1) NVU (WYSIWYG HTML editor)
2) SmartFTP
3) A domain name
4) A web host
Total Estimated cost: $18.00
First, you need a niche. Pick a specific topic — a hobby, industry, or market. The most important thing right now, if this is your first site, pick a topic that you can write about off the top of your head. If you like the topic, even better.
Keyword research must be done before you start writing articles. I used to use Overture’s free Keyword Selector Tool. Now I prefer the pay service, Wordze.
What you want to do is look at the top keywords and make sure you have a specific page for each. Also, try to branch out beyond your main keyword if possible.
Take a list of the top 15 keywords and write 15 articles, roughly 5-6 paragraphs for each. Repeat the keyword or keyphrase several times in the article, but don’t go overboard.
Now open NVU and create an HTML template. I’m not going to turn this into a basic tutorial for making a website, you can find that on thousands of other web sites. Create a table roughly 700 pixels wide, add a 160 pixel column to the right side.
Now paste the articles you wrote into the left, wider, column. Save each file as key-phrase.htm. In the right column link to all the articles you wrote.
Its time to find a domain name. You want your main topic in the name. One tool you can use for ideas is DomainsBot Search Cloud. Personally, I seem to get the best names out of my head now. {keyphrase} + {wierd word} tends to work well, and you’ll get the dot com.
You need a web host. At this stage you are looking for a virtual hosting account. This would typically be priced between $6-$10 a month. The files will be uploaded with your FTP program. Make sure the front page is named index.htm, and any index.html or index.php files are deleted.
You do not need to pay anyone to be indexed by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. What you need is backlinks pointing to your new site! If you are a good writer and your articles aren’t garbage this won’t be too difficult. Wikipedia is a first shot (if its a big topic your link will probably be deleted), you can try DMOZ (don’t expect much). Directory submissions can push you past the 12 hour mark, but check out Directory Critic for one of the best lists online of free directories.
The newest way to get backlinks is from blogs. You can do a search on Technorati for blog posts on your topics. Write something unique for every post, at least 2 paragraphs. “Great blog!” isn’t going to cut it; I delete those all the time. If it looks like a poster actually bothered to write something insightful and the link doesn’t point to cheap viagra, I usually approve the comment.
This is the quick and dirty way to building a web site. The point is not to have a good website — the point is to have a website. This is precisely how I started in the business. Drive-by content sites tend to not make a whole lot of money. In high value markets you are going to have a tough time competing with the guys spending $10,000 a month on paid text backlinks. With the type of site I just described, $300 a month is reasonable expectation. This is your starting point. You need to get familiar with rapidly building and deploying sites. You need to learn to allocate your time to the elements responsible for bringing in the money.
In the following days or weeks I will write about how to create a good content site. This includes — user submitted content, cheap content, forums, blogs, and e-mail newsletters. I have been drifting away from the content side of the business and I am now comfortable sharing my “secrets.” If you can’t wait, then check out WebsitePublisher.net.
by: webpublishingblog