Make Your Own Website   So you want to build a money making website without the hassles of knowing HTML or having to find, or worse, understand all of the technical terms involved in hosting your site? Although ideally it's a good idea to buy your own hosting and host your own sites, you can avoid the hassles by simply buying a domain, pointing it toward your new site, and simply promoting your new domain. You can even use cloaking so your site looks like it's actually hosted on your domain. However, to do this, you need to first decide what kind of site you want to build, what products or services you will sell, and what the topic of your website will be. If you choose a highly trafficked site like one of the sites listed below, you won't even have to worry about submitting to the search engines. All of this is already taken care of for you. Once you decide what your products and your topic are, then simply choose the site that best suits your needs. You can even build a list by using a site like Feedblitz.com, and most of these site alternatives already have RSS feeds built in. If you can cut and paste, you can easily build your own search engine friendly, content rich website. 1. Lulu.com - If you want to sell your own products, which would include books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, and photos, then this is the site for you. (In other words, this is a great site for writers, artists, and business people who sell their own products, want to expand their product lines from digital to physical and don't want the hassles of distribution.) You can build your own store, create your own blog, and offer your products for sale. Lulu offers conversion software to make your ebooks available as books, and for only a 20 percent commission to Lulu, you can sell your products and keep the rest. Lulu will handle your distribution, as well as pay you your royalty checks through Pay Pal. Once you get your site set up, then all you have to do is continue to add new products, post to your blog if you use it, and promote. What could be easier? 2. Ebay.com - Ebay offers you several options for building a website. You can set up an account, absolutely free, and begin selling your products immediately. You can even use Ebay as a way to gather leads for your business (Small monthly fee involved). If you choose this route, then you have a few options for building a site. You can choose to simply sell your products there without the hassles of building a website. Ebay also offers Ebay Stores, and for a small monthly fee, you can build your own store and sell your own products. You can also choose to have your own blog at Ebay. This is an option you want to take especially if you are selling products on Ebay. The only limitation is that you can't add outside links to your blog; you can only add links to products you are selling on Ebay. Still, with the opportunity to promote on one of the top 20 sites on the internet, and do it free, this is a great option. (Excellent for those who sell their own products or sell resale products. This includes both digital and physical). 3. CafePress.com - Talk about options! This site is the ultimate. Whether you want to create your own products for sale, or you want to sell millions of products others offer, or even both, you have a choice. Cafe Press allows you to open your own store and sell your own custom made products whether it's T-shirts & clothing, posters & prints, housewares, custom US postage, your self-published book, or your own audio or data CDs. You can set up your store absolutely free, and if you need more space, it's very inexpensive to upgrade. If you don't want to sell your own products, you have millions of products to choose from, and you can make an affiliate commission from everything you sell. What's even better is that you can take your creations and market them on Ebay and combine these two high traffic sites. (Primarily for those who want to create their own designs and work like artists and writers. However, since this site offers and affiliate program, anyone can use it to make money and build a website.) 4. Blogger.com 5. Wordpress.com Both of these are blogging platforms, and each one has its advantages and disadvantages. With Blogger, you can quickly set up a blog that will be indexed by Google. You can write about just about any topic you want, there are a wide variety of templates, and your blog will be on one of the largest, as well as the most popular, blogging site on the internet. You can also easily add your Google Adsense to your blog. Wordpress offers more features, including dozens of templates, tagging and categorizing your posts, spell check, photos, and videos. Both offer a Wordpad type interface, so you don't even need to know HTML when posting your posts. Just write your post, and when you're ready, click "Publish Post". If you sell your own products, or services, then a blog should be a complement to your main site. However, if you sell affiliate programs, then a blog is a great way for you to offer articles and reviews about the products you sell. You can also offer industry news, as well as any information you think might be helpful to readers. 6. MySpace.com - MySpace is far more than a blogging platform. It's a community. With MySpace, not only can you set up a blog to talk about your products and services, as well as your area of expertise, you can also network with other people who have an interest in your topic. MySpace offers free classifieds so you can sell your stuff, as well as forums, groups, and audio and video. Your profile is fully customizable, including templates you can find on the internet to create a custom design for your site. You can even add a subscription box for your lists so subscribers can subscribe. Although there have been some negative things written about MySpace, if you're looking to promote your business, writing, music, or whatever, it's the place to be. Even if you already have your own website, you'll want to set up a presence here. Building a profitable website for your business is crucial to your success. I recommend that anyone wanting to start a business learn basic HTML. However, if you're just starting off, then you can easily learn the basics using one of these sites.