WebPublishing.me

This is a guest post by blogger and roller derby girl, Lauren Morrill-Ragusea who founded Higher Ed Underground.

My blog, Higher Ed Underground, was conceived after a particularly rough week at my day job. I was tired, frustrated, overworked, underpaid, and just generally burnt-out. I needed to do something in my line of work that was fun, if for no other reason than to remind myself that such a thing existed.

After several years spent working in and around college campuses, plus an advanced degree in higher education administration, I started to have faith in my ability as an expert. Yes, there are people with more experience and more education, but those people tend to be older and boring. They also tend to be people than can barely text message, much less blog. Thus, Higher Ed Underground was born.

It hasn’t been all daisies and roses since I started the site. I’ve made quite a few mistakes along the way (and am probably still making mistakes as we speak), and I’ve decided to share them with you in hopes that your website dreams don’t come crashing down around you.

Starting my blog for the wrong reasons

As I mentioned, Higher Ed Underground grew out of a particularly tough workweek. As a result, my initial motivation was to grow a web presence large enough to rake in the cash, quit my day job, and love life.

Yeah … fantasy.

You see, launching a site thinking you’re going to make a good living off it is the same as sitting down to write your first novel and thinking you’re the next John Grisham. Making money off your site is HARD. So hard, in fact, that if money is your only motivation, it’s going to be damn near impossible to put in the effort required to see a single red cent.

I’ve been blogging for a while on my person blog, Derby Girl, about my life playing roller derby. It’s been easy to keep up with it, because I do it just for myself. I do it because I genuinely enjoy hitting the “post” button each day. That blog has just over 2,000 pageviews a month, which isn’t too shabby, and that was with zero effort or promotion of any kind.

What’s the difference between Derby Girl and Higher Ed Underground? I started Derby Girl because I loved derby and felt like sharing it. I started Higher Ed Underground to make money. Which one do you think is more fun to maintain?

Thankfully, not long after I began working on Higher Ed Underground, this realization smacked me in the face. I threw out the serious, boring, advice-driven content and got back to what I like best: snarky commentary. The content was easier to come by, the daily posting was easier to maintain, and my pageviews jumped considerably. I also abandoned the sheer desire to monetize the site, and am having way more fun with it. It was right about that time that I made my first ten cents from AdSense.

The moral of that story? Find your voice, then blog.

Researching too quickly

If you’re really serious about growing a small business from your blog, you need to do the legwork up front. Research the market. Find out what sites already exist in your niche. Figure out how you’ll be different than the existing market, and if you’re the same, how you can do it better. Figure out what keywords are leading people to sites like yours, and see if you can maximize those keywords to drive traffic. I did all this, but I did it over the course of about three days. This probably wasn’t enough research, especially since I keep stumbling across sites in my niche.

Launching too soon

I still have my day job, and my day job is fairly demanding. There’s not much time to sit around surfing the internet during work hours, much less create meaningful, valuable content. When a site is new, it’s important for it to have strong content that updates frequently. I should have aggregated several weeks worth of posts (at a minimum) before I kicked off, so that when my paying job got crazy, I had content to fall back on. Nothing loses readers faster than infrequent posting or throwaway content.

Buying a theme

Let me be clear: I absolutely love Thesis Theme. It’s easy, customizable, and professional. But the truth is, I could have gotten by for at least the first six months on a standard WordPress theme. WordPress has some great skeleton templates that I could have taught myself to customize over time, and it would have saved me $89 during the whole site setup. This is another example of me diving in to the deep end before I quite knew how to swim.

There’s no need to spend money on your site (other than the domain name and hosting) until you’ve started to see a little bit coming in. Sure, you want your site to look professional, but until you’ve got a readership that demands professional, there’s no reason to put out any money to get there. The look of your site, though important, is not what will keep readers coming back. Invest your effort in producing quality content, and the rest comes later.

Monetizing too much, too early

Don’t clutter your page with ads. Yes, it’s hideous and distracting, but it also makes you look like you care more about money than content. Once you have a dedicated readership, they’ll understand why you put ads on your site. They won’t mind, because they’ll be conditioned to pay attention to your kick ass content. But if the only thing readers see when they visit your site for the first time is an AdSense banner, affiliate links, and those stupid in-text links, you’re pretty asking them to click away. You look like you’ve created your site to steal their money, and they won’t stay, much less come back.

So there you have it. Feel free to let me know of other mistakes I’m making. One thing I’ve learned from entering into the world of blogging is you have to have a thick skin. You’re going to post silly things, make typos, or simply draw the ire of a reader or two. And guess what? Someone will probably send you a nasty email. It happens to the most well-intentioned blogger. So if you don’t think you could put all your mistakes out there like I did … well, then blogging just isn’t for you.

Lauren Morrill-Ragusea is the guru (ha!) over at Higher Ed Underground, where she blogs about college life, admissions, news, and academic success. She also blogs at Derby Girl Blog and is a roller derby blogger for Skirt! Please hire her so that she can quit her job, write, and play roller derby for a living.

Even getting a single visitor to your blog is no small feat, but that doesn’t mean making money online is dead. It’s growing, and it’ll keep growing until every man, woman and child in the world has an Internet connection. The bigger the Web gets, too, the better the opportunities for making money online. Here, then, is our list of the Top 51 best ways to make money online:

1) Blogging. $Unlimited.

It’s the new American dream – writing about what you love and getting paid to do it. Not only are you your own boss, you can work from anywhere there’s an Internet connection. There are two central ways to make money blogging:
•  Pay Per Click ads (using a service like Google Adsense or Adbright). With pay per click ads, you rely on a high number of visitors to read your blog. While reading your content, they might see a text or image ad, and click on it. If they do, you get paid.
•  Affiliate Blogging. Affiliate blogging refers to writing product reviews and posting links to those products. If one of your blog readers clicks a product link and buys the product, you get a commission. See No. 2 below for more information. A great way to test the waters is to set up a free blog using Google’s Blogger or WordPress.

2) Affiliate Marketing. $Unlimited.

Affiliate marketing turns you into something of a salesperson. You refer to, describe or talk about products, and – in the process – you include links to buy the product on your site. If a user clicks one of those links, and buys the product you mentioned, you get a portion of the sales. Popular affiliate marketing brokers include Commission Junction, ShareaSale and Amazon.com. To get an idea of how it works, check out one of my affiliate sites that lists The Top 100 Best Self-Help Books of All Time, www.selfhelp.fm.

3) Mahalo.com. $10-$15 per search result.

Mahalo offers a “human-powered search engine.” Unlike Google, which generates search results based on algorithms, Mahalo taps a metaverse full of part-time employees who write search results for cash. www.mahalo.com. $10-$15 per search result.

4) Infolinks.com. $Unlimited.

A relatively new way to make money online, Infolinks is a text-based form of advertising that automatically selects keywords on your Web site. When users hover over the underlined keywords, a small ad pops up. If users click on that ad, you get paid. www.infolinks.com.

