WordPress already occupies 30% of the global web market. In other words, nearly one in three websites you visit is made with WordPress. Today, it has become an ideal tool for building profitable internet businesses of all kinds and in a very easy way.
But when it started 18 years ago (in 2003), it started as a platform designed exclusively for blogging. In addition to having become the most used CMS, it has continued to evolve and today, WordPress is a simple solution to create any type of site or application. And this, thanks to the large community and the enthusiasts who animate it: improvement, development of new functionalities (plugins), optimization of existing functionalities, and creation of new themes prepared in detail for almost all cases.
Almost one in three websites you visit is made with #WordPress: blogs, stores, and businesses of all kinds
So today we are going to talk about some of the most profitable online businesses that we can easily build with WordPress. You will have everything you need at your fingertips and at a low cost, which is important to check whether a business is profitable or not before investing more time and money.
What is an online business?
Before I start talking about the profitable online businesses we can build with WordPress, I wanted to clarify a bit more about what we’re going to be referring to.
When we talk about internet businesses or online businesses, we mean those that are designed, developed, implemented, and operated exclusively on the internet.
Indeed, many traditional businesses are now moving towards the digital world. And that some of them even have more of a future on the Internet than in their classic model.
But today we are going to talk about pure hard internet businesses. The ones that currently make the most sense in this chain.
Benefits of trading on the Internet
Digital businesses have different characteristics or advantages that make them unique. Let’s take a look at a few of them below.
They are easily modular
In other words, they can experience strong growth in volume and revenue if they need more resources than they started with or if their initial needs change very little. For example, if you create an eBook, you can sell it 1 time or 100,000 times and your job will have been the same: creating the eBook. This feature is a plus for having a profitable internet business.
These are relocated companies
By their nature, Internet businesses do not need a physical location. It’s an online business. They are online. Therefore, the staff working there can also do it from any location. This reduces the necessary infrastructure and makes the project more agile. And these two points are very important to bring profitable businesses on the net.
They are easily controllable
If the term didn’t exist, I made it up. One of the great advantages of online trading is that you can monitor and measure almost anything. And that, my dear readers, gives us incredible power. The power to know the users in-depth, to know where they come from, what they are doing on our web, if the data matches our forecasts… to then be able to draw conclusions and implement the necessary measures. And all this practically in real-time and for free.
For any online business, tools like Google Analytics are pure gold. And once you get the hang of it, you won’t stop analyzing and measuring. Measure up and you will have a more profitable internet business.
It requires little investment
This is not a hard rule, but in general, starting an internet business is relatively inexpensive. You’ll be spending whatever it costs you for the domain, server, model, and plugins that we’ll talk about shortly. And maybe legal advice.
Another factor that helps in building profitable internet businesses is the need for little investment.
Yes, as you get older you are going to need more things. But you can start very basic, try out the business, and then build it. If it becomes a profitable business, you will invest more and continue to grow. And if that doesn’t work, you will have made a mistake quickly and inexpensively so it will be more painless and you can start over with another online business in no time.
What Do I Need To Start A Profitable Internet Business?
Here are some of the online businesses that you can easily build with WordPress. In each case, you’ll need specific tools and strategies, but let’s see what they all have in common first. This is the starting point for everyone.
Consistency and passion for what you do
Nine out of ten businesses fail. Lapidary. But then we’ll talk about how this failure isn’t as bad as we’re told.
The point is, the reasons can be many and varied, but to reduce this risk, I will now give you a hint that relates to some of the main ones.
If you are going to jump in the pool and are sure you want to start an online business, your best bet is to think of something you love and are good at. These two points are important. Because to have a profitable activity on the net, you have to be constant. And to be consistent, you have to get rid of whatever is preventing you from doing it.
If you want to start an online business, look for a business that you control and that you like.
You might know a lot about a sector, which would be a great strength for your SWOT, but if deep down you don’t like that sector, little by little you will stop being constant, and eventually, you will give up. Because, like any other business, a digital business is going to take almost absolute dedication. At least until it operates, grows, and becomes a profitable business that provides work for others. At this point, you may be able to free yourself a bit.
And this is where the second point comes in. Because the dedication is going to be so great, you have to love what you do to start each day with dedication and passion. Thus, you will keep your consistency and your concentration.
So when you go online, make sure you pick a niche that you know well and like. This will help you get off to a good start, making sure you have two very important assets.
