When I first started to get interested in making money online, I honestly didn’t have a freaking clue where to begin. I figured that somehow I had to create a site, so I started fumbling through that. That took a couple months and when I had a terrible-looking, worthless site, I didn’t know how to get anyone to go to it. Even if I had been able to get some traffic to it (that didn’t happen), I wouldn’t have had a clue how to make money with it. Lol, what a mess that was.
That was four years ago. As it turns out, it isn’t that hard to create a website, it isn’t that hard to get traffic, and it isn’t that hard to make money from that traffic.
Everyone and their dog is going to tell you how to make money online and the problem is that A LOT of people are going to tell you what they think, even though they don’t make jack online. If you don’t believe that, go and try out everyone’s garbage for a couple years. When you realize that you have wasted a few thousand hours of work you’ll be back to where you can really get started, which is right here.
There’s only one reason I’m going to write this article – learning this business for me sucked. I had so many set backs it’s not even funny. I’ve had sites banned from their traffic sources, I’ve had tons of sites that didn’t work, and I’ve wasted literally thousands of hours of work.
Nowadays I have my sites cranking on auto-pilot and none of this is as difficult as it once seemed. Even though I’ve been advised to not give away everything I’m using, I feel like helping a few people to make it. I emphasize ‘a few people’. In all honesty most people are too lazy to do anything on their own and if you don’t have any personal determination, you might as well close this article now because it won’t do a dang thing for you.
Building a Solid Foundation
I can’t really think of a way to say this without being condescending so I’m just going to come out with it. You have a SHIZ-LOAD to learn. If you will be patient, I can help you out.
To make money with the internet, you have to be able to accomplish three simple tasks:
- Create a property on the web. In other words you will have to create either a web page or a web site. Yes, there are other ways to make money online. They are also a lot harder and more difficult than creating a web site. Trust me, anyone can create a website and all you have to do is learn a few simple steps.
- Get traffic to your site or page. There’s no shortage of information on this topic but most of it is worthless to tell you the honest truth. There are a lot of methods out there that will show you how to get tons of traffic – the kind of traffic that is absolutely worthless. I’ll teach you to get the right kind of traffic.
- Get your traffic to do something that makes you money. This means you will have to get your traffic to either buy something or do something else that will get you paid.
All of this may seem hard now, but I can tell you that it really isn’t that tough. It’s not exactly the easiest thing on the planet but you can figure it out. Luckily for you, I have created a boat load of free videos that can help you to get a web site up and running and I have a ton of free, published advice that can help you to start making some money. I will point you there once we’ve laid a foundation.
Creating a Property on The Web
Since I couldn’t possibly cover every single aspect of this concept within a single article, I’m going to have to do it in sections. Here are the basics that we need to cover. Within the next few weeks I’ll add additional articles, and will turn these bullets into links:
- Choosing a topic for a website. You will have to learn to find topics that will pay well. I have a basic process for this and you can read more about that by following the link.
- Choosing the right domain name. If you choose the right name, you’ll have an easier time getting ranked in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
- Setting up the website. This may seem like it’s outside the realm of possibility for you, but trust me, it isn’t. I have a bunch of videos that will show you how to do this so be patient and I’ll get you taken care of. I have also set up an example site that you can emulate.
- Creating content for the website. Most of the sites I set up are basic, informational websites. That means I have to put up some information that covers certain topics. If I choose to create a site about ‘computer speakers’, I will have to write some basic articles about speakers. Any topic can be covered with some basic articles and I will show you how to do this.
If this seems like it will be hard, it’s only because you haven’t done it before. Once you’ve done it a few times it won’t seem nearly as difficult.
Getting Traffic to Your Web Site or Web Page
This is the part that most people just don’t understand. If you start looking up ways to get people to your site, you’re going to find literally thousands of worthless articles. The problem with most of them is that the kinds of traffic you’ll get will be terrible. Sure, they might show you how to get a few thousand visitors at a time, but none of them will be the kind you want.
I read blog posts and articles all the time about how people got 10,000 visitors from Digg, or 3,000 visitors from StumbleUpon. That’s great and all, but you’ll notice that they never talk about how much money they made from that.
