An eCommerce website is an online shop where people can buy products. Some businesses have both physical store locations and shops as well as eCommerce websites to reach a larger customer base. When your customer lives on the internet, you have an infinite amount of potential customers you can reach. This is a popular website type for designers to work on. There are always new businesses starting up every single day and they’re looking for designers to help them create a memorable online presence to sell their products.
A business website is any website that’s devoted to representing a specific business. It should be branded like the business (the same logo and positioning) and communicate the types of products and/or services the business offers. By now, every business out there should have a website. It’s a widespread expectation. Every potential customer you encounter will just assume that if they Google your business looking for more information, they’ll find a website. And if they don’t, it makes the business look less professional or legitimate.
If you want to start an entertainment website, you’ve got a lot of options for formats that can take. You could make funny or informative videos, write entertaining blog posts, draw comics, or create fun quizzes. Since there are so many entertainment websites out there, you should anticipate it taking some time and work to find an audience that connects with you (and even more time and work to start making money, if that’s your ultimate goal), but if you’ve got ideas for content to create that you think people will find entertaining, an entertainment website is one of the best ways to get that content out into the world.
Portfolio Websites are sites devoted to showing examples of past work. Service providers who want to show potential clients the quality of the work they provide can use a portfolio website to collect some of the best samples of past work they’ve done. This type of website is simpler to build than a business website and more focused on a particular task: collecting work samples. This type of website is most common for creative professionals and freelancers that are hired based on demonstrated skill and can be a more efficient alternative to a business website that serves a similar focus.
Media websites collect news stories or other reporting. There’s some overlap here with entertainment websites, but media websites are more likely to include reported pieces in addition to or instead of content meant purely for entertainment. This category includes sites like the Washington Post website, Slate, and Inc. Media websites generally make money through either advertisements that show up on the site, subscription models, or some combination of the two. Many media websites are the online branch of media properties that often exist in other forms, like TV channels or print magazines and newspapers, but some are online only.
Brochure websites are a simplified form of business websites. For businesses that know they need an online presence, but don’t want to invest a lot into it (maybe you’re confident you’ll continue to get most of your business from other sources), a simple brochure site that includes just a few pages that lay out the basics of what you do and provide contact information may be enough for you. Brochure sites were more common in the earlier days of the internet when businesses knew they needed a website, but also expected not to be dependent on it for success. Now that the internet is such a big part of how people research and find just about every product and service they need, most businesses recognize that they need something more competitive.
In the same way that businesses need websites to be their online presence, nonprofits do as well. A nonprofit website is the easiest way for many potential donors to make donations and will be the first place many people look to learn more about a nonprofit and determine if they want to support it. If you have or are considering starting a nonprofit, then building a website for your organization is a crucial step in proving your legitimacy and reaching more people. You can use it to promote the projects your organization tackles, encourage followers to take action, and for accepting donations.
The websites of educational institutions and those offering online courses fall into the category of educational websites. These websites have the primary goal of either providing educational materials to visitors, or providing information on an educational institution to them. Some educational websites will have advertisements like entertainment and media websites do. Some offer subscription models or educational products for purchase. And some serve as the online presence for an existing institution.
Infopreneur websites overlap a bit with business and eCommerce websites, but they represent a unique type of online business. Infopreneurs create and sell information products. That could be in the form of courses, tutorials, videos or ebooks. Infopreneurs normally create a mix of valuable free content and premium content they charge for. The infopreneur’s website serves as the central location for both things – the free content which serves as a marketing tool to get people onto the site, and the paid products that account for their profits. Building a good website is therefore crucial for this type of business model.
The goal of a personal website is exactly that, personal. It might not be to sell something or promote work but merely to post and share thoughts. Often times it can feature a blog, maybe it’s a one-page resume with links to other social platforms, or whatever someone wants to share. As a web designer, you probably won’t be asked to design too many personal websites unless it’s as a favor to a friend or family member who wants to start and share a project they’re working on. However, if you’re new to designing websites, this could be a great way to get some practice in a low-pressure environment. Try practicing designing a simple one-page website that catches a user’s attention and shares the most important information about the individual whom the site is for. It can be a fun challenge as you won’t have as much content to work with.
Web portals are often websites designed for internal purposes at a business, organization, or institution. They collect information in different formats from different sources into one place to make all relevant information accessible to the people who need to see it. They often involve a login and personalized views for different users that ensure the information that’s accessible is most useful to their particular needs. Web portals will generally involve more complicated programming and design than most of the other websites described on this list, so make the most sense for skilled and experienced web programmers to consider.
One of the most well-known and visited websites is Wikipedia. Wikis can be created on any subject. A wiki is a website where various users are able to collaborate on content, update, and make their own changes. Community forum websites provide an organized way to publish discussions on a specific topic. Users can register to start and contribute to existing discussions. Forums tend to help users solve technical issues, a great example of one is the WordPress support forum. Due to the open-source nature of these websites, the design tends to be non-existent. You’ll notice Wikipedia is not designed well, it’s basically just HTML without much CSS styling. However, if you wanted to create your own community forum you could get creative with the design and collaborate with a developer to make the backend work smoothly.
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