very basic information
what is important, and what doesn't matter
the basic page
HEAD and BODY
HTML Tags
META Tags
backgrounds - colors
backgrounds - images
pictures
links
pictures as links
email links
tables part 1
tables part 2
lining things up
frames part 1
frames part 2
frames part 3
what tools to use
putting it all together
making search engines love you
viewing your page as you work
making your page pay for itself
page counters
resources
how do they do that?
being sure it's right before you go public
my links
my sponsors
What NOT to do
Making your page pay for itself
Whether you're making your website as an income-generating project or just doing it for fun, it would be nice to have it pay its own way.Most people think that to get income from your website you have to sell something to your visitors. That's fine, if you have something to sell them, and they want to buy it. In most cases, though, that isn't the case.
The thing you have to sell is the people who come to your site. They come because they are interested in something you are offering, but once they have seen your site, they will want to go somewhere else. There are people who will pay you to send your visitors to them.
If you have a very specific, unusual topic that attracts a specific type of visitor, you could make a deal with someone who sells things they are likely to want. You might get paid a certain fee for everyone who sees their ad on your page, or a larger fee for everyone who sees the ad and follows the link to their page. Or, you could get an even larger fee for people who see the ad, follow the link, and actually buy something.
In general, you have to show an ad to about 50 to 200 people before someone will click on it, and of those who click on the ad, a similar percentage will actually buy something.
If your visitors are more average, you can still get paid for sending them on to other places. Some people offer as little as 1 cent or even less for everyone you send their way. Others will pay as much as 20 cents each, sometimes even more.
Assuming your site is new, and still has few visitors, you wouldn't want to contract with people to sell them your traffic. It wouldn't be worth their time or yours. There are people who act as intermediaries, collecting the money from your advertisers, and paying you. This takes much of the work and risk out of the deal for you, as long as the intermediary can be trusted.
One of my favorite intermediaries is Commission Junction