People now have discovered the great potential of websites in terms of how they make money. Every day, more than 500,000 web pages are made, and most of them are web-based services that make money for the owner.
Do you want to know about other website ideas to help you make some extra money online or even make permanent income for you using business websites?
Before diving in head first, you’ll need to consider the number of resources and effort you need to create that website that will earn cash for you in the short or long run.
How Do Websites Make Money?
Crazy Egg cites the core ways that a business website can earn. It is about starting with monetization at the center of the strategy.
You can start by buying a domain name, which is the website address. Then get a web hosting plan, where the web page can store all the files and makes the website visible on the web. Integrating it with Google AdSense also helps a lot if you want to earn with your own website.
After that, it’s only a matter of picking and choosing what you want to commit to in building your website. You have the choice between a general website or niche affiliate websites. Here are the most profitable websites that make money:
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a really great website idea, a time-tested strategy that’s one of the most successful online-only business models. However, this one is quite misunderstood given its nature of being like a magic formula to earn money.
In essence, affiliate blogging starts when a website owner reaches out or applies for an affiliate program. If accepted, they will be included as an official affiliate.
Once accepted, they will receive an affiliate link to the product or service they are interested in promoting. They earn a small commission when someone buys a product using the link they clicked on your website.
Affiliate programs work best if you can provide value to your audience by helping them understand why the product or service you’re selling advertising space for is worth it or how it fits into their own lives. This is usually done by writing reviews of the top 10 products in a niche, and doing intense off-page SEO to the site.
One thing to note about joining affiliate programs is that you should be transparent to your audiences that you are under an affiliate program to avoid any country-specific regulations.
Blog Websites
Blogging was once a way for people to share their journey online. But nowadays, this has turned into one of the biggest profitable website ideas.
If you create a website on a specific idea or something that appeals to a big audience, then you may be able to outrank your competitors by slowly becoming an authority on the topic.
Blogging is usually utilized by big businesses to inform and teach their audiences about their products or services, which is why it can also serve as your portfolio website. Search engines love this type of content, especially if they tick all the boxes for search engine optimization.
If it’s your personal website, you can earn by publishing sponsored posts, which is usually a post written by someone else and includes a link to their site or products to get a commission. If you really want to run a successful business, you can further monetize your site by using any empty space available for ads, to sell online courses, or Google Adsense.
Blogging may be the choice of travelers, cooks to make a food blog, fashion bloggers, or anyone who wants to put their content out to a broad range of audiences.
It can also be a way for a news website to voice its editorials as news websites tend to be more informative. They can use blogs to discuss certain topics internet users are interested in and want another perspective on.
Podcasts: Blogging in 2022 and Beyond
Now that we are in an era when people are more active and on the go, there has been a surge of podcast shows. Essentially, podcasts are entertainment websites that are blogs in audio form.
Anyone with a microphone and editing software can start podcasting websites. Then it’s just a matter of promoting this along with your personal brand to different areas like community forums websites and social media platforms.
Create Ecommerce Sites
An eCommerce site is essentially an online business that sells products or services. You can display what you’re offering so that you can generate revenue from it. Visitors purchase products from you, and that’s where you earn from.
You can integrate online payments websites into your ecommerce store so that you can automate this to make it a semi-passive income. Pair it with an online marketing strategy like SEO or even selling ad space, and it may be one of the best website ideas you can come up with.
Just make sure you are knowledgeable in keeping your website safe if you’re building the online store yourself using an eCommerce website builder.
Review Website to Help Your E-Commerce Site
One way you can supplement your ecommerce site is to build a website that will review the products you are selling, just like an affiliate site mentioned earlier.
Don’t get me wrong, reviews and comments from users on ecommerce websites are the best sources of information. But as the statistics say that 90% of people seek reviews before making a purchase, having more information about the product’s specifications or technical information about it will help them even further.
Online Directories
Online directories earn by utilizing the exchange of information between owners and visitors by creating a database of searchable products, services or companies for anyone looking for one site to quickly make comparisons.
Think about Yelp, which uses different methods to cash in on this, and one proven method is paid listings. This is relatively easy to understand. People pay you so that they can list their information on your online platform. You can package different pricing plans for memberships, which can also offer banner advertising or other tiers of benefits.
One thing to consider for this method is the number of people willing to spend money for the listing. To ensure there are people who will join your directory, you can offer them membership website fees, just like paid listings where you can charge them. Being a member allows them to have their list posted for a certain period. Another benefit is an interactive community.
Online Job Board
The past couple of years have been challenging for many people, especially those who suffered from being laid off due to the pandemic.
Online job boards can help people find work and let employers post job openings in their company. Just like online portfolio websites and directories, employers can pay a certain amount to list jobs on their sites.
How to Decide What Type of Website to Build?
The best choice is always what you are most knowledgeable and passionate about, even if they are nonprofit websites. As you can observe, somehow, there is an overlap of techniques and strategies available so it’s possible to make a single site that has many ways of earning. If you have the time and resources, you may include how you can integrate multiple funnels into your marketing strategies.
There are other honorable mentions that you can build, these include:
- Educational websites or course websites
- Coupon websites
- Humor website
- Photography website or picture sharing websites
- Events website
- Fitness websites
- Entertainment sites
- Food blogs
- Restaurant website
- Poetry website
- Portfolio site
- Celebrity site
- Fashion blog
- Curation of online portfolios.
It can’t be overstated that a good web design is a key factor to the success of a website, so keep that in mind. Good luck to you in launching your new money-making machine and building your empire. Let us know what you think of this list in the comments below!