In A Hurry? Click Here To Download This Post As A PDF To Read Later

‘How to start a website and make money’ – a simple question yet one that’ll get you millions of results with a simple Google search. Whether you follow our blog or you clicked on this page as one of the results, we welcome you to our guide where we’re going to answer this very question. In truth, you’re likely to find different tips and pieces of advice wherever you go so we’ve decided to compile the definitive guide here. With no false promises or nonsense advice, we’re going to cut straight to the chase so, by the end, you’ll know how to start a website and make money.

Your Two Options

Regardless of your niche and regardless of how you plan to earn money (more on this later), there are two options of which you need to be aware when starting a website; going solo or getting help.

Going  Solo – Firstly, you could do everything from scratch and make the website you feel best represents your niche. When choosing this method, you’ll have to host the website with a reliable company and then do everything yourself including design, plug-ins, and more. These days, using WordPress and the like will allow you to quickly choose themes so you don’t need to sit and play around with coding and design for weeks but it’s certainly the longer method of the two.

In truth, there are both pros and cons to going this way. While the benefits offer full control and your own domain name, the cons include the process requiring more effort, having to renew your domain and hosting website every year (unless you buy longer), and it can actually be more expensive in initial cost (short-term) and the time spent to get set up.

Getting Help – If you haven’t spent too much time on computers or you have absolutely little or no experience in building a website, hosting, and installing plug-ins, we recommend choosing this second option. Nowadays, there are plenty of fantastic services that help you to get started with a website. Not only does it require less time, your investment can also include benefits and we see this with the likes of Wealthy Affiliate (Check out Your Complete  Wealthy Affiliate Review on this site).

If you haven’t heard of this platform previously, your monthly subscription will buy you a website as well as all the learning materials you need to build the website in 30 seconds, choose a theme that matches your niche, use social media, write blog posts, get visitors in, and then make money. With Wealthy Affiliate, I suggest you start out with the Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership which is completely free.

Once again, there are pros and cons with the main benefits being the time required, the ease of getting started, and the fact that all the mundane tasks are done on your behalf. On the flip side, it can be more expensive (long-term) because you’ll be paying for a membership on a platform as opposed to just the yearly hosting fee. However, this all comes down to research and we prefer to look at value for money which is what you get with the many superb programs around these days. In our opinion currently, the best value for training, creating websites, hosting etc online is provided by Wealthy Affiliate.

Earning Money

So far in this how to start a website and make money guide, we’ve only covered the first half of the question. Therefore, it’s time to move onto the ‘making money’ and this is something that’s come under a great deal of scrutiny recently. For those on the outside looking in, they say the market is ‘saturated’ and it is true that more people than ever before are creating websites and making money. However, we believe there is a distinct lack of quality and this is where you come in.

Sure, there are probably lots of people trying to make money within your niche but a significant number of these are doing it for the money alone. If you enter with high-quality blog posts and a natural desire to help others, there’s no reason why you can’t find an audience for your website. With this in mind, we should give a warning at this point and say that you shouldn’t get started if you’re only thinking of the money or if you aren’t willing to give it 110%. If you’re determined, you can earn money using the tips below.

Affiliate Marketing
When people ask how to start a website and make money, affiliate marketing is one of the first suggestions we provide. Despite being around for several years now, the industry is still growing which is great news for us as starters. Essentially, you’ll advertise products/services on behalf of the company (depending on the affiliate marketing program you choose). Whenever your visitors click on the ad and make a purchase or sign up for a membership, you receive a percentage in commission.

Sell Ad Space
If you’re popular within a particular niche, you might get companies approach you as they ask for advertising space. If you receive thousands of visitors, there’ll be competition for space which means you can earn a healthy sum. Of course, you can also be pro-active in your approach and find companies looking to generate leads.

Dropshipping
With this idea, your website becomes an online store where you sell products from a particular manufacturer. Whenever somebody decides to place an order, the manufacturer sends it directly to the customer and you keep a percentage of the sale. Ultimately, this means you don’t have to stock the products nor do you need to ship them when orders come in. Instead, you generate sales and are rewarded for getting customers the manufacturer otherwise wouldn’t have had. For a better understanding of Dropshipping check out my What Is A Dropshipping Business.

Sell Products/Services
If you have a particular product or service you want to sell, this is another way to make some money. For example, you might have a solution for your niche or a service that helps people; this could be anything from a new mop that cleans better than every other to an SEO service to help others grow their business.

Sell Digital Products
If you get into a position where people trust your word, there could be an opportunity to make a profit. Using eBooks, audiobooks, online courses, and paid subscription services, these will all sell so long as the information you provide is genuinely useful or unique. Perhaps you can offer a sense of humor to a simple topic or explain how to market a product in 2020.

Google AdSense
Finally, we have a solution that allows you to monetize your website by offering ads to your visitors. At all times, the ads will be relevant to your niche and you can also test the product/service to make sure you approve. Whenever a visitor clicks on the ad, you earn a certain amount of money.

Others
The more you think outside the box, the more opportunities you find to make money whether it’s:

• Accepting Donations,
• Offering Sponsored Posts,
• Building an Email List,
• Flipping Websites,
• Selling Premium Content, or
• Offering A Consultancy Service.

Conclusion

When thinking about how to start a website and make money, consider your passions and what you would enjoy. If you have the right skills and are determined to make it work, you can start earning a sustainable income (some of it passive with eBooks and online courses)!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions about setting up a website or you just want to leave your own personal experience with websites, leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you!