Why Do People Create Websites?

Loes Knetsch ©

5 reasons for creating a website

Before you decide to create a website you have to find out for each website what the best revenue model is. Questions like “Which business model should I use?” And “What works for my niche (market)?” Are difficult to answer. After all, it depends on various factors. Over the years, I have tried different ways to make money with my websites. Some worked and some failed. It is important that you never give up when something does not work, there are always other possibilities.

The main reason why most people fail with their website is not that their idea or website is bad. It is because the expectations are too high, causing people to give up faster. Do not expect mountains with money to earn with your website. What I am convinced about is that everyone can earn a nice extra bit of pocket money with his or her website and that you may be the exception that can earn more than just a nice pocket money with a website.

5 why’s for a website

Below is a brief overview of 5 ways to explain why and how you can make money with your website. There are many more, but these are the most common reasons.

1. You have to say something to the world

People start blogging on a website and show ads or sell ad space to earn some money.

The most popular form of making money with a website is to place advertisements. We all know what it is, but you can earn money in various ways. The most common form of advertisements that you see on a website is, of course, Google Adsense. With Google Adsense, you get an x amount per click. For many people, Google Adsense provides the first revenue through their website. Although many people use Adsense, in some niches, it is not always the best choice to make money. Adsense is customizable and you can test different positions and colors for optimal results.

Another way is to sell ads for an x amount per week, month or year. Think in advance how much you want to earn and never go below the amount you can earn with Google Adsense.

Benefits

When you sell advertisement space you have guaranteed an income.
You don’t have to do much to make money.
You can use Adsense freely

Cons

When you sell an advertisement you can not earn more for the time it was sold.
Advertisers often require at least 10.000 visitors a month.
Advertisers come and go, you will have to search for new ones on a regular basis.
You can not choose your own ads with Adsense, Google chooses them for you.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Another popular way to make money with your website is affiliate marketing. Selling products from someone else. With affiliate marketing, you promote a product that your visitors can buy elsewhere. Every time you recommend a product there is a chance to make money and it is completely passive. You only have to place something once and it can raise your money without extra work.

Finding affiliate programs can be a big challenge. Most website owners use Amazon, but there are thousands to choose from.

Many sale companies are connected with an affiliate network. These networks handle the finances and promotion materials for the various companies. Signing up is free, and after approval, you can start to promote physical products. You will receive your own affiliate links and they are ready for use with all products. Sometimes you have to wait some weeks before a sale is approved because the money from the sale can still be recovered if the buyer reclaims his or her money, this has not occurred to me often. You can sometimes decide for yourself when you want to be paid. But more often the company will have a payout limit.

Benefits

You can earn very well.
You do not have to deliver anything yourself and the customer service is also for the store you are referring to.
There are products for every market.

Cons

Approval of a sale can take a long time in some cases.
The products are good but sometimes the companies have a bad sales page.
No guaranteed amount of money per month.

3. Sell your services

Recruiting customers for your own services is also a good reason and way to make money with your website. A blog can help you with this. When you have a service you want more customers. To reach more potential customers, you can create a blog and write about your services and related topics. With this way, you show that you understand the subject your visitor is looking for.

Benefits

Everything you do earn is for yourself.
Easy to set up.
A blog is a good convert but not always necessary.

Cons

You exchange time for money.
Customers are always right, even if this is not the case.
It may happen that you have no customer for a while.

4. Sell your own products

You have your own store, but want to expand your store with online sales. Then, a website is the ideal media to do this. I also see more and more often that people make their own products and try to sell those on their website. The simplest method is to write an E-book in a Word document and then convert it into a PDF file to sell it. I have a couple of PDF’s right here on my website, but I offer them for free.

When you want to make your own product, you must first know what your visitors want. How do you find out? Ask your visitors what they need and make a product for them.

If you do not know how to get a payment system on your website you can register yourself with PayPro. You can easily implement this on your website with a simple code from their payment system and affiliate system. It costs you an x percentage per sale.

Benefits

Works well to get more authority, you finally sell a product.
A good product can generate a lot of money.
Mouth to mouth advertising, people send visitors through and you can make more sales.
Your shop sales will increase because you left the local market.

Cons

It takes time to set up a fully functional web shop.
It takes time to make a product and the product can fail.

5. Trading and selling websites and domain names

Not every shop/ business owner has the knowledge or has time to make his/her own website. Setting up and writing websites for them can be a lucrative way of collecting income.

What also can be a source of income is selling your own website. Do you have a successful website where you have too little time for or you don’t feel the inspiration to go further? You can always sell it on Flippa. There are no real rules how much you can ask for a website. A good possibility is that you can sell your website for the income that you would generate in 12-36 months. Some people also buy a lot of domain names and try to make a living out of selling them. If your website has been running well for years and has a lot of authority in the niche in which you are active, you can, of course, make up the amount you want.

Benefits

You can offer a maintenance contract after setting up a website for a local business (recurring income)
You can get a large sum of money in one sale. A good website can give you enough for a full year salary or more.
A website can be sold in a short time.

Cons

You no longer have a website.
You have to be knowledgeable in this area.

How to start your own website?

Nowadays, you don’t need to know anything from coding anymore. Website builders do that in the back office, and this happens fully automatically. Anyone can build a website. But not anyone can make their website successful. You do need to know how to put your website in the spotlights. My first website/ blog was a free space provided by my internet provider. I had one visitor – ME. I had totally no idea you had to send in a sitemap to Google to tell them about your website.

When I realized, that I had to take more steps to make people find my website, I went looking for an online course. And I found the courses of Wealthy Affiliate and their own affiliate program. Ever since I became a member (2014) I get visitors, I make money and I learn almost daily something new. The platform is really amazing for anyone who wants to start out online with a website. When you are interested in learning more about building a website, you can take a free tour right now!

Comments

Why Do People Create Websites? — 4 Comments

Karen on April 9, 2018 at 11:37 am said:

Great article – as I was reading it, I was thinking to myself, surely there must be more than five reasons why people create websites, but you’ve actually got all the bases covered in this post. A lot of people create websites as a platform to position themselves as an authority in their area of expertise, but I guess this is covered off under products and services. Thanks for sharing, cheers, Karen

Reply ↓
- Loes on April 9, 2018 at 11:41 am said:
  
  Thank you for your reply Karen, these are the main reasons, you can dig down. Cheers back to you 🙂 Loes
  
  Reply ↓
Shirley Dawson on April 8, 2018 at 3:12 am said:

Loes, I’ve read this nice article and as always when I read your content, I learn something. I need to get serious with using Adsense on my websites. I had kind of forgotten about it and now I need to go back and see what I can do to help it work better for me. Thanks, Loes. – shirley

Reply ↓
- Loes on April 8, 2018 at 1:40 pm said:
  
  Adsense is great Shirley, it brings in money, without doing anything, yes you should, who doesn’t love free money 🙂
  Loes
  
  Reply ↓