Different Kinds Of Profitable Websites

[oddsy]

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum but I really was unsure of where to post it.

My problem is that I want to build my own website that I can make money off of. The only problem is I don't have an actual business to advertise for or to sell things from my website. So what are other possibilities of websites that you can create to make money off of? I've hear of affiliation websites or something along those lines. But don't you need something to go with a website like that?

So can any of you help me come up with ideas for building a profitiable website?

[flood6]

There are probably countless ways to get started.

I'll throw in a few to get you started. Hopefully someone can jump in here to give a few more. These are sites that can be "eased" into without making an enormous initial investment and learning as you go.

Dropship Site - This would be where you make a site and sell products. You carry no inventory. Every time someone places an order, you just order that from your supplier and have it shipped directly to your customer. The customer never knows the diffrence. Learn more at http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_dropship.asp that is a solid, reputable company. If nothing else, check out the free e-book; it gives some good information about new internet businesses in general.

Affiliate Site - This is a site where you offer links to other websites. When visitors to your site click on one of those links, goes to the site in question, and makes a purchase, you get either a flat commission or a % of the sale.

Content Site - This is a site where you try and build the best, most informational site you can. You try and establish the site as an authority. Tons of people go to the site purely for information. You can then sell advertising space (through Google, direct, Overture, etc.).

It is also a good idea to try and incorporate all of the tactics described above so you can get income from diffrent angles. Each of the sites above can be done with a very low budget. You will need to learn a lot, and spend lots of time to be sucessful.

Plenty of people have made fortunes using the techniques described above; a lot more people have failed to make any money using the same techniques.

Good luck, and keep learning.

[jestep]

I would say combining the bottom 2 is going to be the best way to go. Content and Affiliate or advertising. Just look at internet.com or other networks. All content, and a lot of money.

[sbeco]

Here are a few sites that will give you some ideas about how to create your own products to sell online.

This one is a Marlon Sanders site:
http://www.yourownproducts.com/index.html

This one is new but the membership sold out quickly, so you'll have to get on their waiting list. It would probably be a good idea to read their e-mail course on creating a "niche" product to sell. The commpany is called "Nicheology." It was created by well-known Internet marketing guy, Jimmy D. Brown.
http://nicheology.com

You can also sell PDF copies of books that are in the Public Domain. There are lots of free sites to help you with this, but here is the link to a popular source of info about how to find and sell books that are in the Public Domain. It was created by Yanik Silver.
http://publicdomainriches.com

Also, a good source to find out more about how to create your own products is a site with a software program called P.I.P.E (Product Idea Profitability Evaluator). Sign up for their free email course to learn about how to evaluate a product idea BEFORE you invest in it. It was created by Joe Garris. Joe's site link is here:
http://www.productideaevaluator.com

And one last thing. If you have an idea for a book, say you discover that you cannot find an ebook about "Learn How To Create Oragami Art in Less than 30 minutes." With PIPE you can evaluate how many people are interested in oragami (your niche product idea), and you can find out how much your Google Adword competition is spending on clicks for your keywords, you can research what keywords to use and which ones are the least competitive and the least expensive, plus lots of other helpful info. This way you have a good idea if there is any market for your book idea BEFORE you go create your ebook.

To create this ebook you can go to this website http://www.elance.com (look under Small Business Solutions). On this site you can hire someone to write the book for you for a few hundred dollars, preferably an oragami expert. We're talking about a 30 to 50 page PDF book.

Once the book is written you can put it in a PDF file and sell on your site. You can also hire someone to write a seven-part free course on oragami art that you can offer to people who visit your site. Since most people won't buy right away, it's a good idea to give them something of value to take home before they leave. By offering a course, you can start building your "opt-in list" of newsletter subscibers. Yes, you need a newsletter. Also offer a couple of freebie inticements to get people to sign up for your seven-part course on oragami art...like a free software. Have a look at Domain Name Analyzer. http://www.domainpunch.com/products/dna/ This is a nifty and FREE, little software program that will let you search for domain names from your desktop. If you "co-brand" the software you can add your company name to the software and also add your affiliate link to any domain name purchase site that has an affiliate program.

So, the idea is to evaluate the market for your ebook idea before you spend any money on it using PIPE. Then, if there is a market for the book commission a writer to create the book at elance.com. Then create the one-page website and perhaps hire a really good copy ad writer (copywriter) to write your home page sales copy.

