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Website Ideas to Make Money with WordPress

20 Website Ideas to Make Money with WordPress

These days, starting a website and using it to generate revenue is easier than ever. You can either do it as a side gig, or make it your full-time job. Sounds too ambitious? Trust us, it’s possible. Starting a website doesn’t require a major upfront investment – you will need a hosting plan and a catchy domain name. If you decide to build a website using WordPress, which is certainly our recommendation, you won’t need to pay anything at all, since WordPress itself is free. Now all you need is inspiration and a couple of fail-safe website ideas to make money. That’s what we want to help you with this time around. Check out these simple but brilliant ideas for starting a website:

Online Shop

Qi Premium WordPress theme

Starting an online shop is perhaps the easiest and the most lucrative idea for a WordPress website. The possibilities are endless – you can sell pretty much anything you want, anything that fits your brand and that seems easy and simple to do. The choice of products should depend on the availability – try to sell what’s easiest to find in supplies, unless you want to supply the products, too (which makes sense for DIY brands and local produce brands, but more on that later. To start an online shop, you need a good eCommerce theme, and these certainly don’t lack these days. We recommend the Qi Theme, a beautiful multipurpose Gutenberg-based theme with a great selection of eCommerce demos. You will also need WooCommerce, a couple of plugins to enhance the shop functionality, set up your shipping classes and a couple other things, and you’re good to go. To learn more about everything you need to start an online store, check out our detailed guide.

Dropshipping Website

Versatile WP Theme

If running an online store sounds like too much for you right now, why not try dropshipping? This immensely popular retail model allows you to run a shop without actually having to keep the stock yourself. You offer products for sale, a customer makes an order and you purchase the goods from a third-party seller. The customer then receives the goods from the seller directly, meaning you don’t have to actually handle the stock, keep the inventory and so on. You can use a specialized dropshipping theme such as Versatile, and if you opt for WooCommerce, which we strongly encourage, you may want to consider a couple of excellent dropshipping plugins to make your life easier.

Podcast Website

Resonator WordPress Theme

If you have anything you’d like to share with the world – stories, ideas, inspiration – starting a podcast might be just the thing for you. A podcast website can also be monetized via ads or affiliate links. You will need to make a small initial investment in studio equipment, but as for the website, you don’t really need much at all. A good WordPress theme, such as Resonator, with embedded music players, will get you a long way when it comes to necessary functionalities. And what you don’t get through the theme, you will make up for using podcast plugins. Use social links to promote your podcast website on social media, and add share buttons so visitors can spread the word about your podcast and help you grow your audience.

Product Review Website

Blurb WP Theme

The business model behind a product review website is rather simple. You start a website and publish high quality product reviews. Those drive traffic to the product pages on their respective websites, and you receive an affiliate commission for each sale you help make. You can write the reviews yourself or create a community model in which users will publish their own reviews. Either way, you will need a specialized theme, such as Blurb. With themes like this, you can create elegant product review grids and lists, and there are also individual product pages where visitors can see detailed reviews.

Online Courses Website

Emeritus WordPress Theme

If you have knowledge to share with others, or you have a group of friends who all have knowledge to share, starting an online courses website could be a great way to make money. Online learning has become more and more popular and people are really starting to enjoy learning from the comfort of their home, instead of going to schools. If this is something that interests you, you should know that having a proper eLearning theme, such as Emeritus, for instance, is crucial. These themes come with the LMS module, which means they include message board functionalities (such as bbPress), online forms, quizzes and assignments, video integration, schedules and timetables, and everything else you could need to run courses online. If you already have a website and don’t want to change your theme, you may want to install an LMS plugin like LearnDash to bring you all the required functionalities.

Travel Blog

Getaway WP Theme

Being a travel blogger is basically everyone’s dream. You travel the world, enjoy the beauties and wonders, and then get to make money out of writing about what you’ve experienced. Starting a travel blog isn’t hard, especially if you already travel a lot. You can team up with other travel bloggers or run the blog alone, the choice is yours. In addition to hosting and a domain name, you will of course need a good WordPress theme, such as Getaway. What does a good travel theme entail, precisely? First of all – well designed galleries, image sliders, post lists and singles. You will want your stories to be well illustrated with great imagery, so these are a must. You could also use functionalities for grouping posts in destinations, excellent search functionality, contact forms, forums, comment sections and, if you’re promoting travel arrangements, booking forms too.

