Mai Side Hustle

What Features Do Side Hustle Websites Need?

Side hustle websites require a combination of essential features to effectively serve their purpose of generating extra income and promoting the side hustler’s offerings. Here are key features that side hustle websites typically need:

Here are some essential features that would be useful for your side hustle website:

1. Clear Value Proposition: Clearly communicate the unique value proposition of your side hustle, whether it’s a product, service, content, or expertise. Visitors should quickly understand what sets your offering apart.
2. Responsive Design: Ensure your website is responsive and mobile-friendly to provide a seamless user experience across devices. Many users access websites from smartphones and tablets, so optimizing for mobile is crucial.
3. Easy Navigation: Design intuitive navigation menus and site structure to help visitors find information quickly. Use clear labels and organize content logically to enhance usability.
4. Compelling Content: Create high-quality and engaging content relevant to your niche. This could include blog posts, product descriptions, service pages, testimonials, case studies, or multimedia content like videos and infographics.
5. Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons: Include prominent and persuasive call-to-action buttons that encourage visitors to take desired actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, scheduling a consultation, or downloading a resource.
6. Contact Information: Display contact information (email, phone number, social media links) prominently so visitors can easily reach out with inquiries or support requests. A contact form can also be beneficial for collecting messages.
7. E-commerce Functionality (If Applicable): If you’re selling products or services, integrate e-commerce functionality such as a secure shopping cart, product listings with images and descriptions, payment gateways, order tracking, and shipping options.
8. Optimized SEO: Implement search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results. Optimize meta titles, descriptions, headings, alt tags for images, and use relevant keywords throughout your content.
9. Social Media Integration: Incorporate social media integration by adding social sharing buttons, embedding feeds, or displaying follow buttons. Encourage visitors to engage with your content and share it with their networks.
10. Analytics and Tracking: Set up website analytics tools like Google Analytics to track visitor behavior, traffic sources, conversions, and other key metrics. Use data insights to make informed decisions and optimize your website’s performance.
11. Security Measures: Implement security measures such as SSL certificates for secure browsing, regular software updates, strong passwords, spam protection, and backups to protect your website and user data.
12. Privacy Policy and Legal Compliance: Include a privacy policy that outlines how you collect, use, and protect user data. Ensure your website complies with relevant legal requirements, such as GDPR or CCPA, depending on your audience and location.
13. Testimonials and Reviews: Showcase customer testimonials, reviews, ratings, and success stories to build trust and credibility. Positive feedback from satisfied customers can encourage new visitors to engage with your offerings.
14. FAQ Section: Create a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to address common inquiries and provide helpful information upfront. This can reduce customer support queries and improve user experience.
15. Newsletter Signup: Encourage visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or email list for updates, promotions, exclusive content, and special offers. Build and nurture relationships with your audience through targeted email marketing campaigns.

The specific needs of your side hustle may vary. It’s not just about picking a website design, adding your logo to the header, and maybe selecting a color scheme before calling it done and sticking with it. You need to be able to customize your web design to reflect the unique aspects of your business and ensure a user-friendly and visually appealing design throughout.

WordPress versus Side Hustle Website Builders: Choosing the Right Platform for Your Side Hustle Site

When it comes to building a website for your side hustle or any small business, you have several options available. The main categories to choose from are WordPress, which is according to some reports around 43% of the web, and site builders such as Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, and so on. 

Before grabbing your credit card and starting your own website creation, let’s compare and contrast these platforms using key factors such as pricing, templates, SEO, ease of use, integrations, and customer support to help you make an informed decision.

1. Pricing

Side hustle site builders offer different pricing plans to suit your situation. Business plans will offer more than starter plans which offer more than you get with the trial free website, and so on. How much you pay will depend on your bandwidth use, number of visitors you expect, and how much storage you take up, SEO services, if you register a personalized domain, and any other premium add-on you select. 

WordPress on the other hand is an open-source platform, meaning the software is free to use, but you’ll need to pay for web hosting services and a domain name. There are a wide range of vendors for hosting WordPress websites, from cheap mass-market offerings like GoDaddy, through to super premium providers for websites that absolutely must never go offline. 

It’s important to compare the costs of these options and determine which fits your budget and long-term goals.

2. Templates

WordPress boasts a vast library of customizable templates, known as themes, which cater to various industries and website types, and we offer designs especially for side hustle websites. These themes provide a foundation for your website’s design and functionality for you to then customize via visual formatting tools rather than editing HTML code. 

Site builders also offer a range of templates to choose from, allowing you to personalize your website’s appearance, but if the functionality you need isn’t already provided then you might find solving for that a problem. 

3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

WordPress has excellent SEO capabilities, with plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack that help optimize your website for search engines. These plugins provide guidance on meta tags, URL structure, and content optimization. Site builders often claim to offer built-in SEO tools and features to optimize your website for search engines. Look for yourself how often side hustle websites appear in search results versus those built with site builders to judge the real-world SEO capabilities of each platform and how they align with your website’s visibility and rankings on search engines.

4. Ease of Use and User-Friendly Features:

WordPress requires some initial setup, but it offers immense flexibility and control over your website’s design and functionality. Side hustle site builders, on the other hand, often provide a pre-built fill-in-the-gaps experience. Do you want a lot of customization or a paint by numbers approach for your brand?

5. Integrations and Apps

WordPress has a vast ecosystem of plugins and integrations that extend its functionality. You can integrate various third-party tools, such as e-commerce plugins, contact forms, social media integrations, and more. Side hustle site builders do offer built-in widgets that can enhance your website’s functionality. Consider the specific integrations and apps that are essential for your business and ensure that your chosen platform supports them.

6. Customer Support and Tutorials

WordPress benefits from a large and active community, offering extensive documentation, tutorials, and forums where you can find answers to your questions. Additionally, many web hosting providers offer WordPress-specific support. Side hustle site builders typically provide customer support through email, chat, or phone, ensuring you can seek assistance when needed. Consider the level of customer support and availability of tutorials and resources that are important to you.

Ultimately, the best website builder for you between WordPress and commercial site builders depends on your specific needs, the technical expertise you have on hand, and long-term budget. WordPress offers unparalleled flexibility and scalability, making it suitable for businesses of any size. Side hustle site builders provide user-friendly drag and drop interfaces that can get you website building quickly, while perhaps not evolving with your business as it grows.