4. Earn > A. Online Marketing Clarity

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Teaching people how to make websites...
...and how to make websites make money!

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Why Namecheap?

Namecheap, an ICANN-accredited registrar, lets you buy and fully own your domain.

Keeping your domain and hosting separate ensures you won’t lose access to your domain if you change hosting providers.

Why Rocket.net?

Rocket.net offers high-performance managed WordPress hosting with built-in security and global speed optimization, making your site fast and secure without extra plugins. For help narrowing down the right provider, explore this guide to choosing the best web host.

Why Bricks Builder?

Bricks Builder is a powerful WordPress page builder that combines speed, flexibility, and customization, helping you design stunning websites without coding.

🖥️ Get Your Domain & Hosting. Learn WordPress and How to Create Content. Make Money Online in a Way That Actually Works.
Learn mouse click by mouse click how to build websites and unlock earning paths that make sense.

INTRO

💻 1. Setup > A. Domain / B. Hosting / C. Point Domain / D. Setup WP Admin User / E. Email @ Your Domain / [ More in Setup ]
💻.2. Explore > A. Site Login & Dashboard / B. Themes / C. Plugins / D. Widgets / E. Settings / [ More in Explore ]
💻.3. Create > A. Pages & Posts / B. Nested Pages / C. Cats & Tags / D. Menus / E. Content / F. Try Bricks Builder / [ More in Create ]

How to (Actually) Make Money Online

🛒 Before You Buy: Know the Industry Games
Common integrity problems you'll encounter while buying online.

Affiliate marketers often promote whatever’s easy to pitch — sometimes for the payout, sometimes out of pure laziness. Hosting companies lean into that, offering plans that look good but don’t deliver.

🔍 [ Hidden Incentives in Online Recommendations ]
😠 [ Shady Practices in the Web Hosting Industry ]

🚀 Managed WordPress Hosting: The Right Fit for Most Sites
Simple, stable, and avoids the usual hosting headaches.

Managed WordPress hosting is built to run WordPress fast, securely, and without tech headaches — perfect if you want your site to load quickly, stay safe, and just work, no backend setup needed.

💡 [ The Kind of Hosting That Keeps WordPress Sites Stable ]
⚙️ [ Other Hosting Types (When They Might Make Sense) ]

The Critical Components for Building a Profitable Online Presence: Overcoming Hangups, Doing the Work, Serving Your Audience, and Monetizing Your Audience

Turning an online presence into a profitable venture requires four essential components:

Overcoming hangups
Doing the work
Serving your audience
Monetizing your audience

Critical Component 1: Overcoming Hangups

The first step is working through your internal obstacles, especially the fear of judgment.

Many people worry about what others will think of their content—whether it’s criticism, rejection, or being ignored entirely. This fear often leads to procrastination, perfectionism, or avoidance. But the truth is, judgment is inevitable, and it’s rarely as bad as we imagine. To succeed, you need to push past this fear and publish anyway. The more you face it, the easier it becomes to handle.

Critical Component 2: Doing the Work

The second component is simple but critical: showing up and doing the work consistently. There will always be excuses—feeling tired, unsure, or unmotivated—but consistent effort is what sets successful creators apart. Doing the work means creating and publishing content regularly, even when conditions aren’t perfect. Over time, this discipline improves your skills, builds confidence, and helps you create more valuable content for your audience.

A Tribute to the Underdogs

This is for the online marketers who work against incredible odds but refuse to let those odds stop them. Maybe you’re juggling a full-time job, two jobs, raising a family, or dealing with financial hardships. Perhaps you’re working out of a public library, saving for your first computer, or even living in your car. Whatever challenges you’re facing, you still find a way to show up and create. You carve out time where it doesn’t seem to exist, and you publish content even when it’s hard. That level of commitment and grit puts you in a league of your own. Every piece of content you publish is a testament to your determination, and that deserves recognition.

Critical Component 3: Serving Your Audience

In the context of content creation and online marketing, truly serving your audience begins with delivering genuine value. Whether you provide information that helps solve a problem or offer entertainment that brings enjoyment, content that resonates deeply with their interests tends to foster natural engagement. As people find your material useful or entertaining, they respond by liking, commenting, sharing, or subscribing—actions that indicate they value what you’re offering. This value-first approach establishes trust and creates meaningful connections with your audience.

Creating great content is essential for engaging your audience, but it’s not the only factor. Guiding your audience’s attention strategically can amplify interaction and engagement. Thoughtful visual placement, well-timed prompts, and clear calls to action can turn passive viewers into active participants. For instance, asking a question when your audience is most engaged or designing a layout that naturally directs attention can drive meaningful interactions. Engagement isn’t just a lucky byproduct—it can be cultivated through deliberate planning and consistent refinement, all while staying grounded in the principle of serving your audience first.

A.C.E. Your Content Strategy

A: Add Value – Content creation starts with delivering genuine value to your audience. Whether solving a problem or providing entertainment, creating material that resonates with their interests builds trust and encourages natural engagement. When your audience finds your content helpful or enjoyable, they will respond through likes, comments, shares, or subscriptions.
C: Capture Attention – Guiding your audience’s focus strategically amplifies interaction. Clear calls to action, thoughtfully placed visuals, and well-timed prompts can transform passive viewers into active participants. Engagement doesn’t happen by chance—it’s cultivated through intentional design and planning, always prioritizing what serves your audience best.
E: Embrace Change – To future-proof your content strategy, you must treat adaptation as an ongoing process, not a one-time adjustment. The landscape of content creation evolves rapidly, driven by shifts in technology, audience preferences, and cultural trends. AI-powered search engines now prioritize contextually relevant and valuable material over outdated tricks like keyword stuffing, signaling a broader shift toward quality and authenticity. Future-proofing requires creators to stay curious, keep learning, and remain open to experimentation. By consistently improving and refining their approach, content creators can thrive in a world that rewards flexibility, growth, and meaningful connections with their audience.

