The type of web site you should create depends on what you want it to do, and the internet business model you've chosen.
Here are some forms of money-making websites, to help you think through what yours should be.
Company / Corporate website: if you already have an off-line business or company, you can create a website to establish your online presence and provide information about your company to your customers. Also useful as a marketing tool to promote the company, and to even sell your products or services online. You can save time if you put customer service information on it that you'd otherwise have to take phone calls for. It is also known as brochureware.
Catalog website: this type of web site is used to sell products which are commodities, in one website. It normally has a listing of the items you have for sale, with prices and pictures. You can use it to do eCommerce or eRetail, i.e. allow customers to purchase the products online. Examples of this: etoys.com, nativeremedies.com, mountainroseherbs.com.
Portal / Mall website: this website type mainly just lists links to other sites, for affiliate marketing or referral purposes. However, unfocused portal sites don't normally get much traffic from search engines, and don't convert well to sales. It is best used as a hub to send visitors to your other websites if you have a number of them.
Membership website: this type of web site usually provides a service for which members pay a fee. If the membership base is large, and fees are paid regularly, for instance monthly, it can be a very good source of income. Examples are job search services, online education or self-help courses, and online magazines. Such as summary.com, entrepreneur.com.
Content / Information website: this website type provides useful theme-based information, which attracts traffic and search engine rankings. It is therefore good for selling ad space and referrals. Also effective for promoting a service, or for affiliate marketing, or to sell products. Examples: mindvalleylabs.com, creativejuicesbooks.com.
Community / Interaction website: this website type is actually a form of content website, where the content is mainly generated by visitors themselves. This includes blogs, online forums, chatrooms, and video-sharing sites. The most well-known examples are, of course, youtube.com and facebook.com, worth endless millions now.
Salesletter website: normally acts as the sales or landing page for a product or service sold online, with the traffic coming from a paid Ad or mailing list. (A landing page, as the name implies, is the page potential customers land on after clicking the Ad. Also called a squeeze page.) The whole website is focused on selling just one product or service. It is a popular tool with internet marketeers who have been known to make tens of thousands each time selling a digital product such as an eBook or coaching CD, due to the huge margins.
The website type you should use depends on your internet business type. Money-making websites can have a mixture of any of the above elements. For example an information website might have catalog pages as well, or a membership website might include a forum section.
Another example: the digital marketplaces, like online auction sites (eBay), job search sites, freelance job marketplaces, and stock photo sites where visitors can put up their photos for sale (iStockPhoto) combine elements of catalog and interaction websites.
Decided what type of web site yours is? We next move on to look at the corresponding Website Content
