I was working away at a co-working space in Bangkok Thailand called the Paper Plane Project, it’s a workspace by day and a night club by night.
Whoever started this is super smart as they are able to capitalize on two audiences.
Sidenote, co-working spaces are a very useful way to make friends and meet new people (in addition to going to the gym) and I always enjoy finding out how other people are making money and what they are up to.
While I have no desire to run a co-working space in a foreign land, there is always someone clever at these spots. I ended up talked to a guy who was doing freelance on UpWork, he started off solo then hired a few people to help him out.
He built his little agency around this platform, since I do something similar with Fiverr we hit it off and I asked him questions on how his business model works.
The only difference between me and him is that I never wanted to build a service based business. I like having my freelance, time for money thing be a side thing and not the main thing.
The content marketing business (blogging, YouTube, social media and email) always appealed more to be because I wanted to live abroad full time and have the flexibility to travel.
I wanted money to flow into my bank account no matter where I was in the world.
Eventually, I pulled it off and did just that.
You can make money with content
When I started blogging I knew one thing, you can make money blogging.
I didn’t know exactly how, I just knew it as possible and that little bit of information was enough to get me going on the warpath to figure it out.
Eventually I did figure it out, I built a blog about teaching online and abroad (because I used to be an English teacher in Thailand and did online teaching with VIPKID for a bit) and my income sky rocketed.
The UpWork agency guy asked me how I did it. He said “so you just watched a bunch of video and read a bunch of blog posts?”
Yea exactly.
What I really did was watch other have success online, build an audience, publish income reports, and watched how they did what they did.
But one important thing…
At some point you have to start doing.
So whatever type of website you’re interested in building make sure to actually attempt it.
So let’s get into the types of websites you can create for fun and profit.
1. A blog based business
The first type of website you can make is a helpful, informational blog that get organic and paid traffic which then converts that traffic in some elegant way.
In the process of building my first successful blog and now building davidutke.com and edgeofdavid.com, I’ve learned why some blogs fail and other succeed.
A great blog is an expression of your soul, some element of you.
It’s how Tim Stoddart built Sober Nation into a massive, helpful website that changes lives for the better.
In a similar way a book can be more of a book, so to can a blog.
Conversely, a bad blog is more of a liability than no blog at all.
Building a “niche website” because you think it can make you money is dead. It’s lifeless, just a thing existing on the internet in black and white.
Instead, look at your blog in full color, as a piece of art, as a vehicle to serve others. Not as a lame niche site.
How blogs make bank
The business model of a blog is to use content as an advertising vehicle. With each piece of content, you convert your audience in some elegant way.
Be it to buy a low priced product you’re selling, subscribe to an email list, and affiliate offer or to run ads on content that has no clear offer.
But first and foremost, you treat your blog like a piece of art, like an expression of some aspect of you where you’re helping others get what they want.
Ready to start your blog?
Checkout my free step by step guide or any one of my tutorial videos.
I suggest using WPX Hosting as your web host. If they’re good enough for me, they’re good enough for you.
Don’t waste your time with super budget web hosts. Get quality hosting and world class support.
WPX
My current host. They are a managed WordPress host and provide the best support and hosting I’ve experienced. Go with them if you’re sure you want to start a WordPress website.
2. Start an online store
Whoa, you mean actually sell something online as a way to make money instead of just blogging my thoughts, feelings and passions?
Yep, starting an online is a very popular type of website you can make for profit.
The only thing you need to decide is how you’re going to source your product. I suggest doing drop shipping to first figure out what to sell and if it sells and to then move into wholesale deals with specific suppliers.
No, drop shipping the way it’s sold online by marking up products and having a supplier marketplace like Modalyst do everything does not really work.
It’s a good way to get started and test the market, but long term you’ll need to invest in products, ads and working directly with suppliers.
How much to get started
Budget $4000 to get your online store off the ground if you want to pursue this method. Most of this money is going to be spent on ad spend and any educational material on how to drop ship.
