Niche websites are a lucrative way to generate income online.
That said, my approach to niche websites is purely passive in that I do not actively maintain the content on my niche websites.
I understand that many of Ana’s readers actively operate and manage niche sites and blogs, which is what I would call an authority niche site.
In this article I will focus on five relatively easy ways to monetize a niche website, whether it’s actively managed or passively maintained.
Focus on Content & SEO Prior to Monetization
The beauty of a niche site is that it’s so narrow in scope that it’s very easy to identify who the target constituency (reader) of the website is.
When you know who your reader is, it becomes that much easier to monetize your website.
However, to make money online doing anything, your success is predicated on your ability to get more traffic to your web property.
Before you even think about monetizing your site, I highly recommend spending due time focusing on establishing quality content that is search engine optimized (SEO) as well - SEO tools make it a breeze to do that kind of research on your own.
SEO is critical to generating free, organic, targeted and highly relevant search engine traffic.
This is important whether you are actively or passively involved in your business.
I personally pick niches that are evergreen in nature, so that I can passively maintain the websites in that the content remains evergreen over time.
For example, how you can run faster is a methodical and scientific approach that will work tomorrow just as well as it works today.
But with that said, dynamic content such as the best tablet devices also needs to be optimized to maximize search engine traffic.
In either case, I do not monetize my niche websites until the site starts attracting at least 300 visitors from search traffic.
Why specifically search traffic?
Because the searcher has already indicated interest in the information they are looking for, whereas a referred visitor or a visitors coming from your email list/newsletter may not necessarily be immediately interested in your offer.
Once you have organic traffic coming in, it’s time to implement monetization methods.
Contextual Advertisement
Displaying contextual ads on your niche website is the fastest and easiest way to monetize a niche site.
If your domain is at least six months old and you have decent content, you will likely get approved under most ad revenue sharing platforms.
Google Adsense is the most familiar name that comes to mind.
However, there are several alternatives to Adsense as well.
Contextual ads are convenient in that you simply paste a small snippet of code on your website, and the ads automatically cater to fit the context of your content, hence the title “contextual”.
This is as passive as you can get with income generation approach online.
The biggest factor I’d like you to consider with contextual ads is the return on reader action (RRA).
For example, if you are earning 50 cents per click on average, whereas you can earn $10 selling an ebook, you might want to promote the ebook instead rather than have your visitor find you and then leave your website, leaving you with 50 cents in your hand.
Of course it’s more complicated than that with underlying assumptions such as click through rates, conversions, etc, but the general premise is to maximize the return on your efforts and visitor traffic.
Private Advertisements
Private ads are those that vendors pay you a fixed price for to display on your website.
The price you can demand for these depends on the ad type, size, placement on your site, your website’s page rank and the traffic your website generates.
Private advertisement offers can come totally unsolicited, so keep a close eye on your email inbox.
Alternatively, you can proactively approach relevant vendors and offer them advertisement space on your website.
I personally leverage one of my VAs to solicit vendors.
A small portfolio of private advertisers can sum up to a nice passive and residual income stream for your niche website, especially if you offer a good amount of online ad real estate.
As your website grows in popularity, you start making more money from your portfolio of vendors by charging more.
I like this income stream because it can be somewhat predictable, especially with long term commitments from vendors.
To put it in white collar terms, I view private ads as my “base salary”, while the additional projects I work on is the “performance bonus”.
There are several platforms today online that help you automate this process.
Take a look at Ana’s post on banner advertising to learn more about this income stream.
Affiliate Marketing
Not sure I need to elaborate much on this monetization method.
It is one of the oldest and most common ways to generate money not only online, but offline as well, long before the internet existed.
The key to succeeding with affiliate marketing is your ability to craft an enticing offer and successfully pre-sell it to your reader.
Delivering quality content is one way to do that.
When your readers are satisfied with your free content, they start developing trust in you.
Because your readers are subconsciously warming up to your offer as they consume your content, it is important not to sell directly.
Rather, focus on soft selling through content.
