Ready Made Turnkey Websites
Ready made/Turnkey websites are being offered for sale on the web that require zero knowledge of web technology- a website Nirvana?
With a ready made turnkey website you not only get the website layout, but you can also get the content and even the affiliate programs, Google Adsense, and paypal all plugged in!
All you need to do is collect the cash at the end ! -- True or False ?
Someone once said if it appears to good to be true then.......
There are several different types of ready made or turnkey websites available and it is important to be aware of the difference before you commit yourself.
I divide them up into three distinct types:-
- Get rich quick schemes
- Affiliate program extensions
- Speciality sites.
Get Rich Quick Ready Made Websites.
These are always in the form of paid websites. Common themes are porn, gambling, making money online. They tend to be made for Adsense sites and affiliate websites and typically provide the website and content in the form of articles and reviews.
These sites have very little chance of long term success and should be avoided. Generally if the promotion of the site emphasises how easy it is to make money with the sites then they are usually the get rich quick variety.
These type of sites are to be avoided!!!
Affiliate Program Extensions
With affiliate programs you promote some else's product from your website. Some companies in an effort to help their affiliates even more provide the affiliates with a website of their own.
It is often used where the seller has a product that, although it may be in demand, has high competition and looks for ways of making it easy for people to sell the product.
The way it works is simple:
You get a free turnkey website from Company X - it costs nothing and it promotes products from company X. You don't know what you are doing you fail !- Who wins? ---No one
OK same scenario but it's a success who wins?-- both of you. It costs Neither you nor company X in either case and both only make money if you succeed. They now have a real incentive to help you succeed or they make no money!
If you are going to use the website to make money, then this is the group I would recommend you start with.
Speciality Turnkey Websites
This type comes in both free and paid forms and offers a high degree of customisation. Unlike the other two types previously discussed, you provide most of the content.
Speciality website are offered in areas like weddings, dentists, real-estate etc.
Take for example real-estate sites.
Now everyone knows it is possible to make money in real-estate. If you are a broker and want a website as a sales aid you could either do it yourself, get one made, or get a turnkey site.
In this case the ready made/turnkey website would provide you with the main outline and you would supply all the content.
Many professions lend themselves to this type of website like doctors, dentists, agents, consultants, restaurants, hotels etc because they all have very similar needs.
If you are using WordPress (recommedned) then there are many different themes/plugins which effectively turn WordPress into a ready made website.
For example Sitemile provide themes for auction websites, classified ads, review sites and Premium Press provide themes for real estate sites, directory sites etc.
There are many other theme providers providing themes for specific industries/professions.
Turnkey Websites - Pros and Cons
Ready made site have many good points-
- You get a professional looking website at a very low cost.
- You get sophisticated functionality at an incredibly low cost.
- You don't need to hire a designer or web developer.
- You usually get new and upgraded features at no or little cost.
There are only a few disadvantages:
- You are stuck with the functionality built into the site
- There may be many more similar looking sites- Not really a problem
- You may fund that the site template/theme becomes outdated and abandoned by the developer.
Recommendations
I would stay with WordPress specific themes/plugins and not go for a bespoke php,asp solution as offered by many providers as WordPress has many free/paid themes and if the one you start with becomes outdated/stale then you can easily move to another one.
If you are a restaurant owner, dentist, real estate agent or similar then there is very little risk in a ready made solution based on WordPress. If you are going to be doing affiliate marketing then you need to exercise due diligence as there are many quick rich type schemes that also use WordPress as a platform.
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