So you want to make a living online?

Or maybe just as an additional supplement to your current income?

Or perhaps you are a stay at home mom who would like to be able to earn money while staying at home?

The internet is full of opportunities to allow anyone to earn money online. All it takes is an idea, a website and a bit of motivation to succeed. Now you may have an idea, and you may have the motivation, but what you dont have is a website. You might feel like you dont have the techincal knowledge or financial commitment to build a website or have one custom built. Lucky for you, there is a little thing called Turnkey Websites.

Turnkey Websites are one of the hottest ways people are capitalizing on the internet. People who have no idea about programming, coding, designing are earning are living on the internet everyday by using Turnkey Websites. The beauty of turnkey websites is that it costs a fraction of what a custom built website would cost. Since the websites are pre-built you are not paying hourly fees for a programmer to build a site for you..and best of all, the quality of a turnkey website can be as good if not better than a custom designed site! It is perfect for those who would like to try making money online without a big financial committment!

A turnkey website is a fully functional website featuring everything that you will need to begin your new business. The purchase of the package should include a domain, website, and hosting. Depending on the nature of your business, the only fees involved are the purchase of the site itself and a low monthly hosting fee which covers support.

However when purchasing a turnkey website, do not fall under the false assumption that you will immediately start seeing money flow into your bank account from day 1. As with any business, online or not, promotion and advertising are the keys to success. If you have never ran a website before then you want make sure the company you are buying from will provide help along the way. This includes advertising and promotional advice/tips as well as being available to answer any questions you have along the way. The last thing you want is to buy a site and be left hanging without any idea how to promote or advertise it. TurnkeyNation.com is an example of where one can go to purchase a turnkey website complete with domain, hosting, and full support.

Many times people who purchase turnkey websites do not have a large budget set aside for advertising and promotion. Luckily, there are many low cost methods available that can immediately begin making an impact, and even some of the methods are FREE!

Below are my opinions of what I feel are the best and most cost effective methods to promote your site and obtain targeted traffic:

1) Forums - This is perhaps the best and most effective FREE method to obtain targeted traffic. You can sign up for forums related to your website and add your URL to your signature. Then start posting and commenting with useful advice in the forum. Dont sell yourself, just post with friendly advice and people will see your URL in your signature. The traffic will come automatically. This is one of the best free ways to gain targeted traffic online.

2) Press Releases - Write a press release and submit it to all FREE online press release websites. As your press release gradually begins to be aggregated throughout other press sites and search engines, visitors will naturally begin visiting your site.

3) Ebay - Yes ebay may cost a little to post a listing or two, but if you can sell anything at all related to your website (even related ebooks) you can obtain a large amount of quality targeted traffic from eBay. You can begin by creating an "About Me" page on Ebay which directs customers to your website. You will then begin recieving instant targetted traffic and this can convert into sales!

4) Link Building - This is another very effective and free method to obtain targeted traffic. When you trade links with other similar sites, you are inevitably going to receive more targeted traffic. The important thing here is to trade links with sites which are closely related to yours. Not only does it help the visitor, it also helps your organic search engine results.

5) Search Engines - You should submit your website to all search engines and free directories. At the very least manually submit to the top 3 - Google, Yahoo, and MSN. But its best to submit to as many as possible. There are many resouces online where you can pay a small fee to be submitted to 50+ search engines and 150+ directories.

6) Google Adwords - This is a bit more costly than the above methods, however can be immensely successful when done properly. You essentially bid on keywords and then your ad will be displayed throughout the Google network. However, choosing proper keywords and budgets greatly affects your rate of success without draining your bank account.

7) Traditional Advertising - Dont underestimate traditional advertising methods. Even though your business/website is online, that doesnt mean you cant attract potential customers from offline advertising. Although advertising via this method is not free - Classified Ads, local radio spots, tv commercials, billboards, etc. can all drive traffic to your website. And best is if you can advertise to a targeted market where you can cater to the needs of indivduals looking for a service or product your website offers.

I recommend purchasing a turnkey website that interests you, and then promoting/advertising it using free methods. Then once you are generating a profit, you can switch over to paid advertising and invest more money into your business.

The last bit of advice is to not expect overnight results. Granted, you can begin making money from day 1. However, just as a real world business thrives over time, the same applies to online businesses. Once you website has been saturated into the search engines, and once customers begin advertising for you via "word of mouth" is when your business will begin to really take off.