See this informative article on the various things you need to do to run a successful website. Although the article is about “blogging”, I think pretty much the same considerations apply to running a good website too.
The initial parts of that article has some stuff about passive income – skip over those to the rest of the article where the real meat is.
Excerpts:
Engaging in your Niche – Conversations happen outside of your blog also and most successful bloggers have systems in place to monitor what is happening in their wider niches. This lets them know what is being said about them elsewhere but also helps raise their profile and become valued members of the wider community. Monitoring the niche via RSS and news alert services are half of this equation – engaging in the conversations on other’s blogs is the other half. It all takes time.