Coming up with website ideas might be a hard task. After all, creating a website has never been easier and there are a lot of site types you can go for. But how do you choose which is the website for you?
But you know what they say – there isn’t a better way to learn, than from experts. So, in this article, we will provide you with great website ideas and some tips on how to choose the right path for you.
Decide What You Want to Do
If you want to create a website, you already must have a specific goal in mind.
Do you only want to write for fun and run a personal blog? Do you want to make money? Either you’re creating for a hobby or a business, each goal will set you on a different path.
That’s why deciding what you want to do is important. It will be the main factor defining the type of website you will run.
Bellow, you will find a list of website ideas based on different archetypes.
Types of Websites
As the world changes, so do websites. Back in the day, websites were made only by professionals that sought benefit for their business. However, now everyone can do it without much hassle – and for various reasons too!
Choosing a website type from the beginning will determine what kind of content you will be creating in the long term. That’s why you need to choose carefully.
Here are a few types of websites you can choose from:
- Blogs – a perfect tool to share your thoughts, reach a like-minded audience, showcase your skills or projects, and promote your business
- Forum – provides a channel for a community to gather and discuss topics related to a specific niche
- Affiliate Marketing – an opportunity to gain profit by reviewing a product or service of a business you work together with
- Ecommerce – a place where you can sell your products or services online
We will also give you a quick guide on how to create each type using free hosting from 000webhost and WordPress. Before you proceed to each guide, create a WordPress site first.
Blog Website Ideas
Blog’s popularity is due to its flexibility. From random thoughts, a memorable personal story, to insights about your passion – a blog can cover it all.
Blogging started out as a way of sharing your ideas online. But now, it is so much more than that.
Many businesses use blogs as part of their marketing campaigns. Running a blog is a great way to attract a wider audience to your brand, as you can use it to showcase your skills and knowledge in your industry.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a big role in overall blog marketing.
That, however, also depends on the quality of content you’re able to create regularly. If you can match quantity with quality and successfully implement SEO – your blog content will soon rank well on search engines. This, in return, will bring more traffic to your website.
Even if you don’t have a business, a blog still might be up your alley. You get to practice your writing, showcase your skills, and meet people with similar interest. It makes for an interesting hobby.
A blog can be a good choice for your website type if:
- You don’t mind creating great content regularly
- You have a certain niche that you can write passionately about
- You are looking for a way to gain customers for your business
Note that when you make a blog, picking a niche and sticking with it is a must.
For more in-depth information about blog types, you can refer to our article here.
1. Fashion Blogs
Back in the day, fashion magazines were dominating people’s decisions on what to wear. Now, everyone can do it too – through a fashion blog!
Show your favorite outfits and be the trendsetter that will inspire many fashionistas.
Hello Fashion is a fashion blog owned by Christine Andrew. She displays her nicely-photographed outfits and tips on styling.
Her blog posts are rich with high-quality photography, interesting stories, and personal insights.
Andrew’s success is due to a combination of eye-pleasing content, layout, and good site performance.
2. Food Blogs
If you enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes, or even creating new ones – why not start a food blog?
Creating a food blog will enable you to interact with other foodies out there. Not only can you share your favorite food creations, but you can also share restaurant reviews, share personal stories and inspire others with your passion for food.
Here’s a great example of a food blog.
The modern-looking food blog shares content about recipes with large, mouth-watering illustrations.
Each recipe has helpful information – serving sizes, in-depth recipes, ingredient lists, cooking time and so on.
If you want to get right down to cooking, there’s an anchor link that skips through the article and takes you to the recipe.
The author of this blog successfully shows the best recipe for a successful blog – useful information, great content, stunning aesthetics and always catering to your readers’ needs.
3. Sports Blogs
Sports blogs should be on top of your website ideas list if you are a fan of working out.
Even if you’re not athletic yourself, but enjoy sports like football, baseball, etc. – you can make a sports blog discussing the latest matches, changes in teams and much more.
Take a look at this example of a sports blog that hits the home run.
SportsBlog is a good choice of the domain name – it’s clear what the blog is about.
