Someone who belongs to the same domain name reseller program as me earned that amount in January.

Every month the program publishes the top performers. While I was pleased to have earned a spot in the top 10 with my own personal record, I was floored when I saw the top earner pulled in nearly $60,000.

Usually the #1 reseller earns around $40,000.

Shows you how lucrative the domain name business is these days. And it makes sense. With the U.S. headed for a recession, more and more people are looking for ways to make money at home.

Why So Hot?

Thousands of people start websites each month, and that number grows drastically every year. So it’s a great business to be in these days.

Websites are cheap to start and Web hosts are making them easier to build.

So even if your site is not about website building, surely you know people offline who want a website. Why not join a reseller program and benefit from their new venture?

You’ll earn lifetime commissions on their domain name, hosting and any other web related products they purchase from your own branded reseller site.

So the residuals can really pay off over time. I am still earning commissions from people who bought their sites when I started reselling domains in 2002.

Remember, domains and hosting have recurring fees for customers. So as a reseller, you earn a commission for all domain and hosting renewals… for each customer. Your income will snowball overtime if you keep signing up new customers.

So if you know people who want to start an online business or even build a personal website, you could join a reseller program, send them to your turnkey website and earn a commission on every order placed.

Control Your Destiny

You will have the opportunity to customize many functions on your reseller site, including your prices. So you determine how much you’ll profit from each sale. You can even setup discount pricing for friends if you wish.

Customer support and online ordering are both handled by the registrar, so you don’t have to worry about answering emails, phone calls, tech support etc. All you do is send people to your branded reseller site and wait for the commission.

So if you’re looking to make some extra cash on the side, why not give it a go? The domain biz is scorching hot, especially now!

It’s the time of the year when millions of resolutions are made all over the world. Weight loss and financial gain are two of the most popular ones made each year.

Speaking of financial gain, many Webmasters have set financial goals for their websites in 2008. If you’re reading this now, you are probably among that group. No matter the size of your goal, here are some tips to help you get off to a good start in 2008.

1) Stop and Analyze

If you’ve already started your website and aren’t seeing the results you’d hoped for, it’s time to analyze your situation.

a) Did you choose this topic because it interests you or because you’ve seen so many other successful sites in this niche?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to create a site on something that’s hot, but if the topic doesn’t interest you, and you aren’t motivated to create enough useful content for your visitors then it may not be the best topic for you.

b) Are you focusing too much on building and not enough on marketing?

People make money online because they learn how to write and market, not because they are top programmers. In fact, some of the most successful sites outsource a Webmaster to do all the technical stuff.

Making money online is 80% marketing and 20% website building (unless you are a Webmaster who gets paid to build people’s sites).

I’m not saying learning the basics of building a site is not important, because it is. Just don’t feel you have to know everything about design, programming, etc. to create and maintain a profitable site.

There are templates on the Web and software you can use to help design your site. I use Dreamweaver and bought my site’s template from Dreamweaver-Templates.net. I’ve never taken a class in Web design nor have I had any formal training.

Much of my time is spent reading sites and blogs authored by other successful Webmasters – particularly those skilled in writing and marketing.

Two of my favorites are Allan Gardyne of AssociatePrograms.com and Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. These two gentleman are great examples of how writing useful content can turn into long-term passive income. I would highly recommend adding these two sites to your favorites.

2) Set Small Goals and Reward Yourself

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re just starting out. So many options, ideas and information to sort through. And rather than trying to do everything at once, break down your to-do’s into small tasks and reward yourself when you complete each one.

For example, your goal for this week may be to write 3 new pieces of content. When you accomplish that reward yourself. Treat yourself to a nice dinner at your favorite restaurant or endulge yourself with a serving of your favorite dessert.

This is important because setting goals and achieving them, no matter how big or small, creates a feeling of accomplishment. And with each goal you meet, you continue to move forward with your business and over time you’ll see results.

3) Read Make Your Content PREsell

I was responding to a thread on my forum the other day and I was reminded of how good this free book really is. Even though it was written years ago, the evergreen content is still highly useful for all Webmasters today.

It won’t cost you a cent, yet you can receive some powerful information about copywriting and how to engage your audience – a skill highly ignored and overlooked by most Webmasters.

