So here’s a video that shows you how to create an e-book using Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my programming YouTube channel where I focus more on coding, web design, using software programs, etc.

If you’re reading this blog post via e-mail, click here to watch the video.

When I wrote that guide some 5 or 6 years ago, it was current and relevant.

Well, the Net has evolved, and the book needed a major overhaul and face lift.

Who Is This Book For?

If you’ve already started your site and are getting decent traffic, making money, etc. this book probably won’t tell you much that you don’t already know.

There are some traffic tips that you may find interesting, plus you can take a look at some of my favorite tools that I use to manage and monetize my sites.

This book is really for people who are just starting out, or people who are struggling to find success online.  As the title suggests, it really is the “perfect guide” for people starting their first site or blog.

I focus on a lot of tools and techniques I used to create and promote my sites.  So the book is very personal in that sense.

50+ Pages for Free? Are You Serious?

You may wonder why I would write a 50+ page book and not put a price tag on it.  Well, the book is monetized with affiliate links so I would feel a little strange slapping a price tag on a book with affiliate links.  I’ve always felt this way, which is why I tend to offer my e-books for free.

And speaking of those affiliate links, I’d like to point out that I own and use every single product that has an affiliate link tied to it in this book.   That was an intentional effort on my part.

Offering the book for free was also a marketing decision.  I know that offering something like this will spread virally.  I figured if my old tutorial that was only 5 pages deep spread the way it did, this one should really take flight through the Netmosphere.

Special Offer Inside

There’s also a coupon in the book that first-time website builders may appreciate.  You can only access the coupon through the book.  I do not offer this on my websites.

Download The Perfect Site Guide Today!

Accessing the book is easy.  Just go to http://www.ThePerfectSiteGuide.com and you will be redirected to the PDF file.  (Must have Adobe Reader on your computer.)

I would highly recommend you go to File, Save Page As in Adobe after the book loads so you can save it on your computer.

Feel free to e-mail the book to your friends or offer it as a free download from your site.  (Selling is prohibited.)

Enjoy the book!

P.S.  This book will be updated often, so make sure you come back to http://www.ThePerfectSiteGuide.com regularly to ensure you have the most recent edition.

I must admit, it’s been a long time since I’ve completed one, and this is the next task on my never-ending To-Do list.

So what exactly is an audit?  To put it simply, it’s a thorough review of your site or blog that checks for the following…

1) Relevance & Accuracy

Are your articles/blog posts still accurate and relevant?  This is especially important if your site is in a niche that is constantly evolving.  Just recently, I found an article on this blog for Blog Rush, and this program was terminated months ago.

2) Monetization Opportunities

Check your older articles to see if there are places to add affiliate links for any programs you may have joined recently. It’s amazing how many opportunities will arise.

3)  Dated Info

As a rule, you should avoid phrasing that can become outdated.  For example, instead of saying “I joined 24 Hour Fitness 3 years ago”, you should say “I joined 24 Hour Fitness in 2006.”

Sometimes such phrasing cannot be helped depending on the article and the point you’re making, but it’s still good to check for outdated information.

4) Broken Links

It’s easy to delete pages and forget you have links to them on other pages.  Also, links to external sites may become broken due to site closures or typos. I use Dreamweaver’s broken link checker, but there are a ton of free broken link tools you can use online.

If you have a Google Sitemap (and you should for all your sites), there is a broken link report within your sitemap summary.

5) Promote Your Online Profiles

As the social media world grows, you’re probably developing quite a few profiles around the Web.  It’s good to remind people how they can stay in touch with you and keep up with your latest content.

I just created this page on 2 Create a Website that displays the many ways you can connect with me online.  I added it to my site’s navigation and linked to it from my Contact page so it’s easy to find. Eventually I will create a page like this for the rest of my sites and blog.

Also, don’t forget to clarify or explain functions that may be confusing. Yes, there are still a lot of people who don’t understand RSS.  Don’t assume they will click and subscribe just because you’ve provided a link.  A quick explanation never hurts.

Speaking of RSS, did you know you can promote your YouTube channel’s RSS feed by using the following format?

http://www.youtube.com/rss/user/YouTubeID/videos.rss

So if you have a channel you want to promote and/or want to subscribe to someone else’s channel via RSS, just use the above link and replace “YouTubeID” with the appropriate YouTube username/ID.