Soft selling can be merely mentioning how you personally use the product or service you are promoting as an affiliate, among many other ways of course.
When your readers are warmed up to you, they are more likely to act upon your offer if and when you were to approach them.
Ana does a fantastic job of this through her email newsletter.
Digital Products
Digital products can include software, ebooks, audio books, video courses and other similar instantly downloadable products.
I like this method because it doesn’t involve as much investment capital.
You don’t have inventory procurement and management issues, among many other headaches.
You can either create your own digital product, or outsource it to freelancers on various platforms such as Elance.
Once you have a digital product, you can sell is anywhere, anytime, and for as long as you like.
Again, personally I like to focus on evergreen information so that my products do not require constant updates and newer editions.
Of the 20 plus ebooks that I currently sell on various platforms online, I can count roughly 5 that require periodic updates.
You can take a look at how I’ve monetized one of my niche websites for digital products here.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is an underutilized method of monetizing niche sites because many struggle with the concept behind it.
Others struggle with the idea of relying on a third party action to trigger income generating activity.
For example, a lead sent to a lawyer requires the lead to engage the lawyer before you are paid.
Too many factors beyond your control, right?
The key is to find business partners who are willing and able to pay simply for the lead generation and not the conversion.
Yes, they exist.
I have a couple of niche websites that generate leads for professional firms in highly specialized industries.
One firm pays me $200 per lead, while the other pays me $350 per lead.
A handful of leads a week and you have a nice passive income stream.
I have implemented this monetization method on a smaller scale as well for advertising and marketing companies that pay people for taking online surveys.
You can take a look at how I’ve monetized one of my paid survey sites for lead generation here.
Concluding Thoughts
These are not the only five ways to monetize niche sites.
There are numerous methods and possibilities with the niche website business model online.
Just in this article alone, each of the five methods discussed can be further diversified into other sub methods.
There are all kinds of internet entrepreneurs who are generating income in all sorts of ways.
I personally enjoy the process of creating a healthy income stream from almost nothing, especially income that is passive in nature which allows me to move on to other projects.
Niche websites allow me to do that repeatedly from one industry to another, and I can pick my industry based on either profitability, passion or a combination of both.
It can truly be a “set it and forget it” method if executed appropriately.
If you have a niche website that is generating traffic, start monetizing it today.
If you don’t, why not start one today?
While I have over 20 at the moment, I plan on doubling my portfolio in the coming months.
It’s such a rewarding initiative that is well worth pursuing.
What are your thoughts on creating niche sites to establish one or multiple streams of passive income?
Are there other methods to make money online that you prefer? Why?
Sunil
Sunil owns over a dozen profitable niche websites and is the author of “How to Go from $0 to $1,000 a month in Passive and Residual Income in Under 180 Days All in Your Spare Time”, a FREE report you can download instantly from his Extra Money Blog, where he discusses how to create multiple streams of passive and residual income, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, blogging and personal finance. In 2007, he sold his ecommerce website for $250,000 to a top Ebay Power Seller and since then has sold several niche sites for five figures each. You can read more about him and his work on his blog.
Lola Sosanya says
Great pointers! I feel that niche blogging is one of the best ways to monetize your income online. It allows you to stay focused on your goals and really connect with the target readers. However, this is my first time hearing about lead generation, interesting to know.
Plenty of awesome advice here Sunil. I particularly like the advice on contextual ads especially with regards to the ‘return on reader action’, this is something I had not taken into consideration before and think I need to take another look. Thanks for sharing your knowledge so freely, it is much appreciated.
sai krishna says
i think niche type also main factor on monetizing a blog . If the niche is releated to a paid product ? then we need to monetize it with affilaite links . anyway thanks for sharing your experience sunil .
I love some affiliate programs (i.e. Amazon), because it’s a no-brainer. If you write about a product, then link to the product, you’re going to convert and make money. With digital products, I sometimes wonder whether my readers will actually get their money’s worth out of their products.
