1. Profitability. While websites that are actually making money are few and far between their numbers have certainly increased dratamatically over the last couple of years. Gone are the days when nobody was making any money online, yet everybody believed that the gold mine was just around the next corner. Today a healthy revenue stream can be expected if you only have an established website, with solid traffic and an effective technical setup. In general, if you have a solid revenue stream in place you should never expect to get less than annual revenue stream that your website is generating. But, that is really only the bare minimum, and if you have a number of the other items on this list in place your website could be sold for so much more. We would argue that the revenue stream need not be that important to the valuation of the website providing that the other items on this list are in place. If you have a well-coded, content-rich website with good traffic, an established brand name, a good domain, and a profile that fits a potential buyer strategically the price tag could reach the stratospehere even if you are not making a dime. Of course, the logic is that it is fairly easy to monetize a website if you only have all those things in place. If the website has a revenue stream in place a theoretical price tag can be quite easy to arrive at by simply using a multiple of the annual or monthly revenue stream. The multiple is dependent on a number of factors, but one of the more prominent ones is  the revenue history of the site. For instance a website that has been around for 6 months could be worth 8 times its monthly revenue, whereas a website that has been around for 5 years could be worth twice the annual revenue of that site.

In most cases though, you will be approached long before you have all those items fulfilled. Thus, if you are only looking at the revenue side of things, the valuation of such a website will not make any sense whatsoever. Since the valuation will go up dramatically once several of the items on this list have been reached, msny venture capitalists will try to get a foot in at a much earlier stage. Still, if they like what they see, or think they see looking into the future the price tags can be impressive even at this early stage. The potential rewards from investing in a website with potential are so massive that the valuation in many instances will reflect this potential windfall opportunity. Getting in early on a website with potential is like buying an option. The downside is limited to your investment. The upside could be greater than your wildest dreams. If you own several of these promising websites, like many venture capitalists do, you are likely to hit a home run with at least one or a few of them. Even if only a few of these websites ultimately become blockbusters, that is usually enough to offset the costs of the others and then some.

There you have it. Some basic guidelines to consider. But like we have said so many times before, don´t focus on the money. Focus on making your vision a reality. As we have said before, by focusing most of your efforts on building a great website with loads of nice features and not think about the money, the money will paradoxically come a lot faster. Forget about money, revenue and profits in the beginning. Just think about creating the best possible user experience and the money will come.

2. Content. Creating content is time-consuming. Creating unique high-quality content requires a specific skill set. And if your website has a solid base of quality content that is original (i e it has been written for your site only and is not a rewrite of something else that can be found easily on the web) your content has even more value. If you have a content-rich website, chances are your site has been around for a while. All that content has been indexed thoroughly by crawlers over the years and if the content has been around for a while Google will rate it higher than the new stuff. Every bit of content on your site can be considered as a tiny piece of magnet. Each post, page, pic or comment is valuable. It attracts generic traffic. Every time a search is conducted you stand a chance of getting some free traffic. The more content the bigger the chances to get traffic. Once all those small bits of magnets are added up you get one pretty big magnet going for you, drawing large numbers of free visitors to your site. And all those visitors are wort something. On the internet attention is worth money. And the right type of attention can be worth lots of money.

So what type of content is worth the most? Is it fresh content with a limited shelf life or is it evergreen content that will stand the test of time? It´s a difficult question, and as is usually the case with difficult questions they have several answers. In general you will want a bit of both. While fresh content with a limited timespan is likely to keep visitors coming in through the front door a solid foundation of evergreen content is a good way to keep them in hanging around in the store. A reputation for providing good fresh quality content that deals with this moment is fantastic for traffic. But if we are looking at the valuation side of a website, the evergreen content certainly ups the price tag. This is especially the case if there is a lot of it and if it will take lots of time and effort to replicate it. Every content-rich website will struggle with this question., Do we go evergreen or do we go fresh and short shelf life? The solution in most cases is to do a bit of both. As the years go by your website will become a consíderable resource and all that content will represent serious value to a potential buyer. Get the content in place. It is, in many cases, the very foundation of your website.

3. Traffic. Whatever your website is about a nice solid daily number of visitors will make it valuable. On the internet you get payed for the total number of eyeballs that you can mobilize and the amount of attention you can muster. In general, the more people tune in to your website, the more you will get paid. The reason is that Google Adsense is the primary choice of revenue for many a websites. It´s a numbers game and once the traffic is there it´s not terribly difficult to convert that traffic into money. So how much is your traffic worth? That depends on a number of factors. What kind of traffic is it? What kind of website do you have? What kind of keywords are you targeting? For instance, if you are running a niche website about exclusice watches and you have a documented hit rate from rich potential buyers of those watches, you could get payed a handsome amount of money. On the other hand, if you run a website about poetry with a disparate group of visitors, you will find that it is harder to collect that paycheck.

The internet is still considered by many business people to be one gigantic marketing vehicle. The logic is simple: you have a bunch of people surfing around looking for information and if you can catch their attention for a minute you can sell something or market something to them. In the business world, people are still seeing the internet as a way to grab the attention of potential customers. But the power of this media vehicle is twofold. First of all you can make money by simply having a large volume of traffic. If the volume of traffic on a website is high enough it doesn´t really matter what demographic or socioeconomic background the visitors have. The principles of merketing still apply. Mass traffic means a potential market which in turn could be transformed into a massive revenue stream. However, you don´t really need a mass market to be able to make a considerable amount of money on the internet. If you have a niche site that targets a specific type of audience you could walk away with a lot more than some higher-volume websites do. If for instance the visitors of your niche website are affluent, represent a target market segment, and are in “buying mode” (meaning they are actively pursuing information in order to be able to make a sensible buying decision) your website should be able to make loads of money. Whether a website is mass or niche the underlying principle stays the same. The internet remains a marketing channel among many others and the attention of potential customers is a hot commodity. On average, every individual that visits your website is worth between 1 and 12 american cents, dependingon your experience in ad incorporation and CTR strategies.

4. Code. A website that has been custome-built in order to adress a specific problem or need is potentially worth quite a bit of money to the right buyer. In general, the harder it is to replicate the coding effort the larger the value of the website. The explosion of more effective CMS software has certainly upped the challenges custom website coders face. Even a fairly computer illiterate individual can make an acceptable website. The overall quality of the web is growing for each day that goes by. And since the number of websites has grown at an exponential pace the difficulty to make it across to potential users has increased dramatically. There is so much to choose from, and the attention span of the average surfer has been decimated time and time again. The writing is on the wall. You had better be good. You had better provide value. And you better do it quickly. Or else we will move on. That´s the way the story goes these days. In such an environment it´s more important than ever to stand above the crowd. Adding a cool and useful feature on your website is a good way to accomplish just that. And once that piece of code is in place, it is not only drawing repeat visitors, it´s also increasing the value of the website.

The competition is fierce though. The gap between custom-tailored websites and CMS-based websites is narrowing. This can to a large extent be attributed to an ever-increasing selection of good plugins (there are tens of thousands to choose between), but also a higher general quality of CMS software out there. The assembly line methodology has entered the website development market with a bang. Completely custom-built websites are few and far between. Many coders simply buy a CMS and alter it to better suit their needs. Or they simply write a suitable plugin. In this way they can often realize the better part of their vision but at a fraction of the time and cost it would have taken if the site was to be completely handcrafted. The numbers speak for themselves. The world´s most popular CMS, WordPress, now is powering approximately 15% of the top million websites of the world. And out of every 100 new US domains, 22 are running on WordPress. We believe this trend will grow even stronger in the future. Why pay a fortune for something when you can have 95% of what you want for a few bucks. The added value of going custom is just not there. That being said, we still believe that a custom-built website has great value if it fulfills a need or provides entertainment. And since everybody else is going CMS, you just might want to consider going in the opposite direction. If you do it the same way as everybody else, you are going to experience the same results as everybody else. And while the CMS market is impressive, the next Facebook or Youtube ain´t going to be built on WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. For the more fine tuned websites out there custom is still the way to go.

