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7 Website Ideas to Invest in Your Business This Black Friday
You see it all the time – people around you starting a website, deciding to take their future into their own hands and put meat to the metaphorical bones of their website ideas that’ll help them generate money. This Black Friday, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to be that person.
Starting a website is not an overly complicated endeavour to undertake but does require an idea to help make it stick as a viable source for cash generation. It’ll go even better if you have a goal in mind that you can work towards. It’s similar to starting a business in the sense that an idea is enough to move it from the ether of your mind into our physical reality, but you’ll need a bit more to flesh it out.
As you know, fleshing out an idea can always be fun, especially when considering how it’ll all work out if it goes according to plan. Before all of that, however, you still need the initial idea to begin the process of beefing up the conceptual skeleton.
To that end, we’ve come up with seven website ideas you can use that’ll help you create income one way or another online. These ideas are built to last and potentially be the financial game-changer for you, especially since you’ll be able to grab them at a steal this Black Friday.
Not only will this help guide you with the purpose of your website, but also the goals you expect your website to accomplish.
1. Make money with an ecommerce website
Easily a contender for the most popular reasons people start a website or get a hosting package: to run an ecommerce store.
An ecommerce store is a purveyor of goods or services that allows you to make purchases online.
Shopping online has become a staple in modern society, sometimes even creating a bit of frenzy during certain times of the year like Black Friday. Whether that’s making actual purchases or window shopping to compare prices before heading to a physical store, ecommerce websites are regular stops for the modern consumer.
This means that as long as the internet is a thing (which we imagine it will be for the foreseeable future), ecommerce websites will be a viable solution to your money-making website idea conundrum.
How to make your ecommerce website work
Of course, you’ll need something to sell if this is the route you choose to go. If you already have a physical business, not having an ecommerce rendition of your brick-and-mortar business is essentially subscribing to massive amounts of lost revenue.
Start by installing an ecommerce platform on your website like OpenCart, WooCommerce, or Prestashop. From there you’ll need to specify the details of your online store.
That will include everything the public needs to know about your business, such as products or services you sell, physical location, delivery fees, customer support lines, etc.
Naturally, this brief overview doesn’t tell the full story of how much work this is, but it’s a general guide for what you should be doing any time you open an ecommerce store.
Our ecommerce website tip
A small, niche online store will generally do better than an ecommerce store that tries to do plenty of things at once.
So, if your store makes socks and foot sleeves for dogs, you’ll have an easier time building your brand and supplying your product well than if you start out selling a variety of things across different niches.
2. Pull traffic and sponsors with an online brochure (standard website)
It might sound slightly reductionist to say, but that’s essentially what most websites are. They’re online brochures.
A website is a collection of web pages that fall under the same domain name.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having your website be an online brochure for whatever it is you’re passionate about. If you prefer, you can think of it as a modern museum dedicated towards your interests instead. And if people are fascinated by your interests along with what you have to say about them, you’ll have plenty of traffic to convince sponsors to team up.
The point is, the standard website acts similar to a business card wherein it generally gives you all the information on a certain brand, business, or person. Being online, however, it can hold a lot more information than the average business card.
This is what sponsors will count on if you choose to make money via this route. That the passion you have can be called upon to market or recommend their products as well.
Obviously, given that each site can hold massive amounts of data, what was initially an online brochure can also double up as an ecommerce store, blog, and many other things.
How to make your standard website work
To get things up to standard with your online brochure, drawing information from industry standards is a pretty good idea. You should aim to have these three pages on your new website:
- Home page: What visitors see when they land on your website. An introduction to what your website is about and a navigation area to other parts of the site.
- About us page: The mission or purpose of your website. This can also be focused on you as an individual if the website is about you.
- Contact page: The details a visitor will need if they wish to get in contact with you.
Depending on how your website expands, you can add things like a store, blog, FAQ section, or help page.
Our standard website tip
Start small and maintain that small site well before you expand to add more layers. Anyone can dream of having an amazing website with many facets and layers to it that serves as an online hangout for a particular niche.
To get there, however, you need to do the basics right first. And that means having a clean, well-looked after website which takes quite a bit of work. Once you have the hang of it you can consider expanding to include other layers.
3. Land the perfect job with an online portfolio & resume
A fine idea is to use your hosting package to create a portfolio or online resume that can serve as a handy tool when people need to see if you’re the right person for the job.
An online portfolio or resume is a digital copy of your skills and experiences that can be accessed via the web.