5) ChaCha.com. $3-$9 hr.

Like Mahalo.com, ChaCha’s attempting to use human brainpower to outwit computers. Using cell phones, or their browsers, ChaCha fans can submit short questions in the form of text messages or voicemail. A few minutes later, a real-world “guide” will send the questioner a free text message answer in response (i.e. What time is “Twilight” playing at XYZ Movie Theater in New York?). You can serve as a guide (someone who answers the sometimes bizarre, sometimes informative questions ChaCha gets) and pull in $3-$9 an hour depending on your speed. ChaCha.com.

6) Writing eBooks. $Unlimited.

Got some specialized knowledge in a particular field? Throw it together as a pdf and sell it online. eBooks can be found on almost every topic imaginable, and they sell particularly well when the knowledge offered by the author is specialized. Don’t let that deter you if you don’t feel like you don’t have any specialized knowledge, though. You can do as much research as time allows. The more in-depth it is, the more you’ll be able to charge. Centerville Web Design in Dayton, Ohio can build you a Web site to promote and market your book.

7) eBay. $Unlimited.

It’s almost a cliche by now, but there are people out there who make six-figure incomes selling products on eBay. Go to auctions or flea markets to try to find overlooked goodies, then mark them up and sell them online. The trick is to find rare products that don’t have much online competition. You might even be able to find a drop shipper (i.e. Doba.com), so you can sell products without the hassle of packaging and shipping them. Ebay.com.

8) Email Newsletter Subscriptions. $Unlimited.

Already got a Web site with lots of excellent content? One way to make some extra money is to offer a premium weekly newsletter only available to members. Several reputable Web sites do this, including Fool.com and Marketing Profs. Of course, you can start from scratch, too, you’ll just have to be prepared for a lot of work with little payoff at the start.

9) Language Instruction. $Unlimited.

One of the most overlooked skills that a lot of people have is the fact that they’re bilingual. You can leverage your language skills by working for an online tutoring service like VerbalPlanet.com. Better yet, you can start your own online language course, giving away early lessons for free, then charging for more advanced lessons.

10) LiveOps.com. $0.25 per minute.

Like to have a more steady paycheck? LiveOps.com gives you the opportunity to serve as a customer service agent taking phone calls from your home computer. Receive orders for pizza, infomercial products and an assortment of other goods that LiveOps has been contracted to take calls for. You could max out at $15 per hour (as they pay $0.25 per minute of talk time), but it’s unlikely you’ll be on the phone for an hour straight. LiveOps.com.

11) Trading Stocks. $Unlimited.

OK. I was hesitant to include this option, but trading stocks from home via the Internet employs several thousand people across the country. They take a variety of approaches (from value investing to daytrading to options and commodities trading). There’s a huge learning curve that market pros refer to as “market tuition” (since you’ll likely loss money at the start), but it is possible to make money trading stocks once you have enough equity built up. I recommend Zecco.com for $4.50 trades (Scottrade charges $8.25, and eTrade charges $12.99). Fool.com offers a great “virtual” exchange in their CAPS community. There you can try you hand at trading stocks before you actually put any money on the line.

12) Domaining. $Unlimited.

Domaining refers to the practice of buying domain names, filling the home page for ads, and waiting for users to click them. It doesn’t sound that sexy, but it’s made a handful of millionaires around the world – all guys and gals who realized that the Internet was going to be huge long before anyone else did. They were the people buying up names like, hotels.com, usedcars.com, planetickets.com, etc. (and, of course, some less toward domain names as well). I was lucky enough to interview one of the heavyweights in the field, Rick Schwartz. Read it for more on the art of domaining.

13) Web Design. $Unlimited.

So nowadays it seems like anyone can throw together a simple Web site, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to look good – and more importantly it doesn’t mean it’s going to be functional. Throw together a Web site that showcases your design skills, and run a few ads on Google. After you build your first few sites, word of mouth should bring you more. Having trouble getting traffic on your Web design site? Build a few for free for schools or nonprofits with condition, of course, that they let you link back to your site. A little goodwill goes a long way.

14) Video Tutorials. $Unlimited.

Some people are auditory learners, some visual, and some things just lend themselves to learning by watching. If you’ve got a talent that makes you a little bit of money, why not show others how to do it, and make even more money in the process. Put together a few hours of video of you rebuilding carburetors, sewing quilts, or putting together secret humus recipes. Chop half the footage up into short clips you can give away on YouTube, MetaCafe or MySpace, and always include a link back to your site where you sell your full downloadable video. If it works, make more! Then hire other people to make even more.

15) iPhone apps. $Unlimited.

If you haven’t heard about the hundreds of programming wizards who have quit their dayjobs after writing incredible iPhone apps, consider yourself lucky. It’s kind of sickening actually; write a single bestselling app, and you can put in your two weeks notice after you get your first check. Ok. It’s not sickening. It’s incredibly awesome. If you don’t have the skills to write an app yourself, you’ve got the brainpower to come up with an idea. After you’ve gotten that far, outsource the development of the app using a Web site like rentacoder.com or elance.com to bring it to fruition.

16) Get a head start on Windows Mobile Apps. $Unlimited.

Maybe the iPhone App market is a little over-saturated. Good news! The Windows Mobile App Store isn’t even open yet. Get your app in early for the best chance of getting noticed. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to be a coder to get in on the app market. You just have to have some capital to hire the right coders. Plenty of sites exist where you can do just that (and you’ll even retain the copyright to the code). Try elance.com, rentacoder.com or project4hire.com.

17) Virtual Assistant. $3-$18+ per hour.

I fell in love with the concept of virtual assistant’s after reading Timothy Ferriss’ incredible book, ‘The 4-Hour Workweek.’ There, Ferriss talks about all the bizarre things he’s had his assistants do – mostly to free up his time for living; but occasionally just for fun. He uses them to order flowers for his wife, to put together itineraries, to answer emails. He uses them for just about anything he possibly can. You might be able to use them to streamline your business, or, you could become the virtual assistant who helps other people and organizations get things done. There are plenty of sites out there to get started: odesk.com, officedetails.com and virtualassistants.com are just a few. DumbLittleMan has a great post with more places to hire a virtual assistant.

18) Currency Trading. $Unlimited.

I was even more hesitant to list currency trading as an option than I was trading stocks, but, hey, there are a lot of people who do it. In fact, more money changes hands every day in the currency trading market than any other exchange in the world. Positions are extraordinarily leveraged (since you have to capitalize on fractions of a penny), and that means you can make a lot of money fast. You can also lose far more than you’ve got, too. It’s a fast-paced, sweaty-palmed sort of living, but some people do well. Forex.com is the most well-known currency brokers. I’d ALWAYS recommend a practice account if you’re just starting out.

19) Mechanical Turk. $0.10+ per HIT.