6) Content Re-organization

As you continue to add content, the organization of your pages may need adjusting.  It may have been logical three years ago, but perhaps there’s a better way to structure the content today. Look for ways to simplify and cut down on redundancies.

7)  Cross Promote Your Content

If you have a blog and use WordPress, you probably know that it’s super easy to cross promote your posts.  There are several related post plugins available that will get the job done easily.

However, if you have a static/HTML site, you’ll need to do this manually. Cross promoting your pages can improve your bounce rate (the number of page views per visitor before exit) and prevent older articles from getting buried.

8)  Unwanted Contextual Ads

One disadvantage to using contextual ad programs like Google AdSense is that you may lose track of the ads that show up on your site.  You might find some that are inappropriate, or you may discover ads from direct competitors that you don’t want to show.

Remember you can block domains from displaying ads on your site by logging into your AdSense account, selecting the AdSense Setup tab and clicking on “Competitive Ad Filter.”

—————-

Regular site audits will keep your content fresh, accurate and effectively monetized.  There’s always so much focus on writing new content, but don’t let your older articles get stale.

Remember, not everyone enters your site via your homepage.  So if someone happens to land on an outdated page, it can reflect poorly on your entire site.  First impressions are powerful and lasting.

Sandy claims to be very knowledgeable about sports.  She was an athlete in her younger days and all her kids are heavily involved in sports. Her main concern, however, is that she is a woman and most popular blogs on this topic are written by men.

She read my blog post, “Being Anonymous Can Hurt You” and agreed with my points, but was concerned about revealing her picture/identity because she didn’t think men would take her content seriously (or at least as serious) if they discover she is a woman.

What I’ve learned is that there are always going to be people who will discriminate because of something, whether it’s your sex, age, race, religion, etc.

I cannot count the numerous “N word” comments I’ve received on my YouTube channel over the years.  I even had a guy tell me he would have taken my information about making money online more seriously if I wasn’t black.

However, I believe that the benefits of displaying a picture and sharing a little about about who you are outweigh the negatives by far.  It gives your site personality and also helps build a degree of trust with your audience — particularly if your goal is to earn an income from your site.

Of course, there are always going to be intolerant / ignorant people in this world who judge people on their appearance, but fortunately most people are not that way.  People go online searching for information, entertainment, answers to their questions, etc. So if your site can help someone and provide value, most people are not going to care what you look like.

And as far as Sandy’s situation goes, being a woman could actually help in some instances.  Many men will respect and be impressed by the fact she is a woman tackling a subject that is mostly dominated by men, and this could work to her advantage.

Will there be some who won’t take her info seriously because she is a woman?  Perhaps, but as I said earlier, I think the advantages of providing information about yourself usually outweigh the disadvantages by far  — especially if you know your stuff and have an interesting approach to the topic.

I’d love to open up a discussion about this.  What are your thoughts?  Have you ever thought about staying anonymous because you fear discrimination of any kind?  What do you think Sandy should do?

Using Free Web Hosts

I told my “free web hosting story” in a recent YouTube video.  In a nutshell, I used free hosting some 11 years ago and the company decided to start charging. Anyone who did not want to pay their ridiculous monthly fees lost their site.

Fortunately it wasn’t a huge loss for me because I had already moved to paid hosting for my main site and those free sites were just sitting out there collecting Internet dust.   But it taught me a huge lesson about the price of free… especially when it comes to web hosting.

Of course, there are many more reasons not to use a free host, especially if you are starting a business. However, my story is quite common when it comes to free web hosting space.  Many of the companies simply cannot afford to remain free due to their own server costs.

Learn CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

When I was still at my 9 to 5 job some years ago, a coworker kept telling me about all the wonderful benefits of CSS. I remember it going in one ear and out the other.  After all, I was just getting the hang of HTML and didn’t need anything else confusing me at the moment.

Now that I understand what CSS can do and I see how much time it has saved me, I wish I would have learned it much sooner.  There is nothing more rewarding than being able to change your entire design in minutes by updating one file.

I recently completed a mini facelift of 2 Create a Website and it took me all of 15 minutes to update all 140+ pages.  Heck, it took me longer to decide on the colors I wanted to use than it did to actually update the entire site.

