You know I wish someone would reveal this answer to me because it is allusive.  In addition there are so many people out there trying to get you to use their system that it seems right to take a look at some of the ways that a web developer or site manager can use to make money.

The first Website Design & Hosting is probably the best situation if you want to keep your business small to medium size  meaning just you or one or two employees that you may contract. Although there are some drawbacks to trying to run your own design company if you provide a quality service and can also get your customers to host with you then you can depend on not only an initial bulk payment but down the line hosting and redesign fees.

The main drawback to trying to start your own design company is finding customers. You can do this through many ways but from what I have seen word of mouth is still one of the best ways to get customers either online or off. This means you may need to eat a few sites to get started and undercharge a few customers just to get experience.

Although you may giveaway design services or heavily discount them them for friends or people you know you really should not discount your hosting fees. By tying the free or discounted design service along with a 12 or 24 month hosting plan you can cover your costs and use the extra money … won’t be a lot.. to expand your hosting service.

Start out with a Reseller account that uses your domain name and brands the control panels. Then later you can move up to a dedicated server of your own and maybe eventually to your own rack of servers.

Running Your Own Sites

This is another way to make money and there are two ways to make money doing it. First you can have a membership site. This only works when your content is worth paying for and today with so much free stuff out there you really have to be offering something unique. You will see big sites like Glenn Beck’s offering a secret members only area… and there are stars like Miley Cyrus that also run fan sites that are pay only…

Another member only site is the type that offer tools to other website designers. You pay for a month and get unlimited downloads of themes and fonts and images… or you may give your members a higher discount then the average visitor as an incentive. You have to be somewhat lucky with this type of site because there are so many sites that offer the same products for free.

Finally is running a site that depends on advertising or affiliate purchases of your visitors. This type of site must have a large visitor base and a dedicated one. If you place ads on your site to companies that pay you for the position you can make money by view, click or purchase.

The best overall ads are pay per view. In this method you are getting paid whether your visitor makes a purchase or not. You are simply being paid to show the visitor an ad banner and no more action is necessary for you to get paid. Unfortunately the payouts for per-view ads are much lower then per-purchase.

If you can find a group of visitors that like to use pay-per-purchase ads or links then you have the potential to make more but this can be difficult.

Again no matter which type of ad you place the important thing is attracting a lot … A LOT of visitors. Think more in the area of 500,000 to 1 million unique visitors a month minimum to begin to see a payout that you can consider reasonable.

Other Methods of Making Money Online

There are a number of ways that you can make money through contract work but many of them are difficult to enter because you are competing with international developers.

A site that you would normally charge $1,500 to make could be bid at $15 by someone in India and although the customer may have a bad experience in the end they are more likely to want to pay nothing then a reasonable amount…. However after they get taken a few times they will look for a realistic solution.

Another thing you may want to try is working for a design firm from home. However when you work from home you can expect to spend at least a few days in the office every week. You may need to work with clients or managers that only like face time but this is a possibility. This type of position is very hard to come by and is often given to people the company already works with. You can also consider your job security nonexistent because it is very easy to fire someone that you don’t build a personal relationship with.

Final Note

You should never pay to make money… this has been a long method of many to take the last few dollars out of a down on their luck person. If a person or company says pay us $150 for this kit .. don’t do it.. they are not offering you work or a guaranteed income. They are selling you something and doing so because you are in need.. find another free way to learn how to do what they are charging you for.

I would also be interested in your comments on how people can run a business and make a full income online. It is a very difficult thing to do but there are probably hundreds of thousands of people around the world that have done it.

Tell me your story… >:o)