One of the most interesting concepts I’ve come across in recent years, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is designed to allow computer programs access to human intelligence. Using an open API (Application Programming Interface), programs can generate “hits” for humans. HITS are small, often-repetitive tasks that computer programs are unable to do on their own (i.e. describe what’s going on in a photograph). Humans perform the tasks based on what sounds appealing to them, and they get paid for it. The HITS don’t have to be created by computers, though. A lot of businesses and entrepreneurs use HITS to improve their efficiency. Wikipedia’s got a great article on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or you can start doing HITS right away at Amazon.

20) Online Tutoring. $10+ per hour.

There are hundreds of online-tutoring services out there, from Sylan to Brainfuse to Tutor.com. Sign on to teach whatever topic you know best. Requirements range from “not much” to having a masters degree, and the pay ranges almost as dramatically. Google “online tutoring” to find potential employers or start at Brainfuse.com or Tutor.com (as of this writing, Tutor.com is looking for tutors in Chemistry, Physics, Resume Writing, English, Essay Writing, Vietnamese and Spanish).

21) Write Software $Unlimited.

If you’re well-versed in some popular programming languages (i.e. Python, PHP, C#, ASP, Perl, or the iPhone SDK), there are countless freelancing opportunities online; from rentacoder.com to elance.com to odesk.com. Pay varies wildly, but goes up based on your online reputation. The more positive reviews you’ve got, the more likely someone will be to take a chance on you. Just keep in mind, you’ll be competing with programmers from around the world.

22) Online Consulting $Unlimited.

These days, just about anyone can label themselves a consultant. Making money at it is a little trickier, though. You’ll do best if you’ve got some marketing skills or some extremely in-depth knowledge on something with a big learning curve (i.e. Javascript, Routers, Crystal Reports, Fibre Channel, etc.). Go the traditional route and partner with an online consulting service like ONLC.com to leverage their existing marketing platforms against your skills, or go the new age route on bid on consulting projects at Mavenlink. The most exciting new development in online consulting, though, is Skype Prime. Still in Beta, it’s like the new-age version of the “1-900 number”. It allows you to initiate charges after an introduction with a client who contacts you via Skype.

23) Play Video Games. $Unlimited.

A new trend that’s showing some extraordinary growth is the sale of video game assets. The biggest market is for World of Warcraft where players sell their “gold” and “levels” to well-heeled, time-strapped gamers who would rather pay than play to advance in the game. Other games where you can sell your goodies? Ever Quest, Ever Quest2, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Lord Of The Rings Online, Lineage 2, Maple Story, Star Wars Galaxies and Warhammer Online. A number of gaming brokerages have sprung up: PowerLevel.net and Gmlvl, Power Leveling to name a few.

24) Web Hosting Reseller. $Unlimited.

One of the allures of making money online is the fact that you can make money while you sleep, and an easy way to get there is by offering a service that clients have to pay for every month. Internet hosting is one of those ways, and you don’t even have to have your own servers. You can now buy “reseller” accounts that allow you sublet your server space to others. Once you get enough clients to cover your costs, you’re making money. The hard part is getting the clients, but it can be done with clever marketing and hard work. Check out reseller accounts at two of my favorite online hosts: Hostgator.com and Greengeeks.com.

25) eLance.com. $Unlimited.

eLance has leveled the playing field for independent contractors. Here, writers, Web designers, programmers, lawyers, and accountants compete with their peers from around the world to get project-based jobs. Business and individuals who need work done post job listings on the site, and contractors (you!) bid on them in an eBay-style auction. If the employer picks you for the job, you get some money up front, and the rest comes in stages or upon completion of the job. If you’re just starting out, remember that reputation is everything. If you haven’t done any jobs on the site yet, it’s going to be a lot harder to win your bids than if you’d completed 50, all with rave reviews. Learn more: eLance.com.

26) Mail-order Transmission Repair? $Unlimited.

This one’s kind of tricky to get your mind around, but I’m trying to convince you that the Web is like the Wild West. If you can think it up and follow it through, you might succeed. So, this story comes from a friend of a friend. Based in Toledo, Ohio, he started a mail-in transmission repair business on the Web. He didn’t know a lot about repairing transmissions, so he partnered with a local auto repair shop. A year later, he was getting transmissions mailed to him from around the world. He had them sent to the body shop who would repair them, then mail them back to the customer. Soon, he was making a nice profit, and not long after that, he sold the business and made an even nicer profit. Now, I think he’s traveling and trying to figure out what to work on next. He’s living up to Timothy Ferriss’ concept of a “4-Hour Workweek” (and I’m kind of jealous).

27) Freelance Writing $Unlimited.

When you get down to it, the single most important currency on the Internet is content. It’s king. If you have the most functional site in the world without any descriptions, no one’s ever going to find it. Content is how you get people to your blog, Web site, even your Facebook page. Because of this, a lot of sites are willing to pay decent money for you to create content for them. Pay ranges from borderline-sweat-shop to excellent, and – if you’re good – it can have a snowball effect. Once you get your name out there, people will start finding you to write for them. The following sites offer lots of writing opportunities: elance.com, guru.com, odesk.com, hubpages.com and squidoo.com. Hongkiat.com also has a great post on 26 sites that pay you to blog.

28) Etsy.com $Unlimited.

Back in 2006, when Etsy.com was finally getting a foothold in the mainstream, I got the opportunity to interview Robert Kalin. Etsy.com was his baby – a site he was working on as much as 18 hours a day, seven days a week. The concept was simple: an ebay for handmade goodies. It dovetailed nicely with the anti-mass-produced DIY culture that’s been catching steam, and now the site pulls in nearly 3.5 million unique visitors every month. “Where you get your goods has a direct impact on the world,” Kalin said. “Humans can go either one way or the other way and find a sustainable way to help the world grow. I think Etsy can sort of help that along.” As the DIY marketplace grows, so too do the potential customers for your goodies. List your handmade items, and you just might pocket some cash at the prices you set. Online at etsy.com.

29) Sell dropship/wholesale products $Unlimited.

One of my friends in Florida started making a decent side income using dropshippers to sell skateboard and hunting supplies. Here’s how it works: you build an online store. You do all the marketing (i.e. buying Google Adwords ads), and you process orders for products. When someone orders an item from you, you place an order with your dropshipper (sometimes this process can be automated), and they take care of packaging/shipping your product. It works particularly well for niche Web sites. The best three dropship/wholesale sites are Worldwide Brands, Salehoo, and Doba.

30) Start a Social Networking Site $Unlimited.

If you’re truly passionate about something, you might have the stamina and drive necessary to get a niche social networking site off the ground. There are lots of services (some paid, some free) out there that let you build your own version of Facebook or MySpace. Target very specific audiences – i.e. elderly Linux lovers – and, best of all, serve up ads on all the pages you deem adworthy. Get started at Elgg.org, Ning.com, Spree, or Mahara. Vivalogo also offers a list of the Top 40 free downloadable social networks.

31) Bartering $Unlimited.