Being familiar with CSS will also help you greatly if you have a blog.  Blog templates are typically designed using CSS so having this knowledge will be a great benefit for you.  This is especially true for Blogger users.  There aren’t as many templates available for Blogger as there are WordPress so I find a lot of Blogger blogs with the same design.

The best way to learn CSS is to visit a site that teaches the basics like W3Schools or HTMLDog.com.  Knowing the fundamentals will help with syntax and will also help you troubleshoot should you run into problems.

You can also learn the lazy way (as some call it) and download a template that already has a stylesheet attached and study the stylesheet to see how the coding actually affects the page.  FreeCSSTemplates.org is one of my favorite free template sites.

This is the way I learned, but I frequently find myself going to sites like W3Schools if I need to troubleshoot something. Let’s face it. If you want to get the most out of CSS, you really should learn the fundamentals.

The Internet Marketing/How to Make Money Niche

I always tell people, “If you are not making money yourself, you should never create a site on how to make money or market online.”  Not to mention the “how-to-make-money” niche is so heavily saturated.

This advice often confuses people because 2 Create a Website focuses on Internet marketing and making money, yet it is successful.  But what a lot of people don’t know is I had a site before that which primarily focused on Internet Marketing and it failed.

The problem was I was not making much money at the time so my site was filled with paraphrased, common facts that you could find anywhere. My content was not fresh. Not to mention, I didn’t do any research and had no idea how competitive the niche was.

When you first start out trying to make money, it’s very tempting to build a site about how to make money and talk about what you’ve learned thus far. However, if you are not making much it’s very hard to build credibility and it’s equally as hard to put out fresh content because you cannot rely on your own experiences.

I believe 2 Create a Website has been able to compete in this saturated niche because I can now use my own success stories and personal experiences to inspire my content and people understand that I am actually walking the walk and not just talking the talk.

I Didn’t Own Most Products I Recommended

I either own or have owned/used most of the products/services I recommend on my sites, but I haven’t always done so.  I remember when Site Build It! first launched 9 years ago, I blasted ads and articles all over my site because I was so excited about the $75 residual affiliate commission.

As my site’s traffic grew,  I continued to get more and more questions about the product and most of them I couldn’t answer because I didn’t own it.  I started to feel a bit uncomfortable because I was raving about the product as if I really owned it.

If you want people to respect you and your recommendations, you really have to be familiar with what you’re promoting.  Not only will you feel more genuine, but you’ll find it will boost your affiliate commissions.  Anyone can say a product is “great”, but a solid review that contains your own personal experience with the product will get you more mileage.

Also, don’t be afraid to talk about the negative points of a product.  It actually adds to your credibility and shows you’re not afraid of giving people all the facts.   Will it turn away a few potential customers?  Maybe, but the credibility you’ll gain will improve your site’s overall earnings in the long-run.  I cannot say enough about the importance of credibility.

Multiple Websites/Blogs

When I first started out, I tried to maintain multiple websites when I hadn’t found success with any of them.  The problem with starting out with too many sites is that your energy is spread too thin and you cannot focus.

If you’re doing something wrong that is preventing you from succeeding with one site, you’re probably making that same mistake on the others. So if you haven’t figured out how to succeed with one site, no point in starting others until you discover how to build traffic and make money.

Yes, I have multiple sites now, but I have discovered what works for me so I use that same formula for my additional sites.  And if the sites are related, I use the existing site to promote the other (i.e. 2PlanAWebSite.com and 2CreateAWebSite.com).

Don’t overwhelm yourself.  Focus on one website or blog at a time if you’re just getting started.

What About You?

What have you learned since you started marketing online? I’d love to know what you would do differently if you had the chance to begin again. C’mon… don’t be shy.

Not only was it a record year earnings-wise, but I was able to generate two significant sources of traffic for my main website…

1) This blog

2) My YouTube videos

When I switched from Blogger to WordPress last December, I had 400 RSS subscribers.  Now I’m up to nearly 1200.  In addition, my YouTube videos are now ranked #3 in terms of referring traffic to my website (the search engines and this blog are #1 and #2 respectively.)

Overall it’s been a great year and I look forward to seeing what 2009 will bring.