5. Brand name awareness. If you have been operating a website for a number of years that means that your website has a reputation, a following and a brand name in place. And since all those things imply traffic, they are worth money. A brand name implies user awareness and a base of repeat users. One of the reasons a brand name has value is that it takes time to build. By buying it a motivated buyer can get a shortcut and save years of hard work in trying to establish some form of market presence. Doing business on the internet is very much about time. Everything takes time. Lots of it. It takes time to get some meaningful amount of content in place. It takes time to get some good backlinks going. It takes time to get noticed in a relevant way by the crawlers and to rank well with Google. It takes time to establish a base of loyal followers. It take time to build a brand name and brand awareness to your domain URL and your website. It takes time before you can start to monetize in any meaningful kind of way. The internet is not as simple as many people believe it to be. You need to be present on a number of different platforms simultaneously. An active Facebook page or a widely followed Twitter account will add major value to your website and its brand name and market presence.  An active forum with a history of engaged users is definitively worth something. Some good press over the years might not hurt. In general, anything that takes time to accomplish and anything that makes  a website a prominent memeber of its natural community is something that enhances the value of that website. The barriers of entry are extremely low nowadays. Technology has made internet presence readily available to anybody with a couple of hundred bucks to spare, a medium computer experience, an internet connection and a website idea. Everything takes time. An existing brand name can kick-start the process of establishing a strong market presence for a website. And that´s exactly why a solid brand name is so valuable.

6. Links. A website that has been around for a while is likely to have a number of links to it. Even websites that are quite new can get a large number of links in  ashort period of time if it provides value to their users. Of course having a large number of links in itself is not worth anything. There are links of different quality, and if your links are low-quality they are practically worthless. In fact low-quality links might even hurt you as your website is likely to be penalized by Google if your links for instance have been bought rather than aquired by real users who liked your website and found it useful. If your links are high-quality on the other hand they are worth something. High-quality links are telling Google and the other search engines that people are finding your website useful, relevant and enjoyable. They have to, otherwise they wouldn´t link to it. And since a lot of people have added your website to their favourites or created a link to it Google and the other search engines will figure you´ve got the goods and start ranking you higher in searches. These links are particularly valuable if they come from significant sources (such as a big website with heavy traffic) and if they are only going in one direction (you don´t have a link in place going in the other direction).

While links can dissapear fast, that is highly unusual. A website with a large number of links to it is likely to stay that way, unless something dramatical happens to the content or features of the site. And since a large number of incoming links will drive generic traffic to your site, those links are worth money. How much money they are worth is dependant on a large number of factors such as the quality of links, the type of links, how the link has been constructed technically, and if these links are going one way or in both directions. It is a catch 22 type of situation really. Great content creates many links which creates traffic. But in order for people to realise that you have great content in place it helps to drive traffic to your site and for that you need some quality links. This problematic relationship represents difficulty for the online entrepreneur, but given enough time, effort and patience it can be solved.

7. Domain name. A good domain name is hard to find these days. That in itself makes domain names a valuable commodity. If you happen to be sitting on a domain name that is short, to the point and has both meaning and marketability to a specific target audience it is definitively worth something. A good domain name doesn´t even need to have a website attached to it. It can be worth large amounts of money in and of itself. A potential buyer will often have a vision for what they want to do with that name and if they are about to invest a large amount of money on creating a strong internet presence you might be surprised as to what a solid domain name can be worth. Domain names can be valuable for a number of reasons. Some domain names will dramatically improve the SEO of the website. Some names will convey what your company is about in a good way. Some will be easy to remember. Some will be short, sweet and easy to spell. Some will be a dotom. Some will be the only option that is around in a particular business area. Some will be related to a business area with dearly priced search keywords. No matter what the reason is, great domain names are worth money and as time goes by the numbers are likely to get even bigger. Think of a great domain name as a peice of property, or rather a piece of land with really good location. As time goes by the location of your domain starts to look even better as all the surrounding spots have been built on or exploited in another way. As long as the location is good, the money will be good as well.

8. Strategic value. A website can be worth quite  bit of money if it fits the bill from a strategic point of view to a major player in that business sector. For instance, if you happen to own a network of travel sites covering Eastern Europe that will go down well with a potential travel agency that wants to establish itself in that particular area. Your digital business represents a good strategic fit for that particular company and as every business major will be able to tell you; a strategic fit implies an improved price tag of your internet presence. Another strategic value of a website is that by aquring you are eliminating a threat or a potential competitor down the road. This is especially true if a large company for any reason feels that a much smaller company has some kind of new technology or concept that could pose a threat in the future. The solution to this problem is pretty much the same everywhere: “Pay them now, pay them big”. Yet another potential strategic value that can increase the value fo a website is if a good customer database is part of the deal, and that customer database can be put to good use by the buying entity. In some cases a website can be aquired in order to scoop up the talent behind that wensite. For instance if a group of expert programmers have created a new cool website another company could offer premium money not only for the website but also to get their hands on the talent behind the website. This is also to be considered a strategic deal.

In some cases the website being bought will complement the existing value chain of the buyer in an effective way. They will do so by adding a supplementary service in a neat way to the primary site. For instance a well-trafficked social media community could find massive strategic value in an app software that provides social photo sharing. Much like Facebook and Instagram. In fact, exactly like Facebook and Instagram. There are so many forms that strategic value can appear in that it is nearly impossible to reflect on all of them. But one last item we would like to include in this list is the strategic value of patents. We see this one as a strongly trending item. The importance of a strong portfolio of patents that enables you to delay or destroy the effeorts of your competitors is a strategically important and valuable tool in the tool kit of multi-national corporations. We suspect this will soon play a strategic part of the internet world as well. We don´t like it, and we believe that it is destroying the underlying business climate of the countries where this kind of behaviour is practiced. Yet there is nothing that can be done. In some unfortunate business climates the truth is written by the players with the largest pool of lawyers, the deepest pockets and the widest diversity of their patent portfolio. In other business environments the truth is written by market forces, supply and demand, and a level playing field regardless of how big or small you are. We know what kind of business environment we´d rather operate in.

So there you have it. We have concluded an overview of the major factors that make a website valuable. You don´t need to have all of these factors in place to have a valuable website. But in general the more of these things you´ve got covered the more money your site should be worth. This list has not been written with the intention to provide you with a road map to achieve riches through your website. But the obesrvant reader will have noticed that all the actions that add value to your website are also the very same actions that bring value to your users. This is kind of logical, don´t you think? The more value your website provide to users, the more it will ultimately be worth. So go to work. Improve the overall experience of your visitors. Look to add value in every action you undertake. And make your website a highly valuable commodity in the process.

Oh and after you do sell that website of yours for an undisclosed juicy sack of money a couple of years from now, don´t spend it all at once.

In this final post we´ll just go over what needs to be in place in order for you online business to thrive. The recommendations below are , again, based on our own observations and experiences. We know exceptions to the “rules” outlined below, but they are far fewer than you might expect. We just wanted to leave you with a list of important things to keep in mind. If you check most or all of these boxes you have a much better statistical chance of ultimately making it.

Be obsessed. Obsession is very often looked upon as something negative. We don´t feel it is. In fact we welcome some kind of obsession in our partners behaviour. It can be annoying at times, but it will put money in the bank. Always. Almost all the greatest interpreneurs or entrepreneurs that we know of are obsessed to some degree. In fact, most of the successful people we know  has some kind of obesssion in place regardless of endeavor. Some people will say the are very passionated. Some will claim they have singleness of purpose or a keen attention to details. Others will confess to you that they are thinking about their business first and foremost during the better parts of the day. You can call it whatever you like. We sometimes refer to it as obsessions, simply because we feel it is an accurate description. Be obsessive about your business, and success will follow.