Don’t be afraid of failure
It turns out that in Spain failure is frowned upon. For us, failure is a very hard blow because it tells us mentally that we are not good at something. But that’s because we are the country in the history of the milkmaid. Where, traditionally, you can’t trip and fall because someone is going to tell you to live with your feet on the ground and not imagine so many things.
In other countries, failure is synonymous with attempt. As far it is well seen to have failed multiple times because it gives you experience and shows your resilience or your ability to adapt and try again.
In other countries, failure is valued when it is undertaken. They demonstrate experience and resilience.
Not here. Here failure equals failure. And it is a big brake in our heads, a mental barrier or a limiting thought (they say now) that makes us undertake with fear and therefore with more risk.
So, if you are determined to start a digital business, keep in mind that you can fail, but that doesn’t mean you are failing. If you fail, get up, dust yourself off, and try again, applying the teachings of the previous move. In the end, you will get your much desired and profitable internet business.
WordPress
We already talked about WordPress in the introduction. And to me, it’s clear that to build profitable internet businesses, before you hire programmers and build quality custom software, and stick to the lean method, you have to start building the business with it. WordPress. Now you need to use WordPress.org and not WordPress.com. I leave you with this article if you want to see the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
There are a lot of posts talking about the differences between the two platforms, but the one that concerns us is basically that with WordPress.org you download the software (free), install it on your server, and can create your project.
On the other hand, if you work at WordPress.com, you are simply using an online blogging platform from another company (Automatic) and neither your files nor your content will be 100% yours. It would be like starting your business on Facebook (to give you an easy example).
Accommodation
Hosting is nothing other than a computer that you rent and in which are the files which allow the display and the proper functioning of your website. This is where you install your WordPress. Only this computer is prepared and optimized for this task and still accessible on the web. So anyone can access your website at any time. Think of the hosting or server as the foundation of your home.
Accommodation is like the foundation of a house. They must be strong or else they will fall
If you think so, you will understand that you cannot have a bad foundation if you want to build a big house. It is therefore important that when you are going to start an online business with WordPress that you have a clear idea of what type of hosting you will need. Don’t worry if you don’t have that many at first.
You may not even be able to predict what kind of growth your digital business will experience yet. But it is important to have professional, scalable accommodation close to home as a base. You will develop it as needed when you have a profitable internet business.
Here are some important features to look for
- That it is optimized for WordPress
- Have good anti-hacking security measures
- To make daily backups
- To get support in Spanish (if you don’t speak English)
- Be located as close as possible to your field of action
- Don’t let it be limited. This means that if at any point in time your online business grows, the server can also grow to host it without a problem.
A template or a theme
To manage the visual part of your website, you will need a template, theme, or topic that loads several styles and gives your business the look and feel you want.
There are countless themes of varying quality, premium, free, frameworks, custom … Ultimately, to decide, you have to think about where your business is online. And what are your knowledge or that of the person who will manage the website?
If you want to start an internet business from scratch, I suggest you do it in the most readable way possible. That is, create a minimum viable product and see if the business is working before investing more time and money.
Applying this logic, I don’t recommend paying a developer to make you a custom theme right off the bat. I advise you to search among the premium themes that you can find here the one that best suits your business, implements it, or pay someone to implement and launch it ASAP. You will be able to refine it when you have a profitable internet business.
Don’t be fooled by the visual appearance alone. Also check:
- that the author has created other themes or plugins
- In that, it has good support
- Whether sales are high or growing at a good pace
- As many complaints as there can be in the comments …
Anyway, I also leave you a link for how to choose a theme in WordPress.
Plugins to add specific features
Plugins are responsible for adding the exact functionality you need that is not provided by default in WordPress.
These will depend on the functionality required by the internet business you want to build. So we will see what you need to set up your online business with WordPress in each particular case.
But first, as with templates, here you have the option to find a plugin that does what you want and adapts it or have a developer make a plugin that fits your needs.
And again my advice is to be as readable as possible, and until you have a profitable internet business, limit yourself to adapting to a plugin that can meet your needs even if it doesn’t. not doing it exactly the way you would like it to.
An online marketing strategy
If you want to start an internet business and achieve profitability, and online marketing strategy cannot be lacking. Like plugins, this is a common factor in any online business, but depending on the business model and type of digital business, it will be different in each case.
Legal advice
Every business is regulated by certain laws. It is the same on the Internet. Sooner or later you will have to make different legal information available to your users.
You can indeed try to do it yourself. But if you want to do business on the internet, you don’t have to skimp on something so basic or you could get into legal trouble.