As with any document showcasing how awesome you are, a portfolio website will naturally have to be accurate, up to date, and enticing. Since you can add a lot more than text to your website, enhancing the viewing experience with a personal touch and a bit of design will indubitably hook the right people.
A well-designed online portfolio (that you update as needed) can do wonders for landing you the right job. If it’s done well enough you can even offer classes or guides showing others how it’s done.
Think about it: with major spending occasions like Christmas and Black Friday coming up, what better gift to give someone (or yourself for that matter) than the tool or skill to empower themselves for the future?
How to make your portfolio & resume website work
Start by having clear sections for each part of yourself. A simple example, drawing inspiration from our standard website (brochure) is:
- Personal information: Have a section that details the personal information you want to share. Since people aren’t scrolling through a word or PDF document, you don’t have to be concerned with how much you write. They have the option of reading parts of your bio or the entire novel (if you choose to go that route). Generally, you’ll want to keep it on the shorter side though.
- Professional information: In no uncertain terms let them know what you did and why you were the best at it. And if you’re not the best at it yet, you will be. Don’t add fluff but do list as many of the important tasks you performed in each role, so visitors know that you’re capable.
- Examples of your work: The main attraction of your online portfolio will be the work you’ve done. Be sure to give yourself the best chance possible by putting your most impactful work first.
Our portfolio & resume tip
Ensure your portfolio website is easy to navigate and lead with key points first. So, if you’d like to bring attention to the fact that you created the best sandwich in the world one Tuesday afternoon, title that section appropriately with a brief introduction.
If the reader wants to know more, following the link to the full story can enlighten them. You don’t want to bombard people with information, but you do want to have it ready should they require it.
4. Write and sell ebooks
Publishing a book can be an expensive and tumultuous experience. More so if you’re looking at physical copies. A digital book, however, can offer less admin and wider accessibility.
An ebook is an electronic book that’s been published digitally. Like physical books, it can consist of text, images, and diagrams.
This idea is geared towards those that intend to publish a book (picture or text). But can provide some merit even for those who have no intention of authoring a book of any kind. It can serve as an online notebook for you or others to reference, or a book-like collection of memories.
If publishing a book online is your goal, using your website to that end will work quite well. It’ll save cost and allow it to be distributed globally with ease. This is especially important if your income surrounding the book is based on the number of people that access and read the book online.
An ebook is a low-committal, low-space product for people to buy. With more things moving towards an online domain, the active reader base can only grow as time goes on. This means a bigger market and more potential cash flow.
To ensure you offer the public an excellent product, however, you’ll definitely want to talk to a web designer. They can help make the online reading experience pleasant and seamless.
How to make your ebook website work
Depending on your plan, you can use your website for one ebook, or use it as a hub to navigate to any of the ebooks you’ve written or plan to write.
If you only plan to have one ebook per domain name, then you won’t need much for the website besides the book itself.
If, however, you prefer having a single domain that can then navigate to a collection of books you’ll need to set it up as a standard website to start and make accommodations for an ebook section.
Our ebook tip
Like any other website, your ebook should be appealing to look at but not draw away from the content itself. Don’t add too many distractions that will pull readers’ attention away from the book, but don’t make it completely bland either.
Another thing to note is that since the ebook resides online, you’ll need to ensure you have both a working SSL and ownership for the domain name as long as you want it at that address.
5. Maximise your conversions with a landing page
This idea is for those prospective marketers. A landing page is a simple enough website that serves a singular purpose: to convert. If ever you needed one to boost your sales, our upcoming Black Friday discounts will give you the perfect opportunity to create one.
A landing page is a single web page that is used to increase conversions, particularly because of the way it is set up.
The appeal of a landing page is that it’s generally static and is its own purpose. Unlike a website that encourages exploration, landing pages don’t muck around with any of those elements.
It wastes no time telling you you’re at the right place to benefit from whatever the product or service is, and that’s all it does. So, if you want to use your hosting package for something with a little more depth, perhaps a landing page is not the way to go.
If, however, you already have a website or simply just want to bring in conversions, then a landing page will work perfectly for you.
How to make your landing page work
Like we’ve just mentioned, the purpose of a landing page is to convert. So, you need to ensure that the content meets that required goal. Showcase the best of what you’ve got and why anyone would be silly to pass up the amazing opportunity with which you’ve presented them.
You’ll need some marketing expertise to use the right content that can entice visitors to convert. Whether you learn some skills yourself or recruit a marketer to assist you is your choice.
Our landing page tip
Figure out what it is about your product or service that is unique and punt it. If the dog sleeves you’re selling are made from biodegradable materials and can withstand roughhousing and being caught on sticks, mention that clearly with as little text as possible.
