How can u make clean money from designing a website, as in what tips do i need and what features can u include in the site that will make it attractive and also generate money.

There are a million and one ways you could make it big but you have to believe it yourself.

Internet Business is still business.

Your question is like "How do I make money by opening a Company?" Having a companydoes not mean having a business. Having a website does not having a an Internet business. And furthermore, having a popular website does not equal having an Internet business. You have a business when you have revenue and such revenue surpasses your costs. So I will assume you meant "How To have an Internet business"

There are broadly 3 ways presently to make money on the web. These are called "business models."

1: Subscription: Create something people need and charge thhem money to enjoy it. Many dating sites and porn sites use this model. The problem it has is that almost anything cn be found for free somewhere on the web. Members copy the info (if its copiable) and distribute it free elsewhere. Besides if you are targeting Nigeria, the country has no online payment culture. Even overseas, people are reluctant to pay for things online. Imagine Nairaland was by subscription, would you pay? And yet you probably enjoy it.

2. Advertising: Which is how Seun probably makes money from this site. You place Google ads on the site. Then do things that attract people to the site. As they clic, Google pays you some small change. If you know your onions, you can get paid per view. This is also how Yahoo also makes money from its site. People pay yahoo to show you their ads whilst you are reading your email. The problem here is that the web is so big. Getting viewership is difficult. And this model only makes sense as a business when you have above 1million page views a day.  Besides after a while the regular users stop clicing on the ads. Most Google advertisers make peanuts (which is of course relative, and for me means anything below 500k/mth).This is prolly why despite the popularity of nairaland, Seun still laments that he can't hire people    He succeeded because he saw the niche that was fallow then that there was no forum for Nigerians living in Nigeria at the time. In other words he was the "first mover" in this valid market gap. You must find another niche (that the market truly does not satisfy) to be the "first mover" in. Copying him or anyone else blatantly is wasting your time. You must ask "is the market lacking this?"

3. E-commerce. Selling things online (most commonly by using an online version of the offline catlog business model) like Amazon. This is what the shopforless people are trying to do. Its problems are the same as the subscription in that there are few things people will buy without touching and feeling. And Nigeria does not have an online payment culture (assuming you are targeting Nigeria).

All the above require heavy traffic, and you have the problem of the sheer size of the net to contend with. How do you get heard above the din even when you have a good product? The big boys like yahoo are also looking for new ways to attract people (including Nigerians like you and me). You will be competing with them. Yahoo News and Google News are almost unbeatable when it comes to Nigerian news. Yahoo gets 130 million users (not views o!) per day. Google about 300 million unique users. To make matters worse, most Nigerians livin in Nigeria do not have unlimited access to the net. Only the ones abroad do. These are scattered all over the globe. This places its own limitations on the choice of business models.

Also you must love the internet with a passion to stand a chance. You can see how Seun responds to nearly every post. You can tell he would have still run a forum even if it was for free.

Trying to make money from the Internet is not for everybody. many have tried and gotten buurnt- badly.

Sbu, You are welcome.

You can trust, many lurkers will come and read, note down and clean mouth and not leave any comments.

Article written for Mr. Shina Adegoke of Technology Times
http://www.seunosewa.com/technology.times

My name is Seun Osewa. I’m the 23 year old webmaster who runs Nairaland.com - the Nigerian forum with 17,000 members. I may be the first Nigerian to make enough from a website to justify running it full-time, because from my site alone I earn more than some graduates working in top banks.

I started out in April 2003 by moving to Abeokuta to take advantage of free Internet access offered by a family friend who managed an ISP. I wanted to be a web host(1), but after 3 months I ran out capital ran out because I could get only one customer. After this, I researched so many business opportunities but nobody was willing to provide an untested young man like me with enough capital to execute any of them.

Towards the end of 2003, I stumbled on the idea of web publishing - I would create a site that would attract many Nigerians and then sell advertising the space on the website. So I started a blog, but I I couldn’t serve my target audience well because I lacked interest in popular topics that Nigerians are crazy about, such as celebrities and showbiz. So I kept learning and searching for more lucrative opportunities on the net.

By the end of 2004, I realized that the only hope for me lied in web publishing, because no capital was forthcoming for all my other ideas, so I decided to try again with Forums. Forums are wonderful because they can cover topics that even the website owner has no interest in. Thanks to the support of a GSM Ezine publisher (John Sagai Adams) and another entrepreneur (Yomi Adegboye) my first forum (2) grew to several hundred members in a few months (3). But the traffic was still not enough to attract advertising to even cover my Internet costs.

So during March 2005, I started work on a new Forum called “Nairaland, the Nigerian Forum” where Nigerians can discuss absolutely anything. In April, I opened it to the public and directed all members of my old forum to the new one at www.Nairaland.com ! Since then, our rate of growth has increased gradually from 10 new members a day to 30 to 100 or more today! By th end of 2005, we had more than 5000 visitors a day and I was making enough to justify the employment of an additional employee (though I haven’t done that)!

