By now, you should have known what are the basic website concepts and business models based on the 2 principles. If you don't know, read "Site Concept"
By now, you should also know what are the various components that you need to consider when you are setting up your site. I trust that if you go through the various recommended readings, you now have a good grasp of how to set up your site. If you don't know, read "Setup Site"
A
Quick Checklist :
Have you decided on your concept and business model
?
Have you got a product to sell ? Can you
make one ?
Do you wish to sell other people's products
based on the theme of your site?
Have you chosen a keyword focused domain name
using the tools I've recommended ?
Have you signed up for a hosting package
?
Have you signed up for an autoresponder service
?
How about payment gateway ? Do you need them
?
Have you got an affiliate program to allow
others to sell for you ?
If not, have you signed up to join the affiliate programs offered by others
?
Have you considered the stats program to
monitor your site's activities ?
You need to be able to answer all those question before you proceed further. Frankly, what you put in your site depends on the concept you have chosen. If you haven't decided yet, here are some questions which may help you.
Do you have a product to sell ? Preferably a digital product. I would recommend an ebook written either to help people get what they want or solve some problem they have. Please read Ken Evoy's Make Your Knowledge Sell.
Corey Rudl suggest going to discussion forums and just see what problems people are facing there. Solve it and you have an instant product to sell and a ready market and you know exactly who to sell to. He gave the example of Ferrari car owners looking for cheap emblem replacements because the original ones are frequently stolen and the original ones cost a few hundred bucks each. He was hanging out at a car discussion forum. He sourced and found a supplier for the cheap emblems and has been earning good income for many years just from the sale of that one item.
If you don't have a product to sell (yet), are you passionate about something ? Have a hobby ? Perhaps good in sports ? Start a content site or newsletter based on a subject you like. See what the competition is doing. Look for a niche by narrowing down the subject. Instead of doing a site on diving, narrow it down to diving in south east asia. You need to understand that a content site takes a longer time to generate income as compared to a direct sales site. But you have many more products on sale at one time.
I will show you the contents needed for the basic concepts above. Although there are many business models, they are just variations of this 2 main principles :
#1 The Direct Sales Site (Nothing to do with direct sales, network marketing or MLM)
Make Your Knowledge Sell