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The 4 Types of Web Sites

July 10th, 2006 | by Scott

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There are basically 4 types of web sites that I’ve been involved in. There are more out there, but I’ll only comment on what I know so we’ll stick with four.

First is the product(s) for sale site. Where you create or manufacture one or more products and intend (hope) to sell them to a larger customer base online. Often the business behind these sites has a brick-n-mortar foundation and the web site is just an expansion of marketing, sometimes though it’s a true start-up and the factory is actually the site owner’s garage.

Whatever the case may be, there’s a lot to learn for this type of site owner. Everything from simple web page building to eCommerce solutions for allowing your customers to make online purchases. I can’t cover all of that here, so I’ll just provide the best advice that was ever given to me for this type of site, “always over tell”.

For every product you offer think about how you can build 7 different informational pages about it, then think about how you can build 3 more. Most sites have a ‘product page’ for each item that lists the major selling points and that’s it. This is fine if everyone in the world already knows to look at your web site for this product, but odds are that they don’t. For most the whole point to selling online is to reach a larger market. To attract buyers who have no idea your company or products even exist.

How do you do that? Easy, build 10 or more pages around every item you offer. Don’t stop at the key selling points, create a page that details the production process of the item, someone looking for customizations may find that page in the search engines. Create a page that describes real world examples of your product in application, someone who doesn’t know exactly what they’re looking for but just that it does a certain thing may find this page in the search engines. See where I’m going here? Every page you create around a product is another chance to attract web searchers and showcase your company and product. Also, remember that offline rules will apply online as well. The customer is still always right and word-of-mouth can make or break you based on the quality of your products and customer service skills.

Second is the service industry site. This is very similar to the products site above except that instead of a product you’re providing a service to your customers.

The same 10 pages per service offered rule can be used here too, but a more important rule when providing services for pay is to always under sell and over deliver. Just like in an offline service oriented business, if you constantly exceed your customer’s expectations you’ll be assured of both repeat and referral business from that customer.

Third is the informational site. These are normally monetized by joining an ad-serving network.

- Google’s program is one example and works by placing blocks of advertising within the informational content of your site which earn you revenue every time a visitor from your site clicks on one of the ads.

There are differing opinions on these types of sites. Some people hate any advertisements being displayed to them. I tend to think it’s a fair trade between the site publisher who’s providing free access to the data on their pages and the visitor who isn’t being forced to click on the ads.

The problem with these sites for the webpreneur is that under normal circumstances it requires a lot of traffic to your web site to generate enough clicks to earn any sort of return from them. The ‘newbie’ is usually lucky if they earn enough to cover their monthly hosting expenses.

However, before you decide this wouldn’t be lucrative enough to try–there are ethical ways to help increase the number of visitors who will click the ads on your site which will raise your earnings.

To start, make sure you’ve joined a reputable ad-serving network that offers targeted, content relevant ads to your visitors. Google’s AdSense and the Yahoo! Publisher Network both do this. When you join one of these programs and place their ad code on your pages, their ‘bots’ will spider your page content and determine which ads they have available that are most similar or best suited to the text content on your page. In other words, if your page is about Hot-Rod cars you’ll get ads related to cars or mechanics, not ads about Sewing or Cooking. The key here is that if your visitors enjoy information about cars they’ll be more tempted to click (and happier that they did) an ad about cars.

Ad placement and blending is another thing that can improve your click-through rates. If your ads look like ad blocks and are separated (even by a thin line border) from your page content visitors will be less likely to click on them. Lots of people have grown used to “blanking” these ad blocks out as they read web pages.

Many people also assume that if it’s an ad link then it’s only there to get them to spend money. While that’s often true it’s not always the case. Some web sites advertise free services or information just to build their own visitor base and for brand marketing. The point is if you’ve taken the care to join an ad-serving network that targets ads to your page content then take the time to blend the ads into your pages. Make sure your visitors will not just “blank the ads out” as they scan your page and rather let them decide after seeing the ad if they want to click it or not.

The fourth type of site is an affiliate site. There are 2 sub-types of these. The first are created and published with one sole purpose, to get sales and earn commissions. They offer no unique content of substance or real value beyond the republishing of item’s selling points in an attempt to up-sell to visitors.

I don’t care for these types of sites. They cause congestion and confusion on the web for surfers and other site owners.

When someone who’s never even used a cell phone starts building affiliate sites about ring tones and other cell related extras and add-ons that are nothing more than copy-n-paste sales text from their upstream affiliates or republished articles of other person’s writings it not only seems unethical to me, but I believe it’s actually a disservice to web surfers and consumers. That’s just my opinion though.

The second type of affiliate site however, is much more ethical in my personal opinion. It’s one that offers unique content and value to visitors combined with affiliate links and banners related to the site’s content.

For example, if you’re passionate about camping and love Joe Smith’s line of camping gear then to create a site that provides unique information about camping, complete with various gear reviews and tales of your own adventures in the wild is not only a great idea for a site you’d probably enjoy working at, but it’s also perfectly acceptable to offer affiliate links since these are products you’re familiar with and would recommend.

Even though your ultimate goal might be to generate revenue from the site, the honest work and effort you put into creating this kind of affiliate site with original content that both informs and entertains visitors earns you those affiliate commissions.

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