your site?

• Write articles for syndication and submit to article directories such as Ezine Articles.
• Guest post on other relevant blogs, and include a link back to your website in your bio.
• Learn where your target audience “hangs out,” and put yourself in front of them. This may be forums, Facebook, LinkedIn, message boards or a combination of all of these things.
• Keep adding quality content to your own website. Before submitting articles to directories for syndication, place them on your own blog or website first. Search engines will give you credit for the content first, instead of the article directories. Fresh, frequently updated content can lead to higher rankings with the search engines for your chosen key terms and phrases.
• Get social. If you aren’t yet engaged in social media, it’s time to start. Create a Facebook fan page, and get involved in the conversation. Social networking sites are not the place to market heavily; instead, share your expertise with others – they will get the hint that you know what you’re talking about, and want to learn more about what you do.

You can have a successful website, but keep in mind it does take effort and patience. If you aren’t currently making money with your website, don’t give up like so many others do! Put some of the tactics above to work for you, and watch as your website transforms from a failure to phenomenal.
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Thank you to my Guest Post Author: Tess Tackett

Tess is the owner of SEOContentConnection content writing services; she and her team of writers craft high quality content for online business owners including articles, web pages, blog posts and press releases. She also offers online marketing tips & strategies on her marketing blog.
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