Lead generation is the most questionable to me, though. If you’re getting $200+ per lead, then you’re in a whole new realm, and I guess these may be high quality professional sources. But a lot of lead generation monetization (i.e. CPA monetization) is nothing but a scam. Think “Free iPad!” or “Free iPhone!” I can’t stand these offers, and I’d never build a website around that type of monetization.
Sally Thompson says
Thank you for the tips! I have several niche sites, that i wanted them to be monetized, and you gave me all the tools i’ve needed. Google adsense is good for those who have their sites for 6 months running, but what to do for the people who hasn’t theirs for so long? I think the ways which you described here were very useful for me.
Nice tips for monetizing our niche websites.
I have many problems relating to adsense. i dont have any adsense account but trying for getting it………….
Sunil, These are some of the best tips to monetize your niche blog. But it is always difficult to start a niche blog and move on the front page for a particular keyword/keywords. So off page optimization is the key.
Because my website is such a broad niche - relationships and dating - it’s hard to do banner advertising that actually relates to everyone. For instance putting up dating website advertisements doesn’t really (or shouldn’t really) interest people in a relationship. But I find that adsense works perfectly to target my visitors - even if I can’t always do it.
For some reason I always start really big niche sites like personal development or relationship - and I don’t start more specific niche sites which is where monetizing would become much easier for me.
good point. traditional soft sell approach coupled with the link will just make life easier. i get it now. thanks
Hey Sunil and Ana,
So great to see your post here, Sunil. I’m glad you mentioned that part about RRA for AdSense because as you said, you may earn more from an affiliate program. I personally get very few clicks from AdSense, but my earnings per click have been AMAZING (and keep increasing as of late) — even out performing the sponsor ads so I am going to have to re-think pricing when those private ads expire. LOL So you definitely have to test and make sure that AdSense makes sense for your site. It may not be if you’re earning very little per click. Good point.
Great post!
Lisa
thanks Lisa. good to see you here and I totally agree, especially the niche that you are in. a handful of clicks can add up to a serious amount. yes, definitely hike them private ad prices up!
You two make me feel like I should jump on the bandwagon… lol
Kat says
Great content as always. As I was checking my website and Goggling keyword
[website traffic generation] your website is no.3 for this phrase.Very impressive results (over 46 mill. results in Google)
Thank you, Kat; I try.
Hey Sunil,
From all the various ways we can monetize our niche sites, personally I have found the best way to make consistence sales is to get your visitors turned into subscribers.
Some days I feel like removing all banner/affiliate ads and just leave pure content up with no distractions. But it is just them one or two sales that keeps them there.
Craig
I understand how you feel. One day you will have to 🙂 I do agree that a subscriber is more likely to make a purchase from you/your recommendation
Joseph Archibald says
Hey Sunil, you’re a busy writer these days 😉
May I quote you…
“In either case, I do not monetize my niche websites until the site starts attracting at least 300 visitors from search traffic”.
And can I ask, why do you not monetize until you gain at least 300 visitors from search traffic? Is that per day, or merely 300 in total?
Cheers!
Joseph
good to see you here Sir.
there are a variety of reasons why I wait until 300…though an arbitrary number, the point is to generate a rather significant amount. this is more important for folks relatively new to internet marketing. attempting to monetize a site that does not pay off can be very discouraging.
another reason is during the first few weeks, i like to get my sites in as many directories as possible. many directories will not accept sites that are commercial/or for profit (with ads on them) and therefore reject them.
Very Nicely written Article, Sunil.
I like that sound “Passive Income” though I feel it is in truth an ” Active income” for most people(as in having to keep reasonably active to improve their sites performance.
Though, that does not mean that I believe the passive income model won’t work.
I do believe though, that it would take a fair amount of research and application beforehand.
The whole concept of Niche sites, I find quite interesting. My own way of interpreting it is in that your are trying to corner a niche(small untapped potential section of the market).
Though, that got all messed up when I realized that there are three distinct levels, based primarily on the number of competing pages.
(1). Mega Niche
(2). Niche.