You will have to be comfortable with spending money to source products themselves that you then sell as well as running ads.
Like starting an online store where you sell coffee or tea.
You’ll first need to source a supplier, invest in production and then stack that product at a fulfillment center so it’s ready to be shipped when sold.
Unless you’re doing the direct drop shipping route where you run ads and sell products on behalf of a supplier you have a good relationship with.
Ready to get started with an online store? Then checkout Shopify, the best ecommerce website builder.
Shopify
Shopify is one of the best, and most popular ecommerce website builders around. They provide all the features you need to create and grow an online store.
3. Consulting website
Coaching and consulting is a great business model, particularly if you’re a people person.
The top of the funnel is some free guide, webinar or mastermind which you then funnel prospective clients into booking numerous coaching calls with you.
You can (and probably should) add on some sort of course to your offer and put your clients on a monthly retainer.
For this model to work you don’t focus so much on blogging but rather email marketing and paid ads.
You drive traffic to your website and get leads on an email list which you can then market to.
A good example of this is Domney Drew.
She was a dating coach for men who has since pivoted to a broader personal development coaching.
The way her business works is that she runs Facebook and Google ads to her website and gets that traffic to convert into her email list.
She then schedules prospective clients for a coaching call and puts them on a monthly retainer.
Lastly, she has a course to help generate passive, business income.
You can build this sort of website with WordPress and WPX Hosting and use Calandy for scheduling or you can use Squarespace to build your site and add on scheduling functionality.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a “do everything” website builder. You can build any type of website, blog or online store. Sell products, offer coaching and do email marketing.
A great alternative to WordPress. Whenever I make a website tutorial with this platform I’m always impressed.
4. Lead Generation
Create a website that gets leads in the form of calls or emails and then funnel those leads to various business for a profit.
Congrats, you have a lead generation site.
One such site that comes to mind was my friends site called PainterinCT.com (our home state).
It ranked for a bunch of location specific terms like “painters in Southington Connecticut.”
While none of these keywords generated a ton of traffic, this site grew to dominate the SERPS for everything related to hiring a professional commercial painter.
A handful a visits a month to 100+ web pages each really add up.
Another example is Sober Nation (that I mentioned before).
It started off as a blogger blog, then it became a WordPress blog and because of the organic traffic and community that developed around the site, Tim started funneling leads to companies.
A win-win as he was changing lives for the better and monetizing his site in a great way.
How does this work exactly?
A lead generation website works by ranking a website for specific terms, collecting leads and then selling those leads to small business.
Small business owners care most about increasing their revenue (at least the ones who are smart) so if you can sell them qualified leads that lead to sales it’s a potentially lucrative business model.
Tools to make a lead generation website
You need a website. I suggest going with WordPress and a quality web host for this type of website as you’ll have a lot of control over the functionality and design.
Contact forms
Next you’ll need a way to collect leads.
With WordPress you can setup a contact form as a way to collect leads. A contact form is simply an HTML form a visitor can fill out in order to contact the webmaster.
With emails you can setup automations to recommend specific businesses. Rick Whittington has a good breakdown on how this works.
Pay per call
This software allows you to track calls and to then sell those calls to businesses.
For example, you can put a number on your website like Painters in CT has done.
Then when someone calls that number they are directed to an automated message. You have access to the number which is considered a qualified lead that you can then sell.
Obviously there other websites that cover this much better than I can, I found Ringba to have the best, most detailed article on this topic you can dive into if you like.
But in short, you can use software called pay per called that helps you track phone leads.
5. Create a personal website
At a minimum, I strongly suggest owning your name as a .com. Head over to Namecheap and register it now.
I’ll wait…
You’re still here?
GO register your name before someone else does.
Once you have your name, you can either use it for a personal website or for your business.
Why create a personal website
A personal website is useful for use as an online resume, a portfolio of work or perhaps you just need a non-commercial focused website to publish whatever you feel like.
