How to Set Up a Personal Website to Make Money

1. Sign up for web hosting. Examples of major providers include Hostgator and GoDaddy. Web hosts store your website content in order to make it available to Internet users.
2. Create and design your website. It is highly recommended that you install a content management system (CMS). These systems are full-fledged administration and management platforms for websites. Examples include Wordpress and Joomla. You are able to change themes, install plug-ins, and add widgets to your websites with these platforms.

3. Sign up as a publisher for programs like Google Adsense and Amazon Associates. Google Adsense pays a 68 percent royalty to publishers for targeted advertisement clicks. These clicks may pay anywhere from a penny to several dollars, depending on your keywords. Amazon associates pays a 4 to 15 percent commission on every sale generated through an affiliate link. There are several other ways to monetize your website, but it is up to you to decide what works for your audience.
4. Drive traffic to your website. Get the word out via social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. You may also wish to buy traffic in the form of paid advertisements. In order to make money with your website, you need a lot of people visiting it. It is rare to get more than a few dozen clicks on ads out of a thousand unique visitors. Conversions for products are even lower. You need a lot of visitors, the more targeted the better.