(3). Micro Niche
I will confess that I get a fair amount of my understanding about Niche sites, from Spencer over at Niche Pursuits(And a few other sites, too).
Prior to that ” Niche sites” was quite a vague term for me. I would here it spoken of often, though, for some strange reason I had always thought of “Micro niches’. Or the parts of the Market with the lowest comp/ traffic.
Daniel, you can indeed establish a passive income stream with a niche site. there is a lot to it, but possible nonetheless. that said, you’re right in that there is upfront work involved in setting it up and marketing it.
niche sites are how i earn most of my income online and i talk about them quite a bit on my blog
Jon says
Sunil - can you explain what you mean by “purely passive in that I do not actively maintain the content”? I think you mean that you invite guest posts from other bloggers. Then again, with your use of the “evergreen” description, you could mean that once you build the site and put up the content, you don’t update or add new information.
Curious to hear about your invited content or guest blogger approach if that is the case.
Many thanks.
Jon, a combination of evergreen content and the right niche means that I do not have to do anything to the website after i have completed my initial 30 to 90 day max marketing campaign. i talk about this approach on my blog. does that make sense?
Jon says
Absolutely. Thank you for clarifying. I was curious about outsourcing content creation which is where I thought you were going with the “passive” angle.
By “evergreen” you mean content that is not necessarily “current” nor does it need frequent updating to remain valuable.
Thanks again.
Affiliate marketing is doing very well for me. If you join a good network with good products and reputable vendors you don’t need to hard sell your visitors at all. You just need to give a good description and review the product. If it has good benefits then you will see decent conversions.
Richard, it’s not so much the network you join as the type of product you pick and its relevancy to your audience.
are you doing it manually or through a program like crankyads? in either case, how intensive are you finding the process?
Sharyn Sheldon says
Hi Sunil,
Thanks for the great tips on niche blog monetization. Many people start blogs just with the purpose of monetizing them, but forget that it’s the reader who counts first.
A note on affiliate marketing which I didn’t see mentioned. You can also use SkimLinks to monetize a site. All you have to do is write and their plugin automatically puts affiliate links in for any specific product words or websites you mention. It makes it incredibly easy for bloggers to monetize without putting much thought into it.
that is very true as well Sharyn. there are programs like SkimLinks and 123LinkIt that automate the process. however do you have personal experience with these? how has your conversion experience been by simply displaying the link as opposed to soft selling through reviews, stories, etc?
Sharyn Sheldon says
Sunil, I use Skimlinks the way I would for any affiliate marketing. The benefit is that you can write a product review or refer to a recommended product or website in your post and Skimlinks automatically puts your affiliate link in for you. So you don’t have to go over to Amazon or CJ or another network, grab your link, insert it, etc. Cuts down on tech time. Also, it’s great for people that might have had Amazon links but then have to stop using them due to their state’s tax laws. Skimlinks will automatically convert your Amazon links to links in their network, bypassing the issue. Very convenient. I haven’t used it that much recently since I’ve been focusing on my PLR site, but it’s worked well for me in the past with a niche site of mine. Same conversion as any affiliate link.
Sharyn
GADEL says
For me Google’s AdSense has been the most profitable and most useful way of getting passive money online.
are you displaying ads on a blog or niche site? how many web properties total?
GADEL says
Yes, I’m displaying Ads on most of my sites and blogs. I have at least 5 sites and blogs using Adsense.
Linda says
Hi Sunil,
I particularly like the idea of private ads, which I think will fit nicely with my blog. Currently I write about tourist attractions as this serves my purpose of letting potential guests to the chalet know what there is to do in the area. The idea of being paid for this - and still serving my own purposes - sounds most attractive!
go for it Linda! let me know if you have any questions along the way
Linda says
Thanks. I might just take you up on that! 🙂
anytime
Thanks for the thorough look at monetizing niches. I do have some niche sites and love it when I can give them the attention they deserve, at least in the beginning, but I do make more money creating products so that’s where I spend the bulk of my time.