The content shared on this blog is always informative and well-structured. It divides the content into categories based on a different sport – basketball, soccer, NASCAR, etc.
The layout is compact and efficient. It’s a safe haven for every sports fan out there.
How to Make a Blog
So, if you think a blog site would fit you, then here is a quick guide on how to make one.
1. Choose a domain and hosting service
Here at 000webhost, you can get hosting for free
2. Pick a blogging platform
You can either use a Content Management System or a website builder. Although, we always suggest WordPress for the best functionality
3. Think of a niche and stick to it
The more specific your blog is, the better. Blogs with broad topics will fail to lure in your target audience
4. Start creating and publishing content on a regular basis
Great, regular content is crucial for better ranking in search engines and growing more traffic. Read this article on how to come up with new content ideas
Check out our article with a detailed guide on how to start and run a blog.
Forum Website Ideas
Forums are a place where like-minded people come to share their thoughts, knowledge, connect to one another and keep up with their interests.
Having a forum website is an excellent choice if your goal is to connect people and create a platform of communication. You can either create a topic-specific forum or a site that lets people develop the topics themselves (for example Reddit).
As your community grows, visitors will return to see if there are any new discussions they want to participate in – which is great for your traffic!
Creating a forum is a great idea if you create an active community regarding your business or a hobby. However, forums require a lot of management, so you should only start one if you have plenty of time.
Based on their purpose, forums can also take many forms. Here are website ideas for a forum.
1. Business Forum
You can exploit a forum to create a community base for your business. Your customers can help each other troubleshoot a problem regarding your product or service.
Forum visitors can also discuss features, bugs, and upcoming versions releases of your product – which is good for marketing.
Those are some of the reasons why we have a forum for our business here at 000webhost.
In our forum, we have divided categories for different topics – community support, tutorial, news, website building and a few more. The 000webhost also has German and Spanish forums.
We make use of a forum to make announcements about new projects and maintenance. This helps send a message across and directly see user responses.
2. Q&A Forum
Q&A forums are a great source of information about various topics.
In these forums, best answers are usually filtered to be on top, which is a great way to see the most information.
Both questions and answers are also monitored by moderators to avoid rule violation, misinformation, and overall negative experiences.
Quora is one of the most famous Q&A forums out there with more than 3 million users. This forum has a unique feature, which allows all users to provide information about the field of their expertise.
You can include a source, education background, employment, and language credentials.
How To Make a Forum
Creating and managing a forum takes dedication and time-investment. However, it’s not hard to start one. Here’s how to do it.
- Choose a domain and a hosting provider
- Download bbPress – it’s a free plugin that allows you to create a forum with WordPress
- Install the plugin – go to Plugins >> Add New >> Upload File >> Choose File and pick the downloaded bbPress installation file. Then, activate the plugin
- Create the main forum page – go to Pages >> Add New and insert the shortcode [bbp-forum-index]. Click Publish
- Set the forum page as the static page – go to Settings >> Reading, tick the box “A static page” and find your forum page in the dropdown
- Create the user registration, login, and lost password pages – it’s the same as Step 5, but insert these shortcodes instead; [bbp-register] for user registration page, [bbp-login] for the login page, and [bbp-lost-pass] for the lost password page
- Customize your site – there are free bbPress themes you can choose
Website Ideas for Affiliate Marketing
Do you have good sales skills? Why not put it to good use on your website? Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money by reviewing various products and services.
The more people click on the affiliate link on your site, the more you’ll earn. Plus, if you love shopping, this is a good way of making this hobby into something fruitful.
Combine your website with Google AdSense and you’ll have a reliable money-making machine at your arsenal.
You’ll love having an affiliate marketing if:
- Your aim is to make money
- You’re a loyal customer of a brand that offers an affiliate program
- You have a knack for convincing people to buy
There is more than one affiliate marketing option you can utilize. Look at these below and see if one of them suits you.
1. Review Sites
Put your sales skills to a test, because writing a good review on a product will be your source of income.
An effective way to do this is by putting affiliate links in content pieces such as “Best X of…”. You’ll be able to promote many products at once in one article.
Here’s a great example of a review site.