If you haven’t heard of Kyle MacDonald and his red paperclip, prepare to be enlightened. On July 12, 2005, he traded one red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. Fourteen trades later, he moved into a brand new house – all from one paperclip. Yes, bartering is the new black, and you can do it, too, especially with all the barter sites that have cropped up, from U-Echange to Craigslist to Freecycle to Trashbank. Check out Discovery.com for The Best Online Sites for Bartering.

32) Build a Niche Store $Unlimited.

One of the biggest hurdles to starting an online, product-based business is getting your products in front of the people who want to buy them. That’s why it makes sense to operate within an existing framework. One good service is BuildaNicheStore.com. The service works hand-in-hand with eBay’s Partner Network, so that you can build a store around the products already being sold on eBay. You’re basically acting like an eBay affiliate, but their software makes it easy to target niches and present it in a pleasing way. If someone buys a product after clicking one of your links, you get money.

33) Tourism Web Site $Unlimited.

If you leave in a medium to large-sized city, you probably know the lay of the land a lot better than out-of-towners. Why not start a blog then that you update regularly with reviews, lists and photographs of the top tourist attractions in your town? Tourism ads pay particularly well, especially if you start reviewing hotels, restaurants, airports and car rental facilities; in addition to the museums, and historic attractions you love. It’s a great way to leverage your existing knowledge and provide something very worthwhile for other people. You can get rolling free blog hosting platform like WordPress or Blogger.

34) Online Contests and Sweepstakes $Unlimited.

So, this might not be the most practical way to make money online, but there are definitely some reputable contests out there that can put some cash in your wallet. Some of my favorite contests are the Threadless T-Shirt Contest (earn $2,500 if your shirt design gets picked), the ThinkGeek Action Shot ($100 for a photo of you with a ThinkGeek product), and the ThinkGeek T-Shirt/Logo Contest ($250). The trick is to pay attention to offers like this at your favorite online Web sites/vendors. Often, there isn’t as much competition as you might think.

Also: About.com regularly updates their Contest and Sweepstakes blog and OnlineSweepstakes.com posts some 200+ contests per day, many of which just require an email address as an entry fee. Be careful of scams, however, and never give out sensitive information (i.e. credit cards, SSN numbers). I’d also recommend setting up a free alternate email address to link with your contest entries.

35) Multilevel Marketing $Unlimited.

I’ll be honest, multilevel marketing seems like a painful way to make money. I hadn’t put much time into investigating how legit it is, but it seems like everyone talks about it, so I thought I’d do just enough research to write something intelligent about it. MLMs are companies or providers who reward people who sell specific products. Sellers are highly-motivated to get other people to sell the products, too, as they’ll get a cut of those sales. In this way, it’s got a hierarchical rewards structure. If you get a lot of people to sell products for you, and they get a lot of people to sell for them, you’re going to start making a lot of money without a lot of effort. Here’s an independent MLM ratings company (they base evaluations on the number of search queries performed on specific MLM programs each month): MLMRankings.com. At the moment, Avon, Tupperware and Longaberger top the list.

36) Freelance Graphic Artist $Unlimited.

The Web’s fueled by text and art, and while just about anyone can produce text, not everyone can make art. If you’re skilled at Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD, Corel or any other advanced graphics program, you can probably find steady work through some of the bigger pay-per-project sites like elance, odesk and guru.com. If you’ve already got a lot of high-quality images (particularly vector), you can upload them at sites like iStockPhoto.com, and, perhaps, make some passive income on the side.

37) Audiobooks $Unlimited.

As we move further away from radios and CDs, Audiobooks and podcasts are quickly becoming the preferred method for taking in audio-based text. If you’ve got a lot of great content on your Web site, why not turn it into an audiobook to sell on Amazon, iTunes, and on your own site? The competition isn’t as fierce as it is in the book world, and you’ll quickly find that’s it another great avenue to get your name out in the world. You’ll have to get a copyright and sign up as an artist at CDBaby.com to get listed on iTunes, and Audible.com requires that you’ve published at least five audiobooks before you can sell with them. As a huge audiobook fan (with an iPhone), I can tell you they’re addictive. I’ve even paid up to $18 for audiobooks in iTunes.

38) Amazon.com $Unlimited.

The 16th most-visited site in the world, Amazon.com is one of the best selling platforms in the world (eBay ranks at No. 9). If you’ve got a large collection of books or CDs, or even other goods like clothing or printers that you could stand to part with, Amazon offers a good way to do it. Sign up for a seller account, and start shipping your goodies across the country. One word of note: Amazon’s particularly competitive when it comes to popular/well-known books. If you’re looking to sell books online as a long-term income source, then, visit flea markets, auctions and classified listings where you can find rare, out-of-prints books with odd titles. A book on African blue parrots might not sound great, but it’s probably worth 20 times as much as your copy of the Da Vinci Code (you just might have to wait longer to find a buyer). Get info on Amazon Seller Accounts.

39) Podcasting $Unlimited.

Podcasting provides an intimate to reach a passionate audience in your niche. Think about it; if someone’s willing to take the time to download and listen to your podcast, they’re pretty motivated to learn about your particular topic. That means, it’s a great place to talk about some of your other products (so long as you’re still providing great content in your podcast). Better yet, though, the value of podcasting grows over time. After you’ve built up a library of podcasts, you’ll have something you can package for sale. A great example of this is the Internet Business Mastery Podcast by Sterling and Jay. They give away a podcast every week, but you gain access to their full collection of podcasts after joining their “academy.” Once you’ve recorded several episodes, you’ll be ready to upload your feed in iTunes.

40) Tech Support $10-$12.

If you’re the one your friends turn to when they have computer problems, you’d probably be perfect for online tech support. Companies like Accolade Support pay virtual tech support agents $10-$12 per hour to help frustrated clients figure out why their Internet connection isn’t working or their software isn’t behaving properly. “A key component of this is assuring the customer that you will help them, calming them down, and resolving the situation for them when possible,” Accolade says.

41) Mystery Shopper $Unlimited.

This isn’t an online only job, but mystery shopping does get you out of a cubicle and into your car – not to mention cruising the aisles of some hopefully swanky shopping outlets. In fact, I work with a guy who regularly performs “shops” at some nationally-known steak and seafood restaurants. He even lands weekend resort trips in the mountains. It’s important to note that you will have to do a lot of legwork on your jaunts (i.e. writing down names, times, prices, appearances, etc.), but it’s a great way to get free food, vacations and products. Advanis, based in Canada is a good place to start. Read the description here, or visit their careers page here.

42) Conduct Phone Research $Unlimited.

Here’s another offering from Advanis (mentioned above): conducting phone research calls. A job that pays hourly, you’re required to have good customer service skills, high speed Internet, a headset, and typing speeds of 30+ words per minute. You also might be able to write off a portion of your mortgage or rent. Not good for late sleepers, as Advanis’ interviewers start work at 5 a.m. EST.

43) ClickNwork.com $Unlimited.

