Start your own website

Before I get started, I just wanted to say I am still reading Adsense Secrets Volume 4. I haven’t finished reading it. I printed out all of the pages, but it is really long. I am about halfway done. When I finish it, there will be a review of it.

Now on to business. Have you had your own website before? Did you try to make any money off of it? Most people start a website or a blog, but don’t even try to monetize it. Today I will help you start your own website. There are two options. You can choose a free site, or buy your own domain name and hosting for a small fee per month. I honestly prefer buying your own domain for a few reasons. Main reason is authority. Most people trust a dot com site over site.blogger.com or something that screams free. By having a free site you are saying, “I am a cheap penny pencher”. I mostly turn away when I see a site hosted on blogger or wordpress, as do many other people.

Also please note that I am not promising you will make money. In the end, it is up to you. Some people fail, and others become millionaires. Then you have the average joe’s on the internet that make full-time income solely from their site. I am helping you start out your own journey to get yourself started. Where you end up is determined by you. The amount of time you put into your site, and how serious you are about it, will make or break you. In this post you will find the resources and information to get your site started. This is the first step to Making Money Online. If you choose the blog option, then you are Making Money Online Blogging. See the difference? Now lets begin.

FREE Options:

If you want to start out not paying anything, then I have two sites that I recommend to get you started. Go and set up a free account at either Blogger or Wordpress. I recomend Wordpress as you have more options and a wider range of freedom. Below are a few links to help you add adsense to blogger.

How do I put Adsense on my Blog (Blogger)

Google makes it easier to add Adsense to Blogger

Dummies Guide To Blogger

How to add Adsense to Blogger and start making money from your blog

Adding Adsense To Blogger (video)

Your Own Domain:

This is what I suggest all of you to do if you actually are going to put a real effort into your site. The free options are for people that think, “yeah I will try it out”, where the paid option is for people who say they ARE going to do this!

First you need to find a web hosting company. This means all of your files will be held on their server. You can host them on your own computer, but that will probably me much slower and not the best option. Also most web hosting companies give you one, if not two, domain names. I recommend using 1&1’s Web Hosting. They are who I use, and I have had no problems at all! You also get two domains free when you sign up for hosting. They are still offering the first three months free! After that, it is $5 a month. This is an amazing offer, so you don’t want to miss out! Go to 1&1 and sign up now!

Now that you have your web hosting company, you will need an FTP client to upload files to their server. Once you get everything uploaded, you will rarely have to use this again. You will be able to do everything from the Wordpress dashboard. I use GlobalSCAPE’s Cute FTP, but there are plenty of free options out there. GlobalSCAPE offers a free trial, so it should get the job done. Click here to get Cute FTP. or Click here to search for other free options.

When you first open the FTP client, you will need to enter in your servers login information. You can get this from the web hosting company you chose. If you chose 1&1, then login and select FTP Account located under the Basic Setting section. You could also create a new FTP account because the default one is hard to remember as it is randomly generated. Use the info found there to put into your FTP client and connect. If you were able to login to your site’s FTP account, then continue on. If not, then you need to refer to your companies help section.

You have your Web Host, you have your FTP client, and you are logged in. You need to download Wordpress. There are other options to creating your own site. You could write the code yourself, or use a Web Page Builder, but for the sake of this tutorial we will stick with Wordpress. Download the latest version of Wordpress, and save it to your desktop. Most updated version of Windows can extract/open the file, but if you are having problems then download WinRAR. You need to extract the folder inside to your Desktop so you can upload it using your FTP client.

Before you can upload Wordpress, you need to edit some things to get it ready for your server. I recommend reading their Installation Guide. If memory serves correctly, you just have to edit the “wp-config-sample.php” file to include your servers information. Read the installation guide, and pay special attention to the config file.

Once the everything is setup, you can then upload. You do not upload the folder named “wordpress”, you upload all the files inside of it! I have seen some sites host from www.site.com/wordpress. This is not right. That should only be used if you have a static web site already, and are just adding a blog section. You want to upload ALL of the files INSIDE of the folder, not the folder itself. I could go on writing the whole rest of the process for you, but Wordpress already wrote an excellent tutorial. Finish reading the instructions on installing wordpress.

You now should be able to go to your site (www.yoursite.com) and see a sample post and comment. Sign in to your dashboard (http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/). You now are able to write your first post. Take some time to get familiar with the dashboard because it is where you will spend majority of your time.

What’s next?

In the next few posts I will post where to get plenty of FREE Wordpress themes so you can make your site look pretty. I will also post some plugins that I have found useful. Then following that, I will post on some methods to start making money from your site! In that post, you will learn about Adsense, Kontera, OIOPublisher, and a few more good ways to earn some extra cash.

Recap what you learned from this post:

This post was to help you get your website started. The first step in any site, is to get it started. You now should have your own website (whether free of paid hosting), and have made your first post. Now that you have the hardest part for any newbie, you are ready to start making money off of it.

If you chose to buy your hosting and domain, then in a few months, you should start making up your web hosting costs. I already am making my web hosting costs in just 2 months. I am not promising you will, but with some effort, I don’t see why not. Making up hosting costs is easy, but making up the income of a full-time job is the hard part. With a lot of effort, and some time, it is possible for anyone. I have heard different stories from many different people. Some say it took them 6 months, others claim it was over a year before they started making real money. Keep at it, and come back soon to read the next step in making money from your website.

Are you wanting to, or just started your own site? Sign up for my Full Feed RSS and don’t miss a beat. In the next posts you will learn what plugins to get started with, where to find a theme for your site, and how to start making money off of your site.