Right now, I am experimenting with new websites and business ideas and I hope to diversify my income. I’ve bought valuable domain names (they are cheap). I’ve launched Naijarita News, a fake news website that mocks everybody. And I’ve offered to help some people sell their products over the Internet. Nairaland.com, hovever, has proven to be infinitely more popular than these other ones, because we cover everything: romance, business, politics, games, and of course technology (4).

I’d like to urge fellow young people in technology to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and not as job-seekers. Look for problems that people are having, solve them, and make your money. In an under-developed economy like ours you do not even have to be innovative to make it. You just have to be focussed on solving the real problems that people are experiencing in life or business.

Seun Osewa’s email address is , and his website is www.nairaland.com

1) http://web.archive.org/web/20030824032734/http://www.seunosewa.com/

2) http://web.archive.org/web/20041022113854/http://www.mobilenigeria.com/

3) http://www.mobilenigeria.com/

4) http://www.nairaland.com/

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t4cash, thanks for sharing your own tips. Hope there's something to learn from my story, too?

this is really intersting. It has aroused my interest in web designs

very interesting article, t-4cash, I didn't want 2clean my mouth without leaving a comment.

Bizzy, appreciated.

Of course my post refers to internet business models that create their entire value striclly from the net, not the so called clicks-and-mortar internet models i.e. websites that also have an off-line component. If a bank goes online, its not what I am talking about.

In one aspect, the web is a crazy place. Not every body who participates actively on it wants to make money. People suffer to offer things for free on the web that cost millions offline. Open source software is an example. Most people who write open-source software do so no their employer's time. These software could make them millions, but they offer it free. Thousands of sites offer free advice on so many "expensive" topics. The currency of the web is not only money as you have in the offline. Web economists have studied this phenomena and are coining terms like "reputation" capital to try and explain it. The web has proven more SOCIALIST than it is CAPITALIST.

Essentially, what I am saying is that e-businesses compete with people on the web who are not looking for money and often the latter win. That is unusual offline. Just thought i should mention this.

Open source products that don't appear to make money only succeed because they help others to save money. It's all about money, my brother, whether we like it or not. Saving money, making money, all the same.

let me leave my footprints as i passed by
well i have learned and much to still learn from u guys.
thanks alot

In addition to all that has been said above:

You can also make money by marketing yourself and having the sites to back it up. It is a rareity for you to come up with a unique idea (NL, youtube, etc) and hope that pple will like it enough to make money off of google ads or some big fish buying you out. However, in my opinion, I believe that if you put out website samples, market yourself, use your connections to build more websites (what you charge increases with your popularity and demand ), write blogs/articles online to indirectly advertise yourself and your skills, etc, eventually, you will make it.

To summarize it all, generally speaking, don't seek to make N100billion overnight. Money isn't all it seems. If you make enough to pay your bills, feed/clothe yourself and have a little left over to save for the rainy day, you are good to go in my books. I have learnt enough from my life experiences so far to confidently say this.

Good luck!!

thanks man

Interesting topic.

From experience the best bet is to spread your tentacles and provide services that actually solve problems as all of us have problems to solve.

I started with basic website design then went into real programming but funny enough the bulk of the money I make today come from alternative energy, building inverters and installing backuo systems for people.

Even though I went into the inverter stuff to solve my own problem of spending too much money on fuel in my office, I ended up building them for clients when ordinarily came into my office to discuss web projects. These people just wonder how I toggle a switch and everything comes on once there is power failure while they are still in the office.

So, we must look around us and look for a need to fulfill and if we do well money will chase you wherever you go, not you chasing money.

I am really happy being a member of this forum. I thank Seun, tcash and all others who have helped to solve peoples problems here. I would like to know though if this thing I hear about making money through reading E-mails are through and how can one claim his cash bearing in mind the limitations of e-transactions here in Nigeria?

Monetize your website- Alternate to Google ADSENSE and YPN!
I just came across it today and had to tell you right away.

http://fe.olubiz.com

It's called Fair Ads Network. And it makes sense considering everything they've done to ensure not only the advertiser benefits as much as possible, but also the publisher. There's no more unfair practices where the publisher gets the boot every so often without warning and there's no more over-populated ads from the advertiser and wasting their money.

I predict, in just the next several weeks, you'll hear about people becoming a FAN and not because they're some popular rock band or well known celebrity, but because everyone is falling for their fair treatment. It's undeniable.

http://fe.olubiz.com

FAN introduces the first ad network of its kind. You can earn an income regardless of whether you sign up as a publisher or an advertiser. In fact, you can register as both! They didn't stop there though, you can even transfer your funds back and forth as you please! They give you total control of everything.

FAN is a very unique species in that they MAKE you be active without putting a gun to your head just so you can continue to make money every single month. The strategies and concepts applied to this ad network is beyond human and should be investigated by NASA. Before they do though, perhaps you should scurry on over there first.

Another reason to go now is because they are only accepting a limited number of members! They are partnered with 2 multi-million dollar companies and backed by a handful of millionaires. They would not have that kind of support if the potential is not there.

From one FAN member to a soon-to-be FAN, see you on the inside!

http://fe.olubiz.com

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