Food Blog

TinySalt WordPress Theme

Food blogging is another immensely popular blog type. It’s also the sort of blog that comes with fierce competition, so if this is something you’d be interested in doing, you better make sure your food blog stands out. Interesting, delicious recipes, high quality photography and instructions that are clear and easy to follow are some of the essentials for a successful food blog. You can make your posts longer with a bit of storytelling, but don’t forget to make your recipes easy to reach using “Jump To” links and recipe cards. A lot of people will just want to see how something is made, not read a thousand-word peace about Sicilian oranges. Pick a good food blog WordPress theme, like TinySalt, and consider your monetization options. These include banner ads, partnerships with restaurants and brands, shoppable recipes, affiliate links and recipe eBooks you could sell.

Web Design Website

Eileen WP Theme

If you’re already working in the field of web design, why not create a website that will help you get more clients? Alternatively, you can use your website to sell your designs. Whether you’re doing UX design or illustrations, there’s a lot of work for designers these days. You can ditch marketplaces like Dribbble, save on commissions and keep all the money to yourself. You will, of course, need the perfect design portfolio theme, such as Eileen, for instance. You will need clean layouts, dynamic and modern galleries and sliders, engaging fullscreen sections, interactive links, split screen layouts and similar. These will help your work shine and set you apart from the competition. As for getting paid for your work, it doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you opt for PayPal, as there are plenty of PayPal plugins that will help you with that.

Crafts and DIY Website

Mintie WP Theme

All those who enjoy working with their hands and crafting lovely things, especially if they have an arty disposition, should consider starting a crafts and DIY website to sell their creations. These days, people prefer crafts to mass-produced goods, so you won’t have any trouble finding customers. The sort of products you will sell depends on what you enjoy creating, and there’s no universal recipe for success here. We will, however, say that homemade cosmetics, candles and wax products, paper goods, knitwear and home decor are extremely popular with online clientele. If you prefer Elementor and WooCommerce, check out Mintie, a cute little theme for arts and crafts. And don’t forget to take high quality photographs of your products!

Gaming Website

Eldritch WordPress Theme

Another way you can monetize what you already enjoy doing is starting a gaming website. You can stream games, organize tournaments and write about eSports, all in one website, and it’s not even difficult to set it all up. Gaming and eSports WordPress themes like Eldritch come equipped with all the necessary functionalities, tables, schedules, event lists and gamer profiles. A good gaming theme will also help you with the design aspects, as they usually come with modern, dark aesthetics and innovative design solutions.

Dating Website

Sweet Date WP Theme

While apps like Tinder and Grindr are certainly the most popular way to find love online, the good old-fashioned dating websites are still a thing, especially for middle-aged and older people. Running a dating website can be very rewarding, as you get to enjoy the feeling of having brought people together. It can also be lucrative, too, if you set up a paid membership system or place banner ads on your pages. Dating themes such as Sweet Date are usually based on membership and message board plugins like bbPress or BuddyPress and allow you to offer membership subscriptions in tiers or levels, using your preferred criteria. They also allow your users to create beautiful, complex profiles with pictures and a lot of personal details.

Consulting Website

Deploy WordPress theme

Whatever their particular area of expertise, all consultants need a website. Finding clients through word of mouth is great, but a website will not only help you look more professional but it can also be a valuable marketing tool. The key here is to make sure your website design communicates professionalism, expertise and reliability. That’s why you need to pick your theme carefully, making sure it ticks all the right boxes, like Deploy does. Clean and breathable layouts will help you leave an impression of professionalism, and a selection of business elements, such as process and progress infographics, testimonials, clients lists, counters and charts will help you communicate your business vision perfectly.

Event Website

Eventim WordPress Theme

Promoting an event and selling tickets is certainly way easier with a website than having to do it all offline. You get to skip the middleman for ticket sales, and you can also save a lot of money you’d otherwise spend hiring a promoter and a marketing agency. In addition to selling tickets, you can also monetize by selling ad space on your website. If you opt for WordPress, which is probably your best bet, you will need an exciting, modern theme that supports various payment options and comes with a set of exciting, modern but clean layouts, something like Eventim. Your website will need strong CTA buttons, and perhaps a countdown timer, quote calculator, pricing tables and interesting event singles. Advanced typography will also be useful. If you can’t find a single theme that fits your requirements, you may want to check out a collection such as Qi Addons for Elementor or Qi Blocks for Gutenberg, which include basically any functionality and element you could possibly need.

Tutorials Website

Academist WordPress Theme

Knowledge is the best product one could sell. If you have an area you’re expert in, or you simply enjoy sharing knowledge, you can start a tutorials website where visitors will be able to learn how to solve issues and find out how to do stuff. You can do it by yourself or, even better, team up with other experts in similar (or completely different) fields. For this, you don’t exactly need an LMS module, but it’s better if you use one, since some day you may want to expand your activity from tutorials to full-fledged online courses. Themes like Academist allow you to do just that, and they come with clean, pleasant layouts that give your website a professional and reliable feel. You can set a paywall and different price tiers for your tutorials, and you can also allow your visitors to request tutorials or give feedback.

