How can I earn from a website?

[Basketofchocolate]

People are always saying in books, blogs, magazines that you should do your passion for work as then it won't feel like work, etc.

I have school and its holidays to get around and am currently in the process of looking to go self-employed. Whilst I have a plan to use my education and skills, what I would really like to do is set up a website in a particular niche.

I already have some experience of this and the skills to create the site so that doesn't worry me. I'd also really like to do it, so I have the motivation. I also have the contacts so I know I can use them to make it good.

But.....it would be a resources website - i.e. a life event and you look to the internet for help and there is my site with all the details you need - well, more like signposting in some cases. It would basically set you on the right road and make you feel better and that you know what you're doing. It is nothing to do with weddings but I guess it might be similar to a wedding site where you get engaged and you go onto one of those sites and find guidance of what to do, look for and there would be ads and links and stuff like that.

The reason I didn't post in start ups is that that seems to be mostly other people starting up themselves so I was hoping that here there might be people with experience of this sort of thing.

My question is I guess, would I be breaking my back (but help a lot of people) and spending huge amounts of time on something that will never be profitable?

It is a growing market and it is something I know would be useful from personal experience and from conversations but know there are no guarantees.

What's your business model, i.e. how will you profit and where will revenue come from? What's your usp for your users? As a user I can't quite see why I'd go to your site... It sounds like you might be offering a tailored advice service? Is that right? If so I guess it would have to be a paid for service rather than relying on mass traffic and ads to make money, so who's your target audience and how will you reach them, engage them and get them to use your service?

Profit and revenue are the things I am not sure about. I was thinking advertising would be the only option. Potentially product reviews - so being given relevant stuff to review (so not direct payment) and charging people to list their business on the site, giving them access to the customer base through ads, product reviews and space in a regular email out.

The reason to go to the site would be because it is the one place you will find updates and information. Perhaps wedding wasn't the best analogy as people usually just have the one. Ermmm....can't think of an example. Something like imagine you've just been diagnosed with diabetes or something. You get info from your doctor and then you go Googling. You find my site and on there it tells you about support groups - national and local - it tells you products you can buy to carry your medication with you, food you can buy specific to your needs, new info about diabetes in the news, travel companies offering holidays ideal for you (sorry, know nothing about diabetes so trying to think on my feet) but basically your first visit will be an info download for you - so many places to find info. But, you'd hopefully sign up and get regular updates, or at least revisit every now and again to find out new stuff happening in the world of diabetes as it's something ongoing that will affect your life.

The advice wouldn't be tailored to individuals but would be specific and useful to a certain group of people.

Finding new visitors would be heavily reliant on being found on search sites, but the search terms would be specific. Would hope in time to be referred to by others (e.g. in example above, leaflets in the GP or clinic, etc.).

Getting them to use the site on a regular basis would be about it providing insight and content that was worthwhile and also aggregating resources so they don't spend a year or so before discovering a great website out there that could be helpful - I would have it listed. I would hope to have a site that companies in the field would approach me to become part of it so would then fulfil my dream of creating a better community but also give me some income commensurate to the amount of time I would be spending on it.

Ok, so are you hoping to earn a wage from your site? Basically to set up an online business (or any profitable business) you need a clear offer for your target customers and tangible routes by which to engage them. At the moment you seem to be saying your site would be part search engine, part directory, and directory sites aren't really needed online because search engines exist. If you're hoping to make money from ads, advertisers will only pay you to advertise on your site if you have a load of traffic, and you won't have if you're site is basically a stepping stone to other sites, i.e. you're just sending users off to random other places to find info. To make money your site will need a clear identity and your idea and business model will really need to be refined. Put yourself in the shoes of somebody who's, for argument's sake, been diagnosed with diabetes. They'll have info from the NHS already, so they might try the NHS online, or go to Google and search for 'Diabetes', in which case they'll probably end up at diabetes.org. Unless your site was already well known and received a lot of traffic about diabetes, how will you get a look in? (this obviously applies to any other topic too) Say, then, that you pay for some ads with Google and people come to your site for more diabetes information, if you send them away to other resources, how will you get them back? What will your site have given them that Google can't? What reason would they ever have to visit you again? Online it doesn't really pay to reinvent the wheel (i.e. search, directories, etc.), so you'll need to make sure you refine your offer so you're genuinely providing something useful and useable otherwise you'll struggle to attract traffic and ads to generate profit.

Hope that's useful!

If your site would offer reviews of relevant products then you can get revenue from sponsored links through to eg the Amazon page for that product. If people buy from them after clicking through that link then you get a small cut. It's not a lot of money I imagine but it's better than adverts for the sort of specialist site you have in mind (nothing to stop you having adverts as well of course).

Thanks to both of you. It is something I would like to do, but I do think that it would be a lot of work for little gain. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of time to try it without earning. Thanks for helping me make that decision. I will keep it on a note somewhere in case I have more time in the future or win the lottery :)

Basket the potential is there to make decent money online but it's like anything else, front-loaded with cost and effort so only worth it if you're really committed. Hope the questions didn't put you off, but I work in digital (when not on mat leave) and have seen a LOT of money invested in projects that barely get off the ground because people often think the rules are different online and that they can set up a site and somehow traffic and revenue will follow - the 'build it and they will come approach' - so I always feel duty-bound to be up front about this sort of thing. Hope my comments were useful rather than just depressing!