There are many individuals across the nation that dream about creating a profitable website in order to add an additional income stream to their household or so that they can use the website to work from home on their own terms for their own business. The funny thing is that creating a profitable web business is already a reality for thousands of individuals across the nation and millions of individuals around the world.

So what is it that they know that you do not know? Creating a profitable website takes a great deal of time, effort, and innovation for the website to succeed and create an income for the individual that created it. A great deal of time if you intend to pay all your bills with it that is!

There are 5 steps that you must follow in order to create a profitable website that has the ability to provide a decent income for the creator. The first thing that you must do, like any entrepreneur, is come up with an idea for what type of website you would like to create. With the fluidity of the internet, the possibilities are virtually endless when it comes to what type of website to create and how to design the website to be appealing to the individuals you are trying to attract.

The next thing that you will need to determine is how you would like to make this website profitable. There are a number of different ways that you can use to make a website into a profitable enterprise, including selling a product, selling a service, becoming an affiliate marketer, or create some type of membership community. Websites that are unique and innovative are generally the ones that are mostly the best received and tend to generate their creators the largest incomes.

After the type of website has been determined, it is time to design the website and create the content of the website. The content of the website should be concise and well thought out as well as free of any grammatical or spelling errors. The intent of the content of a profitable web business is to keep the visitor's attention long enough for you to sell them your product, your service, or persuade them to travel on to another company's website as a referral.

The next step to take in creating a profitable website is to determine how you are going to market your website. Individuals that create websites that are intended to be used for affiliate marketing will still need to market their website in order to attract individuals that they can use as referrals to the other company's website. There are nearly a dozen different marketing techniques that can be used on the internet and, in some cases - multiple marketing methods can be used in order to expand the number of individuals who see the website, helping it to become a profitable website much more quickly.

The last step in creating a profitable web business is continuing to review, revamp, and revise your website so that the information remains current and relevant to the needs of the visitors to your website. By following these 5 steps for creating a profitable website, you should be able create a profitable web business that you can eventually make your full time job if that is what you are going after.

A question I often ask my target market is, "what's your biggest challenge with building your business online?" And one answer I get frequently is this:

How do I make my website earn money?

If you've got a business online, then it's likely you have some sort of web presence. Perhaps it's a one-page 'sign up for my list' kind of site, or a full-blown brochure site with a menu of choices, or maybe your site is in the form of a blog. Regardless of what kind of site (or sites) you have, if they're not doing what you want them to - and since we're in business, ultimately that means making some sort of a profit - then it's time to make some changes.

But how do you REALLY know whether your site is working or not? Here are four strategies to test and track your pages to know what needs fixing:

1. Let the numbers speak

I'm sure if the sky was the limit, you'd hire the most expensive web designer with the fanciest tools to create the most spectacular site imaginable for your business - and someday you just may do that.

For now, though, even an ugly site can make money. I can think of at least two sites right now that I personally think are not that pleasing to the eye, yet I know they are raking in the bucks each and every month, year after year.

So don't get caught up in having the most polished and professionally looking site. Focus more on having the pieces in place that will bring you the cash, too.

2. Give your site only one job

Think of each page of your website as a separate entity with one main purpose. It may be to sell something, or to sign up for your list, or to get people to call you for an appointment. Whatever it is, make it clear that that one thing is the action your visitor should take from being on that page.

3. Track your numbers

Most web hosts offer statistics that you can use to watch your numbers, or there are other web stat programs that you could use as well (such as Google Analytics). However you are keeping an eye on your numbers, you should be looking for two things: how many people visit your site and how many people take the action you want them to take.

From those two numbers, you can figure out your conversion rate, which tells you how many of those visitors took the action you wanted them to - like sign up for your list. If you make small changes to your page AND watch these numbers at the same time, you'll be able to tweak things to increase your conversion rate.

4. Make one change at a time

This is a very effective way to increase the conversion rates on sales pages and sign-up pages. Change just one thing - for example, the headline - and watch your numbers. Compare those statistics to your previous ones and decide whether or not to keep the change. (You can also do this via a split-test in your shopping cart, where the software does the number crunching for you.)

I see so many sites that try to be all things to all people by offering everything under the sun in too small a space - a website - and all that does is confuse people and encourage them to click away. Remember, 'a confused mind always says no', so always go back to the main questions when considering making changes to your website: What's the purpose of this page? What is the one thing I want my visitor to do here? And then design your copy around the answer. Keep it simple and you'll get better results every time.

Normally, if you want a professionally designed, custom-built website for your new virtual assistant business, you should be prepared to spend at least a few hundred dollars.

But, all that can change if you know where to find the best deals and the best designs for the lowest price.

First, it costs more to have a brick-and-mortar company design a website for you. Have you seen those newspaper ads that offer a 5-page website for $500? These are probably companies with physical locations. They have to charge more simply to pay for their overhead: office rent, designers' wages, advertising costs and so on.

Therefore, it would be wise to use a virtual assistant (VA) instead! As you already know, VAs often work from home so they do not have high operating costs like a big company does. On the other hand, a VA will be able to design images with quality similar to (or better than!) those of designers from big companies.

However, choose your VA with care. The best way to find the right VA for your project would be to go to visit the website of a VA association. There you can post your RFP (request for proposal) and have hundreds of talented VAs bid on your project, so you will get the best deal. You will also be able to choose your designer based on her experience, past transactions and client testimonials, so your value for money is secured.

Another route you can take is to purchase the Virtual Business Startup System, created by Tawnya Sutherland. It comes with several beautiful, easy to use templates, perfectly suited for a new VA. The templates are easy to edit wth the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.