However, I would really like to get more into putting up additional niche sites because they’re fun to set up and stock with great content. 🙂
Thanks, Sunil.
Peggy
you are most welcome Peggy. how do you distribute your products and how do you find/tap into your market? digital I assume?
a popular website / blog is always a good platform for building hype and distribution
I’ve been thinking of creating a niche site for a long time, but so far I haven’t. That’s mostly because I believe that it’s a lot of work in order to get the traffic and keep updating it in order to make it stay at the top 10 of Google. To me, if I was going to monetize a niche site, I’d probably create my own product in the niche and combine it with Google AdSense. I believe that’s what Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income is doing, and he seems to be very successful 🙂
Jens, the amount of work involved in maintaining a niche site varies greatly, and in my personal experience is very minimal. there are people successfully managing many more sites than I own with a lot less “supervision” or “action” for that matter.
as you already know this depends on the niche you have picked, and how many others are actively trying to knock you out. you wouldn’t simply fall off on your own. example: I can think of one niche site I started in 2009 and spent roughly 90 days working on it. I have not touched it since and the income has been solid and unaffected. in fact, it only grew steadily the first 8-10 months until it hit a plateau
I do understand and appreciate your reservation however.
Sometime ago Pat Flynn of smartpassive.com started a niche site challenge with Tyrone. Their goal was to rank the site in top 10 within 2 months. And they turned out to be successful with it especially Pat, who started making a 4 figure income from the site within a year. And got offer $25,000 to buy the site, which he turned down. Can you imagine, all in a few months!
Since he was documenting his strategies and success about that challenge, seeing his level of success was a great motivation for we his readers to start a niche site.
I eventually joined the challenge when I thought I was less busy. I did a good research and picked a profitable niche. But a bit competitive. I felt I could rank it in the top 10 within 2 months too. I had it all planned out. But unlike Pat and Tyrone I decided not to use any paid tool for growing the site.
I did this because most of my readers are beginners, and since they’ll be following the strategies, I felt using paid tools will make it difficult for the majority to duplicate the exact strategies, which was the case with Pat’s strategy.
So I abandoned my primary site for the next 3 months. Though I wouldn’t say abandon in the real sense; because it was a challenge, I was publishing my step by step strategies on my primary site once in a week or sometimes 2 weeks.
So I focused on the niche site and in 2 months it was in the top 10! Or so I thought. Google was showing me the site in top 10 whereas it was actually on the 3rd page. It was when I tried to sell it that an interested buyer on flippa brought it to my knowledge. And since I knew that would affect the price, I decided to hold on to it and work more on it.
I did that until it was obvious my primary site was lacking because of it. So I abandoned it and back to focusing on my primary site. And I am determined to not look back again until I get my site to the traffic and income level I am satisfied with. And once that is attained, I’ll leave it to run itself (I build keyword focused theme website so it can easily be left to run itself with little supervision, unlike an authority blog) and then start another authority site, and then another and maybe another…
It will be great to have 5 authority sites bringing in strong income wouldn’t it 🙂
And to tell you the truth, though I love talking about online business success, especially in Blogging (because I have first experience with it), but I can’t wait to build an authority site outside the Blogging niche. A niche more fun, less serious and of course less crowded.
Now it breaks my heart to have a potentially profitable site with 36 great content abandoned, because I don’t have the time to put to it and bring it to profit. The site now fluctuates between top 11-15. Though there are a few small keywords it’s in the top 10 for.
From my experience with niche sites, it sounds like the easy way to make money using a blog. But is it really?
Some people like Pat get really luck with niche sites, infact he’ll tell you so himself.
Pat’s niche for the challenge is ‘security guard training’. That’s not really a competitive niche. Moreover after starting the site he realized that there are different requirements for security guard training for all the states. So he got a freelancer, paid her almost a thousand dollars (I think $800) to write on the requirements for security guard training for every other states.
And wala… Many more articles. Many more articles, comes many more traffic.
And so he does really well with the site even when his major monetization for the site is Adsense.
