There are a lot of people who want to get into the web for profit game. The big question a lot of people have up front is what type of site makes the most money? While this is a valid question I think a more important question is which type of site is best for a “newbie.”  There are many advantages and disadvantages with each type of website. For example, forums rely almost 100% on user generated content, blogs require a constant commitment to writing new material, and article sites require a way to constantly have new material written.

I’ll start off giving my take on forums. I’ve always been a forum guy and in fact, forums are one of the first types of “online communities” that I got into several years ago. Forums can be extremely difficult to get off the ground, which is why I do not necessarily recommend them to a new person just getting started. Sure it’s fun to be a member of a huge forum and it’s common to think that you can have equal success, but, the truth is that no forum was build overnight. Even once you have your memberbase and are getting constant new posts and new content you will find what most webmasters are finding; forums are also very hard to properly monetize. The problem with running a forum for profit is that unless you have backup funds to continue promoting it you will soon run out of money. Forums are almost enver self sustaining until at minimum a few months down the road. Then of course forums require that you interact and deal with people on a daily basis. You will have to moderate fights, spam, and anything and everything that can come up with user generated content in a community setting. If you aren’t up for a lot of hard work and a major time commitment, forums are definitely not for you.

Blogs are a little easier to run than forums, but, the issue of marketing your blog is always a sticky one. Blogs have been around for a while as well and right now there are millions of other blogs on the internet, many that most likely cover the same type of content that yours will. The biggest trick with running a blog is to try to be yourself and make sure that your content is unique. Sure you probably won’t break large news stories on your blog, but by unique I am referring mostly to your twist on your blog posts as well as your personality. Don’t be afraid to goof around a little. If you are blogging with the intent to profit then you will have to play around with your style and find out what gets the best user reactions, but, the key here is to find something that works and then be consistent. Once you are in your groove you will need to blog as often as possible if you want to attract repeat visitors and subscribers. The hardest part of blogging is just keeping at it. Sometimes you will have no clue what to write about and will have to come up with something. If the thought of being creative scares you then blogging is not for you. Otherwise blogs are fairly simple to set up and really just about anybody can get a blog going in short order.

Now article based sites are a different animal altogether. An article site is basically a website that lists articles in several different niche categories. Often times you don’t even have to write the articles yourself. The idea is similar to blogging, but with a more editorial and informative approach. You’ll still have your different categories, but, the big difference is that article sites are not generally set up in a “journal” style like a blog. Instead, article sites are set up more like a resource site, with a searchable database of articles in different categories that you set up. Article sites tend to do very well money-wise early on. When people go to a blog or a forum they generally are thinking whether or not they want to join and post or make comments. With an article site, if you use smart ad placement you can expect to make a few dollars a day in very short order if your site is properly optimized for search engine indexing. Forums and blogs are sometimes difficult to SEO, but, that is not always the case with article sites. If you use a popular CMS for your website, many times the script will have built in SEO urls. Sure there are plugins for forums and blogs to do the same, but, I still think that in the long run you will see better indexing when it comes to a good CMS. In fact, sometimes, the best way to SEO your article based website is to create your own content management system. That way search engines won’t flag your site as “just another Joomla” or whatever CMS you use. In the end, article sites are good money makers. You will simply need to be somewhat dedicated to adding new content, whether you write your own articles or hire people to do so. The important thing to remember is that the more you write, the more pages you can have indexed. The more pages you get indexed then the more traffic you can potentially get from search engines without having to pay a dime.

In closing, I think that the best type of site for a “newbie” would be either a blog or an article based site. If you have a driven and “get it done” personality you should not have any problem getting any of these types of sites off the ground though.