Would you rather get 10,000 visitors from a site like Digg and make $0, or get 10 of the right visitors so that you can make $1? Frankly, if you’re like most people you’d rather get the 10,000 visitors that are worthless. People chase that traffic around like crazy and honestly, it’s a very unhealthy addiction.
Don’t fall into this trap. If you will learn how to get the right kind of traffic, you will always be able to make money online.
How I Get The Right Kind of Traffic
Every day, millions of people search for information on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Google is by far the biggest search engine, but all three of those sites are used quite a bit. Let’s assume that a person wants to look for information about computer speakers. They are going to go to Google, Yahoo, or MSN and they are going to type in computer speakers. They will then see something like this:

Google, Yahoo, and MSN are going to show them sites that cover the topic they’re looking for. Let’s imagine that your site shows up on the first page of Google when people are searching for your topic. That would mean that people would be clicking into your site each day and they would be searching for information about your topic.
Since the people that find your site will be looking for information about a certain topic, they will be very easy to make money with. A person that’s looking for computer speakers will probably eventually buy some so someone is going to make a profit. You don’t have to necessarily be the person that sells the speakers to make money. There are tons of people that will pay you simply to send your existing traffic to them and that’s very easy to do. I will explain this in detail.
You may say to yourself that getting traffic from Google in this manner must be pretty difficult. The honest truth is that it actually isn’t that tough and it doesn’t cost money. You simply have to learn to execute a plan and follow through on it. I can show you the basics of making this happen, but you will have to do the work. I’ll present the basics and will link to additional articles from the bullets as soon as I’m able to fill them in:
- Getting Your Website Into Google – Obviously you’ll never get Google traffic unless you get into Google.
- Search Engine Optimization – This is often called SEO and refers to the art of creating a website in a way that Google, Yahoo, and MSN will like. This has two parts including onsite SEO and offsite SEO. I’ll create basic articles that cover these topics and will link to them from here.
- Link Building – Google, Yahoo, and MSN all rank pages based on a system of counting links. If you can get websites to link to yours, Google, Yahoo, and MSN will love it. I have a system for this and will show you how to execute it with a follow-up article that I’ll link to from here. Link building and SEO are very closely related in fact link building is the most crucial aspect of effective SEO.
If you can get traffic this way, you can make money and you can make a lot of it. I don’t have a job anymore and will never again have to, simply because I understand how to execute this strategy.
Making Money From Your Traffic
So let’s assume that you have some traffic from a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or MSN. That means each day you’re going to have people finding your site. That traffic is worth something.
The easiest way to make money from search traffic is to use allow advertisers to buy that traffic from you. That probably sounds difficult if you’re a beginner but it couldn’t be easier. Google has a program that you can use to show ads from advertisers, and it’s 100% free to use.
Here’s a screen shot of a page about computer speakers that’s using this program – I have outlined the Google ads in red:

Google is giving this site access to the Google advertisers who are selling computer speakers and paying the owner whenever the ads are clicked. Usually a single click on a Google ad is worth anywhere from $0.25 to a couple of bucks.
If you can get 100 people per day on a site, and get 10% of them to click on an ad that’s worth $1 per click, you’ll make $10 per day. Increase traffic to 1000 people per day and you can expect to make $100 each day. Increase to 10,000 visitors per day and you can expect to make $1,000 each day.
The beauty of this program is that it’s absolutely free to use. Google pays you for the clicks via check or direct deposit and you never have to deal with any of the advertisers.
There are actually hundreds of different ways to make money with your traffic, but this one is honestly one of the best. It’s by far the easiest and it pays very nicely, as long as you can get the traffic. If you can’t get the traffic you won’ t be able to execute anything else so you might as well learn how to get the traffic.
Making money this way is honestly one of the funnest things on the planet. You can make money while you’re asleep. You can make money while you’re on vacation. That said, it does take work. If you’re a lazy person I wouldn’t waste your time. If you’re committed, dedicated, and hard working, there’s a great chance that you can make this work.