So without further ado, let’s get to the key posts of 2008.  If you’re a new subscriber/follower, perhaps you’ll find some useful articles you missed.  Go find your favorite chair, grab a drink, sit back and relax while I take you through the highlights of 2008…

————————-

January

In January, I wrote quite a few posts that targeted people just getting started online.  I learned that a lot of you tend to feel overwhelmed by all the information and options so I wrote, “I Want a Website But I’m Stuck and Overwhelmed” and “Help! I’m Clueless About Web Design“.

These posts will suggest some key areas you should focus on if you’re just starting.

Then I followed up with “Do You Struggle With Creativity?” This was my response to those who want to stand out in their niche but have trouble coming up with creative ways to do it.

February

One of my favorite and most popular posts from this month was “One Website Niche You Should Avoid.”  I also link to this post from my site’s homepage because I think there is such an important message here.

The “make money online” niche is heavily saturated and one you should avoid especially if you aren’t making anything yourself.  That post was a real eye-opener for many of my visitors.

A few days later I wrote about how I doubled my blog traffic in 2 months.  This was pretty exciting considering I just started blogging seriously just 2 months before this post was created.

Finally, I rounded out the month by redesigning my SBI! site, Flat Stomach Exercises.  I stopped using SBI!’s template builder and used Dreamweaver to design my own layout from scratch and provided the 3-column template for free in this post.

Note: I have since redesigned my site so the template you will download no longer looks like my current site.

March

March was an amazing month.  I received my largest monthly affiliate check ever from SiteSell.  I decided to use it as an example to teach you what to do and what NOT to do as an affiliate.

By the way, SiteSell is holding their annual Holiday Special where you can buy one Site Build It! and get a 2nd one free.  The special ends January 5, 2009 so if you’ve been thinking about trying Site Build It!, now’s the time!

Next up is my post titled “How to Test Drive WordPress Themes in Windows.”  At the time I wrote this post, you could not preview your themes in the Admin panel before going live.

Even though you can now preview them, I still like having a fully functional version of WordPress on my computer for testing.  The above post shows you how to install it.

April

By April I was really starting to reap the benefits from having a YouTube channel so I wrote “YouTube – Your Ticket to More Traffic.”  If you haven’t started YouTub-ing, you might want to put that on your “To Do” list for 2009.

The following week, I showed what can happen when you pay attention to people who don’t use RSS. After allowing people to subscribe to my blog using Feedburner’s e-mail feature, I instantly gained 200 followers by e-mail. Read about that here.

Next, I wrote a post that caused a bit of a stir.

Ken Evoy (Site Build It!’s creator) wrote a very bold article about blogging and why it can be a mistake for many.  If you are trying to decide between a blog or a website you might want to read this post.

May

My first post in May titled “Are You a Robotic Webmaster” didn’t generate a lot of traffic or feedback.  Perhaps my title was a too ambiguous or maybe people didn’t get what I was trying to say here.

I wanted to highlight this post here because too many people focus on quantity over quality when it comes to building a website or blog.  What I mean is that it’s not about how much content you put out or how long your pages are.

It’s about producing QUALITY, USEFUL information that targets a specific audience.  So rather than focusing so much on “how much” you have to do/write, focus more on doing what you feel is relevant for YOUR audience.

And if you don’t know who your audience is, then you need to take the time to define it.  The more you know about who you are talking to, the easier it will be to write content and produce quality work.

Later on that month I wrote “Lessons From a Teenage Affiliate“.  This was my response to the many people who were using Nori Evoy’s successful travel website as an example for their own.

If you want to be successful with a travel information website, you have to go above and beyond just listing basic facts that can be found anywhere on the Web (airport and restaurant info, etc.).

You have to add your own personal experiences and give your site a personality (And of course that goes for any niche.)  One of the reasons Nori’s site was able to help fund her college education was because it is not just a travel information site with copied or paraphrased information.

It’s an in-depth guide filled with reviews, stories and family photos that give the website a very personal feel, and it is continually updated with fresh information that you can’t find by going to Google or Yahoo.

My last post that month answered the popular question “Blog or Website?”  Here is my response based on my own experiences of owning a blog and a website.

June

In June I quieted a lot of noise and hype about making a lot of money online with my video, “The Story Behind My Six Figure Income.”  This is one of my most popular YouTube videos to date.