Critical Component 4: Monetizing Your Audience

By the time you’ve mastered the first three components—overcoming hangups, doing the work, and serving your audience—you’ve developed the core skills needed to build an engaged audience.

The next step is monetization—turning your audience into a source of revenue. While there are many monetization methods, you don’t need to learn them all at once. Start with a foundational understanding of strategies like affiliate marketing, display ads, or e-commerce, and focus on what best aligns with your content and audience.

When you combine this understanding with the skills you’ve already developed, you’ll truly know what you’re doing—not just in building an audience, but in creating a sustainable, profitable online presence.

Monetization Method 1: Affiliate Marketing $

Affiliate marketing is a monetization method where content creators make money by promoting products or services created by others.

An affiliate marketer is essentially a content creator who, after building their audience and content, takes the next step by monetizing that content. They do this by signing up for affiliate programs, getting unique affiliate links, and using those links to promote products. When someone clicks on their link and makes a purchase, the affiliate marketer earns a commission.

Unfortunately, many affiliate marketers don’t market the most effective way. Instead of genuinely recommending useful products or services that align with their audience’s needs or wants, they focus on pushing products or services without fully considering if they’re a good fit or if the product or service itself is reputable.

While people may initially fall for this approach, it’s rare for them to stay loyal. Those who don’t disclose affiliate relationships or do so in a sneaky way certainly don’t receive a standing ovation. In fact, their brand doesn’t get one either. Instead of earning trust and building relationships, they risk alienating their audience.

Affiliate marketers who don’t focus on value are wasting their audience’s time and money. And expecting loyalty from an audience that has been misled is unrealistic. When content creators fail to provide genuine value, their content doesn’t go viral. It doesn’t inspire gratitude, and without that ripple effect of trust, their efforts fall flat.

Ultimately, loyalty and success in affiliate marketing come from delivering real value and maintaining transparency. Anything less isn’t just ineffective—it’s a missed opportunity to truly connect with an audience.

Monetization Method 2: Display Ads $

Display ads are a monetization method where publishers earn revenue by hosting targeted ads on their content.

These ads generate income based on impressions (the number of times an ad is shown) or interactions (clicks on the ad).

A publisher in the context of online content refers to anyone who shares content on a digital platform—whether it’s a blog, website, or video-sharing platform like YouTube. Publishers can range from individual creators to larger teams managing multiple content channels.

On YouTube and many websites, display ads are managed through Google AdSense.

AdSense is one of the most widely used advertising programs, allowing publishers to earn money by displaying ads automatically tailored to their audience. For ads to be highly targeted, users often need to be logged into Google services, so Google can use data like browsing habits or previous interactions to show ads relevant to their interests. However, not all users enable targeted ads, and in those cases, more generic ads are shown. Despite this, AdSense remains popular because it is easy to set up, integrates seamlessly with YouTube, and provides reliable revenue opportunities. Other ad networks like Media.net, PropellerAds, and Ezoic offer alternatives for those looking to diversify their earnings.

While display ads are accessible and easy to implement, their revenue potential is generally lower compared to affiliate marketing. Ad earnings depend on metrics like views and engagement, and payouts have decreased over time. For publishers, this means generating substantial income through display ads requires consistently high traffic and audience engagement.

Display ads work particularly well with content that is easy to produce and appeals to broader audiences, such as trivia videos, shorts, or other templatized content that generates high interaction. For publishers focusing on scalable, high-volume content, display ads offer a reliable monetization strategy requiring minimal additional effort.

Monetization Method 3: Ecommerce $

Ecommerce is the process of selling your own products or services directly to your audience.

This can range from physical products like handmade crafts, clothing, or other tangible goods to digital products such as ebooks, online courses, or templates.

To set up an ecommerce business, you’ll need operational systems to handle key tasks like:

Payment processing: Using tools like PayPal or Stripe to collect payments.
Order fulfillment: Shipping products to customers or managing digital deliveries.
Inventory management: Keeping track of stock for physical goods.

There are two main approaches to selling online:

Through your own website: Using tools like WooCommerce or Shopify to build a custom online store.
Through established marketplaces: Platforms like Etsy, Spreadshirt, or Amazon make it easy to list and sell products to an existing audience, though they may have restrictions and fees.

Ecommerce is a powerful way to monetize your audience if you’re passionate about creating and selling your own products. However, it requires more setup and operational management compared to other monetization methods like affiliate marketing or display ads.

Why Focus on Affiliate Marketing and Ad Revenue

When you create and bring your own products or services to market, it’s a lot of work—especially when balancing everything from development to customer support. For example, in web hosting, you could build a hosting business, manage servers, handle customer issues, and grow your client base. But even if successful, there’s the risk of server outages, customer complaints, and other logistical challenges.

On the other hand, by promoting products or services that others have already brought to market—products you’ve personally used and trust—you can focus on marketing something you know will be beneficial to your audience. This allows you to offer something you believe in without needing to deal with the logistical and take-to-market complexities.