Let's break the down the tasks:

1) Finding something profitable to promote on line.
You can either find/build a product or service your self and market it via the internet to generate sales. This does require a lot of work, time and dedication in building that side of the business.

The other option, which is by far the most popular is to promote a product/service for another company, receiving a commission for every sale you generate. This is called an “Affiliate Program”, if you search on Google for Affiliate Program you will find heaps of info and companies that you can work with. A big bonus taking this route is that these companies offer help, advice and promotional material to help you generate sales. You also have the added bonus of not stocking/shipping/billing the products or services.

Our company help people promote Premium Rate content Services, you would have seen them on TV and in any newspaper in the UK. The most popular service by far is the dating services, men wanting to meet women.These services are accessed via a premium rate number, charged at x per minute. I receive a percentage split of the tariff the service is on, for example £1/min. That £1 would get shared between many people. The Telco (The company that supplies the numbers) would take 25p, the Operator would get 25p/min, the Service provider (The company that sets everything up, employs the readers, sets up the numbers and is the company that pays everyone) would take 5p/min. The rest goes to the promoter, the media owner - 40p/min. Doesn't sound much but it builds up quicker than you think, the average call duration is 8 minutes, 40p x 8 = £3.20 per call.

If you want to promote the services we promote, Visit Premium Rate Provider.

2) Research you competition
How can you design your site better than the others? What content can you add that others don’t? What would make your visitors want to buy your service/product? What are your Target audiences? Why would they re-visit your site?

Spend at least 2 weeks visiting your competition, learn what they offer, how they get traffic. Find as much info as possible.

3) Planning your Web Site:
Start planning content for your site. Pictures, wording, games, newsletters, tools your visitors can use. Content is King!

A visit to www.wordtracker.com is essential to look for keywords.

You need to plan your web site as much as you can. Think about what pages you are going to have, what content are your visitors going to enjoy etc. etc. They say "Content is King" And I couldn't agree more. The more content your site has the better, for Search Engines and Visitors!

The better you plan your web site, the better the outcome!

4) Learn On Site SEO
Learning On Site SEO before building your site will help you design your site around the SEO rules, which are vital if you are want traffic from Search Engines. To learn the basics of SEO, www.seochat.com is a good site to get going.

5) Designing a Web Site.
I always say to people starting out, DONT LEARN WEB DESIGN. You can get a site built for peanuts these days, it just isn't worth putting your efforts and time into learning any web design/programming work at all. Of course a lot of people would disagree this, but I’m going on my past 8 years experience.

Web Site Design Services - We can build you a site exactly to your spec, as you pay for what you need.

6) SEO, Search Engine Optimisation.
The reason I suggested that it's not worth learning Design (If you are in the early stages) is because I think that your time and efforts are better spent in learning SEO. Getting people to come to your web site is hard, but doable if you follow the rules. The more people who visit your web site, the more money you will make.

Off site SEO. You need to build links to your site, which is not easy. Submit your sites to as many directories as possible, email other webmasters for a link exchange, research on-line on how to obtain more links. I spend 3 hours per day trying to find links and thinking of ways that I can get more links. If you have something on your site that other sites would want to use, then they could link to your site, the best method I have fount to date. You can also try forums, adding a link in the signature of your posts.

Good luck!