Online Directories are a great way of generating passive income. Especially, have a look at the Airbnb website and you’ll be inspired to build an online directory of your own.
Airbnb helps you search for vacation rentals, hotels, etc. The visitors can just search for the available accommodation for their vacation using their search facility.
The good news is: You can create such website on your own using this Airbnb WordPress Clone template. Without paying huge fees to designers and programmers to get your website created.
In this article, I’ll show you the exact steps that you can follow to create a Web-based Directory like Airbnb. Let’s get started right away
- Decide the niche for your web directory
- Domain and hosting
- Download and install the Airbnb WordPress Clone script
- Customize your website as per your requirements
- Start offering listing submissions
- Other ways to monetize your Airbnb clone website
- Promote and maintain
Decide the subject of your Directory site
Even though Airbnb is limited to vacation homes, rental properties and locations, you directory website can be multipurpose.
The first thing you have to be sure about before you start to build a Directory Website is the niche you want to proceed with. There can be many subjects for your Directory website.
It’s important to decide the subject of your website before getting started. Because that will help you decide many things about your website at a later stage.
For instance – It can help you decide the ideal hosting package. As well as this, it is also essential to know your niche so that you can choose a niche theme, that can make your work easier.
Therefore, take some time out, and reflect on the purpose of your Directory website. Choose the concept of your website and make the rest of the decisions based on it.
Get Domain name and hosting service
A directory website is different for normal websites like business or online portfolio websites. Airbnb style Directory websites are a large website with large data submitted by various users.
Also, the domain name and the hosting are long-term decisions. You can definitely move your WordPress site to a new domain or host, but that’s a little complicated. The better idea is to think about the domain name and hosting thoroughly in the first place.
Register the domain name for your online Directory website
To register the domain, you can rely on popular domain registrars like GoDaddy or BlueHost. Domain name typically represents your website’s permanent address on the internet. So choose it carefully.
When you are decided with the domain name, use the search bars provided by the domain name registrars, and see if they are available.
If the domain name you want is not available, you must try a new one with little variation and try it. When the desired domain name is available, you can check out for it. The details about your domain name will be sent to you by email.
Register the hosting service for your Airbnb style WordPress website
Now that we have our domain name register, let’s hunt for server space.
Thanks to the competition in the field, that secure and efficient hosting is now so affordable. Moreover, we have the WordPress optimized hosting, that makes things easier.
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Installing the Spotfinder Airbnb WordPress Clone template
To create Airbnb Clone WordPress website, we will use the SpotFinder Airbnb Clone Directory software. This WordPress Airbnb theme is designed to let you create amazing Directory websites in minutes.
Using this Airbnb clone Web Directory Script, you can create an all in one directory like Airbnb, or even a niche directory website like a church directory, an events directory website, etc.
The SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress theme comes with all the features that you’ll wish to have on your Directory website.
Customize your Airbnb clone Web Directory Software
Now that we’ve chosen the SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template to create our online Directory, it’s time to get started.
To do so, you will have to log in to your hosting account to access your server space. You can log in using the username and password provided by the hosting company.
If you’ve subscribed to WordPress optimized hosting, then you won’t have to install WordPress. And Even if you’ve not subscribed to WP hosting, there are rarely any host that need you to install WordPress manually. Almost every host nowadays, lets you choose WordPress website building with just one click.
So moving on to our next step, we’ll install the SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone script. The procedure is simple. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Appearance and themes.
Here, you can upload the theme and install it. Once the theme is installed, you must enter the activation key that you get on the SpotFinder Directory software download.
Installing the sample data with the SpotFinder Web Directory Script
I highly recommend installing the sample data that you get with the SpotFinder Directory template because it will make your work a lot easier.
Installing the sample data will make your Airbnb clone WordPress website look like the Spotfinder Demo. With this, you have a ready-made website, populated with example listings, categories, and posts.
All you need to do then, is to replace this sample data with original images, posts, and categories.
Replace the logo and site title and footer credits
Once you have your website ready, it’s time now to re-brand it for your business. So, we’ll change the logo, that represents your brand name.
The SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template, lets you upload your desired logo image or enter the text for your brand name. Also, you can choose if you want to display the site’s tagline.
You can also change the footer credits in minutes. While some software charge extra for the footer credit removal, with SpotFinder, you can do so without paying extra.
Changing colors and background
SpotFinder Directory template allows you to set any color or background to your Airbnb WordPress clone website. You can even choose to set an image as the background.
To change the color, you can use the options available at the backend of your website. Therefore, you can make your website look and feel the way you want.
You won’t have to settle for the design and color provided by the SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template.
Re-organizing the homepage of your Airbnb style website as you like
When you are creating your own online business Directory website, everything should be according to you. That’s why SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress Clone template allows you to adjust the appearance of its pages with the widgets and page settings.
Moreover, you can even change the positions of various elements on your screen. Especially for the homepage, you would want to manage the sections and change their order on the page.
Thankfully, the homepage of the SpotFinder Airbnb clone Directory script is fully widgetized. So changing the positions of the elements on your webpage is just a matter of drag and drop.
Also, you can navigate to the page settings section and decide what you want to show on a particular page. For instance- Whether you want to show a map on the category page or not?
Ultimately, you can manage the overall look and feel of your website.
