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Now, there are lots of stories about how to make a fortune with affiliate programs. And there are many good programs.

BUT — there are also some that just want to take you for a ride. The ripoff ones are usually referred to as shavers. A good plan with a new program is to google the affliliate name and then tack the word shaving on the back. If a zillion hits from a bunch of forums where people are whining about how they got taken for a ride – be wary.

Some programs give you lots of tools — if you have a mainstream sites, amazon is completely awesome – but they also don’t pay you that much — so it can be a trade off.

So adding a few banners to your site can really help you earn a few bucks but that said — don’t go crazy with ads either because both visitors and search engines don’t want to see banners everywhere. One or two key well-performing affiliates that match with the mood of your site is way better than a bunch of misplaced ones.

Search engine optimization is common sense. One of the key things of SEO is to make all your stuff match — like what is your site? Make the URL, the title, the meta tags, etc all be what your site is really about.

While it is tempting to do more to get traffic, it will never be good traffic unless they actually are looking for what you REALLY DO.

So think LESS about what is popular and more about what you are actually about.

Sounds like common sense but you would be amazed how few people actually do this!!

Again, web stuff 101 here but I have had a lot of questions from clients who want to do their own updates which rocks. They can do their changes without the cost of a designer or webmaster and they can do their changes whenever they want.

There are a few things you will need if you want to update it yourself.

An FTP Editor — like dreamweaver. There are other options including a nice low priced one from Coffee Cup.

An FTP Upload program – such as web drive or coffee cup FTP (some hosting companies have free ones too so check there as well)

That should get you the basics.

Be sure to back up ALL of your stuff before you make changes. Your FTP upload program can be a great tool in making sure you have the latest back up so USE IT for that too!!

Ok — I sort of thought this was obvious but it has become a topic after I found out a client paid a designer $3000 to design a site and the designer failed to do any of the basics (like a title, keywords, description, site map) I mean not a cut rate price so I would have expected a bang up site.

Instead what the client got is a difficult to use site that customers cannot understand (their price list requires that you click the Adobe logo like Joe Average would know that)

And due to the full flash design and the unwillingness to change it at all for SEO, the site gets very little traffic and a google ranking so low that nobody can find it. It is kinda sad actually

And — HERE IS THE KICKER

Well just one of the kickers because the story has a ton of sad kickers in it.

The site cannot be updated easily because the person who purchased it (and I call her that only because her being the site owner is also not 100% since the designer registered it all in his own name) She cannot even make updates because she does not know how.

Now, I have nothing against hiring a designer. There are many awesome ones who know exactly what they are doing and I will cover how to make your own changes later this week. But for today, here is how to start a website.

1 – GET HOSTING AND A DOMAIN ON YOUR OWN – You do not need a designer to do your web hosting or buy a domain for you. They are cheap and hosting is very reasonable, sometimes as low as $5 a month depending on what you want. Most hosts are domain resellers and you can buy your domain there. I like PQHOST because they are small, responsive and have a no BS attitude (www.pqhost.com) but you can use GoDaddy, Dreamhost, Network Solutions or whoever you like for web hosting. It is completely up to you.

The reason you want to control your own hosting is simple. Then you can move it to another host if you are unhappy. You can allow people, like designers, access when they are designing. And then lock them out when they are done. Also, it ensures that you are the registrant on the domain sale which is the way to ensure that you are the actual site owner.

2 – Once you have your hosting established, start designing your site either yourself or by hiring a designer. There are lots of design options so I will not list them but when you start a site, if you are talented, you can do yourself or hire, whatever works for you. Just remember when hiring, that you NEVER EVER EVER pay in advance for design.

3 – Once your design is done, it is time to SEO. This means ensuring that you have targeted keywords as well as a title and description that suit your business. For example, Atlanta Boxing Gym, Blah Fitness Inc is a lot more descriptive than just Blah Fitness Inc. If you have no idea what I am talking about here, then you need to read all the posts we have on Search Engine Optimization and consider using a service to do it.

4 — I can never stress this enough BUT BACK YOUR SITE UP. Download the whole thing to a CD, flash drive, external hard drive or all 3. But ensure you keep a backup and do regular backups. Fires, floods, hurricanes, hard drive crashes — those things happen so back up to prevent it from being a big deal.

An XML site map allows you to let search engines see what you have on your site — it is precisely what it says it is — a map of your site.

Fairly easy to do with the many online generators to choose from so try searching them and see which one you like. I like one called XML sitemaps — here is the link …. Site Map Generator

Basically the idea is that you use the generator, then save it using your FTP and if you use google webmaster tools, then you should put it on there so google knows that it exists.

A funny little note : I gave this instruction to someone on a forum and she had no idea what her FTP was. HAHA — it was a bit crazy because she wrote a super long response rather than just saying thank you. This blog as well as any forum posts that I write are meant to help you. Feel free to ignore them if you don’t “get” it or don’t want to get it or have no use for it. But don’t rag on me or post stupid responses — this is a free service. I mean come on, how rude. You want someone to hold your hand all the way through, then go to community college. You need a quick little how-to, then here it is.

To those who love my tips — enjoy – these are for you!!

Your favicon is that little icon that shows up beside your website in the search bar or in the bookmark where it shows a little graphic or letter rather than just being blank.

So now that you know what I mean, how exactly do you make one of these things.

Well you can make a simple graphic in any program that will save a PNG. Like fireworks, photoshop, digital image studio, etc. most graphics programs. Make your image a square. 16×16 is the size that you will be doing on your icon so don’t try to get too elaborate here. A basic small graphic with not too many colors. Maybe try scaling it down to that size in your PNG so you can see how much detail you will lose. Keep is SIMPLE!! Keep your colors simple too, 4 color will have less load time than anything more so keep it simple to save on load time and to prevent it from just looking like a blob.

Once you have your PNG file. You will need to find a software to convert it to .ICO type. This is not a graphical type but a windows type of file. There are many softwares and plugins that do this, some free, others not. PNG2ICO is a nice inexpensive software but it requires you to do some work at the Run Prompt so be sure you know what you are doing and follow all the instructions on that software before you start.

Image Icon Converter is another software and does not require you to be quite so computer savvy but the results are really basic. So, making a VERY simple piece of art in the first place is critical!!!

Remember if you have a question, you can e-mail us. And if you don’t know what you are doing, LEAVE IT ALONE!!! This will not make or break your website if you don’t have it!!

Yep! A webmaster blog. We will be putting a ton of cool info on here for you to enjoy. Everything from how to optimize your site with great tools like Site Map Generators, Google Webmaster Tips and other great ideas to get your site the solid things it needs to rock those listings!!

We will also have fun things on here to like themes, templates and other cool things so check back often as this develops!

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