How to Set Up a Website and Make Money

1. Develop a business idea for a website conducive to monetization. Identify a niche that you have interest in and can write about on a consistent basis. Do research to identify if it's a feasible, considering your competition and your client. Will you be able to break into the top 20 on search engine results? Will the people interested in your website convert to customers of the products you represent?
2. Select a domain name for your website. To help your on-page search engine optimization (SEO), choose a domain name that includes your keyword, the main idea of your site. Purchase a domain URL from a domain registration site. Buy a .com if available. If .com is not available to purchase, buy a .net or .org, in that order of preference.

3. Select a platform or software to build your blog on, whether free standing, where you have to have a hosting company host your account for you---or an online structure, where they host it for you. Many online hosted blogs will not allow self-monetization. Many cable Internet accounts include a website with the cost of your account. Investigate which avenue is best in your application.
4. Set up your blog or website and add content to get it indexed by the Google bot. Displaying content, and ranking on the search engines, ensures that readers will find you; without readers, you have no one to convert into customers. Write good quality articles that add value to your reader's time on your site.
5. Sign up for affiliate accounts. Affiliates are people that promote other site's products. You can use companies that represent a large number of affiliate-seeking sites or search for individual sites that list 'Affiliates' at the bottom of their homepage. Once approved as an affiliate, companies will email you where to locate their ads and how to direct people to them with your own personal identifying affiliate link. Clicking on your ad sends your readers to an area on the affiliate site, and you are rewarded with a commission when they make a purchase.
6. Sign up for a Google Adsense account. When you add their code to your website, Google will run ads on your website tailored to your site and content. When your readers click on those ads, readers are directed to where they may purchase that item and you are rewarded with a predetermined fee. You do not have to keep track of anything, Google does all that, and they send you a check when you have earned a minimum amount by the means you select.
7. Start an eBay affiliate account. An eBay account works similarly to Google Adsense. Once approved, you add the eBay code to your site, and they will then add text ads that lead your readers from your website to eBay auctions that are relevant to your content. You receive a commission every time one of your readers buys the displayed auction.