News Website

Sahifa WP Theme

Starting a news website is perhaps not as easy as some of the other ideas on this list, but it is definitely rewarding and can be quite lucrative. Everyone reads news, so you know you’ll have an audience from the get-go. You can make it a news aggregator website, which is probably easier, or write the news yourself with your team, if you have one. As for monetization, you can earn money by setting a paywall – it can be a total paywall meaning no one can read anything unless they have a subscription, or a freemium paywall, in which model some content is free and other is subscription-only. If you opt for a WordPress theme such as Sahifa, you won’t have to bother with layouts, lists and galleries, as the theme takes care of that for you. bbPress compatibility allows you to create a community around your news website, and WooCommerce compatibility will make it possible to sell subscriptions. Lightboxes, weather widgets, homepage sliders, “Check Also” boxes and social buttons are welcome elements, too.

Lifestyle Magazine

Roslyn-WordPress-Theme

If news is not your thing, why not consider starting a lifestyle mag? These are immensely popular these days, and the topics are generally much more pleasant Beauty, fashion, style, home decor, health, relationships, culture – these all fall into the lifestyle category and are topics of universal interest. Monetization opportunities are also rich: you can sell ad space, partner up with brands and promote their products, or even put up a paywall. Here, style and aesthetics are of particular importance, so you have to choose your design well. We recommend modern, stylish WordPress themes with distinct aesthetics, such as Roslyn, with interesting blog layouts and lists, engaging galleries and sliders, beautiful typography, mega menu, video integration and more.

Fitness Website

Fitness Website WP Theme

These days, everyone wants to be fit. Joining the gym is the best way, of course, but fitness websites are also immensely popular, as more and more people are starting to prefer working out at home. For this sort of website, you will need a theme with video integration and streaming capabilities, schedules and timetables, blog post singles and galleries. A message board and other community features are also welcome. The mood and the vibe of the website should be dynamic, modern and clean, something along the lines of Fitness Zone, a WordPress theme specialized in fitness, gyms, healthy lifestyle and coaching.

Astrology Website

Astralla WordPress Theme

Reading natal charts and interpreting the zodiac is more than just a pastime for a lot of people who are quite serious about astrology. And it can be a lucrative gig, too. People want to know what’s in the stars for them, and oftentimes they look online for someone to interpret it for them. If this is something you’re good at and something you’re already doing, why not start making money online doing it? These days, you can find a WordPress theme like Astralla that come with the full-featured horoscope module. This means a predesigned horoscope list you can easily update, but also astrology-related icons, testimonials and clients lists, engaging sliders, CTA buttons and contact forms, image marquees and sliders, and so on.

NFT Marketplace

Netzen WordPress Theme

Finally, here’s a business idea with which you probably won’t have that many competitors, at least not yet. NFT is a field that’s been growing at incredible speeds, alongside cryptocurrency. As it usually happens with things that are very hyped and viral, NFT is something that not everyone understands, but they certainly don’t want to miss out on. NFT comes with a promise of easy earning, so more and more artists are starting to create their own non-fungible tokens. That’s where you come in, providing them with a way to sell their creations through an online NFT marketplace. For this, you will need a specialized theme, such as Netzen. Thanks to the many excellent cryptocurrency plugins, you will be able to accept payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other coin you like.

Job Board

StaffScout WordPress Theme

Here’s another super-easy idea for a website that can help you generate significant revenue. Job board websites are basically a combination of online message boards and newspaper ads that help people find work and businesses to find employees. Both these parties may be willing to pay you to help them with that. You can team up with businesses and post their job ads on your website, and you can then either make the website available to everyone freely, or set up a paywall for job-seekers. WordPress themes like StaffScout basically take care of all the required functionalities and features for you. You get easy resume submission forms, user dashboards, search functionality with advanced features, listings and listing sliders, and much more. Make sure the theme you pick comes with a job manager plugin, like StaffScout does, as most functionalities will come from there.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it – a nice, big selection of ideas just waiting for you to pick one! These days, making money online is relatively easy thanks to amazing tools like themes and plugins that are designed to pull the weight for us both in terms of features and in terms of design. Sending and receiving money is easier than ever, too, thanks to rich payment options that are available. In fact, we can’t see any possible reason for you not to start your own website now and start generating revenue! If you decide to go for one of the ideas from our list, do let us know in the comments, and good luck!

We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!

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