Ideally, you want to answer all questions buyers might have and showcase every benefit as succinctly as possible.
6. Generate cash flow and traffic with a knowledgebase
If you’ve ever been stuck researching a topic, you’ll know how grateful one can become after eventually finding some article that can direct your next course of action. Enter the Knowledgebase.
A knowledgebase is a library of information that people can use to find answers or solve problems on their own.
People will pay money to access a well-curated knowledgebase. And if you prefer keeping it free and accessible to all, you can always enlist sponsors. They’ll gladly get on board and market to the traffic you’ve garnered with your expertise.
Knowledgebases tend to be used by bigger businesses that have many moving parts to their product or service. Because of all the moving parts a one-size-fits-all approach generally won’t work, so having multiple workarounds and solutions in one spot can be quite useful.
Having one set up also reduces some of the load on support staff. Some people prefer handling issues themselves as well so this caters to those individuals nicely.
It’s not limited to just bigger businesses or entities, however. If you’re passionate about educating people on a specific topic you can use your website as a knowledgebase.
Not only will you satisfy your passion, but you’ll also appear as an oasis to the weary internet traveller desperately searching for a fix to their pets’ trash diving antics or whatever else, which is a door to a market all on it’s own.
How to make your knowledgebase work
When people are looking for answers in a knowledgebase, they want the solution laid out in front of them as quickly as possible. No anecdotes (unless it’s really necessary), no fluff, and no family history as to how this was passed through the ages (looking at you, cooking recipe websites). Get right into step one or whatever the solution entails.
Our knowledgebase tip
Ensure that your search bar is prominent and working perfectly.
When people enter your knowledgebase, they may not be all that familiar in the beginning, but a clear and working search bar will make their solution-finding journey a lot more pleasant.
In addition to the search bar, you’ll want to have category navigation for different groups of topics that visitors can also peruse should they have related issues.
So, if your knowledgebase was on home pet care, you could have a section dedicated to dogs, cats, rodents, and reptiles perhaps, with specific issues inside each category.
7. Turn your hobby blog into a money maker
Last, but certainly not least, you could use your hosting package to start a blog.
A blog is a website that usually publishes or journals information in reverse chronological format. This sharing of information can be on a certain topic or a range of topics.
An idea that we’ve probably all had at one point or another: ‘I should start a blog’. Not a bad idea either, particularly if you’ve been thinking about getting a website to create extra an income but are unsure of how to go about it (very meta, we know).
We left this idea for last since it’s a commonly-had spark and probably didn’t need much prompting from us for you to have it. It’s with good reason that it’s as popular as it is, however. And especially a prime time to get it with our Black Friday sales coming up that can save you money down the line.
As a blogger you can reach a monthly income of up to $10000 (R173340), but of course that’s an upper limit. Most people don’t make nearly as much as that, but it’s definitely a viable option to make a living, generate extra cash flow, or to use as a hobby.
How to make your blog work
We’ve written extensively on this topic. If you settle on creating a blog with when you get a website, here are a few in-depth posts that’ll offer the necessary insights:
Whether you plan to monetize or not, for your blog to be successful you’ll need to upload quality content regularly.
Focus on a niche that you’re passionate about and try to become a sort of hub for information on that topic. Easier said than done, no doubt, but that’ll get your blog to where it needs to be.
Our blog tip
Be as consistent as possible with your blog posts. If this means you need to write some posts months ahead and post a couple a week, adopt that process. Surfers of the internet are always looking for current, fresh information on the topic of their choice.
For example, if you can offer the latest perspective or insights on whether pit bulls are actually just aggressive or it depends on how they are raised, visitors will clamour to find this new data. Obviously, it’ll have to be factual with some sources to corroborate your perspective.
Conclusion
Each of these ideas will be a fine use for a website, and all of them has the potential to generate income to provide monetary value by their very existence. If you have a hard time choosing between two ideas, they can fortunately be used on the same hosting as well. In fact, you could probably add all of these ideas to one website if you wanted.
We wouldn’t recommend it since the website would likely appear as a virtual yard sale of sorts, but some of these pair really well together. Perhaps a business website with a blog and knowledgebase, or a landing page and ebook that can also be downloaded.
The point is, websites can work for whatever your online goals are, especially if that goal is to make money by purchasing something that lasts. If you’re going to try and make money with your website, this Black Friday is the perfect time to do so since most of our hosting packages will be discounted.
Websites are excellent investments for your financial future if you want it to be, and we dare say we know just the place to find you the perfect one.
