Three Web Design Features That Are Money-Makers

Show me the money!

If you have run an online business, managed one, or designed a website for it whether it was for yourself or a client, then you definitely understand how hard it is to monetize your efforts and actually make some money. I’ve been working in the web design/digital marketing field for over 20 years now, and I still struggle with the same question: How can I make money off these websites? After years of marketing research, good old-fashioned A/B tests, and 334 landing pages later, I finally found the features or types of sites that attract the right audience, FOR ME. And that’s the key, you’ve got to know your niche so you can discover YOUR audience.). Once you have that audience, you can begin your drip campaigns and start gaining their trust and loyalty. Once I get them responding to my correspondence, I’ll hit them up with a special offering and there will typically be a percentage of that audience that will bite. (typically between 7-10%)

These three features or website styles aren’t new. They’ve been used over and over again really, they’re just presented in a new package or with a new twist. It’s kind of a good song. Once a classic, always a classic. No matter how many times that song gets re-mixed, it’s always a classic. That’s exactly how these features, or types of websites, will always have more potential to make you money than other approaches. Not to mention, these three features on the list are classics in their own right. They’ve been redone time and time again. But the people keep coming!! Let’s get to it!

Money-Maker #1. Membership Sites

If you’re looking for a feature or type of website that gives you really great bottom-line results, then you’ve got to consider becoming a membership site. Membership sites are a part of your online business that contains gated content (information behind a login). Once inside, they gain access to exclusive premium content, services, and certain membership privileges. When you make a user feel apart of your community, they will spend more time on your site, and the more time they spend, the more possibilities they’ll have to spend money on your services or products.

 "It's not always about the money, but if people don't pay, they won't value the content you produce."

There are a lot of platforms and solutions for building membership or community websites. I build membership sites on WordPress.(That’s what platform you’re on right now.) It’s open-source and extremely flexible. Plus, the WordPress community has tons of free membership plugins that when installed set the structure up for you automatically. They typically create 3-4 pages during the setup: a register page, login page, profile page, and a member listing page. All of them offer premium add-ons to monetize your membership site. These add-ons typically allow members to subscribe on a monthly or annual subscription for something you’re offering. Good content, teaching courses, software tips & tricks, a resource download page, online tools, etc..

If you’re considering starting your own membership site, read it and maybe it will help you to skip the growing pains I went through. I bet I’ve installed over 12 membership plugins for WordPress. I’ve personally bought 4 of them. So I’ve been around the block with these things. The beauty of a membership site is that once you get the foundation built, all you have to focus on is the content. That’s a nice place to get.

PRO TIP! In membership sites, you always want to offer a free membership level. Most users will start there just to see what you're all about.

If you build it, they will come.

Amazon.com is an exceptional example of a membership site. Let’s face it, we all use it because of their prices, but a lot of use Amazon Prime, They’ve packed the features in too. Free shipping, movies, special pricing, and more. Does it work? At the end of 2019 Amazon had over 11 million subscribers. This strategy has obviously been very lucrative for them. And it can work for you too!

The screenshot below is an example of a stellar membership site.

Money-Maker #2. Forums

Another excellent way to make money is by launching a forum on your website. Since the Internet’s inception, forums have been around. Forums were the birthplace of social media. A place to share thoughts, ideas, ask questions, upload pictures, and videos, and mostly connect with others by chatting or instant messages. There are so many ways to monetize a forum. The most popular strategy is through 3rd-party advertisements. Another option would be to create a sub-forum that offers value to your members (coupons, special offers, etc.). If you’re into affiliate marketing, forums are a VERY effective way to reach many people at once and grow your network.

PRO TIP! Make sure to use a captcha on your registration & login forms to prevent unwanted bots from blasting your website.

Another way to make money with forums is leveraging forum-generated data. Whether you read forum threads, create surveys — or, better yet, both — your forum is a rich resource of data, which you can leverage in several ways. Want you to learn what they want, you can offer them products that focus on their needs through your forum.

Consider adding a forum to your website. If you’re looking for the best WordPress plugin for forums, it’s hands-down, BBPress. The free version is fully functional with optional add-ons that offer extra features. If your website isn’t built on the WordPress platform, consider PhpBB. It’s an open-source forum with tons of features. Also with PhpBB, the community of users is HUGE and they are creating free themes and extensions to enhance the “out of box” installation. Whatever route you go, make sure your forum is an integral part of your website.

Online discussion forums have benefits at an individual and society level.

Money-Maker #3. User Customization

Allow your audience to customize their own experience while surfing through your website. Give them something to interact with and the ability to customize specific elements of your site. Something as simple as adding a profile picture, or changing the background of their dashboard, or even allowing them to change the color scheme or “style” of your website, or specific page.

I believe one of the hottest user customization trends in 2020 is dark mode. The dark-theme mode is simply a dark-styled themed website or app. Some sites and apps allow you to switch it on and off, I’m sure you’ve seen it in mobile device applications where dark mode changes the elements inside out color-wise. It’s striking. There’s a great example of a dark mode switch on Wix.com (see link in footer). 

WEB TIP! Give users proper notice to accept your site's cookies and your Privacy Policy as well as change their marketing preferences.

The screenshot below is an example of the dark-mode theme in Instagram's app.

User Customization is a money maker because if done correctly, you’ll grab your audience’s attention and trust. And once you have that, it’s up to you on how you lead them to your end-goal, whether it’s sales, subscribers, or hits.

In digital marketing, knowing your audience is half the battle.

Closing Remarks

Website features & design elements directly affect the number of conversions, sales, or hits. Remember to make your website “user-centric”. If you design your website that way, your audience will trust you and be willing to spend their money. Also, remember to spend time testing out different strategies and approaches. Stay ahead of the design trends so you’ll continue to be relevant to your audience. Using one or all of these features in your website mentioned in this article will make you money, but pick one and do it well.

Please comment and share your tips and success stories with everyone!

LINKS MENTIONED: Wix's Dark Mode switch demo

ARTICLE SOURCES: 20 Statistics About The Benefits Of Online Communities, Web Design Trends from 99Design.com, What Is A Membership Site?, 11 Examples Of Website Personalization, WordPress Stats: Your Ultimate List of WordPress Statistics, How To Monetize A Forum – 50 Tips. Guides. And, Resources