My Three Pronged Approach To Creating My First Niche Website
Partly inspired by John (of Passive Family Income) and partly wanting to experiment with this for a while, I figure March should be a perfect month to set up a niche site. The idea is to create a passive income stream by creating a niche site and earning revenue from ads displayed through Google Adsense.
There are a lot of reasons I have chosen this as my next passive income project instead of creating an ebook right away, with the main one being that I am still narrowing down the topics for my ebook. I don’t want to hastily choose a topic and be forced into abandoning it halfway through. Instead, I will focus on revising my ebook ideas while I setup a niche website.
There are a few pros and cons to think about when going this route. For instance, how much money can you really earn through a niche site? You don’t know if this will end up being a total flop, somewhat of a success; but then, you don’t know anything with certainty, especially when it comes to setting up passive income streams online. I don’t like the idea of depending on Google Adsense for revenue. What if my account is closed down? This could end up being the case with whatever route you choose and that is something to keep in mind.
Before we get started, let me be clear about what I am setting up here. I am simply setting up a niche website; I will not be setting any affiliate product ads as of now. I only have one purpose with this site: to earn some revenue when the readers click on the ads being displayed on my niche site. Nothing fancy; you can get down with that, can’t you?
After much thought on Friday night, I decided on the following:
- WordPress will be used to set up this niche site
- All In One SEO will be used for good SEO objectives (though ranking is not an objective)
- Ghost writer will be hired for promotion articles and content articles possibly
- Monetize the niche website by using Google ads
To go into a bit more detail about why I’ve made these decisions, let’s start at the top. Let’s face it: WordPress is easy to setup, manage, update and has plenty of plugins and widgets to play around with. I have re-hired my ghost writer for article promotion since I am confident that he can churn out good articles. I have decided on 10 content articles, the “starter” articles, and might work with the ghost writer to flesh those out. I am not certain about this as of yet.
My Three Pronged Strategy
Here is my three pronged approach to set up my niche site.
-
Drive Traffic Through Promotion Articles
I have selected about 4-5 keyphrases utilizing the Google Research Keyword Tool. My ghost writer will create 20 promotion articles (about 275-300 words) targeting these keyphrases. For example, if my three keyphrases were “ugly lamps”, “expensive lamps”, “spider lamps” and “tall lamps”, then I should end up with 5 articles dedicated to each of the 4 keyphrases. These promotion articles will then be submitted to an article submission site to help bring in some traffic to the niche site.
-
Publish 10 Content Articles
The plan is to create 10 content articles full of carefully placed keyphrases. I have come up with the 10 article ideas and which keyphrases to target. I want to be clear about the keyphrases so that relevant and interesting ads are displayed on the niche site. In the long run, I want more than “just 10 content articles” but I have to watch my budget with the ghost writer and balance everything with my full-time schedule without burning out.
-
Monetize
Lastly, ladies and gents, the plan is to “monetize” the niche site (oh, that word with evil connotation). I already have a Google Adsense account and will be working on that.
That sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? It’s suppose to be. My aim isn’t to make thousands of dollars a month from this niche website, in fact, that would be detrimental to any sort of progress. The aim is to learn as much as I can from setting up this niche site so that it can enable me to setup other ventures that do earn me a full-time income. The skills and lessons I learn here will enable me to move onto bigger passive income experiments.
What do you think? Have you set up a niche site? What are your thoughts about article promotion?
Keyword Research Simplified
Finding great niches and keywords is hard enough. Market Samurai makes it all simple with all the data you need to compare and analyze with the click of a button.
Try Market Samurai for free and see what it can do for you.
34 Responses to “My Three Pronged Approach To Creating My First Niche Website”
Comments
Read below or add a comment...
Trackbacks
-
[...] See more here: My Three Pronged Approach To Creating My First Niche Website [...]
-
[...] by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginWhile I am organizing my other passive income experiment, a niche website that is, I had the opportunity to review the stats of Experiments In Passive Income. For every [...]
Leave A Comment...
-
Get Moon’s Free Ebook!
About Me
Hi! My name is Moon Hussain and my goal is to earn enough passive income to travel the world without worries. I'll be discussing all the strategies that I'm using to make money online. To keep up-to-date, please subscribe.
Moon Recommends:
Let’s Connect
Hi! My name is Moon Hussain and I'm here to share all the strategies that I'll be experimenting with to earn passive income.
Subscribe via RSS
Contact Us!
Follow on Twitter
Facebook
I think you have a good attitude with a plan to learn more from this niche site, and to keep it simple in the beginning. I have a few niche sites and I went all in with too many goals that I just never stuck to, so with a good plan of action you’ll probably do better.
It definitely is a good idea to start creating niche sites as a way towards passive income, but you’re right – it does take trial and error when it comes to finding those great topics. The best thing is that you’re getting started though – goo luck with your first niche site!
Ruth – Web Career Girl´s last blog ..Keep Yourself Accountable Each And Every Day
Thanks Ruth. In the past few months, I’ve put on a lot of pressure on myself which has led me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. It’s definitely not a good feeling when you burn out. This should be a fun little project to release. I’ll track the progress over the months and report the numbers to you guys.
