To tell the truth… NO, not at all. But, it will help you a lot to have one.

Let me explain…..

If you don’t have a website, you can still put money-making affiliate links in your emails, social media sites, and by using Twitter.    People can and do make money that way online.

BUT,

If you have a website, or better yet, many websites, you can greatly expand your reach on the internet. Plus, you can have some material there that explains your offers, affiliates, etc.

Getting a website is NOT complicated these days. Far from it.  You can have a site up within an hour.

If you are awkward around computers, have a friend who knows a bit about computers help you.

Step one:    Buy a domain name.

       There are TONS of places online to get one.   Pick good words or letters for your domain. Clear, simple, attractive domain names using one or two words ONLY ( EX: www.cashforest.com ) are not so easy.     A lot of catchy names have been bought already, and in many cases, the buyers are “squatting” on the domain, hoping someone will want to buy it for multiples of what they paid.   Some domain names are so valuable they command 6 figure prices.  It’s crazy, but it’s true.

        But, if you are really clever, there are thousands of words in the dictionary, and you can come up with something attractive.   A basic domain can be purchased for around 10 to 15 dollars per year.

       Try this place: Lunar Pages.com, in the active link below.    They host sites, too.   I have used Lunar Pages for years and always received great service.   Their admin control panel has tons of features, stats, plug-ins, file managers, FTP, and more.

Now, a word about domain names to dispel some illusions.  

JUST BECAUSE YOU OWN A REALLY HOT DOMAIN NAME DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE GOING TO BE A MILLIONAIRE.  

If you don’t believe that, do a little research.    There was once a company called Pets.com  that did a huge launch on a Superbowl day and fell flat on it’s face.    Another company now owns that domain. 

If you expect something good from your website you must have good content that people like, and that advertisers also like.  You must have good products, and you have to get people to take a look in the first place.

PLUS, 

 A lot of REALLY popular sites have domain names that sound like gibberish, or are just initials.  

DON”T get a domain name like ” www.mostfantasticdomainnameever.com   

OR:   www.iamgeorgethegreat.com

think about your product, your market and and your customers, not yourself, when you choose a domain name.

Step 2.   HOSTING YOUR SITE

          Get a website hosting package. Best to have it hosted where you bought it, but that’s not necessary, just more complicated. Packages for hosting vary widely so do some research. It’s possible to host a very large site for only 10 dollars a month or so. I call that a real deal.

Step 3:

There are many ways to create and load a website onto the internet at your hosting site. You can create all the pages from scratch using one of many site design programs. Most of these are very easy to use, but there are ways even easier..

      You can buy a full website template online in many places. You review the templates, select one, pay a small fee ( 20 to 100 dollars ), and get a fully designed site with working links. You have it set up onto your hosting site location, and then tweak it with different text, colors, graphics, etc. There are templates available for just about every type of business or industry, and the prices are very reasonable.

         Another thing you can do, even Easier, is to go to the control panel of your website hosting company, and use one of the plug-ins to download WordPress, for example. WordPress is a very simple to use publishing software that is free. Once you install it on your site hosting, you can go select one of hundreds of designs, install them for free, then start publishing your site, making pages and posts, adding photos, links, Google ads, and so on.

Step 3:   Getting traffic

There are truly a LOT of ways to get website traffic.  Some are free, some are not, and the free ones can sometimes work better and faster than the expensive ways.

If you hope to get noticed with steady growth, you should try to use as many ways to get traffic as you can think of.

Here are some really interesting ways:

For a long time, Monster.com  had a dirigible, a blimp, that flew around the country, with a big sign on the side.     That was a long time ago and I still remember it.   Almost everyone knows about Monster.com by now.

you could bike across the country wearing a t-shirt.  You would get into local news, etc.

What you need to do, seriously, is think about what visitors will find on your pages when they get there.

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