When you make a website of your own or you design other’s website, you will surely think of how it can gain income. You might be amazed how web owners earn and you will be even more amazed to know that they earn more than those who are employed in a company. The question on how they earn will surely come into your mind.

In making a profitable website, it always begins in the design to build a good first impression to the clients. Having a good first impression will surely drive them to return to your website every now and then. But what are the elements that one needs to consider to make the website profitable? Here are a few things that could give answers to your question.

1. Needs to be visually appealing.

Needs to be visually appealing

A good website design not only attracts and impresses the users but it also builds trust for the company who owns the site. This could mean that the company is professional due to its aim to have a good image to the people. A website that has a good visual appeal also drives and encourages the clients to be engaged in the company. It will be easier to achieve your aims with a website like this for a client will willing buy and patronize your service and products. A good design is very important to gain confidence from the target market. A poorly designed website that looks cheap will certainly not be inviting for customers to use.

2. Needs to have functionality.

 Needs to have functionality
Image: london-creative

Another thing that needs to be considered is functionality. A beautifully and neatly designed website will still be futile if it is not easy to navigate. You have to make sure that navigation bars and buttons are easy to find. It has to be user friendly so that the client would not need to spend a lot of time just thinking on what to do and how to navigate the site. If this happens, some would opt to move on to other sites with similar niche for they cannot easily find the information they are looking for from your site.

3. Should have informative contents.

informative contents
Image: blueblots

No matter how great the design is and how good the navigation tools are, it will still be useless if the contents are not good. It should give vital information to the target audience. Try to determine what they want to read from your blog. Always read the comment section for there are times that some readers drop off some interesting topics that they would like to read. Try to know also what certain things that you could post which could truly be interesting for the readers. See to it that you give them something memorable, important and exciting every time they visit your site. If that happens, they will certainly love to visit your site every day.

4. Fresh contents and posts.

Fresh contents and posts
Image: webdesignerdepot

This is also important. You should have something new to post for the readers. This will avoid boredom and this will always make them look forward to your new posts. Make a schedule for regular posting. Some successful websites have new posts every day. Others do it every other two days while still others have new posts twice a week. It depends on you. Just make sure that you have fresh and original contents. You may also accept guest posts for this will greatly help your site.

5. Organized advertisement layout.

Organized advertisement layout
Image: webdesignerwall

No one would like to visit your site if your ads are just seen anywhere and could distract their reading. Hence, place it in areas where it cannot distract the readers. Banner ads can still be effective as long as you place it above the fold, just don’t allow it to cause diversion from the visitor’s eyes. For sure, after reading the contents, some would notice these ads and click on them. The secret is just a good layout. It is even said that banner ads are more effective when placed in a proper location.

6. Proper keyword selection.

Proper keyword selection
Image: evereffect

You will gain more profit if you use keywords that are concise and specific since more customers will be able to find your site. You may start doing that by using the free keyword search tools of search engine sites and look for the keywords that has the most number of searches in a month which is suitable to your website. Well, the more the searches, the more the competition. What you could do is to create a longer and more specific keyword. Think of this: clients would research on a topic first. For example: iPhone Apps. After researching, the client will finally come up with a more specific topic like a “food assistant iPhone App”. If you used those keywords, then your site will surely appear on the first pages of the search result. Keywords should be used in anchor text, through the text of the website, title tags and page descriptions so that it will be easier for search engines to determine the relevance of your site for a particular keyword search.

7. Have a Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization
Image: Gert van Duinen

If you think it is enough to have a great design and informative contents in order to belong on the first pages of a search engine site, you are wrong. One needs to have search engine optimization so you can get to the top of the lists. One thing that SEO specialists consider is the domain name. If your domain name fits the keywords someone types, then you’ll have a high rank. Say, some searches for “great wallpapers” and your website’s domain name is “www.greatwallpapers.com”. For sure, you’ll land on the first pages of the results. Another thing is links. The more websites use your links or point to your website through links, the more relevant your website is. This will also give you a greater chance to land on the first pages. SEO is of course relevant for people won’t be able to patronize your services and products if they will not be able to find your website.

8. Do some pay per clicks campaigns.

pay per clicks campaigns

PPC or pay per click is a manner of advertising in search engines where you pay for every click you get. When done rightly, you will surely get a great profit from this. In search engines, there are two types of results, the organic and the paid results. Organic results are the result of SEO as how SEO specialists analyze it while paid results are those websites who paid to have their links placed on a particular spot whenever a certain keyword is typed. PPC could surely increase the chances of conversion and could give an incredible number of traffic to your website. Another benefit is that PPC campaigns target customers who are usually ready to purchase an item. You would need the help of PPC professionals for your PPC campaign but you wouldn’t regret this for it will make your site more profitable.

9. Engage in social media marketing.

Engage in social media marketing
Image: jazgirl

Well, this could be both easy and challenging for you. Easy for you will surely enjoy doing it or you can just work on it on the sidetrack while you add friends in Facebook , post some links in Twitter and share some videos in YouTube. But this is very essential. Social media marketing is truly found effective in promoting a website. If you do this, you will surely gain more profit for more people will see how interesting the contents of your website are.

10. Do some networking.

Do some networking

This will surely help you a lot to gain profit. If you know a lot of people online, they can help you promote your site. It is even better if you join online design communities. If they find your website interesting and informative, they will share links of your posts and even inform other people that you have a good website. You can even gain new clients through this. This is one of the benefits you will get from having great contents and web design. Networking can help you to both promote your website and your business as a designer.

A website should have a good marketing approach in order to reach your goals in terms of profit. There are lots of ways other than those mentioned above. But of course, it would also start with gathering potential clients through networking and social media sites. Would you like to share to us other tips to make a profitable website?

Ebrian Acebedo

About the author: A Licensed Medical Practitioner who apparently likes web design and business.

9 comments

  1. I’m surprised. Actual content rates the THIRD entry on the list, and it’s a ‘should’ vs a NEED as listed for items one and two. I call bullshit.

    Flash and style may get initial visits. Substance and current content as listed in items 3 and 4 will drive repeat traffic and help spread word-of-mouth sustainability. IMO 3 & 4 should be NUMBER 1 and two.

    As an example of lousy or inept visual appeal: Drudge, fark, Google. – Great content tho’ 😉

  2. There are sites who are complicated to use. If web designers for those sites can read this, it could be wonderful!

  3. Number 9 may seem a hassle and it takes time but isn’t worth it? For me it has been!

  4. PPC – be very careful don’t just add what you think are relevant keywords with good traffic, but do a proper keyword research before you start! A good place to start your keyword research is Google Keyword Tool, you just enter your main keyword and it will give you other relevant keywords together with monthly searches and competition level… I could go on and on about PPC, but before you go there research don’t dive in blindly!

  5. Nice tips here and great looking page as well. Thank a lot.

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