Offering Listing submission on your Airbnb website template
Coming to one of the most important subjects, here we’ll see how you can make money through your Airbnb style Directory website through paid submission feature.
What is the paid submission feature for online directory and how it works?
The paid listing submission is the main feature of a directory website that helps it in two ways:
- To increase the number of listings and usable/searchable content on your website
- To earn direct income through your online directory
When your website starts gaining enough traction, businesses would want to be listed on your website. That is when you can offer the listing submission.
To offer this, you must first create categories for your listing:
Create all the categories that you want
The SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress Clone directory template lets you create hierarchical categories for your web directory.
You can create as many categories as you want. The Spotfinder Airbnb WordPress clone script also allows you to create category specific pricing packages as well as set the specific price for submitting a listing under the specific category.
Create pricing packages with Airbnb Website Template
The SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template comes with PayPal readily integrated. So you already have a method to accept the payments, now all you need to do is to define payment packages.
To let the visitors submit their listings on your website, you can create all the pricing packages you want. To create price package you should choose a name for it and then specify the price, validity, recurrence, etc.
In short, you can create the price package with all the clauses you want, and show them to your visitors on the listing submission page. The visitor can then choose the type of package they want and proceed with listing submission.
Allow paid/free submission
It depends on you whether you want to offer free submission on your Directory web software. The free submission is useful when your website is new and you are just looking for the business to contribute to the content of your website.
Once there are enough listings, and the traffic and organic visibility of your website are sufficient you can start charging for submission on your website. You can even define the duration for which a listing will be shown for a given price.
Other ways to monetize your Airbnb clone website
Besides the paid listing submissions, there are many ways through which you can monetize your Airbnb WordPress clone website.
Space for Ad banners on your Airbnb wp theme
One of the easiest ways to monetize your WordPress website is by displaying advertisement banners on your website.
Not only for the massive web directories, this tactic even works for simple business websites. You can charge a different amount for advertisement banners on different sections of your website.
You can even use the Google Adsense service to generate some passive income by displaying Google ads on your website.
Adding advertisement banners on your Airbnb WordPress clone website is really easy using the available widget options. All you are supposed to do is to paste the advertisement
Claim listings
Another technique through which you can earn with your Airbnb WordPress clone web directory is through paid claim ownership.
This can happen when a business is already listed on your web directory and the owner of the business wants to claim the ownership of the listing on your website.
The visitor can pay and claim the ownership of the listing, get the admin access to it and add more details about their business.
Website Directory Tool for membership
You can turn your web Directory into a membership website and earn by providing paid access.
Non-members can be allowed access to only a part of your website’s data, and to access more sensitive data, the visitors have to become a paid member.
However, to create such a web directory, your site should have exclusive and very useful data. Then only would the visitors would want to subscribe to the membership plans on your website.
Tell me more about monetization through access management & membership
Promoting and maintaining your Airbnb style WP website
Creating a website is easier, maintaining it is harder…
Once your website is ready and running, you have to make sure that it gets the deserved attention on the internet. For this, you have to use various mediums to promote your website and make it reach more and more people.
Also, to maintain your visitors, and enhance the quality of user experience on your Airbnb Clone WordPress website, you need to make sure that it is updated and errorfree.
First, lets see what you can do to promote your Airbnb style WordPress directory website.
Promoting your website built with SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress template
The SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template comes with a few inbuilt options to let your visitors easily share the pages/listings on your website.
Therefore, if a visitor wants to share a listing with their friends on their social media, they can do so with just a button click.
Advertising on local channels
Another way to advertise is using the local channels and resources to make people aware of your directory website.
For instance, if you have created an Airbnb style directory for your state, then you can use the local newspaper to advertise about it.
Besides, you can use digital channels like television, or email marketing to promote your website.
Optimize your website with SEO
Thankfully, the SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress Clone template is designed to strict SEO standards. So the theme files are SEO friendly and won’t disturb the visibility of your site on the search engine.
Moreover, you can use the SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, All-in-one SEO pack, etc to enhance the visibility of your website. These plugins will help you with the optimization of the content and pages you add from your side.
Besides, there are a number of articles on the internet for SEO optimizing your website by yourself, or you can use one of these SEO plugins.
Maintenance routines for your airBnb Clone
To maintain your website and make it more useful for your users, you must follow the following maintenance routines:
- Check the submitted listings and publish them
- Remove outdated data from your website
- Delete the outdated listings
- Check for dead-links
- Check for errors on your pages and correct them
- Maintaining blogs and keeping people updated on your website
Besides, there can be many things that you can do to keep your website up-to-date and ensure efficient performance. As you proceed to work on your website, you’ll naturally keep learning about how things work.
There are also a bunch of website maintenance routines for the operational maintenance and optimization of your Airbnb clone websites.
Ready to try this Online Directory Template?
With these steps and the SpotFinder Airbnb WordPress clone template, you can Build Your Own Directory
of your own and start earning passive income.
With the options available at the backend of this WordPress Directory template lets you manage your website with easy options.
Creating Airbnb Clone WordPress website with this directory software can be your next DIY project. No need to involve professional developers and designers. And no need to hire staff to manage your online business.
With the available options, all the control is in your hands. So what are you waiting for? Check out how your Airbnb clone website will look with the SpotFinder Directory template.
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How to create a real estate directory website with WordPress in less than 45 minutes.