The key element to your success is you. It is what you do today that will determine whether you succeed or fail. Beyond that it comes down to consistency. It's what you do every day that will bring results. Sporadic efforts here and there will not yield success long term.

So your first objective is to figure out what you are going to build a site around. Write down your interests and various topics that may be relative to those interests. Once you have a list then its time to start researching.

The key to effective research is focus. Focus can be achieved by understanding what your objectives are and what can help you achieve those objectives. As you know you need traffic to your site to have any hope of making money. No traffic means no money.

So you will need to research markets that have a high level of activity online. The ideal scenario is to find keywords that get searched a lot and have little competition. With that said you have to be careful.

Competition in actual fact is good because it means that there is money to be made in that market. So what you need to do is find ways to enter the market using less competitive keywords yet still be able to generate income relative to the main keyword.

For example with weight loss there are many ways to enter that market without going after the main keyword. Example; lose belly fat, or lose weight by eating healthy foods and so on. I think you get the idea.

Once you have the keywords that you can compete with you will then need to build your site using each keyword to build a page around. You will need to structure your web pages so that you get the right keyword density.

To conclude there are lots of site builders out there to help you with this. The one I had the most success with was site build it. They cover all of the above and also take care of the hosting. This way all you have to do is engage in your passion.

Creating a website and you already registered a domain name?

Trying to build a website around a name is very difficult to do, especially if you have not done a very important step for the process. Your first step in building your website needs to be the planning process. Many beginners do not realize this and when their website fails, they may believe they failed. But in reality they did not fail as long as they understand the missing steps and try again to rebuild their website.

Sure, many say it is very easy to create a website with only using three steps but not one of those steps is planning.

Planning your website

This is a very critical step when you create a website. You need to figure out the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. It may sound difficult to do, but if you take the time at the beginning of your building process, you will find out that in the long run it will save your time (and money).

Who will be your audience? Have you chosen a targeted niche?

What is the content going to be about on your pages? What will be your keywords?

Where are you going to host the site? Will you use free web hosting or paid?

When do you plan on this website being finished? 5 days, 30 days. Be realistic and set a target date.

Why do you want to build your own website?

How is all the steps above to help guide you with your website creation.

The steps above may take you a few minutes or could take you a day or longer. But each one is important when you create a web site.

Even if you already registered your domain name and built your site and your site is not working how you want it to, take a moment and do the 5 W's and 1 H. It might show you what you are missing.

Let's say you have a website. You probably feel pretty good about it. You have a presence. People can find you. You're out there. Sure, these are all good things; the only problem is everyone has a website. A website is the bare minimum.

A website is only just enough.

As a small business owner, as an entrepreneur as an upstart you must standout. You are the underdog. Underdogs don't out hustle the more established folks by doing just enough. And if you only have a website, you are only doing just enough.

Want to build your business and exceed your goals?

Do more than just enough.

Hold on, let's get down to it. If you consider how advanced the internet has become in just the last 5 years, if you only have a company website you aren't doing just enough.

You're doing less than enough.

You're doing enough to exist, but not enough to excel.

You're doing enough to be counted, but not enough to go over the top.

I'm sorry. I really like you. I wish you the best, but the truth is you're behind the curve.

You can change it, but to do that, first you need to change how you see the web and the possibilities. You've got to decide if you're serious about your business? Is your business concept a winner or a loser? Can it work? Is it working? What to do about it? More of the same isn't the answer. Making your website more pretty isn't going to cut it. You need to diversify.

I may be blunt, but I'm not exaggerating. Like John McCain says, "Time for some straight talk".

A business website should be only one piece of your web presence. You should also have a presence on every social networking website out there. You should have articles related to your business all across the information superhighway. You should belong to all the major (and some not so major) business networking sites. You should have a video on YouTube, a Face book, a MySpace and a Squidoo page. You should be everywhere other business owners congregate, share ideas, exchange referrals and talk shop.

You must be there.

No excuses.

No exceptions.

Sure, it takes time to set up marketing mechanisms across the many websites that are available, but it's time well invested because your company website isn't the end all to be all of generating buzz and finding leads on the internet, your website is just the beginning.

Make a commitment to your business and cease and desist looking at those social networking sites as options. They aren't options, they are necessities.

If you need more reasons to justify putting your resources into more than a company website, just take a look at Barack Obama's surge. Obama-mania owes much of its energy and support to the social networking sites that it uses. Get involved and secure some of that same viral power for your business. 99% of it is free and 100% of it is good business.

Welcome to the first day of your new way of looking at promoting your business on the net.

Go get started yesterday.