One Page Website vs Multiple Pages. Which Can Make More?

I’ve made money online with both a one page website as well as those with multiple pages, numerous times and in this post want to clear up which can make you more money.

And I say clear up because this is a subject that is often misunderstood by people and often misused by sleazy marketers to fill their pockets.

To start, I want to give you some context and key differences between a one page website vs a multiple page website and how each one makes money:

How a one page website makes money online:

First of all, a one page website on it’s own will never make money so forget anyone who tells you otherwise.

In order for a one page website to make money, it needs at least 2 key ingredients: Traffic and some sort of offer it’s selling or promoting.

And in the case of one page websites, traffic typically comes from pay per click ads. We’re talking YouTube Ads (common), Facebook Ads (also common), Bing Ads (not so common) and other similar pay per click networks.

As for offers, there are a few examples. A one page website can either be promoting or selling a specific product or it can be collecting an email list to then sell to the people who sign up to it.

For example:

1. A Facebook Ad (or YouTube Ad, Bing Ads, ect…) gets 10,000 clicks.
2. Those 10,000 clicks cost you $1,000.
3. Those 10,000 clicks (visitors) come to a one page website promoting a $1,000 product.
4. 10 people buy the product and you make $10,000 in revenue.
5. You spend $1,000 on the ad, so your profit is $9,000.
6. That’s how your “one page site” makes money folks.

Here’s another example:

1. A paid ad gets 5,000 visitors.
2. The ad costs $500 in costs to you.
3. This gets you 5,000 visitors to your one page site.
4. On the one page site, you collect an email list vs selling something directly.
5. You get 500 people to sign up to the list (10% opt in rate).
6. You sell a $1,000 product to the list and get 5 sales ($5,000).
7. You earn $5,000 in revenue and $4,500 in profit (minus the $500 ad cost).
8. A lot of people go the email marketing route with one page websites because paid ads cost a lot of money and selling expensive stuff is one of the only ways to profit from it. But to sell expensive stuff requires trust and time, so an email list builds that.

Here’s another way to look at it:

But in the end, a one page website will never profit “on it’s own”. It needs those other 2 ingredients to work and it very well can.

I did say that I’ve made money with them and in fact, here is a 1 page site case study where I showcase my 6 figure results, but in that case study, I was clear that it wasn’t just the one page site that was making me money. There are more involved (the 2 ingredients).

How a site with multiple pages makes money online:

There are 2 clear cut examples of this:

1) An eCommerce website selling multiple products on each page.

This type of multiple page website only really makes money with paid ads that send traffic to one or more of those pages.

2) A blog website which is actually a better option.

A blog website can have limitless pages and get free traffic from numerous sources, mainly search engines to it and profit from that. This very website is an example of a blog site with multiple pages that makes money. Most of the pages on this website get visitors and those visitors funnel into my main promotion which is Wealthy Affiliate.

For example:

1. A multiple page website can consist of 100 pages.
2. In total, the website gets 70,000 visitors a month in free traffic.
3. The website promotes multiple affiliate offers throughout the site.
4. Each month the site makes $5,000 in affiliate sales and about $4,000 in display ad earnings (like Mediavine).
5. Overall, the site ends up generating $9,000 a month in passive income through affiliate sales and display ads.
6. The benefit here is that you get free traffic, so you don’t spend any money on ads to get it.

 

One page websites vs multiple page websites. Which is better?

The clearest answers are as follows:

Beginners: Start with a blog and make a multiple page website. This is far better for your online business and far safer. It will take you about a year to build up a blog to make good money though (but it’s worth it).

Advanced: I only suggest making one page websites and online sales funnel with them if you’re advanced. To truly profit from them requires you to understand many intricacies in the online business world. including:

• How to get targeted clicks from paid ads.
• How to get people to buy your offer.
• How to get people to opt into your email list.
• How to build true rapport with your customers.

There’s more elements, but an advanced person who has already made money online will likely understand most of these things, whereas a beginner will not. And the less you understand this, the more money you’ll waste on one page website buying ads and hoping to make money on the back end (it won’t work most of the time).

The only real advantage of a one page website is that if you understand paid ads and online sales funnels, you can drive traffic quickly to the one page site and possibly make money back quickly.

Warnings about making money online with one page websites (don’t do it if you’re a beginner):

Too often I run into beginners who hear this nonsense about one page websites being easy to monetize with and thinking if they spend a lot of money on ads but promote something really expensive through a “proven funnel”, that they’ll profit easily.

I promise you this mindset will leave your wallet dry as the people and programs which pitch this crap are the only ones who really make the money.

As a beginner, you should never enter into the world of one page websites, paid ads and these advanced online sales funnels without making money from the basics and the basics involve starting with blogging.

Don’t underestimate multiple page online businesses (they can make you a lot too):

I’m advanced and I still use this site as well as other multiple page websites to drive free traffic and make money from that. In fact, I actually consider these things to be a bit more reliable for long term income as many strategies to make money off one page websites are huge risks these days.

So if you’re a beginner, take my experienced word for it:

1. Start with blogging and making a multiple page website.
2. Make your money from that.
3. Enter into the one page website world after using the profits from your multiple page website.

Your experience in blogging and understanding traffic generation, sales funnels and experiencing that on a blog is a safer way to learn these lessons properly to then use with one page websites and that’s the proper way to go about it.

The good news is that if you are new and want to start with this, then Wealthy Affiliate will teach you this.