When I registered 2CreateAWebSite.com back in January, 2002, it was all about using your “important” keywords in your domain for SEO. No question.

Since createawebsite.com was already taken, I simply put the “2″ in front.  At the time, it was a no-brainer — anything to get those all-important keywords in my domain.

For the first couple of years, no doubt it was helpful for SEO, but as the Net matured, it became less about the keywords in your domain and more about content and link popularity.

I’m not saying to forgo using your important keywords in your domain. They are still somewhat important. I’m just saying it is not as important to squeeze every major keyword in your domain for maximum SE traffic.

Here’s an example.  Search for create a website on Google. The number one ranked site is weebly.com.  There’s not a website-related keyword to be found in that domain name.

However, they are ranked #1 because they are popular and people use keywords related to creating a website to describe the site. So it earns a top ranking for that phrase even though they don’t use “create a website” in the domain.

Don’t Feel Too Sorry.

I’m not complaining.  I’ve had a tremendous amount of success with my site, regardless of the name.  But if I could do it all over again…

1) I would not use a number. It confuses people. When verbally telling people my domain name, they assume it’s “tocreateawebsite” and I always have to clarify it’s the number 2.

(Yes, tocreateawebsite is already taken — otherwise I’d buy and redirect.)

In addition, I’ve caught people misspelling my domain name in their write-ups.  Some forget to add the 2 altogether.  That is one reason I wanted my new logo to emphasize the “2″.

2) I would choose a shorter name. Shorter names are easier to read and remember.  Plus, you don’t run into spacing issues when using it on various websites, business cards, logos, etc.

The funny thing is, people register similar variations of my name (with the “2″, same keywords, etc.) because they assume that is the key to my traffic.  Once upon a time it was, but these days it’s more about content and quality inbound links.

Yes, having your important keywords may help with SEO, but only to a point.  I don’t think it’s worth making your domain name awkwardly long just to get all your important keywords in it.

If you become popular in your niche, you can still earn top rankings for important keywords.  Search engines see the big picture, which means they factor in your content and inbound links too.  Gone are the days where the domain matters most.

How about you?  Do you regret anything about your domain name? Would you do anything differently today?

You’ve had your blog for a few months now.  You’ve chosen a topic you love and have great information.  But you have very little traffic and no sales.

So what’s wrong?

Often times it’s nothing but your impatience and lack of consistency.

A few months is hardly enough time to give a new business.  So if you went into this with unrealistic expectations, you will be disappointed.

I get an amazing number of emails from people who claim “affiliate marketing doesn’t work.”  And when I ask them how long they’ve been at it, the answer is often two months or less.

Are you kidding me?

It took me months before any worthwhile money started to roll in. And even when my income didn’t equate to the hours I was spending online, I never stopped writing and strategizing.

If you haven’t generated a steady stream of traffic yet, one thing you have to work on is building momentum with consistency.

If you’re a new blogger, you need to establish a rhythm.  Posting once a month is probably not going to cut it.  This is a business so you must commit to it and take it seriously.

There are so many blogs and websites out there with great potential, but they’ve been abandoned by impatient owners looking for too much too soon.

I know it’s frustrating when you feel no one is reading your content.  But if you have a solid concept and believe in your site, you will be amazed at what will happen if you just stick with it and produce solid content on a consistent basis.

Set goals for content and video production. Make your presence known. It’s time for you to get serious. Let’s make 2010 a great one!

You can’t deny the importance of goals.  They give you direction and something to shoot for.

However, the problem comes in when your goals aren’t followed up with a strategy.

I’ve seen it too many times. People have great ideas for what they want their sites to accomplish, but they fall short when it comes to the strategy part.

A classic example that I see all the time is when people say they want to create a website to make money from advertising/sponsors, but they have no plan for how they will attract interested parties.

Making money from advertising is the long-term goal, but you first have to develop a strategy for how you are going to make your site popular enough so that people will want to advertise on your site.

People aren’t just going to throw advertising dollars at you because you have a site.

First, develop a strategy that makes your site attractive to advertisers (you’ll need lots of targeted traffic), THEN start thinking about setting your prices and selling ad spots.

I know this may sound elementary to many of you, but there are still too many people starting off on the wrong foot.  They have a goal to create a website, but don’t take the time to strategize because they assume people will just flock to their site automatically.

Below is an example of a goal, followed by a potential strategy someone could use to obtain the goal.

Goal: I want to create an online store.

Strategy: First, I will develop a content website surrounding the theme of my store.  I will learn SEO (search engine optimization) to attract free, search-engine to my niche website, and use that site to funnel targeted into my store.

Lesson:  Any type of site lacking themed content that is not updated frequently, can be challenging to drive traffic to. (Unless you plan to pay for traffic.)  That is why many people choose to create content-rich websites to funnel traffic into the site.

