This is a realistic look at one way to make a lot of money on the internet. Plenty of very successful people have followed the route laid out below. Plenty of people have tried and failed. Most people try, fail then try again. Those who stick to the task and have the ability to learn will usually end up as winners.

How to Become a Web Entrepreneur with very little Outlay

There is always going to be an outlay. A web entrepreneur needs websites. This means domain names and servers to deliver the site to users. This means around $40.00 a year for an average sized site.

Do I need a Great and Original Idea?

Well a genuinely original idea could make you mega-rich but it isn’t necessary. If you just want to be comfortably rich you just need to do what the vast majority of web entrepreneurs do- follow the trends, see what the trailblazers are up to in a particular niche and tag along. You can always have an original idea later.

Tagging Along.

In its most blatant form this means finding a successful website and copying it byte for byte (sometimes called cloning). This is how the web works. 99% of what you come across on the internet is partially or completely copied.

Of course, a pure copy will be a lot less successful than a copy with improvements. If you can spot a site that is doing well and then realize that it could do even better if only it had x or y, then this could bring real success. Copy, add the x or y and enjoy your earnings.

Alternatively, you might spot a great website and notice that it could cater better to a particular group- older people, younger people, Spanish speakers, whatever. Copy the site but shift the focus to satisfy the needs of this group better. Even if you only draw a minority from the original site it can mean significant earnings.

Copying with improvements is a standard business route to success. This is how the business world and the web evolve.

Do I need Technical Expertise to Create a Successful Website?

The answer is ‘a little but not very much’. If you have some seed capital you can buy in all the expertise that you need. The costs of hiring are amazingly low if you know where to look.

You can have a small site cloned- with your changes added - for less than a hundred dollars. 

A mega site- the kind that could make you seriously rich- might cost you in the region of 10 thousand dollars, perhaps more. It’s best to start small, see what works, learn a little technical stuff then go hunt the big fish.

The Best Sites to Find the Professional Help that you will Need.

Freelancer

Freelancer has been around for many years although until recently it was called Getafreelancer. It is an essential place to check out what web entrepreneurs are up to. It is also the cheapest place to hire genuinely skilled people. Most of its freelancers are from the third world especially India. Choose the right people (easier than you think) and you will get first class service at Third World prices.

Elance.

Elance is US based and a lot more expensive but it has the advantage that most of its freelancers have English as a first language and many are US or UK citizens.

I would recommend checking out both sites if you interested in web trends. I am only going to look at Freelancer in detail because the prices are attractive for beginners and the outcomes generally good.

The Kinds of Projects You will Find on Freelancer

The projects on Freelancer range from the tiny to the massive. I’ve included a few examples below.

If you join the site (its free) you can browse through hundreds of similar projects to see what is really going on in the world of website creation.

What will a cloned or improved Website be worth?

It is easy to get an estimate of what a website is worth and what its earning are. Websiteshadow.com is one of many sites that will give you estimates for visitor numbers, income and overall value. So if you see a website you think could be improved,  check to see what its earnings are. This will give you an idea of what your improved website will be worth in the fullness of time.

Examples

All of these ads (edited for brevity and clarity) were running on Freelancer during November, 2009. I haven't included the URLs of the websites because it would be a breach of Freelancer rules.

Example 1: Someone is looking to create a web directory with categories like entertainment, arts, kids and teens, business

What is the original website, xxxxxxxx.com. worth?

Websiteshadow offers the following stats

• Website Worth:$ 111,379 USD (€ 75,672 EUR)
• Yearly Ads Revenue:$ 93,952 USD (€ 63,832 EUR)
• Monthly Ads Revenue:$ 7,829 USD (€ 5,319 EUR)
• Daily Ads Revenue:$ 252.56 USD (€ 171.59 EUR)
• Daily Pageviews:116,809
• Daily Unique Pageviews:116,809

Example 2: This project was a big financial services, let-us-invest-your-money, type site with around 150 pages on its sitemap and a lot of complex feedback features. Bids to undertake this project averaged around $500

The value of the original site, yyyyyy.com, according to Websiteshadow:

• Website Worth:$ 11,002 USD (€ 7,475 EUR)
• Yearly Ads Revenue:$ 9,281 USD (€ 6,305 EUR)
• Monthly Ads Revenue:$ 773 USD (€ 525 EUR)
• Daily Ads Revenue:$ 24.95 USD (€ 16.95 EUR)
• Daily Pageviews:4,054
• Daily Unique Pageviews:4,054

Example 3

Someone is looking to improve a very popular Facebook game- similar to FarmVille or Restaurant City. The practice of improving a popular game is common. Farmville and Farm Town are 2 very similar games on Facebook and both do well. FarmVille, which came after Farm Town, attracts about 22 million players a day.

The bids for this mega project averaged $2500

How much is a top Facebook game worth? You could read this New York Times article

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/buying-virtual-goods-that-also-do-good/

You will realize that success in this area yields millions of dollars a year.

How do you Spot What Websites will Work?

Hang around the places that other web entrepreneurs hang around. Elance and Freelancer are obvious examples.

Digitalpoint forum is worth reading from end to end. This forum also has niche sites for sale and people for hire.

There are also many places to buy niche sites online.

Once You have your Site

Once you have your site you need to get it noticed. This is SEO (search engine optimization) territory. You can do the SEO yourself or you can pay someone to do it for you.

How Much is SEO work on Freelancer?

The answer is pretty cheap. A high quality mega SEO blitz might cost and few hundred dollars.

Paying on Freelancer

At first sight, freelancer looks like the Wild West. Hirers and freelancers can be from any country in the world and who knows what laws cover the payments for services requested?

In reality, if you read around the site you start to feel more confident that whatever you ask for will be delivered as long as you exercise normal care. There is feedback from hirers on the service they received from individual workers or companies. If someone has delivered fifty pieces of work and 49 people say 'great work delivered on time' and someone says ‘sadly it was below the standard of what I wanted and I wouldn’t buy it' you can be confident you will get what you want or be able to reject it without payment.

Freelancer also offer a milestones payment service which is useful for large projects. It is not an escrow service but freelancer will hold money from the hirer and pay it out when agreed milestones are reached. There is also a dispute resolution service.

For the Absolute Beginner

If you have no experience of creating websites and want to learn quickly (and earn a little money from adsense and affiliate marketing as you go along), there are some platforms that are ideal.

Hubpages allows you to create pages quickly and easily. You will soon learn to find the issues, products and services that people are interested in and which ones make money. The writers community is supportive and the learning materials easy to find and use. It is also an ideal place to learn about affiliate marketing as it integrated with Amazon and EBay.

http://hubpages.com/_tourhubpages/tour/hubpages/

Infobarrel have a similar set up but much less support for absolute beginners. On the plus side, if you are just interested in making some money they pay a higher percentage of Adsense earnings than Hubpages.

infobarrel.com

Squidoo have suffered credibility in recent years for allowing too much spam on their sites but are still worth checking out.

Squidoo.com

Hire-a-Freelancer Sites

Freelancer(formerly GetaFreelancer)

www.getafreelancer.com

Elance how it works page:

http://help.elance.com/forums/30969/entries/31959

The Best Forum

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/