ClickNwork’s a lot like eLance.com (jobs on a project-by-project basis), but you’ve got to pass an in-depth test to land a spot on their squad. Once you’re in, you’ll have access to all sorts of home-based opportunities that are tailored to your background and experience; things like performing Web queries, providing analysis, consulting, data entry and phone interviews. Try the test today.

44) Ether.com $Unlimited.

Ether.com provides the framework for you to sell your knowledge to others. It works in two ways: 1) You can sign up for an Ether phone number. With it, clients will be able to prepay for one-on-one phone consulting time with you before they actually call. Alternatively, you can lock content behind a password. If users click to buy your content, they’ll pay Ether who will route most of the money to you (they charge a 15% commission), and then Ether will display the content. Essentially, they’re worrying about payment processing and backend storage of your content, while you worry about marketing and serving clients. Learn more about Ether.

45) Verify Phone Calls $8.50-$9 per hour.

When a telemarketer calls you with an order and you decide you’d like to buy what they’re selling, that company is required to get third-party verification – namely, someone else to verify who the customer is and what they want to buy. BSG, based in Colorado, has been providing third-party verification for 23 years. If you’ve got customer service experience, they’ll likely hire you to work from home verifying orders. Pay is $8.50 per hour for English verification and $9 for bilingual verification. Learn more on their careers page.

46) Musical Transcription $Unlimited.

If you’re good at reading and transcribing music, there are a handful of companies that hire freelance music transcribers. Among them? Cherry Lane Music, and they’re currently looking for pop/rock guitar transcribers and piano arrangers. The company also hires editors, to verify transcriptions, then they throw together books you’ve probably seen in your local music shop. They have titles like, “1,001 Blues Licks” and “Monster Book of Rock Guitar Tab.” Learn more at Cherry Lane Music.

47) Extended Warranty Calls $9 hour.

Ever wonder if those lifetime product guarantees are legit? Looks like they are because there’s at least one company that provides call centers to handle inbound warranty calls. New Customer Services Companies, Inc., pays $9 for home-based customer care reps. The company offers paid training so you learn how to handle customer queries and complaints for the various products NEW serves. Apply online.

48) Review Software $1-$50 per review.

Software Judge pays techies to review software, from games to in-depth Windows crash protection software. Download it, use it, and review it honestly, and they’ll pay you when they publish your review. Be warned, though, if you’re only landing $1 or so per review, it’s going to take a lot of work to get your first check. They require that you have at least $200 in your account before they pay out. Still, if you’re a software geek, I imagine you’ll be more than happy to review new goodies. Learn more.

49) Become a Guide at About.com $1,000+ per month.

About.com’s guides are among the best-paid freelance writers on the Web. They actually get a base pay, with incentives for things like page-view growth. You’ll be required to maintain a blog that’s updated 3+ times per week, and you’ll have to crank out a major article every week. Some guides even clear six figures. Still, it’s not that easy to get in. They prefer hands-on, professional-grade experience in writing or working in a particular field. Learn more on their “Be a Guide” page.

50) Design Greeting Cards $Unlimited.

Recycled Paper Greetings adds more than 3,000 new cards to it’s product line every year, and all of them are created by freelancers. The cards are just like the ones you see at your local Drug Mart – each revolving around a specific event: a bday, perhaps, Valentines Day, anniversaries, etc. Put together up to 10 physical cards (5″x7″) and mail them in (digital submissions not allowed). If they like your design, they’ll be in touch to discuss payment and procedures.

51) SEO $Unlimited.

Search Engine Optimization refers to the process of improving a Web site’s “visibility” to search engines with the goal of giving a site a higher page rank. Work on a job-by-job basis through sites like eLance.com or oDesk.com, or – since the nature of the work takes place online – you can find work-at-home opportunities at specific companies. One source: PartnerCentric.com in Santa Barbara, Calif. Their job board is updated regularly with spots for sales reps, SEO experts, and pay-per-click specialists.

It’s difficult to grasp the power of XML without understanding what metadata is. Metadata is simply data that describes data. A good example of this is HTML (the Web code that’s allowing you to view this blog). If you’ve seen HTML at all, you’re familiar with some basic tags; these include things like <head>, <body> and <p>. These tags are simply data or information that a Web browser uses to decide how particular lines of text should be formatted. Words that fall between an open bold tag (<b>) and a close bold tag (</b>), for example, are displayed as bold text by the browser. That’s pretty basic stuff. But there’s power in it.

Think about it: why do people bother making text bold? They do it because the words in bold are important. They represent titles, dates, names, etc. So, if you have a document that’s filled with plain and bold text, you’ve got a very rudimentary form of metadata. The plain text is probably less important than the bold text. And, since you’ve got <bold> tags in your data (and content between those <bold> tags), you can manipulate the important text.

This is where things start getting exciting. What if you had a document filled with information, but somewhere inside that information were a bunch of important dates that had been made bold? Suddenly, you could use some search tools (like Ultraedit) to extract all the dates from that document. Then, you could import those dates into a spreadsheet, and use them as a dayplanner.

XML takes these baby steps and starts running with them. See, XML is extensible. That’s where the language got its name: Extensible Markup Language. Once you make a form of metadata like HTML extensible, you’re no longer forced to use very simplistic tags like <b>. You can actually describe the data that’s you’re wrapping inside tags.

For example, if you have a bunch of important dates in your document, you can suddenly wrap them in much more useful tags. Instead of <b>, you could use a tag like <date>. Then, for all of your titles, you could use tags like <title>. See, XML doesn’t lock you into using one set of standardized tags.

Wait a minute, you’re saying, that’s all good and well, but a Web browser can’t interpret tags like <date>. You’re right there, but the lovely folks who brought us XML thought of that, and they came up with a way for us to “transform” our XML documents into whatever format we want whenever we want to transform them. We can do that by using XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations).

Now, let’s say you’ve got an XML document filled with tens of thousands of lines of text, information and tags. You want some of that text to get formatted for your Web page, but you also want some of it to be formatted for a PDF book, and yet more of it you’d like to use as a database. No problem. If you’ve got some stylesheets laying around and an XSLT processor (of which there are free versions like Saxon), you can alter your data easily.

You can write a stylesheet to transform all of your data into HTML. For example, you can convert your <date> tags into <b> tags and all of your <title> tags into <i> tags for italics, and you can keep adding from there. You can wrap everything in <body> and <p> tags, and suddenly you’re ready to throw your data on the Web. You can also format your data for PDF (by outputting XSL-FO), or you can simply use your XML document as a database and query it whenever you like.

Sooooo, the beauty of XML is that it can be used in multiple ways. HTML is good for the Web, but pretty lousy when it comes to using it in other media. Also, HTML doesn’t truly describe the data it’s displaying. XML does, and it still lets you manipulate your data with ease.

These factors are why XHTML is getting so much hype these days. XHTML (which stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), can be used for Internet browsers, but it’s also valid XML. That means, it can be used by other data processors as well (such as Saxon, which I mentioned earlier). Once you allow for that, you’re suddenly able to manipulate your data much easier and put it to use in other media (often with minimal effort). Therein, lies the full power of XML.

