Building a successful website is not quick and it takes a lot of work. It is however, very rewarding once it starts paying off. You can do it, but remember, it takes a long time. You should be prepared to wait a year or more for your site to begin getting a really large amount of traffic from the search engines.

The first step is to figure out what kind of site to build and how you are going to monetize it. There are a variety of kinds of sites. There are information sites that provide the user with information, there are retail product type sites, there are interactive sites, and even blogs. Your task is to figure out what kind of site you can build that can attract a large amount of traffic. One of the keys to success on the web is traffic. If you get enough traffic then you can make money selling advertising products.

You can use keyword tools online to find out if any particular subject is searched for often enough for you to obtain a decent traffic flow from the search engines.

Once you have determined what kind of site you wish to build and how you are going to monetize it, you need to get a domain name. Get your own domain name; don’t end up on a free hosting service. You need every edge you can get. No matter how small your niche is, you are still competing with other sites for the traffic.

Put some thought into choosing a domain name. For some kinds of sites you are best off finding a catchy domain name that people will remember easily. Sites that seek out repeat customers for instance would be candidates for such a domain name strategy. It might help to have a keyword or keyword phrase in the domain name, but probably only marginally.

Next comes choosing a hosting service. Your website, which is nothing more than a set of files, need to be on a server with a high speed connection to the internet. The important things to remember when choosing a hosting service are that you need good quick service 24/7 preferably, FTP access, a good control panel, back up protection for your site, and that the service be reachable by phone as well as email.

Now it’s time to build your site. You can learn HTML and build your site in Notepad if you want, but if you would rather not become adept at hand coding HTML, then you need to invest in a WYSIWYG editor. (What You See Is What You Get). There are several options, among them FrontPage and Dreamweaver.

I do not use any of the fancy stuff you can do with Front Page. I just make plain vanilla websites because I am just providing information and I think simpler is better. Try to make it as easy as you can for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Optimize your pages for one or two keyword phrases. Write for humans because the search engines are getting good at spotting text written for search engines, and they are just going to get better at it. The more pages the better. Try to put at least 300 to 600 words on a page.

Now promote your site. Use every means at your disposal. Use your signature file in your email to advertise your website, and write articles for article directories. Start a blog. Submit to website directories. Develop and implement a linking strategy. Advertise offline. Participate in forums and utilize social bookmarking sites. There is plenty of information available online about all of these methods. And be prepared for a long wait. But if you do all of these things you will succeed. It has paid off handsomely for me.