I know you want to make your website better. You want to make it more popular and get plenty more traffic to it. You're prepared to do what it takes to provide a great visitor experience.

I know, you have time challenges. And I know you would prioritize your tasks to make your site successful, if only you knew which ones require top priority. You want to make the right changes to your site and then be rewarded by making money from your website.

I know, you know you have to do the above and more to make your website successful. So why is it that you website does you such a disservice? How do I know it does?

If your site was doing the best it possibly could you wouldn't be reading this right now. In that case your site would be called Google or MySpace or Facebook or Wikipedia.

That's how I know. If you don't own any of those sites then here's what you need to know ...

Whether you want to climb the Everest or build a skyscraper or do anything else, it all happens with just one little step then another and another, until you get there. You may have heard the expression "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one little step".

Making your website a real winner and a money spinner is no different. Find something that needs fixing. Fix it. And move on to the next.

It will not be long before you see real results. And you will see results while your friends are running after that "next great opportunity", that "secret formula". You know what I'm talking about.

So what can you do to your site that you haven't already done? Get one friend who hasn't seen your site to take look. Let him/her get a glimpse of the site for 5 - 7 seconds, no more.

See if he/she can tell what it's about. You'll be amazed at how many people can't tell you the answer. Why is that important?

Well, that's approximately how long new visitors to your site hang around before deciding whether to stay or not! And the average time all your visitors stay is just 7 seconds. That average includes all those who do decide to stay.

Obviously the others stay even less than 7 seconds. Fix your website so the visitors can immediately see the prime benefit of your site for them. Who is them?

"Them" are your most wanted visitors. So your website must talk to the people you most want to stay around and do business with you.

What else can you do for a money making website? Find a tool that shows you what your website's ranking is in the major search engines for your primary keyword relating to your niche.

For reasons of impartiality I cannot recommend you a tool here or else people would spam these article sites. Search for phrases like "website ranking tool", "search engine ranking tool", etc.

Once you find your rank, do a search for your keyword. In the results pages go to your entry and observe the text that appears below your link.

Is that what you really want people to see? Is it really compelling for search clients to want to visit your website in preference to all others listed there?

The answer in pretty much all cases is no. So fix it. Oh and note, while you cannot tell the search engines what text to use, contrary to popular belief, you 'can' influence the tone, context and sometimes even the text itself. So do your best.

What else can you do? Well plenty. How about, not having fancy menus that appeal to your ego but confuse the 'buyers' and the search engine robots both. So the buyers don't buy and the robots don't give your website credit for this factor.

But that's not all. You could among many others, find out what the latest website structure is, favored by both people and the search engines. Quick hints: table-less design, sitemaps for humans and search engines, a simple little thing called RSS, etc.

There's more, if you want to know. The answers are all available online. But you've got to want to make money online. If you do then you must start that journey with just one little step. Take action and more action, step by step. Your friends will think you've found that secret magic for "making money from a website"! And I'd say, you really have.