I won’t go into details, but you will generally need these documents:
Web conditions of use
Where the rights and duties of web users are specified.
Privacy Policy
If you want to collect data from users, you must comply with this law and include all of this data in a file that is accessible to them. By data collection, I mean any data. A simple contact form already makes it possible to collect data. So, in a purchasing process where billing and shipping data is requested, for example, it is very clear that you are going to have to comply with this law and prepare a document saying that you are complying with it.
Cookie Law
You will need to make a document available to all visitors to your website explaining what types of cookies are installed in the browser.
You will also need to warn all visitors to your website that browsing your site implies that you agree to the installation of cookies in their browser.
Without wanting to be too technical and as we have seen in this article that I link to you, cookies are used to perform marketing actions such as retargeting or simply to find out more about your users through Google Analytics.
8 Profitable Internet Business Ideas You Can Create With WordPress
Now let’s take a look at some examples of profitable internet businesses that you can easily set up with WordPress.
Nº1: The blog, a profitable business on the Internet
A blog is perhaps the easiest way to start an online business with WordPress. And I’m not saying it’s easy, but on many occasions, those of us who have a blog have been able to consider monetizing it and turning it into a profitable business that gives us the viability to keep investing. time in creating content to share our knowledge.
When we start a blog, it’s usually to write about something we like and can contribute to. In general, what sets us apart is our point of view or our way of doing things, since almost all subjects are already present on the Internet. But it is not a question of reinventing the wheel, but of bringing added value thanks to our experience and our point of view.
As I said, a blog could start like this. Without any particular intention.
A well-designed blog is one of the most basic ways to build a profitable internet business.
On other occasions, what we want is to position our brand in a specific market. Writing in a blog will help us do so by giving us visibility and authority. Or maybe we started without any intention and checking out a specific topic and writing about it made us a benchmark in that area without looking for it.
Either way, all of this can impact selling more services or getting more customers in general. And even as a CV to get a job. But we’re not talking in this content about how to build a brand, position yourself in a market, get leads, or sell your products or services. These are all ways to digitize our business itself.
Like we said at the start, we’re going to focus on hard-core digital commerce. That is businesses that exist on the Internet apart from those that are offline. Next, we will see different examples of how to make money with a blog.
Turning a Blog into a Profitable Internet Business by Selling Infoproducts
I won’t go into details here as there are thousands of articles on the internet about this. But basically, it means that if you control a particular topic, you can package that knowledge to sell it as a product, like a course, an eBook, a webinar …
An online business focused on creating info products means that you must first create the product to sell it to your blog’s target audience. And it is neither easy nor quick. And it’s certainly not the coveted passive income everyone is talking about.
You will need to work hard on the content and probably update it now and then as well as support your customers.
With WordPress, plugins, and integrations with other systems, it’s easy to manage a platform to sell your knowledge. Without going into details, to sell any digital product through a page made with WordPress, we could use different plugins but I highlight and recommend WooCommerce or Shopify.
Easy Digital Downloads is a Fremium plugin (but with the free version you get plenty of them) with which you can create downloadable products in a super-easy way. The plugin is meant for all kinds of downloadable material, but it’s not just suitable for that. You can even use it to charge for a service even if it was performed offline.
The main feature of this plugin is that it is not suitable for physical products because there is simply no section to send the goods. Let’s say it’s exclusively for intangible products and services.
Affiliate Links to Turn a Blog into a Profitable Online Business
Affiliate links are an easier way to start generating income online with your blog. But for a blog to become a profitable internet business through affiliate link income, we’re going to need something very important. A large audience.
Here is how it works.
There are websites and other platforms that have integrated a system whereby, when you recommend in your blog one of their products or services by putting a link to these products or services, the clicks that receive these links are tracked for some time. some time (depends on each affiliate program but can range from a few days to several months). If during this time, the referred user (i.e. the one who clicked on your affiliate link) purchases this platform (even if it is not the product that you linked), you will receive a commission on this sale.
For a blog to be profitable through affiliate links, it takes a large audience
So it’s all about bringing a lot of traffic to your blog and putting the affiliate links where they can get the most clicks.
More often than not, you use this monetization system along with other ways to make money from your blog. But if your blog receives large and constant traffic, it can become a big supplement in the total income online.
If you want to have a little fun, you can start by joining Amazon’s affiliate program and trying to position some content where you are linked to a product with its affiliate link.