It’s so easy to get overly involved with promoting – from slapping up AdSense ads and banners, to finding the best affiliate program for your site. But none of that matters if you cannot draw in traffic and captivate your audience. And this is done through your writing.

Do your website a favor in 2008 and implement some outstanding tips found in Make Your Content PREsell.

In fact, I think I’ll download it again after I’m done posting this to give myself a refresher course.

4) Prepare to Invest

Remember, this is a business. You may not have a physical storefront, inventory or a lease to deal with, but if your goal is to make any money on the Web, you’ve started a business whether you realize it or not. And all businesses require some sort of investment.

That doesn’t mean you have to empty your wallets to be successful, but if you are not willing to spend any money you could be in trouble down the line.

a) Don’t Use Free Hosting… Ever.

If you’re using a free host, take the time to buy your own domain name. Domain names are so cheap these days and so is hosting.

In my opinion, there’s just no excuse for not owning your own piece of Web real estate. Sites hosted on free hosts look unprofessional and show a lack of seriousness about your business.

b) If generating traffic is an issue, try bidding on some cheap keywords through Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

Remember, you only pay for traffc you receive and some SEO experts believe paid ads could build your online credibility and improve your ranking in the natural (free) search results. Keep in mind, this is just speculation, but I wouldn’t doubt it helps.

5) Capitalize on Your Competitor’s Gaps

One way I get ideas for my content is viewing my competitor’s sites. No, I don’t plagiarize, but I do get ideas from their content. I read articles and look for information they’ve left out and capitalize by building an even better article.

Remember, people are always looking for fresh information and new perspectives. Don’t just recycle what’s already out there. Get ideas from your competitors, then improve upon them.

Surely you’ve read articles and thought, “Why didn’t they mention that?” or “It would have been nice if they had explained this better.” Now build your article in your own words, and expand upon ideas they either missed or didn’t expand upon.

6) Have Fun!

This tip probably should have been #1. After all, if I didn’t enjoy what I do, there’s no way I would have lasted 10 years out here.

I love to write and help people, and it’s exciting to see others learning from content I’ve written. Never has this felt like a job and I’m always looking for new opportunities to grow and improve my site.

This is the attitude you should have about your site or blog. If you are constantly struggling for content and ideas, perhaps you’ve chosen the wrong subject (see Tip #1 again).

Don’t get caught in the “I’ve-got-to-choose-the-most-profitable-topic” trap because that “profitable topic” varies from person to person.

Creating successful websites for beginners is a profitable topic for me because I enjoy writing about it and I’ve been motivated enough to build content that separates my site from many others.

However, car racing or how to repair computers may be just as profitable for someone who is interested in those topics. Remember, you can generate an interested audience for almost any topic.

The more interested you are in your subject matter, the easier it will be to develop useful, unique content. Writers block won’t be as much of an issue and you’ll have an easier time finding online communities where your target audience hangs out. Suddenly this business becomes a fun, profitable hobby because you are engaged in your topic and your audience.

One of the biggest reasons people quit their sites is they become bored, frustrated and uninterested. And with the massive competition out here, you can’t afford to build a site that will lose your interest after a month. You’ve gotta keep building and growing or you’ll get lost in the shuffle.

I got frustrated many times out here, but because I enjoy writing and learning how to market my sites, I was able to sustain the down periods and failures. You’ve gotta be able to take the good with the bad.

_______

Well that about covers it. Take the above tips and focus on the ones you need to approve upon. Yes, the competition keeps growing with every passing month, but there’s still enough money out here for those who work hard.

Here’s to a fruitful 2008 and I’ll see ya the top!

For most, it takes a few years get their sites to the point where they can think about quitting their full-time job. But if you work hard enough, it can certainly be done within a year.

And even if it doesn’t happen in 2008, perhaps you can earn enough to make it feasible for 2009.

If you are just getting started and want to make money online, here are some things you can do now to make 2008 a productive year for you…

1. Learn the basics of website building.

Don’t rely on someone to update your site for you. You need the freedom to update your site when you want. Having to depend on another person is like buying a car when you don’t know how to drive.