The Wire Cutter is an affiliate marketing site that offers reviews of various products. Its success is due to the dedication and authenticity of the reviews written. The authors of this website make sure to only promote great quality products and never post dishonest content.
2. Coupon Sites
Why buy something at full price while you can get it for less? Some affiliate sites offer coupons that visitors can use for discounts. What’s in it for them? Well, they get a percentage of every sale made with their coupons.
Money Saving Expert is an affiliate blog that talks about personal finances. It gives tips and ways to earn more and spend less money.
Trust is crucial in affiliate marketing. This site proves that they’re reliable by making sure all deals are checked and verified.
How to Make an Affiliate Site
Just like before, we’ll be using WordPress for this guide below on how to create an affiliate website.
- Download ThirstyAffiliates – it’s a plugin that can make affiliate link management hassle-free
- Install and activate the plugin – click on Plugins >> Add New >> Upload File >> Choose File
- Search for affiliate programs and join them – the best ones available are ShareASale Affiliates, Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network, and Shopify Affiliate Program. Here at 000webhost, we also offer an affiliate program that you can join.
- Create great content regularly – use the keywords that people click the most such as “best”, “review”, “comparison”, etc and make use of the plugin to cloak your affiliate link
Website Ideas for Ecommerce
Selling product has never been easier – with ecommerce, customers can browse and purchase your goods with just a few clicks.
Ecommerce opens doors to many opportunities. Users all around the globe will be potential customers, and it’ll only make it easier to spread brand awareness of your store.
Tick off these items of this list to see if an ecommerce website would serve your purpose:
- You need an online presence for your offline store
- You have plenty of goods suitable for online sales
- You want to make money from your site by selling products or services
Many have opened online stores with various business models such as B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer).
1. B2B Ecommerce
This ecommerce format includes all online transactions of products or services between two companies.
The kinds of products and services offered are usually content marketing, office supplies, website development, logo design, and all business related things.
In every line of business, social media is a must. However, managing it doesn’t come easy. That’s what Hootsuite is trying to solve – by making social media management a breeze.
Hootsuite is a leader in the B2B industry, because they know their field and can solve problems in a quick and efficient manner.
2. B2C Ecommerce
B2C is the most common format of an ecommerce store. The seller provides goods that their customers need – be it physical or digital products, or services of any kind.
Having a B2C ecommerce has many benefits. One of the most prominent being money. With an online store, you’ll save money on expenses like renting a store, paying utilities, hiring salespeople and much more.
Four Sigmatic is a B2C site that specializes in mushroom coffee. Although not many people are familiar with this kind of product, they do an amazing job introducing it to the market with informative and eye-pleasing videography and great marketing campaigns.
How to Make an Ecommerce Website
Creating an ecommerce doesn’t take a lot of resources and it’s easy to do. We recommend combining WordPress with its open-source ecommerce plugin WooCommerce for flexible customization. You can read our detailed article on making an ecommerce website for free.
Follow this step-by-step guide on how to create an ecommerce store.
- Download the WooCommerce plugin
- Install the plugin – in the WordPress dashboard, install the plugin by going to Plugins >> Add New >> Upload Plugin >> Choose File
- Start customizing your site – pick a suitable theme, insert a custom banner, add your products, etc.
Conclusion
Website ideas can be hard to come up with. We know the struggle.
Every type of website has its benefits, but picking the right path for you might be hard. You have to consider different aspects, weight in the pros and cons, and most importantly – know what your goal is.
To wrap up, let’s overview a bit of the website types we have discussed.
- A blog site may suit you if you’re looking for a way to share what’s on your mind. It’s better to choose a niche of your passion – that way, it makes blogging more fun!
- A forum works best for businesses with a large user base. You can have better customers’ engagement and grow a dedicated community
- Affiliate marketing is for those whose main goal is to make money. Reviewing a product is a good way to go – you can build trust with the audience if you do it well, and they’ll love you for it
- Ecommerce will suit you if you have products to sell. B2C is the easiest and most popular choice
Either for hobby or business, you can always make use of a website. We hope these great website ideas can inspire you to be an amazing webmaster.
