How to Make a Website and Earn Money 2024

What It Is Actually Made of?

Any modern website in 2022 consists of the following 3 main components:

1. Web Design

2. CMS “ Content Management System

3. Database

The basic plan is as follows. Web design is the "template" “ what users see without the content. The latter is kept in a database. The content management system is simply software that manages the website, as the name implies. When a user clicks a link to a specific page of the website, the CMS searches the database for information to display on the page requested by the user and composes it according to a predetermined design.

Doesn't it sound complicated? True, professional website development requires a team of IT experts with various specializations:

1. Web designers

2. Frontend developers

3. Backend developers

4. Content managers

5. And you as the website's manager

Cutting down the Costs

But there is another option. It is not the first time we have mentioned the free aspect of creating a website to earn money because: It is always preferable to start a website building business with zero or near-zero upfront costs;

And why not, when there are useful tools available on the Internet?

The fact that excellent knowledge of Python or Java is not required with free content management systems like Tilda, WordPress, and many others to choose from makes the creation of free mobile websites such an appealing business today. The latter is particularly noteworthy because, according to the same Optinmonster's statistics, more than 70 million posts are published on free WordPress websites each month. W3Techs confirms WordPress's position as the most popular content management system, whether measured by total number of websites or current market share.

One could argue that corporate executives and their teams could have done it themselves, and one could be correct. Large corporations do this with their own teams of highly compensated professionals. Smaller development firms, on the other hand, may not have the time for that, so they outsource the job of website creation to someone with no deep knowledge of IT but who understands how to do the job with freely available tools.

This is known as website construction “ utilizing special services that are available to anyone who knows how to register and how to select appropriate templates based on the client's specifications. It's not much more difficult than working in Microsoft Office. There are services that can build corporate websites (although a well-known company with a well-known brand will almost certainly have its own distinct professional website), and there are even options for selling websites to find buyers for goods and services. Many clients in 2022 want nothing more than free mobile websites that can be built that way.

What to Do With your Website to Earn Money?

Money does not come directly from websites, but it does come from monetization in a variety of ways. Earning money is simple with consistent traffic, but you'll have to work hard to ensure your earnings cover the costs of hosting (if it isn't free) and promotion. Building traffic should be the first priority for a webmaster because there will always be potential profits to be made if there is traffic.

Measuring Your Website Traffic

Although it is not the main topic of the article, the question deserves a brief response. To ensure that the time is right to monetize, how can traffic be measured in ways other than counting the number of visitors per month with Google Analytics and similar services?

Yandex, one of the world's largest search engines, particularly popular in Russia, used to run its own version of PageRank called TIC (Thematic Citation Index), which ranged from zero to eternity and measured the credibility of a website. However, in 2018, Yandex introduced a new website quality indicator to replace TIC because citation alone - the number of links leading to a website - was deemed insufficient for determining reliability.

SQI (Site Quality Index) now considers not only the number of visitors, but also the level of trust in the content and quality of the website. It is claimed to be a more precise measure of visitor satisfaction with the website's content. SQI also considers the user confidence metric and Yandex ranking. Setting SQI equal to 10 and ranking in the top-50 in Yandex search as the first intermediary goal for a newly created website awaiting promotion is recommended.

Options for Making Your Website Earn You Money

There are several methods for monetizing a website:

It is being used as a platform for the sale of goods and services. The conversion rate indicates how successful you are at this. Simply put, it is the number of conversions - website visitors who became paying customers, for example, after interacting with an ad - divided by the total number of visitors. There is even an entire branch of e-marketing dedicated to conversion optimization. Is a 5% conversion rate good or bad? WordStream claims that on average, it's even more than that because you'd be outperforming 75% of advertisers. However, approximately 10% of them on Google have conversion rates of 10% or higher. Congratulations!

Online marketing. A well-promoted, high-traffic website could serve as a platform for external advertisers. Depending on how close their target audience is to your website's audience, they'll be willing to pay for promotion of their own goods, services, or events through banner ads of the desired specifications your website can provide.

Advertising in Context - Similar to the previous one, but still distinct. The appearance of advertised content is determined automatically in this case based on linguistic elements. This is accomplished through the use of systems that analyze visitor behavior.

Building backlinks - Building a portfolio of backlinks is a search engine optimization strategy. On the other hand, with at least some Google ranking and high traffic, a website can be monetized by selling it as a platform for guest posts with backlinks to external resources. However, it is recommended that you carefully monitor the content of those posts and keep an eye out for malicious websites to which you are allowing links.

Selling the website - One could argue that creating a ready-to-use website for your clients is the same thing, but it isn't. In this case, we're talking about selling an established website, a truly intangible asset with long-term value for both you as the owner and your potential business partners. It also has a client base in the form of visitors who may be converted into paying customers. The value of such an asset has risen significantly since its inception. The creation and promotion of website portfolios, followed by their sale, is a profitable business in and of itself. 

Automation

There is also the option of letting specialized software handle monetization in the most efficient way possible. Adsy, for example, offers a comprehensive toolkit through which you can "get paid for what you love “ creating and placing content," as the developers put it. All of the previously described methods of website monetization involve some risk and necessitate developed communication and other skills in order to negotiate appropriate terms. With a ready-to-use toolkit for publishers, those risks are reduced because you will be compensated fairly for content creation and/or placement.

Aside from monetization, Adsy offers website publishers a variety of complementary opportunities, such as:

1. setting desired prices for content;

2. complete control over what appears on the website;

3. Increased trust as a result of the disclosure of sponsored content;

4. Payment guarantees, among other things.

Such a comprehensive toolkit comes at a cost. Despite the fact that there are no upfront costs, this option requires some investment. However, given the risks of implementing monetization strategies on your own, these investments may be worthwhile.

Building a Website for Dummies

It's not like we've tried to dispel all the myths about creating websites and using them to make money, though some of you may have thought it was a difficult, if not impossible, task that could only be accomplished by a team of competent specialists up until now. Let's just say that it becomes that way after a certain point. However, before swimming in deep waters, one must first gain confidence in shallow waters.

It appears that in the age of e-commerce, and particularly when faced with the threat of being replaced by robots as a result of ongoing process automation, the website business may become a lifeline for those willing to adapt. It's not as difficult as you might think, and with great toolkits from developers like Adsy, it's even easier for everyone!