Do it first or do it better. In general there are two ways to go about it. Either you think of something entirely new or you add to an existing product or service by doing it better in some way. The benefit of doing something new is of course the first-mover advantage which will very often bring in some nice money before copy-competitors start popping up. But the other way is more often than not the way to go about it. Find something were you think you could add value, simply by doing it better. You don´t have to reinvent the wheel to be a successsful entrepreneur or interpreneur. Just find a way of doing something useful in a better way and build your business around the value that you are providing by doing that. Great ides are in general not as great as they appear. Execution is what matters. Everything else is secondary.

Forget the money. It is important that you think about money, when you start out. But not just any money. You should be obsessive about your cash flow in the beginning. Always look to do things cheaper. Ask a friend for some help. Barter services with others. Be cheap and always look to keep costs low and try to get some kind of positive cash flow going. Or at the very least try to avoid having an overly negative cash flow- as that will put you out of business sooner than you think. Other than the cash flow- forget about the money. Don´t try to strike gold straight away. Try to do the best possible website out there. Try to provide value. Try making your visitors´ lives easier. Look to make a loyal following of frequent visitors. Look out for their best interest and never go for the quick and easy buck. Ironically, the less you think about money initially the more you eventually make in the long run.

Don´t go solo. You could build a website by yourself. You could start any business by yourself. But what you will find is business is that very often the most successful entrepreneurs and interpreneurs were working in pairs. Two or three people are in general what it takes to make something great. There are a number of reasons for this. There will be major setbacks along the way and two people will give eachother enough energy to get past these bumps. If you are by yourself chances are you will give up. Another important reason is that there is power in numbers. If there are two of you, you are bound to have different personalities, with different strengths and weknesses. If you only are able to find a nice working relationship between the tow of you, you will soon find that the strangths of each partner will come to the forefront of the company just when they are needed the most. Thus, 1 plus 1 may very well turn out to be 3. In time you will start to read eachothers minds. You will not need to speak to eachother before you accept or decline a deal. You will knowwhat the other is thinking. It is a deep intense feeling of brotherhood, and it may not be a coincidence that many successful businesses are run by brothers or childhood friends. They “fill in” eachothers gaps.

Same core values, different strengths. Pick partners that have the same core values. Partners that speak the truth, are honest, are on time and want to make it. Pick partners that have integrity and try to align your goals and incentives as much as possible. If your incentives are too far apart your relationship will break. Sooner rather than later. As much as you want to have the same core values, goals and incentives as your partner, you want your strengths to be quite the opposite of your partner´s strengths. If he is a people´s person who can sell anything, but instead you have excellent analytical skills that´s great. If he is a creative genius but you are a much better programmer, that´s excellent. If he´s great at writing, but you are great at negotiating, thet´s perfect. Only one of you has to have a particular skill, although it´s good if you both know the basics of everything. You want to complement eachother. And you want to spend the majority of each day doing what you are really good at.

Have goals in place. You need goals to succeed. Break down longer-term goals to shorter-term to-do-lists. Each day, you should have a list of things that need to be done. make sure to go through that list. Push yourself every day and be methodical. Make sure to keep that dream alive by knowing that on that particular day you did everything in your powers to take a small step towards your longer-term goals. Always look to be as effective as possible and always try to improve. Success is more a function of a series of small improvements done over a long period of time, rather than one big “home-run-event”. Goals help you keep those small improvements aligned in a straight line. Work ethics and discipline will allow you to get things done. Having specific goals will allow you to get the right things done.

Courage to commit. You need courage to be successful. By this we don´t mean that you should quit your job. We realize that most of you are going to start your website as a part-time project and keep your daily employment. We find that sensible. Your website is not going to take off like a rocket- we can promise you that. It´s going to be a slow, tedious process in the beginning. And you are going to need a regular job to pay for the initial investments and to pay your monthly bills. If your long-term goal si to be able to make a living of your website you are eventually going to want to make the move to self-employment. In general though, that will take some time of dedicated, hard work. Nevertheless, it is important to commit to your online business. Treat it as a business from the start. Tell your close friends and family about your plans. It´s more difficult to abandon plans that you have shared with others. Never cut yourself some slack. Work hard. meet those deadlines and go for your goals.

Be a rebel. In the words of the late Steve Jobs “It´s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy”. While its often more comfortable to be a part of the crowd that´s not where the real action is. If you are a part of the crowd, your results will be the same as those of the crowd. Don´t be afraid to be a rebel. It´s always important to listen to your customers. But most important is that you listen to your gut. If you listen to your instincts and your instincts are sound, chances are you are going to achieve some great things. Mac, Ipod, Iphone, Ipad- they are all a result of one man´s conviction. Had Jobs listened to customers, none of these products would have seen the light of day. Trust your instincts. And dare to be a rebel at times.

Keep costs low. We´re not talking about cutting costs here. We are talking about avoiding costs in the first place. It doesn´t cost much to setup shop online. Start out as cheap as possibly and only pay for stuff that definitely adds value to your long-term business. We know from experience that most of the things that a new entrepreneur or interpreneur want to spend money on in the beginning are plain stupid. You don´t need a flashy office, fancy furniture or glossy business cards- at least not on your first business day. You can get all that stuff later- when money is starting to trickle in. In the beginning phases of any business you should keep costs at a minimum and spend most of your time working harder than you ever thought possible. If you do, you might just stand a chance.

Be good and do good. Ok, we have to tell you the truth. We got this one from real life experience rather than our internet ventures. As entrepreneurs we have found that it is often best to be good and do good. First of all it feels a hell of a lot better than the alternative. And second, it´s just good business. People are usually a lot smarter than many sleazeballs make of them. People will see youir true colour sooner or later. It has to do that on a subconscious level people will not listen to what you say as much as they pay attention to what you do. If you are honest your words and your actions will be in harmony. If you are dishonest you will talk a great game, but your actions will awaken the doubts. And once people start to doubt you, they will start searching for others to do business with. It´s really not that difficult. Always speak the truth. Be fair. Don´t have a hidden agenda. Work hard. And always try to negotiate deals where there are two winners. By doing this you are building a long-term medium profitable, great business- as opposed to a short-term high-profit, lousy business. Be good and do good. It´s good business.

Don´t be content. Very often there is plenty of opportunity to be found in small-business areas. This often has to do with the fact that small business owners are often content with staying small. If you own one successful bed & breakfast why would you want the hassle of starting another, or a third? It may sound strange but our experience is that many small entrepreneurs continue to be small because they keep thinking small. They see their small business as a job, not a business. The flip side of that is naturally that they don´t really want to expand. A business is scalable, whereas a job is not. Thus, many small business owners aren´t even thinking in terms of scaling up, because they don´t consider their shop a business. You will find that not only in real life but on the internet as well, at least if you are active in certain niche markets. One of the key reasons some online entrepreneurs are more successful thanothers is simply that they always look to be opportunistic. They are always looking for improvements, always looking to expand their business. They are never satisfied. Treat your website like a business, not just another job. And never get complacent. Always go for bigger and better.

Look for action, not ideas. Ideas are great, but not many ideas are as great as you make them out to be. Chances are your perfect idea has been around the block a couple of times before you even thought of it. While it is almost certain that your perfect idea is not as unique as you might initially believe, that doesn´t make it any less interesting to pursue. If it gets your juices flowing and your adrenalin pumping you should go for it. The important thing is that you act. Dreamers and idea generators are a dime a dozen. Winners know the need to act. Act decisively. Act strongly. Act fast. Act with determination. But by all means be a doer, not a dreamer. When you´re in the process of reaching for your goals and accomplishing your vision, onlyt hen can you allow yourself to dream. Oh, and when you do that- make sure you dream big!

Follow your dreams and passions. Life is short. Why not spend it doing something you love? Something that will make you jump out of bed in the morning with a silly smile on your face? If you love what you are doing there is a better chance you will have the staying power necessary to reach your final goal. Make no mistake- running a business is hard work with lots of obstacles coming your way. If that´s is not the way you would describe it you either don´t have experience as an entrepreneur, or you are not treating your shop as a real business. Most of us have had to deal with several major obstacles in our entrepreneurial life to reach our goals. And we´re not even going to talk about the minor obstacles. They are always present. I think, to some degree you learn to look past them.  Experienced entrepreneurs are tough. They´ve been around, and they are not easily intimidated. They have learned that there is no point in worrying today, for things that probably won´t make a differende tomorrow anyway. When they see an obstacle, they put their game face on and start a methodical process of dealing with it. They have their eyes on the goal. They are following their dreams and passions. Why should they let themselves be floored, when they are doing what they love. Passion is a powerful ally. Keep it close to your heart.