Now he has turned the site to a semi-authority in the niche. But the majority of the people who build niche sites, only make within $100-$200.
And this is because many people who start niche sites are not so good with the topic. I mean good enough to create a book on it to sell. So they monetize with only adsense and affiliate products.
And usually since the content on those sites are not much, their traffic is not high enough to make the really money. So they keep building and building. Having sites all over the place that is not making more a hundred or few more.
Instead of that, wouldn’t it be more profitable to build a really rich site which income can grow unlimited? Remember having one authority site is not the same as having one income source. One site can have up to 3 strong passive income streams - Adsense, own products and affiliate products if you set up a proper sales funnel.
I’m not at all against niche sites, infact I have encouraged my readers that it might be a better option to full blogging. And I still think it is for people since not many people can do full blogging and be patient with it to yield good income. Also some people are just comfortable with making a few dollars.
But for those who really want to build a long term business (which is my goal), small niche sites doesn’t look so profitable. I’ll rather have one really great site that commands authority and I know I have built enough trust to make money endlessly, than 10 niche site where I make a few hundred monthly and no one sees me as authority. Since these blogs are not even attended to.
And remember it’s not just about the money. It’s also about how many lives you’ve been able to touch with your information. And the only way you can really touch lives is with an authority site.
Take Ana here for example, we don’t stop thanking her for the regular quick tips she shares with us. In a post where she mentioned she’ll be coming up with a product, she had a lot of people asking to be put down for it even without yet knowing what the product is about. That’s the benefit of having an authority site that really helps the readers. If she had just built and leave, readers will just come, click and go. And no one really knows her.
Anyway before I start sounding like I have something against niche sites, here are my 2 best advice for anyone who wants to look into niche sites.
Focus. Make sure you have the time to grow it to a decent traffic and income level that you can then leave to run itself. Else you may just end up losing in both ways. Your site you’re already growing suffers as a result. And then your niche never gets to where you want it. And you end up paying for hosting for a blog not generating income. But that you may not want to lose because of the work you have put in, as it is in my case.
Use paid tools for building your backlinks. For niche sites, it’s about good choice of keywords (fair demand and none competitive), good optimization and lots of quality backlinks so it can rank quicker. Well, this is what it’s all about anyway for any type of site. Except that for an authority site you can dare to compete with bigger niches and still get a good amount of traffic eventually to make you money.
I think I have made a name here for making the longest comment, but damn! this has to be the longest comment ever! I’m sorry just couldn’t stop myself 🙂
I am exhausted Karo….no really, what can I say after that?
LOL.
Thanks Ana. I hope you’re doing good?
We love you, you know that right?
Take care
Always love your incredible comments, Karo; it’s like reading a post within a post. I am sure my readers get just as much out of them as I do.
Oh, just to quickly correct something in the post. Actually Pat was offered $10,000 and $15,000 from 2 different persons who approached him to buy the site from him, which he turned down. But he said if he was going to offer the site up for sale himself, he’ll likely sell it for $25,000.
Just wanted to correct that.
This is yet another worthy post and truly a gem for anybody willing to learn monetization opportunities in niche blogging.
I find Adsense is a good method of passive income if you have good traffic and the niche is high paying. Otherwise, affiliate marketing is what attracting me more. I’ve sold a few products and wish to explore the opportunity.
Thank you for useful post.
you are welcome suresh. always go with what you are most comfortable and best at. some would mix the two, and later lay off on ads as they realize the ROI is higher on affiliate sales
Kukzee says
#I am a reader of your blog Sunil - and quite surprised when I read this post on the Cafe.
It’s a very good point to start the post with - content first before monetization. Many people failed on this industry, because they put so much effort on monetizing their site and so little effort on the content.
Here are my personal addition to the list…
1. Consulting- Since you are writing on a particular niche - your niche - your field of expertise, you can also offer consulting services. This can be applied to any niches where coaching is feasible (Night Photography tactics, Facebook Internet Marketing, Newspaper Article Writing, etc.)