To manage the affiliate links of these platforms within your blog, I could recommend the Easy Affiliate Links or Pretty Links plugins which help you create more user-friendly URLs and also give you statistics on your link activity. affiliation.
And if you want to build your affiliate system so that you have a “team of sellers” who recommend your products or services for a commission, you can use the comprehensive AffiliateWP premium plugin.
Posting Ads on Your Blog for Profitable Online Business
Another way to make money with a blog is through advertising. These can be advertisements and banners that you place manually on your website after agreeing with the advertiser. Or, better yet, it could be advertisements that automatically insert third-party platforms into your blog if you are targeted by their program.
The most famous and popular advertising program on the Internet is Google Adsense. I leave you here a link to a complete guide to Google Adsense.
Nº2: The niche site as a profitable business on the internet
A niche site consists of a blog that is ultra-concentrated in a specific niche market that seeks to capture an equally very specific audience and that organizes its content in a way that is highly optimized for monetization.
They are generally small in size but very well positioned in search engines. And they tend to focus on audiences with the greatest purchase intent.
They use all forms of monetization from the ones we saw above and others to maximize the possibilities of making money on the internet. But they don’t offer their products or services.
So, the most common niche pages that become profitable online businesses are those based on affiliate links and ads through Google Adsense.
WordPress is great for managing content, placing ads and we’ve also seen a few plugins for managing affiliate links. So you have a relatively easy way to start making money online.
Nº 3: The online store, a profitable activity on the Internet
Most of the online stores made today (2021) are developed under WordPress with the amazing free Woocommerce plugin. If WordPress is free, just like Woocommerce, you can understand that it is not difficult to get one of the most profitable businesses on the internet if we create an online store. But… is it that easy?
It turns out that the combination of WordPress + Woocommerce has overtaken the rest of the competition (Magento, Prestashop, Shopify…) precisely because of its ease of use as the main reason. Besides, it is easier than ever to give it a professional and attractive touch thanks to the large number of woo-commerce templates that are already ready to host a mouthwatering online store, as you can see in this related content.
However, if you want to build a dropshipping type online store, we recommend that you choose a good Shopify template to build your eCommerce business quickly and professionally.
But, just as setting up an online store is now so easy, just because it’s within everyone’s reach doesn’t mean you’ll always have a profitable business if you start one. Having a good online marketing strategy is imperative if you want your store to move from the desert to the main drag of a big city.
Waiting for them to come to your online store without a strategy is a lost idea
By the comparison above, I mean publishing an eCommerce and waiting for customers to go there without doing anything else is a lost idea. You will need to implement many techniques to attract your target audience and increase sales for your online store. I leave you here an article which gives us 50 actions to increase the sales of your online store.
And remember, as in all other cases, that you will need legal advice to get it right.
Nº4: How to create a market with WordPress and have a profitable activity on the Internet without selling your products
A marketplace is an online store where there are several sellers. Also, anyone could register as a seller and sell their products there in exchange for a percentage of the sale that would go to the platform itself.
An example, to understand us, would be Amazon. But others like eBay or Envato come to mind. All of them are markets where, in addition to selling their products, there are different sellers, each with its own sales profile.
And all of them are a good example of a profitable internet business. Now you will see that creating a marketplace with WordPress is straightforward and doesn’t require a lot of investment.
But… What do I need to create a market?
A marketplace is an online store, so we’ll need the Wocommerce plugin we talked about above. And we will also have to install one of their premium extensions called Product Vendors, worth around 80 euros.
After setting up the extension, we will have an online store where we can register the stores and administrators of those stores. Or we’ll just set it up so they can check in on their own.
If you prefer to directly test your business idea with a ready-made template, here are a few that might work well for building a market with WordPress.
As the products will be handled by others, both for sale and for shipping, we will not have to invest in inventory. So it’s going to be about getting as much traffic as possible on the platform to charge the maximum commission for sales. I leave you this article from Alex where you can see 27 tips to increase traffic to your website or blog.
Nº5: Site or membership club as a profitable Internet business
It’s time to set up membership sites. Many professionals opt for this model to create profitable businesses on the Internet. The main reason is recurring income.
A membership site is nothing more than a club of members who pay a fee every two or three years to join. Thus, the owner of one of these clubs receives payment from each of the members regularly. And in return, the members of the site receive benefits that the rest of the non-member users do not.
Additionally, membership sites can be content, communities, products, or services.