Be the change you wish to see. When you make it, give (at least) some of it back. The process of succeeding in business is really not as complicated as many people make it out to be. It is hard, and there´s lots of work involved. But it´s not complicated. We know. We´ve been there and done that. It involves some common sense and a major dose of determination. In fact, we know that share determination will probably get you there all by itself. We know successful entrepreneurs with little going for them other than perseverance. But as we said, a bit of common sense on top of that goes a long way. What we are saying is not readily accpted by all people. We are claiming that anybody can become a successful entrepreneur and anybody can become rich. You too. You don´t believe us do you? Well, that´s ok. Most people don´t. They think you need some special talent or a certain flair for something in order to make it. Well, you do need a flair for not giving up. That´s really more than 80 % of the battle. If you have that, it is mostly a matter of time.

Once you get there we hope you will use some of that extra money and time to do some good. Help your fellow man reach success as well. Inspire and motivate others to reach out for their dreams. Help those of lesser fortune than yourself. While it may put a minor dent in you pocketbook it will make the equiry of your soul skyrocket. Make the world a better place. We hope you reach all your goals. We know you will if you put your mind to it. And once you do we sincerely hope that you try to live life to the fullest. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

This is the final part of our guide, “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 38″. We hope you enjoyed it. If you did , you might want to check out some of our other guides regarding how to make money and how to get rich. We wish you a wonderful life, full of achievement and success. We wish you a life full of joy and hapiness. And we look forward to seeing you take those first baby steps and propel yourself to some serious wealth.

Nothing would make us happier.

The team at Richopedia.com

First and foremost of all questions is usually: how long should an e-book be? While there are no actual rules, we can give you some guidelines, based on what has become some sort of “standard practice”. E-books come in all forms and sizes, and the size of your e-book is in most cases a function of what you want to achiece with it. If you are simply trying to get hold of a few more e-mail adresses to your list, then you will probably find that 5-50 pages will do the trick. A good way to go about it is to take one of your most popular topics or posts and expand a bit on it. Think it through and provide an even more thoughtprovoking piece on it. If you couple that with a riveting and “selling” title, and a nice “packaging” effort you, your e-book and your e-mail list should do just fine. If a solid list is what you are trying to build then this is probably your best option. Be cartain to provide value. Be relevant and to the point. Don´t overdo it, especially if you are doing it on a niche website. Just give them what they are looking for, and collect those e-mail adresses.

In many cases, the number of pages an e-book has is meaningless information. It has to do with the fact that many bloggers have made it a habit to take a 50 page booklet and transform it into a 120 page” book” simply by reducing the number of words per page. Usually the number of words per page are running in the neighbourhood of 500. But if you drop that number down to 150-180 words per page the content stays the same but the number of pages goes up significantly. We are familiar with cases where an e-book was being touted as a 600-page brick-master piece. Once we read the book we quickly realized it was more of a 60-pages piece of junk spread out over 600+ pages. We do not like this practice at all, as we feel it is sneaky. We feel you should always tell your visitors exactly what they can expect from the book, and then deliver precisely that. No exceptions.

We also feel that a far more relevant number regarding the size of an e-book is the number of words it contains. A regular print book usually ranges between 50 000 and 100 000 words. Editors will tell you that the standard minimum length of a normal-sized novel is 50 000-60 000 words. As a rule of thumb, most e-books are shorter than 50 000 words, some are considerably shorter. E-book prices tend to move in harmony with the length of the book. In general, the longer the e-book, the higher you are able to price it.

As far as the technical aspects are concerned you are going to create your e-books as PDF-documents, as this is the industry standard more or less. It´s good if you own a copy of Adobe Acrobat, but it is not neccessary. There are programs like PrimoPDF or Adobe´s Create PDF service to help you out. If you can´t stand the hassle of all the minor details you need to consider when you need to put the finishing touches on your e-book there are easier ways. Just finish your e-book as an ordinary word document and then contact a freelancer to add some additional formatting and design touches to it. This will cost you a bit of money, but you will save plenty of time and headache, especially if you are not a design wizard and are not that familiar with the technicalities of creating a functional e-book.

We are guessing that most of you would want to sell your e-books on your own websites down the road. If that is the case there are a number of factors surrounding your book which will determine the number of sales you can expect from it:

1. Quality of your website. Whether you are operating a blog or a website the number of sales you make is a direct function of how well your blog or website is perceived among your visitors. This isn´t exactly a shocker. If people like what you are producing on your blog or website, they figure they are likely to like the e-book you´ve created as well. Blogs tend to outsell ordinary websites when it comes to e-books.

2. Relationship with customers. The relationship that you are building with your visitors is an important factor behind the success of your e-book. We know internet marketers who can move ridiculous amounts of e-books or other products simply by giving them the nod. This type of following doesn´t come easily. It is built upon years of trust, building a mutually beneficial relationship, telling it like it is, and never going for the quick, easy buck. Blogs tend tp outsell ordinary websites when it comes to e-books. This is a direct function of the fact that blogs are more personal and that bloggers are generally much better at establishing a relationship with their readers.

3. Authority. Does your site have authority status. If so, you are in a great position to sell those e-books. Authority sites have better sales and higher conversion rates in general. If people feel you are top dog in your area, your recommendations and offers are going to sound that much more tempting. Why would they wanna buy it from any old copycat, when they can get the goods straight from the source?

4. Price tag. Prices of e-books generally tend to move up alongside the number of pages of the e-book. Also, the subject which is covered has meaning for the price. We have certainly noticed that pricing has a major impact on e-book sales. We know of cases where e-books have been selling poorly, but as soon as prices were cut sales shot through the roof. Strangely, we also know about instances where a book was selling poorly, and then started selling like crazy when the price tag was tripled and the packaging of the book was altered. It´s difficult to give you any hard rules about pricing of your e-book. Our best advice would be to do some experimentation. A good rule that does affect sales positively according to research is to price your book at psychological levels. A book price of $ 9.95 is much better than a book priced at $ 10.05, and the former will statistically outsell the latter by a significant margin.

5. Relevance. The relevance to your audience will play a major role in the sales of your e-book. If you are operating a website with lots of content about cars you are not likely to do particularly well trying to sell e-books about internet marketing. If on the other hand you would offer an e-book dealing with the 100 most important things to consider when buying a new car, chances are that you might get some nice sales going for you. In the latter example you are clearly catering to the needs of your niche. Your content is relevant to your visitors, and by being relevant it is also highly sellable. Content that is relevant to your visitors and helps them solve a need will do well. That is the rule.

It´s time to move on. You now know the most important aspects of e-books and how it all works out. Let´s move on to “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 38″.

In general there are several possible strategies you could pursue with your e-book. Let´s have a quick look at some of the most important and common ways:

1. Amazon e-publishing. Getting your e-book out there is a lot easier, faster and less expensive than ever before. The ability to employ competitive pricing strategies as well as having a direct impact on almost all areas of the business side and creative process of your book makes self-publishing a compelling road for those of you who feel you have a great story to tell. The rags-to-riches stories in this segment have been around for quite a while and we are absolutely convinced we ain´t seen nothing yet. Wherever we see grand opportunity, we can almost feel the hard work and sweat going on behind the scenes. Coupled with a bit of luck, and some talent, hard work could make you a winner in this new fast and exciting market.