It does not even need to be anything to complicated, Alex Nerney’s personal site is about as basic as it gets.
Google Sites – My top choice for personal sites
Google Sites is the best platform for creating a personal website.
- You get an unstructured editor to design your website.
- You’re also able to set a custom domain name at no additional cost.
- All Google Sites come with a free SSL certificate.
- Integration with other Google products.
The only catch is that Google Sites is not for commercial use (which should not be a problem since you’re building a personal site) and you need to register your domain name (I suggest Namecheap) which costs a yearly fee.
There is no way to get a domain name for free, an yes you have to pay a yearly fee. However, domains are not too expensive.
6. Community website
The hot new thing right now is building out communities and the most popular tool for this is Skool by Sam Ovens.
I like Skool because you can easily create a community around a topic, have that community be free or paid (totally up to you).
In your community you can have courses and downloadable content like PDF’s. You also have a community tab where you can break up conversations into categories.
This just makes your offer wayyyyy more engaging and value added than having a simple forum or casual Facebook group.
On top of all that, Skool has a gamification element built in to reward users for being active and finally you can have live video calls with your community members that you can schedule before hand via the built in calendar.
Community as your all-in-one offer
The most appealing aspect of running a community is that you can position it as your all-in-one, high ticket offer.
Sign up and get access to you the creator, a bunch of exclusive courses and live calls.
As opposed to creating one off courses that you sell individually.
Other community platforms
While I think Skool is the best game in town as it’s a done for you solution, if you want to build a community website yourself then checkout MemberPress.
MemberPress allows you to do everything Skool does, except it’s a plugin for WordPress. As such you have much more control over the design and user experience.
Last, don’t forget about Buddy Press. It’s WordPress’s free and open source community forum software.
Skool
The best platform for creating a community with courses and digital downloads.
7. Landing pages & sales pages
I’m going to group landing pages and sales pages together because they are both specific marketing pages you’ll need for your online business.
A landing page in general can be short or quite long with the goal to convert someone to a free offer. When they take you up on your free offer, you can then upsell them a paid offer later.
A sales page is almost always quite long and detailed where you take the user on a journey of discovery.
Quickly establish what the problem is, why your offer is a solution to said problem, how your solution has worked for others and what the price is at the very bottom.
You do actually need to create sales pages to sell things.
Even if it’s something as simple as an $7 ebook.
So, if you’re looking to grow your email list then you’ll want to leverage landing pages that offer some type of lead magnet.
If you’re wanting to sell digital products then you’ll need to create a sales page.
Tools for creating sales pages and landing pages
There are quite few options for crafting these types of pages.
Lead Pages
Lead Pages was launched by Clay Collins and has grown into the industry leading landing page builder.
This platform contains everything you need to craft high pages from professional templates that you can customize with ease, banners, pop-ups, timers, buttons with light box forms and more.
The only thing lacking is that Lead Pages does not have any funnel feature built in. For that you’ll need to use your email marketing software.
Carrd.co
Carrd is a one page website builder. You can use Carrd to build a personal site, landing page or a sales page.
Best of all?
It costs $19 a year.
Yes year, not month, year.
Thrive Architect
Thrive Themes is one of my favorite WordPress focused companies.
They created Thrive Cart which is an outstanding platform for selling digital downloads.
They also sell high converting themes and Thrive Architect which is page building plugin aimed at professional marketers.
If you want to whip up quality sales pages and landing pages using WordPress, Thrive Architect is my go-to choice.
Final words for my friendly friends
That’s it for my list of the 7 best types of websites to make for fun and profit.
Obviously there are a whole host of types of websites you can make.
From general entertainment websites, to fun and creative one page websites or perhaps a donation focused website for a non-profit or a niche specific website like real estate.
Overall though, I think this simple list of 7 ideas should be enough to get you started serving an audience in some clear and specific way.
Till next time.
Your man,
-David
