A website business idea basically aims to make money through a website. It could be anything from a blog to an e-commerce portal to an hourly charged service sold via a website.
1. Start a Blog and Make Money from the Blog
If you are a true beginner looking for some good viable ideas to start an online business, then blogging is one of the best options you have. You can make money from blogging via Advertisements, Affiliate Marketing, Selling Products, and Selling Services.
If you are new to the term ‘blog’, don’t worry. Follow the articles given below to get a good idea.
2. Start an E-commerce Website
E-commerce is always a good business idea irrespective of the country you live. The problem here is competition from giants like Amazon. You cannot achieve success by starting a general e-commerce store competing with Amazon. The key to success here is to start an e-commerce store in a focused niche where giants like Amazon do not operate. Given below are a few niche e-commerce websites that operate profitably.
Northern Parrots – is a dedicated niche e-commerce store that’s set up to serve people who are interested in parrots (those who have parrots as pets). They have set up a very organized website with specific products for different breeds of parrots. Take a look to get inspired and come up with creative ideas for a niche e-commerce website.
House of Rave – is another interesting niche e-commerce business serving rave dancers. They serve all products (cloths, lights, accessories etc) related to rave dancing. In fact, this is a niche (rave dance accessories) within a niche (party accessories). Pretty focused, they have been in business for last 12 years.
3. Start Selling Hourly Services through your Website
This idea is applicable only if you have some skills that can be sold for an hourly rate. The skills could be anything from writing to programming to graphic designing. The idea here is to start a dedicated website to market your skills and services online. People who are interested in hiring you will place orders online via your website.
4. Start a Product Reviews website
Before buying a new product, I usually look for reviews of the product in Google. For example, if I am to buy a new microwave oven to my home, I usually begin my shopping curve looking for reviews in Google with some search phrases like “best countertop microwave ovens“. This gives an opportunity for people looking to start a website based business. Start a product reviews website! Instead of starting a ‘general’ product review website like Cnet Reviews, opt for a focused review site like DPReview – which reviews only digital cameras and photography related products. These two sites make money from these product reviews via affiliate marketing.
You can make money from a product review website via affiliate marketing. You can use affiliates of e-commerce giants like Amazon, Walmart or any other e-commerce giant that operates in your niche.
Note: – This website business idea is appealing to beginners and experts alike.
5. Start a Web App
You can make a lot of money or create a good business around a web application. But this kind of app based website business idea calls for very good expertise in programming and internet marketing. I am listing a few examples of simple app based website business idea to get inspired from.
WpThemeDetector – is a simple app based website business which helps in identifying wordpress theme used in a website. You just need to input the URL of a WordPress website and this app will return the theme used on that particular website. Another similar website that revolves around the same model is – WhatWpThemeisThat. These two websites make money from affiliate marketing by referring their visitors to theme marketplaces like ThemeForest.
Website Business Ideas for Beginners
The secret of getting ahead is getting started – Mark Twain
We were all beginners once! I still remember my beginning days where I worked hard to make a few dollars. The sheer joy I experienced when I saw an email from Paypal notifying a payment received is beyond explanation. So get started. I think Blogging and Product Reviews are the right areas for beginners as they both don’t demand very high expertise. Even though knowledge is required in setting up a blog/website, SEO, link building, keyword research etc., much of that knowledge could be acquired on the go while working on the business.