2. Sell it on your website. Providing you have what publishing giants call a “platform”, you could probably sell the book yourself. If you were to approach one of the publishing giants today with a book idea, one of the first (and most important) questions they would send your way is whether or not you have any “platform” available in order to promote and sell your work. For instance, in the old days having a platform used to mean that you traveled around and did lots of presentations. or perhaps you appeared on TV or radio. Or you were a star, in which case YOU were the actual platform. While all these ways of getting your work across to your audience have stood the test of time, the internet is really the name of the game. You have a popular blog? You´re in. You operate a well-trafficked website? You´re in. You own and operate a string of authority niche websites covering your topic? You´re in, and b t w pardon us for drooling.

What these publishing giants won´t tell you of course, but many of you will figure it out anyway, is that you don´t really need them if you have any of these “platforms” in place. As we have stated before, if you have the traffic it´s not really that difficult to turn that traffic into money. And by doing that you could be keeping 100 % of it. So what value does the publishing house bring to the table, you might ask yourself? Well, it turns out you are not the only one asking that question, and the name of the publishing game is changing even as we speak. They are looking at new ways to operate, and new strategies in order to stay ahead of the technical revolution, that is rocking their world.

3. Use it as incentive for signup. By now you probably heard a million times that a solid e-mail-list is what makes money in this game. This is partially true. And while we don´t advocate going down this road purely for the money, it certainly represents a great marketing opportunity regardless of your underlying intentions. We believe it is one of the best ways to provide value and good-will to your visitors, and in the end we know that it is one of the best ways to build traffic. This may sound a bit counter-intuitive, since you are actually driving people away from your site by allowing them to leave the site with your content, instead of keeping them on your site by presenting the content there. We are not big fans of this line of thinking. We believe that ultimately information wants to be free, and the sooner you let it out the door the better. This one is not really as hard as it sounds. There are a lot of people out there getting heaps of e-mails to add to their lists by simply offering 5-50 pages of relevant material to their audience. Another way to go about it is to offer parts of your archives up as e-books. We´re sure you´ve experienced this line of action lots of times on the internet, and yes it does bring in the e-mail adresses very well indeed.

Your willingness to share, help and promote other people´s lives and ambitions will not go unnoticed. You will receive good-will, word-of-mouth recommendations, awareness, frequent visitors and traffic. At least that is what we believe. Anyway that´s what we are hoping for will be the outcome of the Richopedia.com experiment. We thought about using the guides we have created for building e-mail lists. But that would have tarnished some of the core ideas we brought to the table when we initiated this idea. We wanted a website that distanced itself from the “get rich quick”-crowd. Something reliable. No hype. No BS. No empty promises. With that setting trying to get hold of your e-mail adress felt uncool. So we just published it on the site instead. We are likely to offer the e-books later on as well, but that will only be an alternative to reading about it here. Whatever suits or readers the best. If you are happy, it makes us happy. This has been our choice, for this particular website. You are of course free to do what you want. If you want to monetize, an e-book with a corresponding e-mail requirement might be the best way to go about it.

4. Use it as viral marketing. We are great believers in karma. What goes around tends to come around. While there is little empirical evidence in the world to support our beliefs, we believe a lot of events that keep this hidden “equation” in balance is happening on an invisible level. Another, more cynical, way of putting it is that there are no free lunches in this world. Any army is only as strong as its wekest link. You strengthen the front, and your rear will be weak. You strengthen your rear and your resources will have to be taken from the front. And so on. By giving away your content for free you might not be making a whole lot of money short-term. But there is always that chance that your content will go viral. if your content is helping people solve a need or educating people in a good way, word tends to spread. And nowhere else can words be spread faster and more exponentially than on the internet. If you give away value, there is a chance that value will spread a lot further than you initially intended it to. And once that happens you have a unintended viral marketing campaign going for you.

It didn´t really cost you anything. Except for time. And the choice not to go for the easy lower-hanging apples and instead wait for the opportunity to clean up the entire apple tree garden. There is so much power in a viral campaign since most of the work is done for free by volunteers. In fact, the people singing your praise and “selling” your product and brand name are spreading the word to their friends. You are not only getting free promotion. The promotion is done by one friend to another. That´s the kind of marketing you can´t really buy for money. No wonder the advertising firms of the world are all trying to come up with the next great viral campaign. Something that will make them and their key accounts stars and leave the competition in the dust. Going viral is about doing something that is really great. Something that is so good it really stands out. Do good, be great,and hope that the world will return the favour someday.

So we have covered some of the most important strategic ways in which to use your e-book. Now it may be time to take a closer look at soem other questions that always arise once you begin going down this road. How long sholud the book be? What should it be about? What software is needed, and how do I really go about it? Well, join us in “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 37″ and we will uncover all the other parts of the mystery as we try to answer those questions and provide you with even more useful information.

Anyways, there are particular cases where you will be able to get yourself some lucrative advertising despite the fact that your traffic is yet to become all that impressive. The specific case we are reffering to is, of course, if you are sporting a highly targeted website catering to a tight, extremely-niched audience. If and when you should find yourself in this position the magic can happen despite the fatc that your traffic is subpar. And by the way, when we say that your traffic doesn´t need to be terrific, that doesn´t mean it can be non-existent. You need at least 1 000 visitors a day before you should consider going down this particular road. But if you do have a highly niche audience of 1 00o visitors a day, you have a chance of converting that to some nice cash indeed.

You see traffic is not really the centre of the universe when it comes to online marketing. Conversions can be even more important. Conversion is simply the number of potential buyers who eventually turn out to be buyers. High conversion rates can be had if the website you are operating has a high concentration of likely buyers. There are websites with a lot of traffic that barely make any money. Their visitors are not easy to target, nor are they lucrative to pursue due to low interest in terms of their keyword searches. But if you have a niche site, with a high concentration of likely buyers and traffic based on highly coveted keywords, you can make substantial amounts of money even with low traffic.

As you have probably figured out by now this is one of the main reasons that internet marketers around the globe are looking to go niche. And we are not jsut talking niche, we have actually reached a state where you can go super-niche, if you only do it in the right industry and with the right angles. What this means? Today, you are just as likely to find sites about vintage cars as you are to find more specific sites relating to vintage jaguars. In the future there will be sites covering specific types of jaguars, the jaguar xjs for instance. Provided the keywords, the traffic and the money is there of course.

So next time you hear someone talk traffic, remember that traffic only represents half the party. The other half is the conversions rates, and while it has been neglected and overlooked for some time, it is one of the main reasons shrewd internet marketers have started to slice and dice their way around the internet. It´s really less about covering the best topic out there, and more about being best at covering your specific topic. So next time you hear someone talking about niche- you should start thinking about conversion rates. After all they are two sides of the same lucrative coin.

That´s that. We´ve looked at the importance of concersions rates and how that factor is driving the niche marketing internet race. It´s time for “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 36″, where we will learn more about some of the finer nuances of making money online. Come along!

The process of hiring is really straightforward. Usually it consists of 5 typical steps to go through but the structure of the process may depend on what type of work it is that you need done, and also which service you use. In general the 5 steps that the process consists of are the following:

1. Specify the work. The first you need to do is specify what needs to be done. You will soon find that it will be very helpful if you know your way around the area you are hiring for. The more specific you can be about what needs to be done, the easier it is for e-workers to give you a quote, provide you with a time estimate and show you where they want to go with the project. You may also find that you can avoid a lot of uneccessary work by simply knowing your stuff. The best freelance work is done when the individual who is hiring is more or less an expert in the area, but for some reason just doesn´t want to do the work. So even when hiring others to do the work, knowledge pays. It is important to be as specific as possible about the works that needs to be done. It is not unusual that the freelancers misunderstand parts of your instructions. Don´t be afraid to be very specific, almost being obsessive about the details of the project.

2. Receive proposals and offers. Based on your specifications you will receive a number of different proposals to your project. In some cases, there is a minimum number of proposals that you are guranteed to receive on any one project. Sometimes, you can also choose to offer more money on a particular project if you want to spark more interest among e-workers to apply themselves. Again, this is dependant on what kind of project, but also what website you have chosen to go with. You will probably get a few favourites pretty early on in the process and in most cases you will ultimately go with one of your initial favourites.

