7 Steps to Create a Money-Making Webpage Do each of these actions well to make money from a single new webpage

Here is a formula to create a webpage that makes money. This seven-step method works most times if it's well executed.

The technique is general and principles-based. Many business managers follow a similar approach, which I've learned from observing competitors over the years. You could consider it a standard way of produce landing pages and websites with commercial value.

1. Find a commercial product, service or topic

Step One is to find a subject for your page that has commercial value. This may be straightforward if you have a particular product or service to sell. For bloggers, you can do market research or be creative in arriving at a topic, though it's generally best to go for a subject you know about and which is relevant to your site.

An example of a commercial topic is "best electric bikes". When I search the term in Google, sixteen ads appear: four at the top of the results, three at the bottom and nine image ads on the side. Distributors of electric bikes are clearly competing to reach prospective buyers.

An example of a non-commercial topic might be "safe vegetables for hamsters". If you Google that term, you may well see no ads on the page. That shows a lack of competition for search traffic -- even though hamster owners may want to know about the subject.

2. Identify what prospective customers want

The page's headline, content and call(s) to action should meet the wants of a group of prospective customers. One way to get a feel for customer preferences is to see what other search terms are associated with a page topic.

To illustrate, "best electric bikes" is associated with searches such as "best electric bikes under £1000" and "best budget electric bike". These phrases appear at the bottom of the search page for me. So, one option is to make a page for people looking for cheap electric bikes.

For the purposes of this article, we'll use the highest ranked page from a general website for the search term "best electric bike". That's the digitaltrends.com page, "The best electric bikes for 2019". It has a Google search ranking of five for me at the time of writing.

3. Choose how to monetize the page

Thinking about how to monetize the page is useful early on. For example, you could create an information page that offers valuable advertising space. Alternatively, you may want to promote certain products or services offered by your business or a commercial partner.

A word of caution: don't fall into the trap of focusing on monetization at the expense of user experience. Creating a useful page is the first priority. For bloggers, the popular, high-traffic page comes first and then prospective advertisers and partners start reaching out to you.

Beyond selling your own stuff, the ways to monetize a website or blog are many. Google Adsense is a popular default option. You can run these click ads while using other methods, such as referral partnerships or Amazon-style affiliate programs.

4. Be helpful to your target customers

The next step is to create a page giving your target customers want they want. On its bike-related page, Digital Trends presents picks for the best electric bike in each of six categories, including best mountain bike, road bike and budget option.

Being helpful to readers is vital. By giving useful information, you improve search rankings for the page in multiple ways, including by (i) reducing bounce rates and increasing dwell time (ii) broadening the number of keywords the page ranks for and (iii) increasing the likelihood that other websites link to the page.

People aren't stupid and quickly work out whether a page is useful to them. If the page isn't what they are looking for, expect them to move away quickly -- without clicking on your call(s) to action.

5. Give your page a clean design and feel

A clean design and feel to your webpage make for a good user experience and high conversion rates. Keep it simple and clutter-free with an intuitive flow. Make the writing easy to read.

With a clean design, calls to actions, such as enquiry buttons, are easier to find and they get clicked on more. Further benefits of clean design are higher user trust, faster load times and less page maintenance.

6. Offer the right amount of choice

Offering prospective customers the right amount of choice can make a huge difference to conversion rates. People want to have a sense of control when they are contemplating a purchase or signing up for something.

Giving a single option when choices are possible is generally a no-no. Even if you have only one basic product, you can produce multiple options. For example, you could vary color or style, include optional extras or offer price deals.

Presenting too much choice can also be a mistake. People may be happy to browse through a long list of products if the difference between each item is clear. For similar or complex items, however, you should narrow down lists so the consumer feels confident they can find the ideal choice.

7. Market the page

The final step is to market your page so that you bring in visitors and start getting conversions. You should be well positioned to do this after creating a purpose-built landing page for your target audience.

The ultimate way to get traffic consistently is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO); in other words, by getting your page high up the internet search rankings. SEO is powerful because it continues working after you've stopped spending time and/or money on it.

Landing page SEO covers actions like choosing a catchy title, adding extra search terms to page content, and including images and video. You can also link to the page from other parts of the website and seek links from other websites.

Advertising and other forms of paid marketing can produce results quicker than SEO. To be worthwhile, the return on investment (ROI) should be significantly greater than one. An ROI above one means the extra revenue exceeds advertising costs.

Building a successful online business

Time, skill and practice may be required to get the formula to work for you. To produce strong results, most or all steps need to be done extremely well. Also, a new website will normally struggle to gain significant search traffic.

The more often you create landing pages and go through the process, the better you become. To keep improving, seek statistical and other forms of feedback. The good news is that, as your website grows and ages, it becomes more authoritative and more easily attracts traffic.

To get revenue flowing initially, you may benefit by targeting a niche market with modest commercial potential but also little competition. For example, instead of a page about "best electric bikes", the subject could be "best electric bikes with a child seat".

By generating revenue using the formula, you demonstrate a repeatable, money-making skill. Depending on talent and effort, it could be the foundation for a successful business.