Personal websites and business may not go hand-in-hand as far as you are concerned, but I urge you to think again. If you want to sell something, you may need to "sell yourself" first. People enjoy doing business with someone they know and like. More importantly, they want to know that they can trust you.

We are actually able to transact business all over the world due to today's technology. The problem with that can be a lack of personal service. However, with the internet, and especially with personal websites, we can feel as if we know someone that we have never actually met. We can know what a person looks like, we can know the sound of their voice, we can know all about their family, hobbies, dreams, future goals, etc.

When someone is surfing the web looking for a way to work from home, they are also looking for someone to partner with. Someone to mentor them and show them the way. They want to feel comfortable with a prospective future business partner.

If you want them to consider joining your opportunity, you have to be visible on the internet. You have to be willing to get personal and reveal yourself to them. Your site should be warm and inviting. It should provide information about you and your business opportunity. Give them a way to contact you.

This really is the way to gain business partners from all over the world, or from just the good old U.S. if your company is not international. Think about what you were looking for when you were searching for a home business. I don't know about you, but I felt a connection with my sponsor. I felt as if I knew her just by looking at her website.

That is what you want to create. You want to seem warm, friendly, and approachable. You want your reader to feel as if they already know you. A lady contacted me via email recently who was interested in my candle business. She practically told me her life story in that email, and it is probably because she felt like she knew me. She had seen my site and already knew all about me.

That is a good thing. It means that she felt as if I was someone she could talk to candidly. She must have thought that I would be approachable and would be receptive to her. Not everybody who contacts you will be so open. They may be wary of you and your business, but they contacted you because they found something of interest. This is when you provide them with honest answers to all their questions. It is also where you give them that personal attention that they are seeking.

Their state of mind when they contact you is not important. The fact that they made a connection is what matters. The reason for the connection was that they found your personal website and liked something they saw there. They were able to contact you because you provided them with either a phone number, email address, or both.

Do you see how this works? Prospects come to you. You do not have to "beat the streets" or chase your friends and family in order to build your business. This is not yesterday's network marketing, it is the new way. Believe me, it is also the best way. Many of yesterday's methods gave us a bad rap because they were so annoying.

Personal websites and business work well together. Get your own site up soon. It doesn't have to be fancy; just informative. Keep it simple and see what happens. I am sure that you will be pleased with the results. Remember to advertise your website and tell your friends about it. You cannot just build it and hope they will come.

A part of web development is copywriting. Excellent copy means it has to be appealing to both readers and to search engines. This combination will help websites to rank highly. A problem occurs when there are space constraints to a site, page layout requirements or other issues.

Because appealing to both readers and search engines is so important, you don't want to sacrifice one for the other. Adding a big block of copy to the middle of a page may not be the best answer, however, if a page needs content, adding a couple of sentences to the bottom of each section is a good option. Your copy will still be readable and the additional content will appeal to the search engines.

There are some things to remember when writing content for a website.

• Web users are active. One click and they have left your site. If they don't see a reason to stay, they won't. There is a 10 - 15 second window available to capture a visitor's attention.
• The longer the text is, the less likely they are to read it. With long text, they will skim it, if they bother to read it at all.
• Web users don't believe in hype. If you want a web user to believe you and to believe in you, you must back up your claims.

Four questions must be answered on each page:

• What am I doing here?
• How do I do it?
• What's in it for me?
• Where can I go, next?

If your design and navigation isn't obvious, then you need to explain it in the copy. Most visitors will not take the time to figure this information out. If a first time visitor cannot find their way around your site, they will likely never come back.

Unless your visitors are expecting to read something on your page, don't expect that they will read more than one or two lines of copy.

Understanding your copy is as important as length. Don't make the copy so complicated that it is difficult to comprehend or make it so the customer will have to think about it because they won't.

What this means is you want to convey one key idea in just one or two lines. Don't try to add a third line because if you say too much, then even the first idea won't penetrate. If your site needs more content, break it down into sections that are one or two paragraphs each. Say what you want to say in the first sentence and then expand the thought into the paragraph. Use meaningful headers. Most people will only scan the headers to the paragraphs and not even bother with the copy on the page, unless it is something that appeal to them. It is better to write only one or two lines with links to another page with the longer copy.

Even when users are expecting to find text heavy content, don't expect they will take the time to read all of it. Longer copy doesn't have to be as abrupt as shorter text, but it needs to be as easy to read.

Make your copy clear, but not boring. Lively writing with an unassuming voice is best. Boring writing will turn your reader off and nothing you say at that point will make it through.

What do you think is the most important aspect of a website? Let me put the question the other way around. When you go online and visit websites what do you look for? The first thing you want is information. This helps us to make decisions.

Before you buy a car for example you want to know what the safety ratings are and how many miles per gallon it gets. Then you may want to compare it to other cars in that category. All this information is provided through content.

Good content on a site helps you to make decisions and when you experience this you feel you are getting results. As a consequence of this credibility develops and you will use this website as a reference guide which means you may visit it again.

This makes sense right? It's funny because often the secrets to success lie right in front of our eyes. Many times we tend to look elsewhere rather than our own actions for answers. Good content will not only benefit your site visitors but it will also help you climb the ranks in the search engines.

So when you create a website you want to build it in a way that it can provide good content. Good content is brought about by good research. Research is key as this will help you to put a solid foundation in place.

Good content will provide good advertising opportunities and your recommendations will have credibility which will lead to sales - either of your own product or somebody else's.

While all this may seem a little over your head at this point it will all become clear as you work your way through it. Start with a subject you like and start researching niches relative to it. Then you will be focused and in a far better position to build a money making website.

To learn how to put all this together select any of the following links.