3. Evaluate. The evaluation process is about taking a closer look at factors such as samples of previous work, reviews, ratings, quoted price, suggested time table and credentials in general. Be objective and narrow down your playing field. Keep eliminating and excluding until you only have a few favourites left. Then, it might be a good idea to ask for additional information if you feel that is nccessary and go with what your gut is telling you.

4. Iterative process. Depending on what type of project you are doing there might be an element of (iterative) process involved. If you are doing a web logo for instance, you will get plenty of opportunity to ask for further alterations and request additional changes from the initial drafts. In many cases, this process will include several e-workers competing for your final decision. Be specific and honest.

5. Payment. Payments may very quite a bit from site to site. They may be based on milestones completed or on completed work. The websites also have additional charges for various “extra services”. Examples of these services can be the ability to hide your project from search engines, make your project a featured one, or get a guaranteed number of apllications to your project.

We have worked with a number of different providers with varying quality and results. Here is a short list of websites that will cater to most of your needs:

For programming and projects:

elance

odesk

freelancer

vworker (previously named rentacoder)

brickwork

For web logo design or design of template:

99designs

logodesignguru

thelogocompany

For content:

text broker

For your convenience we have provided links to all websites. We have provided these links for your benefit. Richopedia.com does not receive any payment from these sites, nor are we affiliated with them in any way. These sites are provided solely for your benefit. We truly hope they will be helpful for you. While we cannot guarantee the quality of work you will find on either site, we have used all of these sites and we have been quite happy with the results in the vast majority of cases. Just be a professional and be very specific about the work that needs to get done and you should be ok. It helps if you know your way around the area you need to outsource and if you check for potential language barriers before you decide on a specific e-worker.

That was that. Should you need to outsource any parts of your work you have more than enough options to choose from. Some of them are more specialised than others and as you browse their websites you will find that they employ different business models. Don´t let that scare you away. It´s a lot easier than it might initially look and at times you will find e-workers that are real gems. We have had the pleasure of working with highly talented and skilled e-workers who only charged a fraction of the cost we would have usually payed for those services. The internet is truly bringing the world together, and we are all winners because of it. Now, its time to jump to the next part of our guide, “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 35″, for even more material that we need to cover. Come along!

1. The Google Intelligence Central. Google has tweaked it ever so slightly. But the writing is on the wall. While a lot of people have been focusing on Facebook integrity issues, the true powerhous of personal information has gone largely undetected for some time. But new policies as of lately are shgifting the tide. Google now has a new policy which allows them to share and integrate information on you across platforms. What this means in layman terms is that Google will know a whole lot more about you than you would probably want them to.

To some extent this is the price we pay in order to be able to use “free” Google products and services. But we need to be aware of the fact that your search history, your Google toolbar, your profiles, your chrome, your Google+, and your Youtube accounts are giving away a far more detailed story about yourself than you might be aware of. That information will enable Google to provide you more personalized content. Thus when two people search for the same keyword, they might end up with different search results, based on the pool of information that Google has about them.

2. Facebook peaks. While there is little to support this item on the list we added it anyways. With a market share of some 65% of the social networking pie Facebook is as big as they come. The IPO is coming up any day now, and Google+ has been safely tucked away under the 1% mark (market share). Things just couldn´t look brighter for Zuckerberg and company. In some way we feel the same way about Facebook today that we did about Barack Obama as he took office. The honeymoon is rapidly approaching its end and popularity can´t really go much higher. The Facebook price tag also seems steep. Valued at $ 100 billion, the company is set to earn roughly $ 1.3 billion in the first year as a publicly traded stock. To put that into perspective, Google has a P/E of 20 and a healthy yearly profit of $ 10 billion.

While Facebook is likely to remain a social networking juggernaut we certainly feel this IPO is timed to perfection. Facebook still has things to prove when it comes to monetizing and while they certainly have the customer base for it, they may find it is a bit more difficult than Google made it seem. Facebook knows who you pretend to be. Google knows who you really are. Who do you think has a better chance of customizing their marketing strategy to your needs?

3. The Google middle-man. Google has moved more and more of the content to its own page, thus eliminating the need in many cases to actually click through to the website with the helpful content. There is a fine line to watch out for. Should they decide to pick up the pace even further we expect the copyright infringement cases to start stock-piling. While Google claims it is enhancing the user experience (and to some extent that is true), they are at the same time using content that others have created in order to keep people on their own platform, which incidentally maximizes profits for Google.

The concept is by no means new. Google has employed variations of it with great success on Google News, Google Books, Google Images, Google places, and YouTube (owned by Google). Obviously there is a tipping point where further cannibalism from Google will alienate the content providers too much. We feel that this issue, will regulate itself in the long run. Google might push it a bit too much in the coming years, and then they will probably be forced to give some of the ground back. Nevertheless, it´s an important trend to be aware of.

4. Growth of handheld traffic. The web trafic from handheld devices will continue to grow at an aggressive pace throughout 2012, and will likely spill over into the coming years as well. Mobile phones and tablet devices are gaining market shares both in terms of hardware as well as software and web traffic. Obviously, you need to pay attention to this strong trend when developing your website. You might also like to adapt your longer-term strategy to the fact that some 20 % of web searches will be operated on mobile devices in 2012, and that this market share will be even higher in the years to come.

5. The app bonanza. The app market is continuing its growth. Gartner has estimated the app market at some $ 29.5 billion in 2013. And there is still plenty of room for underlying user growth. The western markets are far from saturated and in emerging markets the race hasn´t even begun yet. Are we moving towards a post-PC era or is this just a short-term trend that will run out of steam eventually? Will tablets replace PC:s or simply complement them when it comes to lesser tasks like surfing the web? Regardless of the answers to these questions we believe there is still plenty of opportunity in the app market. The wild west environment of the app market is where the web was some 10 years ago. Full of controlled chaos and directionless growth, we feel the mouthwatering opportunities for this market are simply too promising to overlook for internet entrepreneurs. First-mover advantage is still there to some extent and there are air pockets of unmet demand to cater to. And the beauty of it all is that the risk/reward is assymetrical in nature. It will set you back a little more than a website, depending on whether you go for an IOS or an Android app, or both. On the other hand, these are the customers you want to reach. All reports show that the average Ipad user has a much higher median income and an increased level of discretionary income. On top of that, Ipad owners are much more likely to shop than people using other devices. A complelling market indeed.

6. Google changes the SEO game. SEO remain important, but less so than before. Content-rich sites like news-sites are better of with the Panda update. Rcent posts will be given higher priority. Links are losing value. At least the low-quality (or bought) ones. Page ranks is out of style. Basically, it comes down to fresh, regular, great content- not too heavy on the advertising and no creative link-cheating. Follow these simple mini-trends and you should be in good shape for some time to come.

7. E-books. With tablet and reader devices shooting through the roof, e-book sales are now beginning to seriously affect our reading habits. The massive drops in paperback and hardcover titles has been accompanied by what must be viewed as the breakthrough of digital books. There are several key factors playing a role. The biggest one is most definitely the big jump in gadget ownership during the last couple of years. But there are some benefits to e-books. What we like most is that it takes under a minute to start reading. Gone is the transportation costs, the waiting and the physical storage. Going away on a weekend, but not sure what book to take along? Bring your whole library. Want to stay up late and read? No problem, you are covered. We still see some advantages that physical books have, the main one being that you are more likely to be able to lay on a sandy beach and read a book than a tablet. And some tablets don´t really offer a good read in daylight. We feel that theese are issues that will soon be in our past. Not only are e-books here to stay. They are likely to take over as THE medium of choice for book afficionados during the next decade or so, and there are great opportunities in this market. Also, we feel that the first-mover advantage is still there for the crafty businessman. Publishing hurdles are lower, self-promotion is less complicated and the pricing structure can represent a real opportunity. We strongly feel that this is certainly the time to jump on the bandwagon.