And since we’re on the subject of money, I followed up with a post talking about my top 7 online money makers. This satisfied a lot of curiosity from those wondering how I earn a living online.

July

After blogging continuously for 6 months, I began to notice some bad habits picked up by myself and other bloggers.  So I wrote about them in “10 Awful Blogging Practices.”

My last post for that month highlighted some of the common reasons people fail online.  This post struck a chord with many who just can’t seem to get off the ground.

August

As the economy continued to decline, I began to get more e-mails from people who were panicked and desperate to make money online.  This compelled me to make a video addressing this issue.

About a week later, a check I received from Amazon.com sparked the post “Don’t Discount Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program.”

September

I love Yaro Starak and I believe he is a great example of what you can do with a blog if you plan and execute accordingly.  In one of his reports, he talks about how most Bloggers fail because they are poor marketers.  I expanded on his point in this post.

A few weeks later I created “Is Google AdSense Dead?” as a response to the many questions I kept receiving about the potential earnings of the AdSense program.

My last post of the month addressed the topic of creating social networking websites.  The success of Twitter, MySpace and Facebook generated a plethora of ideas and curiosity among people who wanted to build their own social networking sites.  Here is my response.

October

I spent a lot of time in front of my video camera in October. In fact, all three videos are worth watching if you are an affiliate like me or thinking of getting into affiliate marketing.  Check them out below…

- Are You Cashing in With ClickBank

- Be Careful of Affiliate Program Hopping

- MLM vs. Affiliate Marketing

November

I got a little frustrated with the amount of lazy people contacting me so I sounded off in the post “My Thoughts on Lazy People.”

Then to round out the month I dispelled a lot of myths about SEO (search engine optimization) with my video “Stop The SEO Madness.”

December

I realize I just wrote the following post a week ago, but it’s probably one of my favorite blog posts of all time.

There’s a big myth circulating around the Web that has people believing they have to know everything about a certain topic in order to be qualified to build a successful information website.

In my post, “The Problem With The Word Expert“, I show you why this is not true and use my own success as an example of why the word “expert” often has too much power.

——————–

As 2008 comes to a close I’d like to say THANK YOU for your support of my websites, forum and blog.  I am truly humbled by my success and all the support I’ve received from all of you.

Let’s set big goals in 2009 and I’ll see you in the new year!

So without further ado…

SiteMeter

I’m sure this surprises a lot of you.  Why in the world would I use the archaic SiteMeter when Google Analytics is arguably the best, comprehensive website stat packages around?

I use Google Analytics too, but I like SiteMeter for two reasons:

1) I’ve been using it since 2 Create a Website launched in 2002 (before Analytics existed), so it’s nice to have a complete history of my site’s traffic.

2) SiteMeter’s daily reports can be accessed much quicker than G.A.  Sometimes I just want to get a quick glance at today’s traffic without having to change the reporting dates on the calendar, etc.

Even though the SiteMeter reports are very basic, they report on many of the popular stats webmasters like to keep track of.  Plus, you can access them all with one click from the dashboard.

SiteMeter is best for quick, daily reports.

Search It!

This is one of SiteSell’s many freebies they provide to help PREsell their popular website builder, Site Build It! (SBI!).  Nevertheless, you don’t have to buy SBI! to take advantage of this all-in-one information tool.

If you haven’t tried Search It! yet, I’ll warn you… it’s kind of addictive.  (The link to the actual tool is at the very bottom of the page.)

This one tool helps you brainstorm keywords, find your competition, shows your site’s popularity, helps you find forums in your niche, reports your backlinks, and even shows you where to find affiliate programs and other monetization options for your niche.

ColorZilla

Ever noticed a color on the Web and wanted to know the hex color so you could use it on your site?

With this handy Firefox add-on, you can use the eyedropper tool to hover over any color in your browser and it will display the hex color code.

I must say, this tool has given my very own Flash hex color tools a run for their money.

IETab & BrowserShots.org

Personally, I wish there was a mandate that required everyone to switch to Firefox.  However, since we all know that will never happen, Webmasters have to continue to design for the dreaded Internet Explorer too.

So that’s why I love Firefox’s add-on called IETab.  It lets you right-click your mouse to quickly view your site in IE.

