How to Create a Simple Website Designed to Make Extra Money Online

There are 3 fundamental steps to make extra money online, (1) Sell what people are buying, (2) Develop an effective website and (3) Drive prequalified traffic.

In this article, we are going to talk about step #2. The second step to make extra cash online is creating a simple website that converts visitors into buyers. The website should be designed to grab the visitor’s attention, give them something of value – like a free report, ebook, articles or videos. Often times, I will give them something that helps them solve a problem that they are having and/or fulfill a need.

One of the easiest ways to begin the process of converting visitors into buyers is capture their name and email address and send then a series of messages that provides value to them.  As they read your messages or watch your videos, they become more inclined to trust your recommendations. I will share more about how to create an effective autoresponder message series in another article or video. At this point, you just want to make sure that you provide a way for people to sign up for your list.

To set up the opt-in (sign in) box and autoresponder messaging series, I typically use Aweber, Constant Contact or Mail Chimp. They all provide easy ways to capture your visitor’s info, deliver your free offer and automatically send a series of pre-written messages. Check them out to see which one works best for you.

Capturing your visitor’s information before attempting to sell them on your affiliate offer is by far one of the best methods to create long term success online. Not only does this strategy give you a proven effective way to convert visitors into paying customers, it also prove an opportunity to market other related products and services to them. Can you say “ChaChing”?

There are a wide variety of websites that you could create for affiliate marketing. The easiest one to set up is the “Squeeze page”. This is typically a 1-page website with Sales Copy or Video and an Opt-In box.

The next type is the “Review Site”. Usually, this kind of website will consist of a series of product reviews with your unique affiliate link embedded in the text or graphics. Review sites may or may not include an opt-in box. However, I highly recommend that you have one.

Another effective website style is the “Authority or Content Expert Blog”.  In addition to product reviews, this type of website would also include useful articles & videos that provide instant value to your visitors. Authority or content expert blogs are usually based on a specific subject or niche. Creating an authority blog will take a little more time to set up. However, they are a lot more profitable and will continue to make extra money online for years to come. Be sure to include a powerful free offer and opt-in/sign-up box on your authority blog.

The last type of affiliate marketing website that we will discuss in this article is the “Launch Site”. Simply put, this style of website is one of the most effective ways to build your subscriber list and convert more visitors into paying customers. It may also be the most time consuming to set up.

It requires that you create a series of high-value content – usually videos – that helps people solve their problems, address their challenges and/or fulfill their needs.

To get the biggest bank for your buck, use launch sites for affiliate products with higher commissions or recurring revenue. Stay tuned for other articles on using launch sites to make extra money online.

There are many more types and styles of affiliate marketing websites that your could use. For the sake of time, we are just covering these four.

Now that you have a sense of the different types of affiliate marketing websites, let’s take a closer look at actually building one. Since, the “Squeeze Page” and “Review Site” are fairly simple to set up, we will use the “Authority or Content Expert Blog” for our example.

I recommend that you use the WordPress Publishing Platform to build your authority blog. Even though, there are a lot of really good website tools out there in the marketplace, I think that WordPress is the best way to go. There are 1,000s of great looking themes and useful plug-ins to help you along the way.

Start by purchasing a keyword related domain for your content expert blog. I recommend that you do this step for any of your niche product affiliate sites. One way to find a great domain name is to enter the search term that you used to find the product into Google’s External Keyword Tool. (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) Look through the list of recommended terms and find the one that you like. Then, go over to your favorite hosting company or http://www.MicroBizHosting.com to see if the domain is available. If it is, go ahead and buy it…if it is not, continue this process until you find one that works. If you still do not find an exact match, use one of the recommendations from the hosting company. Please do not get bogged down on this step trying to find the perfect domain name. The key here is to get a keyword related domain name to build your website and keep it moving.

The next step is to purchase an affordable WordPress hosting account from MicroBizHosting.com/wordpress or your favorite hosting company. The sign up process should walk you through purchasing the hosting services and setting up wordpress. Be sure to install it in the root directory of the domain name. If you already have a main hosting account, you should be able to setup another WordPress website on your new domain for free.

Once you have got the WordPress program installed, it is time to find a nice looking theme. There are literally 1,000s of free and low cost themes on the internet. You can use the built-in theme search feature in the “admin section” of your website/blog. This option will allow you to search WordPress.org’s theme collection by color, columns, functions, features, etc. Select a few themes that match the desired website look and install them using the “Add New Themes” option. If you are looking for a more unique “look & feel” for your website, go to Google or your favorite search engine and enter “Free WordPress Themes”. Browse through the collection of themes until you find what you are looking for.

To get off to a fast start, I recommend that you use one of the following theme sets – “Magazine Basic”, “WordPress Twenty Ten”, “Wordpress Twenty Eleven” or “Twenty Ten Weaver”. To find each of the above themes, just enter the name in the search box and install it.

Now that you have your theme installed, add a text box widget on the sidebar with your free offer sales copy and insert the opt-in box code from your email list manager. This is fairly easy to do…just follow the instructions that they give you or use a WordPress sign up box plug-in.

If this process of setting up WordPress, installing themes, plug-ins or inserting code is a challenge, please ask someone to help you or hire an expert. They can help you get up and running is less than 24 hours. There are a few more technical features that may want to add your website/blog like social bookmarking, statistics tracking, Facebook commenting, site maps, etc. However, for the sake of time, I will not be able to cover them in this article. You can find a list of them at the following link – http://www.wpseotoolbox.com/wordpress-seo-plugins/.

At this point, it is time to set up your main pages and post categories. Be default the “Home Page” will show your latest articles, blogs, reviews or videos. To keep it simple, just add the following pages:

• About – General information about your website
• Resources – List of other useful links, products and services
• Contact – Simple contact form for basic inquiries
• Site Map – Summary list of all pages, articles, blogs and videos

Use your primary keywords to create your post categories. This will give you a little more link juice when the search engines index and rank your website.

We are now ready to start add useful content that will make a difference for your visitors and establish more credibility for you. This content could be a series of related articles or videos. You will want to make sure that the content helps people to solve a problem, address a challenge or fulfill a need. This approach will warm them up to your affiliate product recommendations, help them improve their lives and make you more money.

If you are having a challenge with creating good articles, blogs or videos, you may want to check out the major article directories or some of your favorite expert bloggers for ideas. Another option is to pay someone at fiverr.com, iWriter, oDesk or eLance to create it them for you. In most cases, you can have someone write a really good article for $5 – $10. In some cases, like with iWriter, they will do it for $3 or less depending on the length.

I hope that this article helps you get off to a great start. This is step #2 in a 3-step system to make extra money online. In another article, I will share about how to use article marketing, social marketing, video marketing and press release marketing to drive tons of traffic to your website.

For a free ebook about how to build a web business that last for years to come and other tips on how to make extra money online, visit the following link – http://www.Make-Extra-Money-Online.biz/freebook.

My name is Jonn Thomas and I help people create successful online & offline businesses. I teach them how to really tap into the power of the internet and use it to their advantage. Thanks you for taking the time to read this article and click here to contact my company for more small business marketing tips.