8. Flash goes HTML 5. Adobe will finish the HTML5 implementation of flash and the cirle, thus, will be complete. HTML5 is likely to begin to gain a more permanent foothold. We are also very interested in what this will mean longer-term for the mega-trending app market.

9. The cloud. We feel more mobile than ever. To a large extent that has to do with a number of fantastic apps and software that are utilizing the power of the cloud. Whether you are using it as a storage resource (e g Dropbox) or you are utilizing the synchronization capabilities it offers to simplify you planning (e g Evernote), the cloud is what´s operating unde the hood making it all possible. We are expecting an everincreasing amont of content migration to the cloud. More and more applications will utilize its power and we stronly believe that we ain´t seen nothing yet. We are only in the infancy of the revolution that the cloud represents, and we are sure that we will see a number of exciting twists and turns during the next couple of years.

10. SOPA. The SOPA  (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been condemned on the internet throughout the world, yet we believe that Washington politicians will be unable to hold of the lobbyists for too long. While the government claims it is only an attempt to come to terms with online piracy, critical voices condemn the bill claiming that it represents a way of censourship of the internet. We believe that a bill of this kind will pass sooner rather than later. We do not believe that it will effect some of the giant social networking sites as many critics fear. We do however feel that it is likely that the outcome will have a highly negative effect on smaller website operators and the internet as a whole. Oh, and as far as internet censourship is concerned we believe that any bill that is passed in the future will contain elements that can and will be used as censourship means, yet labeled as something else. After all, they are politicians.

That sums up some of the key trends of 2012 and probably also 2013 that we feel are important. We have focused somewhat on trends that we feel represent moneymaking opportunities or threats to existing online businesses. Somebody else would make a completely different list, and that´s ok. We do not pretend to know it all. We have made guesses based on our experience, and we will be quite interested in how some of our guesses turn out. But let´s leave it at that and turn our focus to the next part of our guide. “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 34″.

1. Video. Maybe not the most interactive content there is but definitely something you need to consider having on your site. The internet video revolution is still going on and there are still plenty of SEO “air pockets” to be had in this particular area. Also, there are plenty of innovative ways to employ this media. Use it or lose it.

2. Contests. Contests not only encourages user interactivity, it sparks enthusiasm in your visitors, gives you and your site goodwill and creates frequent visitors. Make the contest fun and engaging and try to offer something of real value to your visitors. Having a contest for a regular coffe mug might have the opposite effect than you initially intended.

3. Giveaways. Plenty of PR firms want to give away their stuff just to get some brand recognition and media exposure out of it. Use this to your website´s advantage. Make sure that your user´s benefit as much as possible by being on your site and don´t hoard up on giveaways for yourself and your friends and family. Giveaways represent a fantastic opportunity for you. Be sure to embrace it, and make the most of it.

4. Comments. By encouraging visitors to comment you are really doing good on so many levels for your website. On many websites, some of the comments outshine the very articles in many cases. This brings value to your website and puts a smile on the faces of your readers. Getting some good comments going can also make you very popular with Google, and the other search engines out there.

5. Polls and surveys. Done correctly, polls and surveys, are fun interesting and provide excellent content angles and ideas. It also strengthens the feeling of being part of a vibrant community when results are published and data from the surveys is crunched and analyzed. This may also be an excellent way to get to know your readers, and find out what they are really interested in and what makes them tick. Use that information wisely by giving your visitors what they want and you are on your way to big-time success. Try out SurveyGizmo or PollDaddy. They are a good place to start.

6. Contributor content. Most of the large content-websites ultimately find themselves go down this road. And why shouldn´t they? They trade the exposure that their traffic brings, for quality content provided by contributors from all over the world. They save money and time, and can in some cases even afford to be very picky reagrding what content to accept. It´s a classical win-win.

7. Mailing lists. Whenever people from the business start talking about monetizing your websites this is one of the first topics to come to mind. A good, quality mailing list is invaluable if you want to make money online. But that shouldn´t be the sole purpose of pursuing it. Your mailing list should be treated with respect and a gentle touch. Don´t overdo, the advertising. Be sure instead to provide even more value, and to entice people to come back and visit your website more often. A well-groomed mailing-list is worth its weight in gold. An example of a good provider to start out with is mailchimp.

8. Forum. For those of you who truly crave the full social and interactive experience on your website a forum is the way to go. You do need some initial critical mass in order to get the wheels turning. Once you reach the tipping point a well-structured forum will pretty much feed of itself. You need a solid base and lots of time on your hands to get this thing of the ground. But it will probably be well worth it if you manage to do a reasonable lift-off. Obviously this is not the first play you should try out of the playbook. Get some experience and traffic under your belt before you try this. An example of good providers to start out with is BBpress (free) or vBulletin (fee).

9. Social media All people are different. Some like to use a contact form to reach you. Some like ordinary e-mails. Some like to leave comments to your posts and pages. And some just want to enjoy your content through a comfortable rss feed or follow you on facebook or twitter. Whatever they prefer, you should provide it to them. At least if you are sporting a traditional content-website. The more people you reach and the more alternative ways of contact you have the better. Be a hub of content, and spread out that web of information links in as many directions as you can muster.

And that was that. Please note that we are not affiliated with the software providers we have recommended here. There are no kick-backs to be collected and certainly no hidden agendas here. We are proviidng these links since we have experience from these software providers and we happen to like their products. We figured, maybe you would like them as well. We don´t make a dime doing this, its all for your benefit. It´s time for our next part of our highly appreciated guide, “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 33″. Join us for even more valueable and profitable online lessons.

There is so much written on the web by so many people you truly need to put in an effort in order to stand out. Not only is there a matter of quality. You need top content in order to hold your own. Then there is quantity. You have to have some serious content in place in order for an information website to really start to matter. On top of that there is the matter of frequency. Search robots love freqent updates, and visitors love them even more. If you keep mixing it up and adding to it you are certainly improving your odds to take a significant position in your area of interest. Last but not least there is something more that you need. Even if you have quality content, a big quantity of content and frequent updates you still need to stand out. You still need to be able to separate yourself from the crowd. This can be done in a number of ways and we are going to cover some of the most important ones here.

1. Don´t be a conformist. Leaders dare to question the obvious. Just because something has been done in a certain way the last decade or so, doesn´t mean it´s the way to do it over the next 10 years.Always look for ways to improve, or at the very least mix things up a little. If everybody is doing it the same way, surely there must be a reason for it? Sometimes yes. But there are times when there are other reasons for the norm. And there are times when the reasons behind a certain behaviour have changed. If you dare to play the game by your own set of rules and challenge standard behaviour you will get noticed. And in a crowded arena being noticed is the first step to beicoming a leader or an authority. Since everybody like the comfort of doing what everybode else is doing, having the guts to stand out makes you a potential leader. Try it.

2. Small can beat big. There are not many other areas in the business world apart from the internet where a small competitor still stands a chance against a big one. In the traditional business world the only way small can take on big is by fighting a guerilla warfare. Trying to outwit, outniche or outpace the bigger players. This may not always be neccessary on the internet. On the internet small can to some extent challenge big on their own playing ground. We are not saying it is the way to go. We are simply saying it is not impossible. Some small projects that satrted out as ordinary blogs have become leaders of their respective business. There are examples where one stubborn man has taken on an army of journalists and still come out on top. The rapid pace of change on the internet is an obstacle for the big companies. Meanwhile that same change is your biggest ally. Embrace it. Be brave. Be different. And realize that the weakness of being small is also a strength.

3. Good and Bad. Do a quick search on the internet for a list of something good and chances are that you will find what you are looking for. Do the same search for something bad and you will get less results. You have  probably read tons of top 100 lists, but how many bottom 100 lists have you perused. We know we might come of as part poopers here, but the fact is that there are things that are just not very good out there. As individuals, we don´t like to adress them as much since we really don´t like the thought of being negative or challenging other people. So we take the easy road. We write the cheery and hyped up lists of things that are awesome. And we simply try to erase any memories of the things that we find are not so great. But being able to be critical is part of being a leader, it´s part of being an authority and it will bring in readers. People generally like guys who tell it like it is. At least on the internet they do. They are not looking for some politically correct mumbo-jumbo. They are looking for information they can trust. And nothing instills trust more than being the gutsy guy who tells it like it is.