2. Subscription- This is applicable for niche sites where membership can be leveraged. It could be on a monthly basis, or it could be on a yearly basis. You can also tweak the subscription into a classroom style of membership where you conduct demo, training, or whatever you like for members of your niche sites.
@Ana, I don’t know if it’s me only, but when I access this page, it directed me to the mobile version. 🙂
Kukzee - the concepts you talk about work particularly well with an “authority niche site” - which is not necessarily a fully passive model but one in which the operator has deep passion for the subject and can go deep into the topic. many of my niche websites are numbers/research based. sure they are profitable, but not ones where I can leverage from consulting type engagements.
the two methods are fine additions for anyone willing to put more effort into their business.
glad to see you read the Extra Money Blog. you should comment sometime so I can interact and get to know you better
Kukzee says
Sure Sunil. Will do that. I think I need to come out of my cave from time to time to get in touch with great people. Like Gary, I have no much luck with niche sites, but I still enjoy learning and knowing that there are those who actually earn a descent amount money from these sites.. More power to your blog.
Thanks for letting me know, Kukzee - my blog has been acting funny the last few days.
Gary Anderson says
I post this comment out of sheer frustration:
There are some area’s of online marketing and blogging that I’m pretty good at, making money in niche blogging is NOT one of them! This is why I’ve diverted my efforts to SEO consulting for Local businesses, not because I like it so much, but because I’m very good at ranking a local business. However, if I had my own wishes….
I’d much rather create passive niche blogs like you described above. The problem is that I have a black cloud that follows me around that makes sure that I do not find profitable niches that I can profit from. Being a follower of 30dc (Ed Dale), buying Market Samurai since 2008, I thought I was on my way to making money “Passively”. But by the time I use all the “Niche Filters” in Market Samurai, all the keywords I choose are removed.
I try not to bellyache much, but this is a subject that I believe NONE of the guru’s promising to teach you how to find profitable niches actually deliver. Before I go, I personally LOVE the principle idea of “One Week Marketing” by Pot Pie Girl, but again, finding an effective system that works to find that profitable niche (or keyword) that is not over saturated, I have not yet experienced.
Thanks for letting me rant 😉
On a personal level, I completely understand your frustration, Gary. That’s why I haven’t done any niche marketing as of yet, although thought about it a lot.
Correct me if I am wrong (and Sunil as well, of course), but doesn’t make money from niche sites come down to rankings?
If you are good at SEO (and certainly sounds like you are), then you don’t have to find a niche with no competition; you just have to find the one where you can beat the competition.
I don’t know if I am oversimplifying it…
Gary Anderson says
Strangely enough Ana, you just pulled my own thoughts right out of my own head. Yes, I do have a very good working knowledge of SEO. But I’m sure you know even more than I do that it requires a bazillion small steps that are easy but time consuming, and I’m only one person and I do not “yet” have enough money to outsource these bazillion tasks… Although I’m getting close to afford outsourcing. YAY! 🙂
So, in order to rank, I must target stuff that interests myself so that I don’t get bored and keep on blogging and ranking etc. OR.. Find a low competition niche that I can “snipe” which needs little to no backlinks to rank… (INHALE!) … And that’s the problem.
On a positive note:
I *am* beginning to make some money by doing SEO consulting for Local businesses in my home town and if things keep moving forward as they are, I will be able to get a full time VA and then my next problem will be to decide which new house to move into and new car to buy 😉
Thanks Ana, your very mmmm, errrr, hmmmm, Cool!
Gary.
I think figuring out HOW we want to make money online is half of the battle, Gary.
Sounds like you are on the way to build an SEO firm in your town and, more importantly, you LIKE it.
There will always be time to expand into other projects once your foundation is built.
