No matter what the economic climate is like, it's always a good idea to be thinking of how to diversify your income – why not have more than one source of income. Creating an online business that you can manage on the side is a great way to do this. Online businesses are flexible enough that you can grow them at your own pace and won't necessarily have to invest a lot of money. As website designers and developers it's our business to help bring our clients' concepts alive and we've seen a lot of great ways this can be accomplished.

I'd like to focus this article on one model that can be easily done by anyone who has interests or hobbies that can be turned into a website.

I came across this website a few years ago and really liked its premise: http://www.dadsworksheets.com/

The site was created by a father of two girls who had been creating math sheets for his daughters to help them improve their skills. He was looking to make additional income and thought that putting them online would be a nice way to do this and help other parents teach their children. Although the website has been around for a few years, it didn't start this large. The site owner added content regularly and developed the site's sections in order to offer added value to site visitors as time went on.

The business model is simple, he has created a site that offers valuable free content that he updates regularly in order to draw in traffic. This is key for both site visitors and search engines. Visitors like to know that there will be new things to look at on each visit and search engines place greater importance on sites that are regularly developed.

The website generates income from a combination of 'pay per click', google ads, paid advertizing and affiliate advertizing .

This same site can be done to offer content on any topic. Consider your interests and see if you can convert your hobby into a website of this type. Perhaps you love to cook and could offer recipes, maybe you wish to write regular articles or run a blog around a specific topic you feel passionate about.

Start thinking about ideas for this type of a website that suits your personality and feel free to share your ideas.