We're talking about a one-page website here with a sign up form for your seven-part course. Nothing fancy.

And then, once your website is up and running, go to Google Adwords and set up a PPC campaign for your ebook about "Oragmi Art in 30 minutes." Sell the ebook for $24.95. And in your seven-part course add "affiliate links" to other products with a similar oragami/art theme. Also, at the bottom of your courses you can add a link to Third Sphere Hosting which will pay you a recurring $10 per month for everyone who signs up with Third Sphere hosting through your affiliate link. Over time that alone could bring in a tremendous monthly salary.

You may want to sign up with Third Sphere hosting yourself so that you can write about it in detail in your cool newsletter! This way people will know you have first hand knowledge of the service, and you can tell your subscribers to write to you about it and ask questions. (Good for business.)

One last thing, make sure you hide your affiliate links well. These days people have a tendency not to click on affiliate links. I'm not sure why. You can hide your affiliate links by

1. Not telling the company name of the product in your newsletter...make 'em click the link to find out the company name.
2. Buying affiliate link cloaking sofware. (There are lots of affiliate link protector products out there.)

And when your done creating your Oragami book niche site, you can start another niche site. Maybe three or four. Then you can write about your niche site experiences and publish your articles and write your own book titled "How to make thousands of dollars by creating niche sites."

I hope this helps.

(Good grief, I've written a novel. Where does the time go?)

[oddsy]

thanks everybody for all that information and ideas. And I've actually come up with a "content" site I could do. I'm either going to do one over a hit tv show thats new and doesn't already have a thousand sites dedicated to it or do another bored.com site with all the great links of stuff you can do online. And then once my site gets going and I get alot of hits then I can sell space to google and other companies and also do the "affiliation".

But nothing is for sure yet. So if there is anymore ideas I would love to hear them.

And I was also wondering about a host site. Where you lend web space for users to host pics and things online. Do you think there is good business in that and that I could be successful there or what?

[Easy Web 4 U]

If you are looking for affiliate links, www.cj.com and www.linkshare.com offer some great possibilities.

Teresa

[ryskis]

If you are interested in selling tangible products then a dropship site is a great suggestion. Dropshippers can make it a lot easier to get started and making a profit. Flood6 suggested a directory of drop shippers, which is good; however, to find the good ones you have to spend days and days going through the listings. I would recommend Dropshipper Wholesale Marketer. They have a tour that describes their services. They have already selected several different dropshippers that work and you can access them through Wholesale Marketer. It has worked for me, and I think it saved me a lot of time. They don't have any webbuilder solutions though, only a link to someone elses that does it. But Wholesale411 has a free webstore that you can use to sell from. Although it can be more difficult to market your site from them.

[xmx]

I can suggest you to also give a look at sites like Prozilla.com.

For a small membership fee they provide you turnkey
websites about many different services.

You of course will need to market them, and it is not
always an easy task to accomplish.

[cyanide]

Some really great ideas and tips here.

But, let's not forget emotion. Whatever product / service / subject you choose... should be something you know you're going to enjoy. It's hard work

[TrafficProducer]

Symptoms of Cyanide:
...include vomiting, convulsions, deep breathing, shortness of breath, anxiety & loss of consciousness

You forgot to stay and a Blue Screen :0

[Linda Buquet]

Hi oddsy,

Visit the affiliate forum here where lots of friendly people (like me, the mod) will answer questions to help you get started with affiliate marketing.

Here is a great beginner thread to help get you started: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=21311

[keywordguy]

But, let's not forget emotion. Whatever product / service / subject you choose... should be something you know you're going to enjoy. It's hard work

I agree... I recently had a customer that spent over $10,000 on a business idea that he wanted to develop on the Internet. He tried several others as well before he had contacted me.

At the end of the day, he could not define anything he liked to do or had an interest in. He just wanted a web site that would make him lots of money without having to do any work.

I have other customers that have been working business ideas that would bore me to death, but they are doing well.

The key... they enjoy what they are doing so they continue to stick with it, they are motivated, and it shows in what they do and how they interact with other about their product or service.

[cyanide]

Originally Posted by TrafficProducer

You forgot to stay and a Blue Screen :0

LOL

I was at my character limit