Thirsty for more on XML? Check out XML.com, one of my favorite resources when I’m stuck on a problem. Or get a book like Beginning XML (published by Wrox, 2007).

Blogs are often written by one- or two-person teams with little professional editing or oversight. Newspapers, on the other hand, are staffed with droves of editors. In fact, some of the biggest papers in the country push stories through eight editors or more before publishing them on paper. Somewhere on that totem pole of newspaper editors sits the noble copy editor.

In a former life, that was my job at the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio. Responsibilities? Lay out stories on the page (we were using Quark at the time), edit stories for length and content, and write headlines in the space allotted for each story. That last part about “space allotted” is key. Sometimes in a newspaper, you’ve got room for five-word headlines, sometimes 10, and sometimes two. In the parlance of the time, it was our job to make the headlines “pop” no matter what the length.

If I wasn’t able to write a headline I was happy with, I’d lean over to one of my coworkers (many of whom had been in the industry for 20 years or more), and ask for help. Sometimes, there would be a group of us standing around a computer screen trying to figure out the best headline for a story featured on page A1.

I tell you all this to stress the eternal and undying importance of headlines. Newspapers have this figured out in their particular niche. Bloggers often don’t. Your headline isn’t just a descriptor of what’s inside your story, it’s a call to action. It’s a flag that tells the reader something important lies inside, and they’d be remiss if they didn’t check it out.

Of course, newspaper headlines and blog headlines are different machines with different goals. In a print product, you don’t have to convince the reader to buy your newspaper, since it probably showed up in their driveway that morning. Bloggers need to sell themselves with each and every headline. Newspaper headlines are hampered by design goals. If you can’t fit five words in a headline, you’re going to have to make do with the space for the two words you’ve been allotted. Bloggers have more space and flexibility to say the things they want … and that means their headlines should be BETTER than anything they read in print.

As newspapers struggle to make the transition to the online world, one of their biggest failings is to capitalize on the power of headlines. Too often, they simply take the headline they used for print, retag it for the Web and run. Big mistake. The rules have changed. It’s like getting drafted by a professional baseball team and showing up for practice with an aluminum bat.

It takes time to make the transition, though, and some newspapers ARE reworking the way they approach headlines in the online world. For instance, I tromped over to the New York Times and looked at their “Most Popular” stories. One headline in particular jumped out at me, “Heaven for the Godless?” I followed the link and found an opinion piece on a new survey that showed that 70 percent of Americans believed you could make it heaven by “following a religion other than their own.”

Contrast that headline with this particularly repugnant one: “Bob Herbert: Stop Being Stupid.” I haven’t clicked through to figure out what “Stop Being Stupid” is about because I don’t want to be told I’m stupid. My guess is no one else wants to either.

So, we’ve come to a crossroad: what makes the first headline better than the second? For one, the first headline probably appeals to Americans more than any other nationality. We’ll always choose the path of least resistance to get a grand reward. So, if there’s a way to get to heaven without having to practice a religion, well, I’d like to know about it.

Perhaps the most important thing that makes the first headline better than the second, though, is the fact that it’s controversial. It presents a paradox that feels like it’s daring us to learn more. There is no wiggle room for free thought when you’ve got a headline that says “Stop Being Stupid.”

That brings me to the reason for this post, a guide to writing good headlines from a guy who spent two years doing it five days a week:

1. Intrigue the reader with the promise of more knowledge. We read for one reason: to educate ourselves. It doesn’t matter if we’re seeking info on the gravitational pull of Neptune or the hip gyrations of Shakira, we read because we want to learn more about a particular topic. If you promise readers they’re going to learn about something they’ve never encountered, then they’re far more likely to click your link.

2. Don’t make the reader feel stupid. Of course, this applies just as much to the content of your post as it does to the headline, but readers don’t want to be berated about anything. It’s like a teacher who believes humiliation will help slow learners. You’re more likely to produce the opposite effect. Positive headlines are always more effective than negative ones.

3. Accentuate the controversial. We live in a postmodern world. Nothing’s cut and dry anymore, and it’s easy to find two sides to any story. If that’s the case, don’t shortchange your readers by choosing one side of the story. Find the gray area of the pool and dive right in. That’s where the juicy stuff is.

4. Stay away from puns. I’ll never forget when I was a cub reporter at a small daily paper in North Carolina, The Rocky Mount Telegram. One of my co-workers wrote a military story he was particularly proud of. It had something to do with a soldier recounting his days on the battlefield. After he turned the story in, he came over and said, “I hope the copy desk doesn’t write a cheesy headline for my story. I think it’s one of the first stories I’d be willing to put in my portfolio.” When we finally saw the headline, he groaned, and I started laughing. It read, “Tanks for the Memories.” Puns are the easiest ways to trivialize any topic. If you’re afraid you might be dancing on the line of propriety, you need to pick something more direct.

5. Choose words that “pop.” OK. I’m not a big fan of the word “pop,” but it gets the idea across. Your headlines need to use powerful, active words in the present-tense. Sometimes, all this takes is a trip to the thesaurus at Merriam-Webster. Replace lackluster words with words that punch your readers in their bellies. Another way to find intriguing headlines, is to go to the New York Times Bestseller lists. The books that stand out there not only have unique content, but they often have unique, brandable titles, too. Books like Barack Obama’s, “The Audacity of Hope,” or Artie Lange’s, “Too Fat to Fish.” Both of them use words that don’t crop up that often (“fat” and “audacity”).

6. Accept that you’re a writer and words are your only tool. Too often bloggers look at things in terms of numbers: how many posts they can produce, how many readers they can get, how many clicks they garner. But you’ve got to remember that first and foremost, you’re a writer. I’m going to repeat that again, you’re a writer. The only tool writers have at their disposal are words. So since you’ve chosen to be a writer, you’re going to have to use words properly. Writing a headline in a hurry means you could end up with typos or missing prepositions. There’s no better way to get ignored than by posting something that looks like it was cobbled before you collapsed in bed. Take time to craft your headlines. Newspapers do it because they realize that headlines are the single most important entry point to any story. Bloggers would be well-served to do the same.

Just getting started in Web publishing? Check out my post on picking your domain name, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Ruins Your Web Site.” Your domain name is the only that might be more important than your headlines. Contact Fred Marion at fred(at)webpublishing.me.

There are a lot of web publishing sites that offer you tips on picking domain names, but not many of them point out the pitfalls that you need to avoid. Rest assured I’ve been in your shoes before. I’ve got a degree in creative writing, not Internet publishing. That means I’ve made almost every mistake on this list, and I’m still learning today! If you’re not quite sure what a domain name is, read my post, “What is a Domain Name?” If you’re ready to buy your first domain name (or your 100th), here’s what not to do when picking your very first domain name:

1) Never buy a domain name that infringes on someone’s copyright. Not only is this is a slimy tactic, but there’s actually a Federal law against it in the United States (the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999). Still, what exactly does it mean to infringe on someone’s copyright? Laws are murky on this, but, in general, cybersquatting refers to the act of purchasing a domain name with the intent of profiting off the brandability of the name and/or reselling the domain to the owner of the copyright. A good example of this might be someone purchasing www.google.net (a name that’s actually owned by Google.com), then throwing a search box on the site so people believe they’re visiting the real Google. When a user types in a search on the fictional site, they might be shown a number of ads relating to their site. That would definitely be illegal. On the other hand, if your site offers reviews and/or criticisms of Google’s policies, you’d be allowed to include the word, “Google” in your domain name. A good example of this is www.google-watch.org.

