Running A Profitable Website
Having a website nowadays is about the same as having a television, nearly everyone will have at least one and most people will have a blog or something that tags along.
Whether you are the owner of a casual website or you run your own Internet based business, you know that the competition among websites is very strong and if you are to enjoy any kind of visibility you will have to take strong steps.
Increasing visibility of your websites involves a certain type of skill-set. Listed below are some pointers as to how you can run a profitable website.
The first thing to do is make sure your website is addressing the right people. If you website is for pets then there is no point in putting up content for bikers (though some bikers may be pet lovers too). Targeting the website to a specific audience increases its popularity.
This means that all the text and graphics that you include in your website are relevant to the audience and follow a common theme. Do not go in for steel and chrome design if your website is supposed to represent love for nature.
The thing that makes any website successful is repeat visitors. This means that your website should have something that makes the visitors come back repeatedly. A website that is seen only once will soon be buried in the Internet. New and interesting content is always the best magnet to make users visit again. You must look upon yourself as a newspaper columnist that has to keep readers interested, except that your column is the newspaper.
Leave a means for users to leave feedback or comments. If required, plug-in a forum module so that users may hold discussions. This is a great way of building a community and users will keep coming back just to continue conversations. If you are running a business or conducting any activity that might make any visitor look for answers or clarifications then make sure to include a FAQ section and the option to contact you. Always be helpful and go as far as you can to help your website visitors.
If you are publishing articles then keep a mailing list so you can send newsletters to your visitors. This way you can keep in touch with your visitors even if they do not visit the website. They are still interested in the content if not the medium of delivery. Of course, make sure that the content you present them with is your own. If they can get the same advice elsewhere then why would they visit your website?
Keep the navigation of your website simple and intuitive. Nothing annoys users more than a website that they have to “understand” to use. A related aspect here is to make sure that all the links are always working. There are automatic software to help you check this.
These are just a few things that you can do to run a profitable website.
It’s true. Profitability can be .01 above what you spent. Not that I would be proud of that, but it would still make it profitable. At least it’s a start!
LOL, everyone has a website now but not that many people actually put work into it. The good part is that “profitable” doesn’t mean you need to take in a huge amount of money beacuse you can run a website for a small amount of money per month.
great advice alvin.
i agree with you. the main theme of website should be constant
I totally agree. The website shouldn’t be complicated but still look eye-catching.
I see very complicated websites. I know that they spend weeks to prepare but you don’t want to spend more than a second because of busy and not clear. No one has time to figure out what they want to say. I feel sorry for them.
got it sorted out.. i miss out some stuff in my spam filter
deleting them now 
Hey Alvin…what happened to some of the comments above? Are they spams? Just to alert you so you can clear them…
You are absolute right. Create content and graphics are relevant to the web site’s theme, alert visitors by email when adding new content in website. Offer a way for visitors to contact on each web page. List email address, fax number and phone number. Make sure all links on the navigational bar are clickable. If people can’t get to where they want to go, they will leave.
You have very rightly pointed the importance of putting up relevant and informative content so that it builds up a community and encourages visitors to react and give comments. Visitors are the life blood for any website. Thanks for sharing this unique but effective post.
Great information Alvin…..How’s it going?
Tony
I just love it ….. well i don’t have any doubt about your articles… your articles are awesome… Honestly you are simply the best.Thanks for sharing this with us
Hi Alvin,
I never thought about it but I agree with you that your repeat visitors make your website successful.
I changed my mp3 on my homepage frequently and I think that keeps people coming back. I have just as many unique visitors as I have repeat visitors, the last couple months anyway.
That is good because my unique visitor numbers are always rising (with the exception of February but that is a short month)and the number of my return visitors rise as well.
I like the idea of a forum, too.
Elizabeth
So true what you’ve said. “Keep the navigation of your website simple and intuitive”. Too many websites and blogs out there has too much on it and make it’s an eye sore to read.
Good work
I agree with you. I don’t like complicated websites. You need less is more.
Thanks Alvin very good advice. Short and to the point. This would make a good check list to judge a website by. The thing that I have found that helps me the most on niche websites is to do something different so that I do not look like one of the template websites you see so much of.
Thanks
Bo Tipton
The Ornery Marketer
Helpful. Thank you.