Stories of wild riches being made overnight pervade the Internet. Memories of the .com bubble also pervade the Internet. The latter serving as a warning against those overly eager about the former.

Yes, some of these fairy tale stories are true - they do happen, but they don't happen to everyone. In fact, they happen only to a very small fraction of a percentage of the millions of people working in, on and around the Web.

Success on the Web is as much about being a savvy business person as... well, being a savvy business person. But, like most things in life it takes time and effort to build wealth online. For those people who are prepared to work hard and, more importantly, smart, there are rewards to be had.

Here's a good generic method for ensuring some form of revenue stream...

1. conceive: find something useful or entertaining or important to do - anything that will appeal to a given target audience.
2. engage: start groups, send out newsletters, create products, create new content - anything to engage your readers and customers
3. market: write press releases, get reviewed, enter competitions - anything to increase your online visibility
4. integrate: become acquainted with others in your field, exchange links, offer expertise and opinions - anything to raise your standing and profile within your niche
5. repeat: don't stop - do whatever it takes to keep your ideas fresh and your connections and content vital

You might also want to bear a few of these thoughts in mind:

>> Don't expect overnight success - while it can happen, it's not a bankable chance. Most success comes from a lot of hard work.

>> Initially, spend more time on defining and growing your website. While it is important to know how you are going to earn money when the time comes, if you don't get there in the first place it's irrelevant anyway.

>> There's a general equation you can apply to work out what your website earning potential is:

What this means is that the amount of people you can attract to your website relates directly the amount of money you will earn from it. How you earn it, and the particular rate at which you extract revenue per capita is tied up in your websites business model and advertising strategy and is represented by the monetization quotient in the equation above. It's up to you to make this value as big as possible for your website.

We have a few articles designed to help you build a solid income from your website when the time is right.