2) Don’t bank on typos when picking your domain name. This concept is similar to cybersquatting, but it’s actually called typosquatting. As in cybersquatting, there’s blatent bad faith on the part of the site owner to capitalize on the brandability of a copyrighted term. An example of this would be buying a domain like www.frigedare.com, then filling the site with ads related to refrigerators. Not cool. This will likely lead to a lawsuit (one you definitely won’t win). That said, there are instances where typosquatting isn’t illegal. If you discover a domain for a generic word (say, “donkey”), and  you’re convinced a lot of Web users interested in donkeys might type in www.donkee.com instead of www.donkey.com, you’re more than welcome to capitalize the traffic you get. There might be a few instances where this type of approach might work, but I tend to think it’s not worth the effort — especially since it looks like you don’t know how to spell the word that’s the very subject of your site.

3) Avoid names that sound cool but don’t really mean anything. This is a very common rookie mistake. Rookies like to think that if they create compelling content, Web users will automatically find their content. Having tried to find audiences for my work on other sites since 2005, I can attest to the fact that content isn’t everything. You’ve got to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization (the practice of optimizing your site through your HTML metadata — and the use of other technical tactics — to get the most out of your search engine ranking). One of the basics of search engine optimization (or “SEO”) says you should include keywords in your domain name. That means a site about organic restaurants would best be served by picking a domain name that has the words “organic restaurants” in the title (even if it’s something long like www.bestofthebestorganicrestaurants.com). That’s an extreme example, but it illustrates the basic principal beyond domain name selection: choose words that MATCH your content.

4) Don’t pick a domain name that’s difficult to remember or difficult to spell. Ever since the advent of spellcheckers, our ability to spell out complex words has deteriorated (that’s my theory anyway). So, if you decide you want to buy a domain name, stick with something that’s spelled phonetically (the way it sounds). That way, people won’t get frustrated when they try to revisit your site. You’ll be lucky if they try more than twice. The same concept applies to domain names that are hard to remember. If your user can’t remember your domain name, they’re not going to come back.

5) Don’t choose short domain names over quality domain names. If you’ve been researching how to pick a good domain name, you’ll likely run across articles that say things like, “stick with a dotcom name no matter what, and make sure it’s short and snappy.” I even ran across one article that recommended only buying dotcom domains with seven characters or less. Welcome to 21st Century. That’s not really plausible anymore. Finding a dotcom that’s remotely related to the content of your site is going to be HARD — even with 15 characters or less. If you want a domain that’s seven characters or less, you’re going to have to pony up some cash. So, I say ditch that advice. Pick a domain that has valuable keywords in it, even if that means it’s going to be long. My last word on this? Definitely avoid names that include excessive hyphens or numbers. Getting a user to remember lots of hyphens or numbers (i.e. www.babyreptiles4less.com) is like asking them, “Who was the 12th President?”

6) Don’t be afraid of domains that have extensions other than dotcom. Have you ever heard of the dotnu (.nu) extension? Probably not, but it ranks in Google alongside any dotcom site. In fact, the lifestyles blog www.haha.nu receives roughly 160,000 visitors a month. As the Web grows, domains with extensions other than dotcom are going to become a fact of life, and I’ve heard nothing definitive that says Google penalizes such sites. Other factors like incoming links (links to your site from other Web sites) are infinitely more important than your domain extension. In any case, you can see that I’ve put my money where my mouth is: I’m running this site on a dotme (.me) domain — www.webpublishing.me — and you found it, didn’t you?

7) Don’t register a lot of domain names then duplicate your content. This tactic is picked up by search engines, which might delete your sites from their rankings all together or else add only ONE of your domains to their index. You also shouldn’t buy a bunch of domains then use them to link to one another in an attempt to get higher search engine rankings. This will likely to your sites being labeled “domain spam,” and you’ll again be punished by search engines. As a caveat, it is possible to do this for legitimate reasons (i.e. protecting your brand name by buying domains with different extensions — i.e. .biz or .net — or buying common mispelling or common search terms). Linking those legitimate sites your main Web site will require a bit of technical savvy. You’ll have to use an “IP funnel.” IP funnels push all of your registered domains to a single single server and hosting account. Then, you can push all of these redirections to a different server and hosting account without being penalized by search engines. I learned a lot about this particular tactic at BruceClay.com.

8) Don’t rely on your business name to determine your domain name. A lot of people make this mistake, and they damage their chances for widespread traffic by using their business name when they pick their domain name. Business names are often associated with difficult-to-spell names, cutesy phrases or hyphens and apostrophes. Always think about what people are going to be searching for when they try to find your service. For instance, if you own a dog washing business in Cincinnati, Ohio, chances are, someone’s going to type “dog washing, cincinnati, oh” into a search engine. Knowing that, www.cincinnatidogwashing.com, would probably be an excellent domain name (if it’s available — in not, pick something similar).

9) Don’t pick a domain name without doing some keyword research. One of my favorite tactics when trying to pick between a handful of domain names is to visit Google Trends and determine which keywords are the most common. Google Trends won’t show you actual search quantities, but it will show you which search term is used more on a percentage basis. Simply visit the site and type in two sets of keywords separated by commas; Google Trends will take care of the rest.

10) Don’t be afraid to pay for quality. There’s an entire online industry called “domaining” that’s devoted to buying domain names simply for the “type-in” traffic — people who type diamonds.com directly in their browser navigation bar instead of going to a search engine and seeking out a site on diamonds, for example. If you’ve got some cash, you can buy one of these high-traffic keyword domains and exponentially increase the traffic to your site. Two of the most popular auction houses for these domains are Afternic.com and GoDaddy.com.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your way to making money online. If you have further questions, email me at fred(at)webpublishing.me. If you’re still a Web newbie and you need advice on building your first Web site, visit my post, “A Guide for Newbies: How to Build a Web Site in 6 Easy Steps.” Want more ideas for making money online? Return home, or sign up for our email newsletter.