Imagine having to call someone every time you wanted to go somewhere. What’s the point in the purchase if you don’t have the freedom to go where you want when you want?

People are often intimidated by the website building process because they are “bad with computers” or feel they need formal training in web design. Not true. I didn’t have any when I started and my site, 2createawebsite.com doesn’t look to shabby.

Thanks to great programs like Dreamweaver and CoffeeCup you don’t need any formal training to build a site. And there are hundreds of sites with free tutorials on how to use these programs.

Or if you decide to use a program like Site Build It!, you don’t need to learn how to use any software because they have all the tools built-in.

However, I still believe every website owner should at least learn the basics, no matter the host you choose.

Even if you pay someone to do the initial design for your site, you should still learn how to manage/maintain it going forward.

2. Decide your approach.

I make money online through affiliate programs. In other words, I build sites on topics that interest me and recommend products that relate to my topics.

The merchants pay me commissions for any sales I make, but I do not handle any products. I am simply the middleman that refers the sales. In addition I earn revenue through ads on my site.

Since I do not sell any tangible products, the content on my sites act as my product. I spend most of my time writing and of course marketing my site anywhere I can.

Understanding how to keep my sites ranked high in the popular search engines like Google is also a must.

If affiliate marketing doesn’t sound like your thing, you can also sell your own products by setting up an e-store. Understand you will also be responsible for collecting payments and shipping products so it’s important to educate yourself on these processes.

Of course there are other ways to generate money from a website, but these are the two basic ways and most popular.

Obviously you can do a combination of both. You can sell your own products and still make money from affiliate programs, ads, etc. The business model is up to you, but I would definitely recommend you start small and simple.

For example, if you want to sell lots of products like Amazon.com, I would start with a smaller niche and then expand. It’s much easier to get traffic to a small niche like “antique turtles” than to try and compete with well-known brands like Amazon and Overstock who sell everything under the sun.

3. Realize you are starting a business.

If you want full-time money, understand this requires a full-time commitment. This is not something you can do for 2 days a month and expect to generate a six figure salary. (At least, not in the beginning!)

You must grasp the concept of Internet marketing and realize unless you have a lot of traffic to your site, you are not going to make much. Traffic doesn’t just come to your site automatically.

Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) is a must if you want to generate free traffic from Google, Yahoo and Live (formerly MSN.com). They don’t just start sending you traffic just ’cause you launched a site.

You should be setting up a plan that defines specifically the type of audience you want to target and how you plan to reach them.

And once you know that audience, it’s up to you to do the research to find out where your potential audience/customers are.

Let’s say you are targeting stay-at-home moms, you’ll need to do your research and find out where they go online so you can get your site in front of them.

That could include creating a profile on the ivillage message boards to chat with other moms, and finding other online sites that target this audience and working out an advertising arrangement with the owners of these sites.

Generating traffic takes work and this is the most challenging task for any webmaster. It’s the difference between failure and success online.

4. Decide if you need a webmaster or administrator.

With the emergence of dating and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, it seems everyone wants to start their own networking or profile/member-based site.

I’ll be blunt. These sites are not easy to setup or manage. You need to understand a great deal about web servers, security, bandwidth, etc. or at least know someone who can help you.

Also, you will need more than just a cheap web host for your site. A $3/month host is not good enough for a site as robust as this. Dedicated hosting is almost a must and it is not cheap.

So unless you plan to learn all this yourself, make sure you have a right-hand man (or woman) to take care of the technical details for you. Also make sure you have the extra cash on hand for monthly hosting/server fees.

5. Learn from those already making money.

If you decide you want to be an affiliate like me, become a frequent visitor of Allan Gardyne’s site, AssociatePrograms.com.

I learned almost everything I know from his helpful newsletters and website. He’s got a ton of advice for beginners. And be sure to read his newsletter archives. Allan is notorious for highlighting other successful affiliates so you can get some fantastic ideas and inspiration.

Also check out Ralph Wilson’s site, http://www.wilsonweb.com. There are tons of great articles related to Internet marketing here. It’s a great resource site.

6. Take it a step at a time.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with all the information online. Don’t feel you have to understand everything about Internet marketing right now.

