This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Today's listener is looking for a template to make a website that has some specific functionality. So she's got an idea to make a website. In this case, it's a combination of Craigslist and Airbnb. She'll talk about her specific idea. Basically what she's wondering is where can you find something like this?
Does it exist? Or perhaps something similar for another purpose. So I don't like to say like things are easy, especially when it comes to programming or doing something technical that requires support. Sometimes you think things are easy, then you get into them and you realize, oh, like the first 80% was easy, but the last 20% is actually pretty hard. However, in this case, there actually might be a simple solution.
So I'm gonna do my best to give her a helpful answer and try to help you as well. If you're thinking about an idea you have, how do you bring that idea to life? What does it look like? I'm gonna give a couple of recommendations in my answer to hopefully get somebody out there thinking and taking action. That's what we're all about here on the podcast, thinking, coming up with ideas, and then not just stopping there, but going forward to take action on your ideas.
So today's question, is there a template to make an app or other software? Detailed question and my response coming right up. [Music]
- Hi Chris, this is Audris from Los Angeles, California, and I've been listening to your podcast for several years now. I've been thinking about starting a side hustle, but my main roadblock is setting up a website with functionality for listing rooms for rent, writing reviews, and possibly exchanging payment. Think of it as a hybrid between Craigslist and Airbnb.
In episode 1291, you showcased a different Chris who scoured the web looking for a pre-made piece of software that he could simply purchase as is for his side hustle, which was similar to Upwork. He said that you can find a lot of these different sites that allow you to pay to create a clone of an existing site's functions using your own branding. I was wondering, what specifically are these softwares that you are referring to? Is there a specific term I should be googling? I don't have any coding experience and have only dabbled recently and using Wix to make a website, but I don't think that's what you were referring to.
A pointer in the right direction would be super helpful. I look forward to hearing your response. Thanks, Chris, for sharing inspiring and motivational stories daily. [Music]
That sounds like what you're talking about here is a forum, basically, a place for people to go and make posts, include reviews, and so on. And if you wanted to start your own forum, you could hire a programmer to build everything from scratch, but there are so many forums out there already, many of which look very similar in terms of layout and user experience.
So you might imagine that there is an existing structure or template you can use, and in fact, there is. How do you find it? You search forum software or forum template, forum website template. Any of those terms are gonna take you to a bunch of options. And I found, for example, you mentioned Wix.
Wix is a company like Squarespace, like WordPress, like many others, that allows non-coders to make pretty simple websites that look pretty good. And so I actually looked, and one of the first results when I searched for forum software is a Wix template. So basically, if you have a Wix account and you want to make a site like this, there is an existing template for it. Now, you might be thinking a little bit different from a forum, or somebody else out there might be thinking, "Oh, I want a different kind of site." They have templates for so many these days. So search private label or white label apps, like if you're looking to make a job board or an auction template or an app template, like there are a lot of things out there.
Now, of course, they're not gonna be exactly like what you might imagine, perhaps, because it's not gonna be fully customized or customizable, but still, it gets you pretty close and it does a lot of the work for you. So I tend to think it's better to use one of these solutions just because somebody else has done so much of the work. And that's what you do, start searching, identify the category of website or app or software you want to make, and then search for that category or type and the word template. You can also use AI, doing the same kind of search, and it will bring you to a bunch of resources as well. That's basically it.
That's all you need to know for now, at least to get started. Listeners, let me know what you're wondering about or working on. If you have a question or comment, sidehustleschool.com. Detailed notes pages for every episode available there as well, 3,400 plus. New episodes out every day as well.
Listen wherever you like. And thank you so much for being out there. I appreciate you. More to come. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