I’m assuming you’re savvy enough to throw up a blog posting using a free online service like Blogger.com or WordPress.com.  This guide is written for people who want to go a step further and have their own “domain” name: something like, fred.com or webpublishing.me (not fred.blogger.com or fred.wordpress.com). Once you can do that, you’re on your way to becoming a professional Internet entrepreneur :). Without more ado, then, here’s the Web’s Simplest How-To Guide for Building Your First Web Site:

1) Buy a domain name. In order to get a site like webpublishing.me functioning, I had to purchase rights to the domain through a provider. Common options are registrar giants like GoDaddy.com or Register.com. Both are large enough to offer competitive pricing and large support forums to help you over the inevitable roadblocks when lauching your first site. When you “buy” a domain, you’re typically granted you two years of ownership with the option to renew. A common rule to keep in mind? Pick a name that contains keywords that match your content. That’ll help your Google ranking, and that’s one of the most important factors in driving traffic to your site. Prices for domains start at about $8 per year. Want more detailed advice on how to pick your first domain name, visit my post, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Ruins Your Web Site.”

2) Get a Web hosting company. Once you have a Web domain, you’ve still got work to do. You’ve got to find a “server” that’s connected to the Internet. This server will store your files so that when someone visits your domain, they’re readily available for download and viewing in someone’s browser hundreds (or, perhaps, thousands) of miles away. I recommend www.hostgator.com (my wonderful host), or a domain registrar like GoDaddy.com, which allows you to bundle your domain purchase with your hosting service. I always recommend going with a dedicated hosting company, though (i.e. a company that only handles hosting — not domain registrations). They’ll be much more responsive when you have a technical problem — which you probably will when launching your first site.

Buying hosting services ranges from $5 to $100 or more per year — depending on the bandwidth you’ll need. I currently pay $10 per month with “unlimited” bandwidth at hostgator.com. Bandwidth describes the amount of traffic your site receives. The more visitors who view your site, the more file requests you’re feeding your server. Since the amount of traffic a server can handle is static, you’re going to have to pay for it if you use a lot of bandwidth — especially since the costs of maintaining a single server can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

3) Associate your Web domain with your Web host. If you’re one of the lucky ones who bought your domain name at the same place you plan to host it, you probably can probably skip this step, but if you decided to go with a host that differs from your registrar (the place where you registered your domain), you’re going to need to update your domain’s nameservers. Do this by logging into your hosting account and searching for the “nameservers” provided by your host. These are the specific servers where your Web files will be saved (typically there are two — a primary server and a backup). Copy the nameserver names, then visit your registar. There, with a little bit of searching, you’ll be able to figure out where you need to update your nameservers. Paste in the information you obtained from your host. This action will link your domain name with the specific server where your files are served, so that browsers know where to look when they get a request to visit your site.

4) Decide whether you want to use a Web template or write your own HTML code. If you want to use your own HTML code, visit Step 5. If you want to build your first Web site using templates (which I strongly recommend), visit Step 6.

5) You’re one of the brave and proud who wants to code your own site? Great. You can do it easily with a simple text editor like Notepad. Just paste the following code into Notepad and save it with the filename index.htm (sorry you can’t name it anything else):

<html>
<head>
<title>Your Simple Web Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World! This is my first Web Page.</p>
</body>
</html>

Now, that you’ve got an index.htm file saved, you’ve just got to upload it to the root directory of your server. You can do this by visiting your Web host, and finding the file manager for the domain that you purchased. This might require some rooting around, but you’ll eventually find the spot where you can upload files directly to your server. Unfortunately, the “root directory” isn’t called the “root directory.” It’ll likely be labeled with a simple slash: /

Once you’ve uploaded your index.htm page to your root directory, you should be able to visit your domain name (fred.com or some other such name), hit refresh, and — presto — you’ll have your first Web site. Keep in mind, there might be some lag time. If your site doesn’t show up right away, do something else for an hour or so, and try again. It sometimes takes a while for your nameserver changes to propagate across the Web.

6) So you’re one of the brave and proud who wants to use a templating service to launch your Web site? No shame there. I’ve become addicted to these services over time. One in particular stands out: WordPress.org. It’s important to note that wordpress.ORG is different than wordpress.COM. WordPress.COM is designed for people who are OK with a web site that runs on WordPress’s servers. That means the domain name will be something like fred.wordpress.com. Now that’s not very professional looking is it?

WordPress.ORG is different. Here you can download a full suite of HTML (a language that browsers use to display content) and PHP (a scripting language) files that will allow you to create your Web site on the fly. You’ll be able to upload images, videos, sound clips … almost any form of media you can edit on your computer, and then you’ll have control over the display of it on your screen. Cool, huh? You’ll also be able to write your site’s content ON your server, which means you don’t have to mess with FTP accounts (explained below) after the initial setup process.

The first thing you should do (and the most fun) is pick out a WordPress Theme. That’ll give you an idea of what’s possible with just a small amoung of technical skill. Download the theme to your computer, then, download the latest version of WordPress. After you unzip those files, you’ll have to visit your Web host to set up an “FTP account.” FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and it’s a very efficient way of sharing files across the Internet. Your host should have instructions on setting up an FTP account (just be sure you save the user name, password and port you specify during the setup process). Now, you should download an FTP client, which will actually communicate between your computer and your host’s servers. I recommend the free service Filezilla.

At this point, things get a bit more complicated. You’ll now need to visit WordPress’s “Famous Five-Minute Installation” in order to set up your unique wp-config.php file. This will also require you to set up a MySQL database through your host. When you set up a database, you’re simply creating a place on the server that can accept changes (or edits) on the fly, then spit them back out on your Web site. That’s what will allow you to edit pages for your Web site directly on your server. I won’t beat a dead horse here. WordPress’s instructions for your wp-config.php file and the associated MySQL database are incredibly exhaustive, and you shouldn’t have any trouble setting it up. Still, if you’d like some advice shoot me an email at fred(at)webpublishing.me.

Now, that you have Filezilla, an FTP account and a MySQL database, you can begin transferring your HTML and PHP files from your computer to the Internet server(s) provided by your host. Open Filezilla and plug in the information you saved (user name, password and port) when you set up your FTP account. When you’re connected to your server, you’ll be able to transfer your files very quickly. Simply specify a target location (the root directory for your domain, which will be indicated by a slash: “/”), and then doubleclick on the files you want to transfer. If you’re using WordPress like I recommended, you’ll want to transfer three entire folders (wp-content, wp-admin and wp-includes) directly to your root directory. Also, transfer the individual php files that you unzipped when you downloaded WordPress in the same place. Do not place them in a folder.

Now, deep breath, you should be able to visit http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php (filling in your unique domain name where the above link says “example”), and begin the simple process of building your site.

Follow these tips, and you should have your first Web site up in no time. One of the best sites I encountered when I started trying to make money online was www.thesitewizard.com. It’s a no-frills site with down-to-earth advice that doesn’t beat around the bush. I won’t lie and says there’s no learning curve when you’re first getting into Web publishing, but thanks to the experts out there who’ve devoted their time to helping us along the way, it doesn’t take quite as long.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your way to making money online. If you have further questions, email me at fred(at)webpublishing.me. If you’re still a Web newbie and you need advice on how to pick your first domain name, visit my post, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Ruins Your Web Site.” Want more ideas for making money online? Return home, or sign up for our email newsletter.