Ana - it is about ranking, but one can argue the same goes for any online business that doesn’t have a means to pull returning readers (such as a membership concept or an active blog). those are more active online business models with some component of passiveness to them
because I am a big proponent of passive income, I find niche websites a good medium to establish multiple streams of them. that said, ranking/SEO is crucial, but there is more to it than just the numbers. I would say picking the appropriate niche is the most important aspect, not from a supply/demand perspective solely, but several other factors such as addressing real needs/pain points, non SEO competitive landscape (i.e number of products being sold out there)
Hey Gary, Niche websites are sometimes a bit harder to figure out, but honestly, they can be profitable, if you take the time. I never use tools that try to tell me keywords will or wont work. honestly, it all comes down to what you want and how you pick them out.
I have a formula that I use for picking out profitable keywords, that works for me. Usually, when starting a brand new site, I start with small, low search keywords. After doing SEO on these keywords, I can usually get ranking, but it takes some time.
Picking out niches and finding the profitable keywords is really the hardest part. Once you have them, its usually easier to get ranking than you think. I find that a lot of really great keywords are still out there with very little seo competition to fight for them.
I just started up a niche site in the popular fitness/weight loss niche, and it is super competetive. however, by spending some time finding specific problems people need help with, I found some low competition keywords that target this really competetive niche.
One problem i see a lot is people just looking at the surface keywords rather than digging into the specific niche problems. That all comes down to how well you actually know your niche, and how much work you are willing to put into it. don’t rely on some tool to tell you what to do. tools are just a shortcut, but if all you learn is the shortcuts, then you will be shorting your chances to succeed.
well said James. there is more to it than just the numbers. many underestimate the research aspect that goes into a successful niche site
the rant is well deserved and appreciated Gary. local SEO is def easier because your competitive landscape is inherently “smaller”. i.e.ranking for a auto shop in los angeles california is easier than ranking for an auto shop in general.
as far as niche research, different methods work for different people, and it’s not necessary that the method that works for me may work for you - although it might be something to consider and see where it takes you. if you keep firing with a somewhat methodical and prudent approach, you will hit something
Sunil
my friend affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize a niche blog, promoting related products
Kenny - agreed. especially one that has a targeted and engaged audience much like Ana’s
I’m teaching another (live) workshop tonight about making money with a blog. Honestly, until recently, I thought this was something everyone (who wanted to know) knew. But it’s information that many are very interested in — particularly in this economic downturn.
Good stuff, Sunil.
there will always be many who don’t know and need the info you provide. as amateurs become experts and move on, new amateurs emerge and new experts develop. I agree that online business is a more attractive topic today Alison.
Amit Shaw says
Sunil i am newbie in blogging arena and dont know much idea about Monetizing i know only about Google Ads :). Thanks for sharing this article with us.
Amit Shaw
you are most welcome Amit. I am big into monetization, not just through blogs and sites, but various methods that generate passive and residual income. there is a vast world to explore out there.
Amit Shaw says
Than i would love to here that all various Method. ;).
Hope i will get some tips from your side.
@itechcode is my Twitter Account.
Will wait for your Reply.
Thanks.
Stephen Jeske says
Hi Sunil, that’s a nice concise summary of the major ways of monetizing a site. You’re right that there’s a lot more to it than just slapping up some Adsense. Though that can be a quick and dirty way to test a concept, you can end up leaving a lot of money on the table.
Reminds me of the web hosting ads that I’ve recently seen on some blogs. They’re actual Google Ads, NOT affiliate links. Just think how much money those blog owners are missing out on!
Hi Stephen,
sure they may be “losing out”. but then again, maybe their audience is not ripe for hosting offers? remember that google displays ads based not only on web context but also user behavior. maybe you have been looking on hosting sites lately and that’s why google served you those ads?
My focus moving forward is on creating my own products and selling those specifically Audio, eBooks and e-courses…
Then I’m either going to create Landing Pages or entire sites around each product.
Thoughts on this methodology?
landing pages alone are challenging because there is not much content to leverage from an SEO perspective. they do work with more effort and resources however.
digital products are def the way to go. for me the key has been to find as many distribution avenues as possible.
I am actually in the middle of a comprehensive series on ebooks, from writting to pricing, selling, marketing. it should be a 25k word plus series by the time it is over. it might help you as you move forward.