Juggling The Task

Jim Nelson’s website, JuggleNow.com is a great example of this strategy in action.

Jim knew it would be challenging to promote a brand new, stand-alone online juggling store.  He doesn’t have the brand awareness or popularity of Amazon.com or any of the popular e-tail stores.  So he created a content-rich website about juggling to funnel traffic into his store using SEO.

In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to promote a new store if you are just starting and do not have an audience or brand awareness.

I implemented a very similar strategy with my forum, WebsiteBabble.com.  I used my content-rich, heavily trafficked website to 2 Create a Website to drive traffic to the forum because I learned (the hard way) that promoting a forum with no existing traffic base often yields poor results.

No matter if you have goals to create a forum, social networking site, e-commerce store, membership site or whatever your choice.  Take the time to learn how and why certain sites become popular.  Then develop a strategy to help you reach your goals.

Don’t become so blinded by your long-term goals that you neglect to develop a road map for how to reach them.

My recent blog post, “My Failures.  Your Lessons.” sparked quite a few e-mails over the past two weeks.

Many of you want my recommendation for the best kind of site to create if you want to make money online but don’t have a product to sell.

Here’s my answer…

I want to emphasize that the above video expresses my opinion based on my own experiences. There are many ways to make money online.  You have to discover what works best for you.

I recently posted a thread in my forum where I asked the members to give advice to people who are new to building websites and making money online.

I received a lot of insightful comments, and quickly noticed a common theme among the replies.

There was a lot of emphasis on planning and enjoyment — two things that are often ignored by people just starting out.

The Planning

I mention this a lot, but I’ll say it again.  People don’t just stumble upon websites or blogs like they do a store on a street (unless they’re using StumbleUpon.com.)

So while you may have a great idea for something, you have to consider how people will find you.  And not just any people, but people who will be interested and/or need what you have to offer.

One of the most common reasons people fail is they don’t put a lot of research into their ideas.  Coming up with a great idea is an obvious first step, but execution is the most important one.

You really have to educate yourself on how people use/surf the web and what techniques are available to draw traffic to your site.  A lot of people believe their great idea is enough to funnel traffic to their site, but it doesn’t work that way.

Enjoyment

Where would I be if I didn’t love what I do?

Well for starters, I’d probably still be at my 9 to 5 job.

The love for this business is what kept me going all these years.  I haven’t always had high-trafficked websites, and my affiliate checks used to have fewer numbers on the left side of the decimal.

I spent many frustrating days and nights scratching my head over code, or trying to figure out how to FTP the right PHP so my URL wouldn’t be 403.  (Yes, it rhymes.)

But in the end, I’ve always found this process rewarding.  There’s nothing like that sense of accomplishment when I learn something new, plus it keeps me wanting to learn more.  My love for writing and teaching others has also made the ride fun.

So that’s the attitude you have to have about this or you are doomed to fail.  Enjoyment comes first and then the money.  Not the other way around.  You have to find something about this process that will keep you motivated through the challenging times.

A lady once told me “If my site would just make some money, I would probably enjoy this more.”  But the real trick is you have to enjoy it enough to stick around long enough for your site to make money.

And let me be honest. Some of you must come to the harsh realization that this may not be for you.  The desire to make a lot of money and be successful is a start, but the enjoyment is what keeps you going when the going gets tough.  People who make a lot of money whether it be online or off, typically enjoy what they do.

Are there days when I feel totally uninspired and uncreative? Absolutely. But those moments don’t usually last long and are often due to external situations not related to this business. So you may have to ask yourself. Am I really enjoying this or am I enjoying the idea of financial independence and financial security more?

I’ll let you ponder that one for a minute.

If you remember nothing about what it takes to succeed online remember two things: planning and enjoyment. These two alone will take you very far out here.

And planning should go beyond “I want to make money and I want my site to have X, Y and Z.”  In fact, that’s not planning.  It’s a goal.

Research your market.  Find out what people in your niche need and want.  What kind of problems can you help them solve? Look for forums in your potential niche and keep an eye out for recurring topics.  Check out existing websites and blogs and look for gaps and areas of opportunity.  Hone your writing skills and study up on the various ways to market your website.

Don’t forget to read the forum thread.  There’s some great advice from people who have been there/done that.

Feel free to add your own advice and lessons.  And if you’re a newbie, absorb the information like a sponge!  You are fortunate to get this kind of advice that a lot of us didn’t have when we started.

I have no regrets about my overall journey online because I believe any mistakes I’ve made have taught me great lessons.  However I want to discuss some things I would do differently if I had the opportunity to start over again.

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.

Want to make money with an information affiliate site, but tired of bouncing from topic to topic?

Don’t feel like you know enough about anything to publish an interesting website or blog?

Is the word “expert” discouraging you because you don’t feel like an expert on any topic?

