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Money Making Websites - How to Make a Living From Your Hobby Website

Can you really turn your hobby website into a livelihood? Can you truly make money from a website built around a subject that interests you? Sure you can, and I'll show you how in this article.

For the last few years, I've been making a comfortable living by publishing about a dozen informational websites. Some could even be considered hobby websites, such as my reptile-related website.

The combined revenue generated by these websites covers my mortgage, my car payment, grocery expenses, vacation costs and more.

I don't tell you this to brag, but only to get your attention. Because if you're reading this article, it means that you and I have something in common -- an interest in publishing websites, and the desire to make a living while doing it!

In other words, you want to know how to make money from a website built around a topic that interests you. If this describes you, then you've come to the right place and are now reading the right article. Because I'm going to give you a wealth of advice on making money from your hobby website or information website.

In fact, I'm going to give you what I wish I had five years ago, which is a list of time-saving and profit-boosting tips and techniques. Let's start with some basic terminology and concepts, just to make sure we are on the same page.

What Is An Information Website?

I will use the terms "hobby website" and "information website" interchangeably in this article, because in this context they basically overlap. In fact, nearly every website could be considered an information site, because most sites are informative in some way.

But in this article, I'm talking about a certain type of website -- one with the sole purpose of providing information about a specific topic. WebMD is a good example from the medical industry. Don't worry, I won't be recommending that you build a site as large as that one. It's just a good example.

My information websites cover a diverse range of topics. I have one about home buying, one about reptiles (a true hobby site), one about software, and other topics as well. But while their subject matter differs, they all have certain traits in common:

Key Qualities of an Information Site

• Each site is built around a specific topic.
• They are mostly content-based with few bells or whistles.
• They are large websites with hundreds of pages each.
• Most of the content consists of articles, tutorials and the like.
• They are intended to be authoritative in nature, with subject-matter expertise.
• They are designed to be search engine friendly.
• The end goal of each website is to make money in some way.

Another thing these websites have in common relates back to the title of this article. They all produce revenue through a variety of means. The end goal of these websites is to make money and therefore to support me as their creator.

With any information website, traffic is the key to success. The amount of money you make from each website will depend on (A) the level of traffic to the site and (B) the type of monetization techniques you employ. But regardless of whether you run ads on your websites, participate in affiliate programs, sell e-books, or a combination of these things, your success will depend on your traffic. So let that concept sink in!

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty here. What should you know about building, maintaining and expanding these types of websites for the purposes making a living? Well, you need to know a lot, actually. But you can learn much of it as you go. So in the list of tips below, I'll focus on the things I wish I knew several years ago, when I started this hobby-turned-livelihood.

How to Make Money From a Hobby Website

Yes, You Can Make Money Building Websites

• Choose topics that interest you. You'll need passion to grow your websites over time, but you won't get passion from a topic that bores you.
• Before writing articles and web pages, do a thorough round of key phrase / keyword research. Build your content around phrases and topics that people are actually searching. WordTracker has a free version of their tool you can use to get started. (See Internet marketing tools page for more.)
• Expanding on the last point, create a list of key phrases related to your topic (in spreadsheet format) and use it as a blueprint for your web content and overall structure.
• Map out the structure / organization of your websites before building them. Plan for expansion and flexibility down the road. It will prevent future headaches and redesigns.
• At first, you will probably write most of the content yourself. But as your website begins to make money you can outsource some of the writing through freelance services such as Elance.
• Use a blog in conjunction with your website (publishing the blog onto the same domain as the website). The blog can serve as a news tool through which you can publish site updates, article announcements, etc.
• Resource pages (such as glossaries, tutorials, and subject guides) typically attract a lot of citations and links from other webmasters, and therefore have traffic-building potential. They take time to create, but they are worth the effort.
• Be extremely thorough and "encyclopedic" with your content. The more in-depth and useful your website is, the more people will visit it (and revisit, and recommend it to others, and link to it, etc.).
• Try to get your website added to online resource listings related to the subject. Example: For my home buying website, I did a Google search for "home buying resources" and contacted the creators of all the lists I discovered, asking to have my site added. Time-consuming but priceless!
• Add at least one form of interaction for your website visitors. This may include the ability to comment on blog posts, ask a question through an FAQ tool, or start a thread in a forum or bulletin board on the site. Affordable software exists to help you with these things.
• Begin a link building program to steadily increase the number of websites that link to yours, which will in turn increase your search engine ranking. Start by submitting your website to appropriate web directories.
• Repurpose your content. Create an alternate version of each article you write and publish it online through article distribution sites. Each article you distribute should have a link back to your website for SEO and traffic-building purposes.
• Find online publications related to your website's topic and submit articles to them as well, in exchange for a link to your site.
• Focus on building a great website before trying to make money from it. Revenue comes with traffic, and the best way to grow your traffic levels it to have a great site to begin with.
• Once you have a great website up and running, you are ready to implement different monetization techniques in order to make money from the website (and to move ever closer to your goal). These include Google's AdSense program for publishers, affiliate programs such as Commission Junction, selling e-books online, etc. Your experimentation in this area will never end, so keep trying new things.
• Combine multiple revenue streams on your website. Experiment with the ones listed above (and others) to find what works best for your audience and website. Then seek to add extra revenue sources. For example, I have one website that employs Google AdSense, affiliate referrals through Commission Junction, and also offers e-books for sale on certain marketing topics important to the audience. Multiple streams.
• When your website is built (phase one, at least), send a press release out through the online PR sites. Write the release to your intended reader / audience, and explain the usefulness and uniqueness of your website.
• After sending your press release, you should also tap into blog networks to promote your site. Make a list of popular blogs within your subject / niche area, and contact the authors to share your new (and extremely useful) website.
• Be flexible. Focus your energy on those efforts that produce the best results. Some techniques will be profitable, and others will not. Learn something from everything you do. This is essential to success with money-making websites.
• When your first site is up and running (and making money consistently), start the next one. It's rare to make a living from just one hobby / information website. I personally publish a dozen. One of them is getting close to being a livelihood by itself, but it's nice to have the others for extra "cushion."
• Set clear goals for your website. Examples: I want to have X number of articles by month #2. I want to have 200 visitors per day by month #3. And so on. Sometimes you'll hit your goals, sometimes you'll exceed them, and other times you'll fall short. But you need something to aim for.
• Create a schedule of tasks to help you reach those goals we talked about above. Examples: One hour of content creation each day. Thirty minutes of SEO work each day. One press release distributed each month. And so on. Your goals will dictate your schedule.

Conclusion to Making Money With Websites

Can you make a living from a hobby / information website? Sure you can. I'm living proof of that fact that you can make money with websites built around topics of interest. But it takes a lot of work, and only a small percentage of people will succeed with it -- the truly dedicated individuals.

As for motivation, let me share something that happens to me from time to time. Often, when I meet new people, we go through the usual "what do you do for a living" routine. Many times people talk about their own jobs with distaste, as if going to work each day is the worst thing in the world.

When I am asked what I do for a living, I honestly state that I publish a few hobby websites. After that, people raise their eyebrows and begin asking a lot of questions. How is this possible? What's involved in the process? Can you really make money from websites related to a hobby?

They are intrigued with the concept for the same reason you are intrigued by it ... it's a great way to make a living! Good luck in your web publishing efforts.

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