Need Help Choosing a Website Topic?

Choosing a topic for your website can be tough. Everyone seems to have the next "big idea" or looks for hot topics.

After all, wouldn't you love to be the one who invented MySpace, FaceBook or YouTube?

It often seems so simple. Just come up with a cool idea, build a site, sell it for millions to Yahoo or Google and you'll be rich!

Not exactly.

While this idea has worked for a handful of people, the average story doesn't go quite like that. Which is why I wanted to create this all-important page on topic choice.
Looking to Make Money?

If your goal is to make money with your site then I always recommend the simple approach.

I know you would love to create something like the next MySpace, but due to all the programming and technical knowledge needed to build and maintain a site like that, it's not a good idea for the average person.

Even if you are going to pay a programmer to create your site, it would cost you thousands of dollars. I don't think people realize the amount of resources that go into creating a site that offers user interaction and profiles.

Not to mention you'd probably need dedicated hosting space, which can cost you hundreds of dollars per month. You can forget the $10/month hosting plans.

Yes, these sites look cool on the surface but there are a lot of hidden headaches the average person does not see.

So what do I mean when I say "the simple approach?" I'm encouraging you to do what I've done for the past 10 years.

I don't own any fancy MySpace-like websites. I don't have a lot of Web programming skills. I just create sites on topics that interest me, draw in traffic and make money from affiliate programs like Google AdSense and other companies that sell products that relate to my topics.

Say you love to prepare desserts. You could create top-notch-cake-recipes.com where you offer all your favorite cake recipes. You'd create your site and then spend time learning about SEO (search engine optimization) so your pages get found in Google, Yahoo, etc.

Then you could make money from Google ads and refer other products that your audience may find interesting. For instance, you could join Target.com's free affiliate program and refer some of their cookware.

Target provides you with the links to put into your site and you would earn a commission on every sale your site makes. They send you a check at the end of the month! There are thousands of affiliate programs like this.

An affiliate site like this is much easier to create and maintain than some large, programming-intense MySpace-like website. You could manage the site yourself with a program like Dreamweaver or CoffeeCup and you'd simply follow these website creation instructions to get started.

Or you can use a program like Site Build It!, which was created to help people make money from hobby or personal interest websites. Their entire focus is to help you earn an income no matter topic you choose.
Why is Topic Choice So Important?

You must understand. Sites that do well online are sites that have their own unique spin on a certain topic. The content is well written, updated frequently, the Webmasters understand the basics of Net marketing and they know their audience.

These are all things you must execute well if you want to become successful, and it will not happen overnight. So this is one reason topic choice is crucial.

You have to be patient while waiting on that traffic to come, so you might as well choose something that will keep your interest or you'll get bored and abandon your site.

And don't worry about what others are doing. Just because you see someone making millions with one topic, don't think you have to do the same thing or even something similar.

The reason that person is so successful is because of the points I mentioned above. Their passion for the topic is driving their creativity thus generating success. If you chose that same topic you might not be as motivated because it's not your "thing."

I know it's tempting to copy someone else's successful idea but it's really a bad idea for most people.

Now it's time to choose what peeks your interest and develop your own personal spin on it. That's the first step to being successful out here, so I hope you take this message seriously.
Not to Discourage You, But...

The goal of this article is not to discourage you from creating a complex, interactive site. If that's something you have your heart set on then go for it.

I just want you to understand what's involved. You can't just buy a software program, download some template and create an interactive site like FaceBook, YouTube or MySpace.

Extensive, hardcore programming is required. So you'll either have to learn yourself or pay someone else BIG to do it for you.

It's much better to start small and simple with a site like I described above and once the traffic and money starts coming in, then you can expand to something more robust and complex.

It will save you a lot of money and headaches if you do it that way.