Or if you don’t want to install the add-on, you can use Browsershots.org and view your site in almost every browser (and version) available. (Thanks, Paul of TechnicallyEasy.net.)

Tutorials Garden

Any time I want to learn how to do something in PhotoShop, I head over to Tutorials Garden.  There are hundreds of pages of tutorials here and you can learn how to do almost anything.  It’s very similar to Tutorialized.com.

Tutorials Garden doesn’t just cater to PhotoShop users.  There are tutorials for Fireworks, CSS, Gimp, PHP and more.

I used their tutorial to create the graphic below for one of my blog posts a few months back…

SEOmoz

This is a very good, comprehensive site on SEO (search engine optimization).

Not only is there great advice on SEO in general, but SEOmoz provides a plethora of tools available to check your keyword rankings, site crawlability and there are a ton of different link reports.

If you are a stat junky, you may want to bookmark this site.

What are Some of Your Favorites?

I’d love to hear about some of the web tools or plug-ins that have made your life easier.  Please feel free to share!

I rarely create posts solely on my personal thoughts, or use this blog as a place to vent.

Well today, my friends, is different.

I have to be careful with my words because I certainly don’t want to come across as condescending or arrogant — that is NOT my intention, so I apologize in advance if you get that vibe.

However, I really need to get something off my chest regarding the emails I receive from lazy people. This topic has caused me to do a lot of thinking lately. (Yes, the picture above is me… thinking).

First of all, let me just state that I absolutely LOVE helping people.  In fact, it’s a big reason why I’m able to make a comfortable living online to this day.

I enjoy giving advice to people who are making a valiant effort at affiliate marketing and creating a website or blog.  I can relate to what you’re going through because I have been there before.

I am a firm believer in paying it forward, and I know for certain if you go out of your way to help others, it will come back to you tenfold.  My income is a great example of that.

Here Comes “The But”

What I don’t like or respect is people who expect to get something out here for nothing.  And when I say nothing, I’m not necessarily talking about money.  I’m talking about hard work, dedication, and taking the time to L-E-A-R-N.

So what sparked this blog post, you ask?

I received an email from a gentleman who claimed he wanted to make a full-time living online with a website, but wanted me to suggest the fastest method that would allow him to do as little work as possible (especially when it comes to creating his website.) According to him, he just didn’t have time to sit and learn how to build a website.

Yes.  Those were his exact words.  I am not paraphrasing.

Do you see anything wrong with that question? Since when does making a full-time living online and doing as little work as possible go together? 

As if to suggest there is a way to make a lot of money online without doing much. It’s that ridiculous get-rich-quick mentality that plagues the Web.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Of course there are ways to make money online without building your own website.  There’s PPC marketing with affiliate programs, MLM companies that provide you with a website, and the list continues.

Although I should add that even if you do take those routes, you STILL have to work hard at promoting your business.

However, I didn’t get the feeling that this guy was asking about such methods.  I hate to say it, but he just seemed flat out lazy to me.

And I probably wouldn’t have blogged about this email if this was the first or second one I’ve received.  I receive multiple emails like this on a consistent basis.

It truly baffles me.

The Facts

Let me make one thing very clear.  When I started this 10 years ago, I never had one single web design or programming class.  I had never created a website before, had no mentor/consultant, and no formal training in marketing or writing.

The only Internet skills I had were browsing and sending email.

And because of my novice status,  I made a lot of mistakes.  Tons of them.  Several of my sites failed.  My income went up and down like a yo-yo the first few years, and sometimes I even doubted that I was ever going to earn enough to comfortably quit my 9 to 5.

I was no coding/programming genius (nor did I have a real interest in becoming one) and would often get frustrated when I couldn’t figure out something.

There were weeks where I would spend 20 to 30 hours on my websites in addition to the 40 hours a week I put in at my full-time job.  That meant a lot of weekend work and late, late nights… even during the weekdays.

But I knew, if I wanted to be my own boss and have a successful business, I was going to have to get out of my comfort zone, work hard and continue to learn new things.