Your first goal should be deciding on a how you want to make money and who you want to target. Get a pad and paper and jot down your notes.

Research. Do a Google search for the type of site you want to create. Check out your potential competition and see what they’re doing. Look for info or resources they are lacking and find areas where you can capitalize.

Then once you’ve done that, spend a good deal of time learning how to build your site. Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. Your site is your doorway to income, so make sure you have a plan for what you want to do and how you are going to manage it.

Here’s to a productive 2008!

P.S. Wanna chat with other people just getting started? Head on over to my forum, WebsiteBabble.com. We’re a friendly bunch!

What’s the one job where you could take a year off and still get paid?

Yup… you guessed it.

Affiliate Marketing.

I got an e-mail from a gentleman today who wanted to know how many hours he’d have to invest upfront to make enough money online to quit his full time job. He admitted he didn’t have much time to invest into his site.

Because the Internet appears so glamorous with all these inspiring success stories, people get fooled into thinking there is some short cut or easy way to make money. Just throw up a site and the money will come in, right?

Nope.

It takes work just like any other job, BUT the difference is once you invest the time upfront you can get by working only a couple of hours per day. Unfortunately, most people never stick with it long enough to get to that point.

I could take a year off from my sites and still probably come back to a very nice income because of the time I’ve put into building up my sites over the years. You can too, but you have to do the work now to get the rewards later.

There are no shortcuts to success and the Internet is no exception.

My friends and family are in awe of the amount of money I make with my sites.

To be honest, sometimes I am too.

It’s hard to believe something that started out as a hobby/side income venture, has turned into a full-time income that allowed me to quit my 9 to 5 job.

While the process is simple, unfortunately most people don’t have or want to take the time to let something like this develop.

It definitely takes time and I would never tell you this happened overnight.

Here are three reasons I believe I found success online…

1) I Choose Topics I Love

This is the most important step and here’s why…

When you enjoy and are engaged in the topics of your site, writing useful content is easier and can be a lot of fun. You are also more motivated to maintain and promote your site.

The passion for your topic, comes through in your writing and this helps build credibility with your audience.

The reason I chose website creation is when I started building my site back in 1998, there were very few comprehensive tutorial sites (especially free ones.) So I decided to build an all-encompassing site for beginners.

Developing content was super easy because I reflected back to the days when I first started. So I wrote about the topics I needed help with when I was getting started.

My past experience with website creation helped give my site life, personality and allowed me to connect with my audience.

2) I Join Affiliate Programs With Residual Payouts

Say you have a fitness site and you join an affiliate program for a gym membership.

When you refer your visitors to sign up for a membership, the company pays you a percentage of your referrals membership fee for as long as they are a member.

If a customer is a member for 10 years, you get paid every month for as long as they are a customer!

Those are the kind of affiliate programs I look for.

The 5 Pillar Program is a great example. I actually bought their product and made a lot of money with it so getting my visitors to buy is pretty easy because they read about my success story.

That’s another important tip…always buy the products you recommend!

They pay you a 25% commission for every customer for life. So let’s say I get 30 people to buy Site Build It! this month. That’s roughly $2250 for that month.

When those customers renew their SBI! subscription a year later, I get that $2,250 again PLUS any new commissions from new customers for that month.

So over time, the residual commission begin to pile up. There are some affiliates in the 5 Pillar Program making 5 figures per month largely because of the residuals.

The Ultimate Domain Reseller Program is another example of residual payments. They actually offer a reseller program.

This is a bit different from an affiliate program because you can actually set your prices and determine your profit margin. For that reason, there is a yearly fee.

With this program you selling domain names and web hosting. You don’t have to have a site about web design to successfully sell their products.

You could write a small “About Me” page on your site and tell a short story of how you created your site, then offer them the links to begin their own.

Every customer that creates a site from your link will earn you a commission every month for as long as they keep their site.

I receive 5 figure checks per month from them because of the residual commissions. I’ve been a reseller since 2002 so the income is really snowballing now.

For a listing of more lifetime commission affiliate programs, see LifetimeCommissions.com

3) I Do Something Everyday

It amazes me the number of people who think they can just build a site and the visitors and money will begin flowing automatically.

