Above all else, this is the key to having a successful website. Getting your site off to a good start will save you work later on, so why not do it right the first time. Read through these tips, and plan on working gradually to develop your site.

Your Site Topic

Not only should you choose a topic you know about, it should be something you enjoy writing about. No sense starting a website if you are going to be tired of creating content within the first few pages. And another thing to consider is whether your chosen topic will earn you any money. Try using the Google Adwords tool to see if the ads on your topic will earn you enough money to make it worthwhile.

Once you've picked a topic, choose a domain name that reflects your topic and will be easy for people to remember.

Site Layout

Keep your site uncluttered and make it easy for people to navigate between your pages. Using a layered structure can help you keep it organized. Group your pages by similar topic, and link to them from a related "hub" page.

Keywords

Do some research to see what keywords people are using when searching for information on your topic. Use these keywords in your articles to make them more appealing to the search engines, which will help bring in more traffic to your site.

Content

The content of your site should be well-written and contain information that will be helpful to your visitors. You should be honest about your content, and not use keywords that aren't part of your topic. Tricking people to visit your site won't gain you any long-term visitors, which is what you want.

Links

Have a few links going out from your site, as long as they are to other sites your readers might find valuable. It will help with your search engine rankings, and show your readers that you are offering them the best information there is, even if its not on your site.

Build Your Traffic

Before you worry about earning money, start getting people visiting your site. Add your website to various directories and submit to search engines. Place links back to your site through message boards, forums and articles written for other sites. There are lots of different ways to build traffic, and that should be your goal before adding any advertising.

Earning Money

Once you have a solid traffic base, then you can start working on ways to earn some money. You can choose whatever method you want, but you really should wait until you have some good traffic coming in first. You could display Google ads through their Adsense program, become an affiliate to sell other people's products, you could sell E-books or sell advertising directly to companies who might want to promote themselves on your site.