Subscription content site to build a profitable business on the network
For example, we could create a content site for members where we would post a daily recipe and a video preparing that recipe. The associates, every day, we’re able to follow the video step by step and prepare this recipe to perfection. And like in paid content sites, the ratio of free content to premium content is very important, you could leave the recipe in the text as free content, and the step-by-step video as paid content.
An example of a successful subscription content site that has grown into a profitable internet business, for example, is Netflix, where you pay monthly for access to videos. In this case, there is no free content, but there is an economic force to attract audiences through other channels. Another interesting case is that of the doctor of dietetics.
Create a Profitable Internet Business Through a Community Site
An example of a community membership site could be a WordPress help forum where paid members would have the right to ask questions and see their questions were answered or not. Perhaps non-paying users could just look at the Q&A for certain topics or levels to get an idea of their interest in becoming a member based on the quality of that content. There are many ways to approach this issue, but the value will always be in the community.
Subscription Service Sites for Profitable Online Business
A member service site that can quickly grow into a profitable internet business would be a WordPress support club where members, in return for their monthly membership fee, could receive the maintenance of their websites. Logically, here we are exchanging money for services, which is less scalable. So you will need to adjust the rights prices to make this work for you.
Subscription product site, another great way to get profitable internet business
And an example of a member product site, where of course you would already need stock, could be for example a wine club. Where members could receive each month a box containing an interesting selection of wines.
To create a membership site with WordPress, we’ll need a plugin to restrict content and another plugin to do the recurring charges.
Tools for creating a subscription site
Except for the product, we may use full plugins such as Paid Member Ship Pro (free) or a combination of plugins such as Easy Digital Downloads and its subscription fee extension (worth around € 200 )
And for a product membership site, we could use Woocommerce + Subscriptions extension + Memberships extension. All for a total of around 350 euros.
There are other solutions, but I have left you with the most reliable and the most used.
Regarding the marketing strategy, I would put more weight on content marketing because that way a more qualified audience that is ready to convert will arrive.
Nº6: Online Academy
Creating an online academy with WordPress can be a very profitable business on the internet because the raw material is knowledge. The knowledge that you or one of your partners (and maybe your employees if you were to hire) have. You just need to organize all the information well, transmit it correctly and follow your students.
There are different plugins and plenty of options for creating online academies with WordPress that cover all of these needs.
I leave you with someone you can trust. Precisely we are repeating with Woocommerce but this time the extension will be Sensei (129 euros)
Nº7: Directory or directory
If you are familiar with an industry and have contacts, you might want to consider creating a directory with WordPress. It’s going to take a lot of work and it’s not easy to monetize. But if you persist and incorporate more and more content, it will end up being interesting for advertisers and can turn into a profitable business on the internet.
If you didn’t know, a directory is simply a search engine for profiles (whether for companies, professionals, etc.). The profiles that people can find would be your paying customers to be on your list. There could also be different plans if you want your profile to stand out from others, for example.
There are many templates for creating a directory in WordPress. Look at them and you know… if you know a sector well, rejoice!
Nº8: Vertical social network
Unlike general social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube…), a vertical social network is a niche network. In other words, all members or users of the network have something in common. An interest, a hobby, a job, a hobby …
This makes them on the one hand more in the minority, but at the same time, they are so focused that it is of great value to their users.
An example of a vertical social network would be Badoo. In this vertical social network, all users are interested in finding friendships, relationships, or anything that may arise from it.
So, these niche networks can become profitable businesses on the internet because we can offer very specific services to our users. At the same time, we can offer referrals and promotions to brands and companies with a very specific audience. Whatever the business model of each vertical social network, it will almost certainly be based on this characteristic and the power of audience segmentation.
To create a vertical social network with WordPress, we could do it with the free BuddyPress plugin for example. There are also premium themes or templates designed to host vertical social networks.
Open a business in addition to an online site?
If you started by setting up an online business, so as not to take too many risks and test the waters, then nothing prevents you from opening a store to receive your customers in real life. Now, you will need to be well surrounded, so as not to waste time and money. Opening a business requires several skills, including knowing:
- Manage your stocks and restock
- Manage your sales to optimize those that are a little below and identify the products that you will need to increase in quantity
- Manage your store daily, whether in terms of personnel or logistics, in particular with cash register software adapted to your needs
- Master the accounts of a store to keep it legally, showcase your stock, and generate profits
As you can see, this is going to take a lot of knowledge and also time. It is therefore important to have all the tools to work in the best conditions.