Making money online is 90% marketing and 10% website building. Don’t think the work ends just because you’ve launched your site. You’ve only just begun, my friend.

I do something everyday that helps build my traffic long-term. That could be anything from blogging, submitting to StumbleUpon, Digg, writing an article for my site or another ezine, you name it.

All these things help build my traffic slowly, but surely.

It’s imperative you learn about marketing, and you’ll have to discover what tactics work best for you. For example, if you have a site that has mass appeal, a site like www.digg.com may help you draw in traffic.

Or if your niche is very focused and specialized, you may find that joining forums related to your subject matter help attract the kind of traffic you need.

Subscribe to sites like ProBlogger.net (for bloggers), John Chow, ShoeMoney, etc. and learn from others how are making a full-time living and are generous enough to show you what they’ve done to succeed.

I believe it’s important to frequent sites of other successful people. They’re inspiring and provide you with good ideas for your own site.

I get a lot of emails from people asking me if I really earn a full-time income online. I can understand their skepticism. There’s a lot of hype surrounding making money online and often times it’s presented in a way that seems too good to be true.

Plus, the Net is faceless so your interaction with people is often limited to e-mail or instant messaging. It’s hard to know who to trust and you certainly don’t want to waste your time and money on a worthless scheme or program.

Well, my online success story is indeed true. I began my venture back in 1998. I invested $20 in an MLM program and I turned that $20 bucks into about $6,000 over the course of 9 months. I was in college at the time so you can imagine how elated I was to make that kind of money during one of the poorest times in my life.

That MLM program has since shut down. However, I took the knowledge I gained from that and began creating websites to help people create their own personal and business websites.

That’s when 2CreateAWebSite.com was born. Even though the information on the site is completely free, I earn money by participating in various affiliate programs that relate to the theme of my site.

You can do the same. You don’t have to sell any products to make money online. You can build a content-rich website on your hobby or a topic you are passionate about and monetize it with related affiliated programs.

For example…

Say you love crafts. You can create a website about this. Your goal would be to create as much content as you can on the topic so you can attract free search engine traffic (Google, MSN and Yahoo, for example).

Once you begin getting traffic, you earn money with different monetization models. For instance, Google AdSense pays you to display ads on your site.

If your site is about crafts, the AdSense program will automatically display ads related to your content. When your site visitors click on your ads, you earn money. I make anywhere from $1500 to $1800 per month just with this program alone.

You could also join Amazon.com’s affiliate program and promote their craft-related books. Refer your audience to buy these books and Amazon pays you a commission for every sale. There are tons of free programs on the Net like this.

I also have a fitness site called www.flat-stomach-exercises.com and it earns money in the same ways explained above. See how my two sites are totally different in regards to the topics, but the money making concept is the same?

If you decide this is something you’d like to try, do me a favor. Don’t use any host except Site Build It!. They are the only company that provides all the tools you need in one place AND the coaching that will walk you through the process step-by-step.

Could you do this on your own without Site Build It!? Absolutely. BUT… you will be left to figure out how to attract traffic and finding programs to earn money from your site. After all, with no traffic and affiliate programs, you won’t make any money.

I didn’t create 2CreateAWebSite.com with Site Build It! but I used it for my newest site, flat-stomach-exercises.com and I received free search engine traffic to that site 3 times faster than I did with sites I’ve built using the old fashioned method. That’s because SBI! coached me as I wrote each page to ensure it ranked well in the major search engines.

I’m so glad SiteSell finally launched a video that allows you to see how Site Build It! works. It’s really difficult to explain the process in words because there’s so much to tell. So watching a video will give you a much clearer picture of what you’ll be getting for your money.

I’ll say it again…

If you want to make money with a website, Site Build It! is the only way to go. If you do decide to go the cheaper route and you have no website building experience, you’ll have a lot to learn on your own.

But if you have Site Build It!, it eliminates a lot of the technical things you’d have to figure out if you didn’t use it.

The key to making money online is not becoming a web programmer or designer, it’s about writing content and ranking high in the major search engines.

SBI! takes care of all the programming in the background while you can focus on what’s most important. Watch the video here!