To this day, I STILL don’t care much for coding, but took the time to learn enough to develop a presentable website.  So for those of you assuming you cannot succeed because you have no background in computers or web design, let me be your example and say…

You CAN do this, but you have to sacrifice SOMEthing.  And if you aren’t willing to put in hard work, learn something new, get out of your comfort zone and invest the time, then this might not be for you.

And let me say that I truly understand the not-enough-time issue.  Many people simply don’t have the time they’d like to devote to this.  But I will say, if you are committed to making this work and really enjoy the ride, you always find the time.

Lisa’s disclaimer: I’m not by any means suggesting people who don’t have time are lazy.  This is a separate point. I brought it up because I know the time involvement is a big issue for a lot of you.

To Sum it Up…

I’ll say it again…

I LOVE helping people, especially when I see they are trying very hard to learn.  But I have no respect or tolerance for people looking to get something for nothing.  It’s not the way the business world works whether you’re online or off.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Never assume that your visitors will read every page on your site.  Most of the time, people only read between 10 to 20%, and they also skim your pages.

That’s why you should make sure your most important, compelling points are on your homepage and emphasized throughout your site on other important pages.

Also make good use of sub headings to emphasize points that can be caught when skimming.

2.  People Will Buy On The First Visit

Making sales regularly from your site requires you have a lot of two very important things:  targeted traffic and credibility.

Once you have these two things, you need to understand that not everyone is going to buy the first time they visit. In fact, most people won’t.

That’s why it’s so important your site makes a good first impression.  Give your audience a reason to bookmark your site and return at a later time.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten emails from people who told me they read about Site Build It! on my site months ago and came back to buy later because they wanted to take some time to do more research.

Or there’s the people who didn’t have the money at the time, and wanted to save up their funds before making the purchase.

Give these people who are “on the fence” a reason to return later.

3.  The More Ads The Better

This reminds me of the people who complain they cannot make a sale from their site, yet they only get 25 visitors per day and 80% of their site is a walking advertisement for various products, services and Google ads.

If you’re trying to make money as an affiliate, the last thing you want to do is bombard your visitors with ads when they arrive at your site.

You have to give them a reason to trust you, and a good way to do this is to provide useful information upfront.

I know it may be tempting to lace the top 2/3rds of your site with Google ads, hoping someone will click before they leave. But I would much rather miss out on a few clicks and gain people’s trust so they will return.

I’ll take a loyal visitor over a click-and-run in a heartbeat!

Someone challenged me on that theory a while back saying, “How come sites like Macys and Old Navy have ads all over the place and that seems to be OK?”

First of all, these are retail sites. People go to sites like oldnavy.com to shop so advertisements are expected, and sometimes even welcomed because people are looking for good deals.

But if you’re making money as an affiliate, you have to remember that most people are coming to your site looking for information. They are not usually in a buying mood.

So the best way to warm them up to buy is to give them what they came for –  information.  Once you’ve earned their trust and gained some credibility THEN perhaps they’ll buy.

4.  Design Is E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G

Of course, everyone wants a site that is pleasing to the eye.  You never hear anyone say “I don’t care how my site looks.”   Yes, we all want sites that look presentable and inviting.

However, there are those who are so completely obsessed with their design that they never get started.  Remember folks, you can always update your site’s design at a later time.

Your biggest challenge is going to be driving traffic to your site.  So start with something you can work with and then tweak your design as you go.  Don’t become so distracted with the layout that it keeps you from making progress.

A great example is my Site Build It! site, Flat Stomach Exercises.  I used the simple, SBI! template for over 2 years.  Honestly, I wasn’t really happy with the original design, but the site was getting thousands of visitors per day and making money.

Yes, the layout was super simple, but thankfully people were more interested in the content.  I didn’t tackle the re-design until much later because my priority was driving traffic and making sales.

No sense in overwhelming yourself with design and marketing, especially if you’re just starting out and learning the ropes.  If you find yourself stressing out over building your site, find a design you can work with for now and tackle the re-design when you’re ready.

5. You Only Have One Chance to Get it Right

I did a video a while back where I spoke about people’s fear of failure.  It’s amazing how crippling fear can be to a business.

Some people are so afraid to start because they don’t want to mess up.  They get stuck in this never-ending planning mode trying to make sure they don’t make any mistakes.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with doing research and gathering facts before you begin.  I’m all for that. But if you become obsessed to the point that you can’t even get your site off the ground, then you are letting fear take over.

Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn the right way of doing something.  And if you don’t do everything right on the first try then welcome to the club!

Most people don’t know this, but more of my sites have been failures than successes.  But I didn’t give up just because those other sites didn’t work out.  I got up, dusted myself off and tried again.

You don’t have to get everything right on the first try.  In fact, you will still make mistakes with your successful sites too.  The most important thing is that you learn from these mistakes and continue to grow.

Sometimes you have to follow Nike’s advice and “Just Do It!”. 

If you’ve been in affiliate marketing and/or had a website as long as I have (or longer), no doubt you remember some of these facts about websites and affiliate marketing from 1998.

(Gosh, that seems like eons ago.)

If you got started later, hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing how much has changed over the years.

$30 Domains Were a Steal

I bought my first domain name in 1998 for $35/year at Networks Solutions.  I remember feeling like I missed out on a deal because I later found out that Register.com sold theirs for $30. 

Google Who?

In 2008, it’s hard to imagine the Net without Google but in 1998, Google was a mere infant and not many people knew about it.  At the time, the top engines were Infoseek, Webcrawler, Excite, Lycos, HotBot and AltaVista.

Believe it or not, I created a page that ranked #1 for the keyword phrase “home employment” in Infoseek (yes, a page — not a site).  That one ranking earned me about $9,000 in a few short months.  As a poor college student, I thought I’d struck a gold mine.

(sigh)  If only those days were still here.

Doorway Pages Were Respected (Briefly)

Speaking of that #1 ranking, I managed to achieve it by creating what Webmasters called a “doorway page”.

This was one page loaded with the keywords you wanted to target and it linked to your affiliate site.  You could create one of these pages and have it ranked on the first page of the engines in one or two days.  There were also companies selling doorway page creation software.

It amazes me that people still try to use this method to gain search engine traffic.

The 63-Character Domain Rush

When I first registered my domain in 1998, you were limited to 32 characters.  Later InterNic started allowing 63-character domains.  People began snatching up thousands of “good domains” with the intention of selling them.

I grabbed a few myself, but quickly realized selling domains is not as easy as I thought it would be.  So it ended up being a big waste of time and money.

Web Hosts Were Stingy With Disk Space

For my very first domain name, I paid $19.99/month for 25 MB of space.  Yup, you read it right… 25 megabytes.  I think I just uploaded a graphic yesterday that was bigger than that!

Of course back then, sites were simple.  People used plain HTML and very few graphics so there was no need for 3,000 gigabytes of space.

Amazon Had One of The First Affiliate Programs

Amazon may not pay their affiliates a lot compared to other programs, but they are one of the pioneers in the affiliate game.  I remember when creating an affiliate link for one of their products required an MBA.  It’s still a bit complex, but they’ve gotten much better over the years.

Search Engine Submission Software Was Hot

I probably spent over $300 in 1998 on various submission software and tools that supposedly blasted your site or ad to thousands of search engines, free sites and directories all at once.

The only thing these services resulted in was a truckload of spam and confirmation emails.  What a waste.

Free for All Links Pages

A free for all links page is exactly what the title suggests.  It was a page that was often broken up into categories of links.  You would complete a form that would add your site to the top of the list in the category you chose.

The problem was, so many Webmasters were using automated systems to add their sites, it only took about a minute (literally) for your site to get pushed off the page.

It didn’t take long to realize that the only people visiting these pages were the people submitting their sites — not people searching for anything.

I’m ashamed to admit this was a part of my marketing plan at one time.  Yikes!

Lots of People Actually Used Microsoft FrontPage

OK, I should be the last person to make fun of anyone using FrontPage because I used it waaaay longer than I should have.  However in 1998, this software was actually a decent option for developing a website.

Now that I know more about web programming, I understand why so many programmers hated it, but it did the job for me at the time.

Anyway, Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced with Expression Web.  I haven’t heard about many people using it though.  Imagine that?  I think FrontPage left a bad taste in people’s mouths.

Can you say Dreamweaver?

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Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my little stroll down memory lane.  Feel free to share your memories of this era.  I’d love to learn about your experiences back in the day.

Even if you didn’t have a site back in 1998, I’m sure you have noticed a big change in the Web just in the past few years.