You’re not alone. It’s a feeling that plagues many first-time website builders and bloggers while they rack their brains trying to come up with the right topic.

The word “expert” is overrated and part of the problem is the way we often define it.  You may feel that in order to be an expert you need a degree in the subject matter or know enough to teach some sort of class.

Well I can tell you that when it comes to making money as an affiliate (like me), that couldn’t be further from the truth.

We’re All Experts on Some Level

Someone once told me, “Lisa, everyone is an expert on some topic because there will always be people who know less than you and desire to learn what you already know.” That taught me to stop trying to be everything to everybody, and target people I knew I could reach with my knowledge.

Years ago a programmer told me my site would never succeed because my HTML tutorials were too simplistic and didn’t cover more advanced web design languages.

Well, if 2 Create a Website was targeting ColdFusion or Dot Net programmers, perhaps this guy would have been right.  However, that’s not who I’m targeting so I’m not really concerned with what people like him think.

When I created my site, I knew there were people out there like me who just wanted to learn enough to launch a basic website without getting too involved in the technical gibble gabble.   So THAT’s the audience I focused on.

Does that make me “The Official Expert” on Web Development?  Of course not, but it makes me an “expert” to the people who want to learn what I know.

I brought my own flavor and personality to a topic that has been done over and over again. This is a big reason I have been able to compete in a niche that is immensely saturated.

Avoid The Inferiority Complex

Many people have anxiety over their first site because they don’t feel they know enough or they’ve found too many sites that they perceive to be “better” than what they can do.

The information is certainly an important part of your site, but your writing style, presentation, voice and content organization also play a role in how successful your site will be.  It’s the total package.

Research your potential competitors.  I bet you will find gaps and areas you can improve upon. There’s always room for creativity and a unique perspective.

Don’t avoid a topic you are truly passionate about because you are intimidated by your competition or other people who appear to be experts.

Any topic that is worth considering is going to have some competition.   Just find a way to reach your audience in a way other sites may not.

It’s time we look at the way we define the word “expert”.  When it comes to information affiliate websites, it doesn’t mean you have to be all-knowing.

It just requires you to present your information in a fresh, unique way that will reach an audience who wants to learn what you already know.

Now of course I am not implying you should never strive to learn more and continually improve your site over time.  I just don’t want you to get stuck in neutral because you feel your site could never compare to your potential competition.

Dig deeper.  You are already an “expert” on many things.  You don’t have to know more than everyone, but if you know more than a group of people in your niche, build a site to reach them.

Become THEIR expert.

There’s been a lot of talk on my forum about creating a social networking site and what is involved.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a fan of building these kinds of sites from the ground up unless you have already have the traffic and programming expertise to support it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the success of MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. and think this is the way to get rich online.

Unfortunately most people discount the amount of technical expertise involved in building and maintaining a social networking website.

On the other hand, there are some situations when creating a social networking sites is a good idea.

Watch my video below to learn when and how I recommend you create a social networking site (if that’s your goal).

My thoughts on this topic… video style!

See more of my videos here and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

When some Webmasters set out to build their websites, they have a lot of big ideas.

They want forums, profiles, user interactivity and all the Web 2.0 features that make a website look cool and fun to visit.

Nothing wrong with having goals to build the baddest site on the planet, but it’s important to think realistically and put things into perspective.

Unless you are a skilled programmer, have a good understanding of Net marketing and possess a ton of money for promotions, then I would not suggest that a new Webmaster begin by creating an interactive Website that targets a large audience.

You can’t assume that if you build it, they will come. You have to know how to bring people to you.

And unfortunately, the average new Webmaster doesn’t know much about building traffic.

Getting ranked high in Google, having the top article on digg.com and getting thousands of visitors per day doesn’t happen just because you’ve launched a “cool” site.

Internet Marketing is a complex subject, and it’s getting more complex as the Net matures.

Start small. Target a small group of people by providing valuable information they would find interesting. Then as your site gains popularity, look into launching forums and other user interactive tools to support your audience.

Here’s an Example…

Say you love video games. While I know it would be cool to create the Net’s largest video game networking site, you have to take this in small steps.

1) Start by focusing on one video game niche (Role Playing, for example.) Build a simple site that offers reviews and the latest news on games in this niche.

2) Learn the basics of SEO (search engine optimization) and start generating traffic from people searching for these games. Your reviews are important because that content will help the search engines find your site.

3) Once you start building an audience, install a forum or a simple chat room to get your visitors talking.

4) As your audience grows, now it’s time to think about expanding and developing more advanced applications where your visitors can interact on new levels.

Useful content builds traffic, not Web applications (unless you have deep pockets for advertising.) So you might as well start out small, learn the basics of free SEO and then launch your fancy website when you have the traffic to support it.

Nothing worse than learning how to build a complex, MySpace-like site (or paying a programmer big dollars to do it) and your site goes virtually unnoticed.