You’re definitely not done learning. Be patient and work hard. You’ll get there!
As I said earlier, I will be adding to this article over the next week or so. Please be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Tags: adsense, make money online, offsite SEO, onsite SEO, SEO

Thanks Mark and Court for another helpful post that keeps all necessary steps in perspective.
Can’t wait guys…
Looking forward to reading your series. Nothing like learning and developing solid fundamentals. As we say in my line of work, you are only as good as your basic skills, and I need to work on my basic IM skills.
JUST what i needed….. since you’ve taken down my first internet marketing learning tool, the intro to keyword sniping (which i do not agree w/ why you took it down, but to each their own) but when trying to teach people about it, i want to reference that article, and I just can’t… But this article, and your following article, is a nice cliffs notes version of what I do online now, so when people wanna learn, i can direct them here
Looking forward to next articles! Specially about link building. Thank you!
I think good advice to people is start free. Blogger or just random Mu hosts are a great place to start. I also do ok with Squidoo. These are places you can get a free “website” and then you can find out if this internet thing is for you without spending a dollar.
This article was sooooo good that I Twittered it like crazy. As someone who is struggling in the beginning of this making money online adventure I can’t seem to find a way to build good traffic. I’m getting traffic but it’s slim. I have good content but my pages fail on google ranking. I just receive a PR2 for my website and I almost fell out of my seat. It took close to a year for that to happen. Now I want to focus on link building but I just can’t find good sites to link to. I have paid to get put into 1,000 directories and I haven’t seen anything from it yet, not even on google. So what I’m trying to say is that this blog makes me want to be a better internet money making machine. I thank you for such rich and insightful content again and again.
This blog is one of the two or three places on the internet where I can get useful information for free. Of course, most people will never actually use it. I’m looking forward to the series, and thank you for doing it.
Can you guys explain all the difference scenarios where a PR1 or PR0 site can rank higher in the SERPs than a PR4? Can I assume that the higher-ranking PR1 or PR0 will always have better backlinks than the PR4, regardless of its PR? That’s assuming both sites have moderately good on-page SEO for the target keyword.
If this is something I shouldn’t be talking about, please nuke this comment and I’ll take the hint. People seem to be very cautious online when they talk about PR.
Thanks, Court/Mark?
Hey could you guys sign off on your posts? ;o) I never know for sure who I’m talking too-but I’ll bet this was Mark?
Anyway simple stuff that I like so many others beginners need to read over and over. Posts like this help motivate me and help me to stay on the straight and narrow.
I look forward to the rest of the series.
Fixed now Jerry. Thanks for the heads up.
Jerry,
They have it set up so the author’s name is under the post title.
Court and Mark,
Another great article and can’t wait for the juicy parts later on. I am curious however about a site of mine. I am third for a well searched term related to a health condition. I was using Adsense on the site and would get a click or two for .05 to .25 per click. I am getting over 100 uniques per day on this site that is targeted to the specific health issue, but nothing is converting. There is no affiliate products that I have been able to find for it and I hate to waste the traffic.
Any ideas I should try?
ps…and no, I won’t give away the topic/site to just anyone…lol
Wow, great article! Can’t wait to see the rest.
how do i get started?
i dont have online credit card how can i pay for one
Mark, Court,
Thanks a ton for the out line, I’ve read every article this site has produced and I’m excited to see the outline for seo, the wordpress stuff and the rest.
adam
I look forward to the additions to this article. Thanks for all the useful information. Without your video series I don’t think I would have been able to even get a site up.
Thank you so much for giving this information to us. It is priceless.
Ray
My name is Richard and im a contractor working in Iraq. Im very interested in making money online because of the time im spending away from my family. I have subscribed to the Google “making money by posting links” which has brought me to the E book which i have read. Just let me know im not alone onn this venture and if following and perhaps becoming a member of your club i will profit? Please email me back. Thank you Richard. Oh,i dont have a clue what im doing either to be frank. Lol.
Learning how to get backlinks & the right kind of backlinks is what I am working on now for my new niche blog.