My Top Reasons for Building a Website

Building a website has turned into one of the best things I ever did!

My goals for starting a website in the first place, were quite ambitious:

* To be part of the Internet landscape and to tap into the earning potential of this vast medium;

* To be my own boss and work whenever, however and wherever I choose;

* To create and build something that would generate passive income;

* To truly achieve financial freedom and thereby have the choice to pursue any other passion that I may have;

* To enjoy the whole process.

I can categorically state that I have achieved all of the above!

Let me explain...

How Can One Earn Money on the Web?

From day one we made a decision to provide the content at no cost to our site visitors, so the main source of income on this site is through sponsored advertising. Once you have a good number of visitors to your site, there are many more ways - aside from sponsored advertising - to monetize that traffic:

* Selling hard goods or e-goods from your site

* Earning commission as affiliate on products you recommend

* Promoting your off-line business

* Getting paid for lead generation, etc.

The Beauty of Passive Income on the Web

It's actually amazingly simple. Magazines and newspapers also make their money from selling advertising space on their content-rich pages. However, the lifespan of the publication may be very limited and every day, week or month they have to produce new articles.

Conversely, the information on the internet (as on this site) can have longevity and once created, will keep on generating an income. You only need to write good content once and thereafter you can earn advertising/affiliate income from those pages over and over and over again.

What a difference from most jobs where you only get paid once for every hour worked!

How Much Money Can One Make?

I can honestly tell you that you really can make a lot of money, if you are prepared to work hard. Note: This is NOT a Get Rich Quick Scheme!

The beauty is that you do not need to invest a lot of money to succeed, but you do need to invest your time and effort.

This will not happen overnight! There were many days when I became despondent because I did not see quick results for my efforts. But I believed in the process because I knew of other webmasters just like me who were making good money off their sites.

So I just added more and more content to the site until there was a good stream of traffic and the site was ready to start earning its keep.

I clearly remember how excited I was when my site earned US$40 the first month I started putting ads up. Not because of the amount, but because it proved to me that it could be done and if $40 is possible, then so is $400 and so is $4000.

Here is a screenshot of my Google AdSense Account that shows $4000.00 was indeed on the cards.

Can Anyone Do This?

Yes - and No.

Yes, anyone can do this - you do not need any special skills to be able to build a website. I had zero knowledge of how to do it when I first started out.

No, some people will attempt to do this and will not succeed, simply because they find it to be too much hard work. The fact of life is, there is no easy way to make money. If there were, we'd all be rich.

What I can tell you, is that you will find it hugely enjoyable and will get so much satisfaction from building your site(s) - in more ways than just the money. I actually need to issue a warning here: It Is Addictive!

How?

This is the part where I tell you that I used Site Build It! (SBI!) to help me through the whole process. Their step-by-step guidelines and their software tools will show you exactly how to go about it.

And the best part of SBI! is the price. Your total layout per year will be $299 - or you could make use of their monthly subscription offer to break it up in even more affordable bits. You can work out for yourself what my return on this small investment has been!

The fact is, I now have 3 websites and I could do it by myself, but there is no way that I would want to. I pay those three yearly subscriptions with a smile on my face. SBI! continuously bring out new and better additions to their product but amazingly, their price has never changed since I first joined in 2004. I totally rely on them to keep me informed of what's new on the Web. And they Do!

Oh Dear - How to Find a Topic for a Site

This is actually not an issue at all, because SBI!'s tools will help you find the right topic for you. One that you are either knowledgeable or passionate about (or both), with a good demand from Web searches, and with the potential to earn money from. It will also show you how much competition there is for a topic to help you plan your strategy and choose the right niche.

You could build your site around something that you are very knowledgeable about - such as container gardening, or investments or health or marketing.

Or you could choose a topic that you are passionate about where you would enjoy doing research and then present it in your unique way - such as a travel destination or decor or camping...

The world is your oyster!

And if you think you can't write, then consider this: You do not need to be a Steinbeck or Hemingway to write good content on your chosen topic. This is not a quest to win a Pulitzer prize. You can do it!

2011 Update - I'm Living My Dream

Being able to travel the world (often!) has always been a dream and now it is my reality. You see, I don't need to work on my websites (I have three) every day, yet they continue to generate an income 24/7/365. The travel itinerary for this year (2011) looks like this:

4 weeks in Europe - 1 week each in Milan, Amsterdam, Prague and London at the beginning of the year

2 weeks on a boat on the Canal du Midi in France in the summer

2 weeks in Cape Town, South Africa

10 days in Mexico and a week in the Caribbean towards the latter part of the year.

Taking this much time out would simply not be possible working for an employer or even working as a professional - let alone the financial implications.

Oh, and if I really, really need to check in on my web sites, then it's as simple as connecting my laptop to a wireless network - wherever I am.

Why You Really Should Take a Closer Look

There are 2 good reasons:

1. There is NO RISK. Ask for your money back anytime... SiteSell.com will refund you 100% within the first 90 days of purchase of your annual subscription, and on a pro-rata basis after that. So, if there really is no risk, then why don't you give it a try?

2. The biggest regret expressed by most SBIers is that they wish they had started earlier. They were introduced to SBI! yet took many more months before making the decision to give it a try.

Ready for More Information?

If you're interested to explore building a website and want to know more, please Click Here and I will show you the 3 best ways to get the information you need.

"Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance." - William Wirt

Let's hear your verdict about what you've read here!