4. Embrace the new. People as a group will always be suspicious and wary of new things. This represents a great opportunity to be a leader in your field. Embrace anything that is new and try to cover it with some major kick-ass content. Become the authority on the subject. Make people understand that it is you, not the competition that understands this new game, better than anybody else. The big will eventually follow, once it takes off., but by then you have already established yourself as the true authority of the subject and the leader of the market place. If, for instance, a new technology or innovation in your field doesn´t fly- so what? What have you really lost? You tried to give you audience value. Now you have the chance of providing them with even more value. Write some articles on why the new technology or innovation didn´t work out. Be the leader, and make your competitors and your readers follow you. Remember that fortune favours the brave.

5. Don´t kneel to authority. We are all entitled to have our own opinion. Does one of the bigger websites in your field hold a position you disagree with. Be outspoken and explain your stance. People will respect you for it, especially if you bring an interesting debate to the table.

6. Get a gimmick. We don´t care what it is but you need something that makes you stand out, something memorable. Sort of a signature. Do something completely different once in a while. There are plenty of shows that caught on simply because their hosts did some nutty things. Do you really think that Jim Cramer is as crazy as he sometimes appears to be? We certainly don´t. We just think he understands marketing really well, and is willing to go the extra mile in order to stand out from the competition. For those of you who are not familiar with his show, he has some pretty creative ways of telling his audience how he truly feels about a stock. There are dozens of people who will tell you their take on a stock. There are not so many who are willing to operate a chain saw in order to emphasize how much they hate a certain stock. While you would forget the average Wall Street analyst in a heartbeat, chances are you will remember the chainsaw madman. Hell, you might even tell your friends about it.  Get a gimmick. Oh, and it doesn´t need to be a chainsaw.

7. Don´t be a rebel for its own sake. While it always good if you follow your own convictions, it´s important that you don´t try to be a rebel for its own sake. In many cases there is a reason that everybody are doing it the same way. Don´t try to be a hero or try to hard. Just be certain to always convince yourself before you walk into the footsteps of the crowd. There is no honour (or money) in fighting the trend unless you truly see something different that the majority overlooked. It can be an unpleasant truth, something politically incorrect, or an old majority habit. Whatever it is it needs to be present for you to be able to rebel against it. Don´t go chasing ghosts. There is no glory in that whatsoever. Don´t do it just for show, only do it if you genuinely feel like it.

And that´s really all there is to it. Stand out. Get noticed. And prevail. In the next part of our guide, “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 32″, we are going to discuss how to create a buzz surrounding your website.

1. Singleness of purpose. Building a successful website with plenty of traffic takes time. Lots of time. Make no mistake, there will be bumps in the road. In fact, there will be major setbacks along the way. Your interest will falter. Your determination will fade away. And your once great idea will suddenly not feel that great after all. This is the exact moment in time when most people give up. A seemingly irresistable force is pulling them down. But when you are faced with an irresistable force you most become an immovable object. Singleness of purpose will make you an immovable object when you need it the most. Success in any field of business starts right here.

2. Authority. Not only are they experts in their particular field. Their level of expertise shine through on their websites and this creates a fiercely loyal visitor base that keeps comin back for more. The fact that their knowledge about the subject is second to none drives traffic to their site. There may be other sites that are bigger. But, true experts always bring in a fair share of the total traffic. Superior expertise breeds respect, trust and loyalty among your visitors.

3. Passion. One of the reasons they are such experts in their particular fields is that they´ve spent a huge amount of time honing their skills. Withstanding the rigors of hard work during long periods of time takes passion. And passion will shine through. In your regular work. And on your website.

4. Focus. We all have strengths and weknesses. Great bussinesspeople know how to fully exploit their strengths. Their weaknesses or shortcomings can always be outsourced away. We are aware that the war cehst of many fresh interpreneurs can be somewhat on the meager side, but we are not telling you that you should start splashing around. If you start to see some funds coming in, it is probably be in your best interest to outsource those parts of your work that you dislike the most, or the parts that you are worst at performing. This will work magic for those activities that are your true strengths, and both you and your visitors will benefit from it.

5. Business-orientation. Initially you need to focus on dreating the best possible website with the best possible content. On top of that, in most instances everything you will be creating will be for free. This may not sound like great business. But even if this doesn´t make sense from a traditional business perspective you still need to run your website like a business. Treat your web project like you would any other enterprise. Always stick to your deadlines. Never miss a business meeting or a sales call. Always speak the truth. Never allow short-term profitability to replace long-term business health. Treating your website like a business is just that- good business!

6. Money is secondary. While we have several friends who are raking it in bigtime on the internet, it didn´t start out that way. In fact only one of them who made any money initially. Typically, they all started a website, in time grew obsessed about it, kept improving on it for a long period of time, and finally realized they were sitting on a real goldmine. The lesson here is that they didn´t really think about the money while their website increased its value the most. They only thought about what needed to be done next, and what feature they needed to improve in order to realize their vision. And by not thinking about the money, they are now accumulating it at a record pace.

7. Good citizens. All these guys were pretty cool. In what way? Well, most of them just did good to their community without asking anything in return. In short, they gave a lot more than they received. They asnwered questions in forums. They helped their “competitors” out with their sites. They gave away free advertizing to people from their community. They were positive and helpful. And by being that, their following grew. They got backlinks, many times without even asking about it. People recommended them. They got advertising deals from people they had previously helped out. To a certain degree it seems like karma is present on the internet. If you do good, good things tend to happen.

8. Constant skill improvement. Of the many people we know who have experienced major internet succcess only about a third started out as tech savvy. Most were pretty average computer users with an above-average drive and passion for a specific topic. While they did not start out good in the tech department, today they all know their stuff hands down. Several of them have built entire websites for other companies. Some of them are doing some design work on the side. Some are pretty fluent in several programming languages. Most of them learned their skills from the internet, through trial and error, and by pestering other people in their community. Claiming that you can´t start a website because you don´t have the technical skills won´t fly with us. We´ve seen enough to know that a couple of years of hard work is all it takes to transform the average computer user to a highly skilled webmaster. All it takes i hard work and persevearance.elves a good

9. Impatience. Most of these great interpreneurs are to a certain degree impatient, and quite impulsive in nature. They find a new technology- remake the whole website. They hear about a new plugin- try it out immediately. They find a new content provider- they go all out and give him pole position on their site. We make it sound as if they are irresponsible. they are not. They are simply somewhat overenthusiastic, but they are always on their toes. If one of their great new ideas dosn´t work out they are quick to replace it. And since these folks are never short on new ideas, their websites keep evolving and improving. By being impulsive they are actually trying out lots of different variations, and sticking with the ones that prove to work out. This is exactly the same iterative process so often found in successful entrepreneurs in real life. Your business is never really finished. It is constantly evolving, always responding and adapting to the customers´wants and needs.

10. Social Skills. It is our experience that the best of the best content website operators are quite skilled socially. By that we do not mean that they are the life of the party at a social gathering. Rather they have developed a skillset which involves collaboration with others, the exchange of services and the ability to get hold of free quality content. We know this from our own experience. One of the best interpreneurs we know approached us with a request for adding content to his site. We liked him and gave him the stuff he asked for. Turns out we weren´t the only ones adding our content to his site. While he may not be the life of the party at a social gathering, he has a gift for getting along with people in more mundane settings and most of us are more than happy to help him out from time to time.

Well guys, I hope this list was helpful to you. Maybe we missed something, but we believe this list pretty much sums it all up. These are the things you need in order for your website to thrive. And its all based on real-life internet success stories. We hope you enjoyed reading it at least half as much as we did discussing it.Now its time to skip right to the next part of our guide, “Make Money Online- the baby steps part 31″. Join us for even more lessons of what it takes to give you website a good start.