Like you, I might think I only have one major goal for the month, but then I go in these circles (monetize this, make an affiliate page) and on and on it goes. I figure while I do this, I”ll jot down ebook ideas and test that for the next month.
Hi Moon,
one thing you’ve not mentioned specifically (but is probably covered in your SEO plans), make sure your domain name is also keyword rich. I think this is one of the best ways of ranking quickly.
Best of luck with the project!
Des.
Des @ Affiliate Progress´s last blog ..Free Affiliate Tools – Part 4 – Traffic & Statistics
Des,
I didn’t want to focus on SEO as the objective isn’t to rank right off the bat, but hell, why not if possible right? Yep, the domain name that I purchase will contain the keywords. Good point Des.
As always, interesting read, Moon. As a regular reader of your blog, I have noticed your “going in circles” and I am really glad to read that you have a solid plan for March. Keep us updated!
One thing I don’t fully understand (forgive me, English is not my first language) is how you want to monetize your site. I thought only high traffic websites could make decent money with Google AdSense? Please, correct me if I’m wrong.
Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck and look forward to read about your progress!
Bart,
I didn’t know you ran Scores In Motion, that’s cool. About me going in circles, it’s easy to keep going in circles and branching; you should’ve pointed that out earlier! Bart, that’s how it does work: the more traffic a site has, the more people might click on the ads of a site.
However, it seems that certain topics, or niches rather, do well. For instance, with eHow, I’m noticing some of my topics have made $0.00 and one has earned $2.50 within a week, even though these articles are new and I highly doubt they’re getting high traffic.
The point with this exercise is to see this project through and see how much I can earn from it in the span of 3-6 months. I have many questions myself: Can I still earn a small income through a niche site? Is article promotion all it’s cracked up to be? A lot of us can’t afford PPC campaigns. I’m tired of all the questions and thought it’d be best to answer them myself
I don’t expect this to make me a lot of money, but I want to know if it could earn me some change in the long run. The objective, as you can see, is quite simple. Meanwhile, I can focus on an ebook topic as well.
Thanks for dropping by, Bart!
Hey Moon,
What article submission sites are you planning on using for your starter articles?
Steven´s last blog ..Mediterranean Cruise Ship Hit by Wave
Steven,
There are plenty out there and I will probably give Ezine Articles a shot.
What do you expect your income will be in three and six months?
Niche sites, I agree that is a market. But they need to be taken care of before you can, for example, leave it in someone else’s care.
Experimently´s last blog ..Interview with Maren Kate from escapingthe9to5.com
I like “Experimently” and how you’re trying to rank…
Once I have the niche site, I expect to “nurture and groom” it for a few months. I’m not planning on leaving it to someone else. As for what I expect in 3-6 months, income wise, I don’t have a solid number. I would like for it to be $500-$1000, but that might be a bit unrealistic (I shouldn’t even have said the last statement. Who’s to say what “realistic” and what’s “unrealistic”??). I hope to, instead, find a strategy that works related to an online income stream and apply it to my own product.
Well good luck with that plan then, I’ll be doing my own experiments and we’ll see what happens
About the same idea as you, laying the groundwork and stuff.
Experimently´s last blog ..Interview with Maren Kate from escapingthe9to5.com
That sounds great. It’d be something to discuss what worked, what didn’t, etc.
Moon,
If your passive income strategy ever expands to product licensing, you should check out my blog.
I was inspired by the Four Hour Work Week to develop product ideas and licence them for royalties.
Good luck with your blog.
-Stephen
Stephen Bozzone | Invention Addict´s last blog ..Aquanotes: I get my best ideas in the shower
Stephen,
Thanks for dropping by. As of now, I’m not heading in that direction, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never thought of it. I’ll have to drop by your blog soon.
thanks for this fantastic post moon.
Though i don’t like to do article submission
i think guest post is better than article submission.
Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..SEO – 20 ways to build backlinks
Thanks for dropping by, Dev. Article submission isn’t fun for me…. and guest posting does beat that any time, but depends on what you’re doing and what your goals are
Your blog looks neat, I’ll have to delve into it.
It sounds like you have a good plan of action here. You have your ideas set up and are ready to go. You’ve done your homework and things should work out as planned, or not.
If things don’t work out, use that to learn for the next time around. If things do work out, congratulations.
Looking forward to hearing how it turns out for you. I wish you the best of luck.
Eric´s last blog ..Build Your Blog With Fire In Mind
Thanks Eric. I like my plan, I am expecting to learn a lot from it. I’m gearing up for bigger experiments, laying the groundwork with these. I like your catchy titles, keep up the good work over there.
I admire your approach to all of this. Too many people try to focus on making thousands off of their first internet project, but your approach of building a small niche site in order to learn for future projects seems a wise path to take. With small steps such as this you’ll be able to avoid making some of the larger mistakes that people make which forces them to start all over again from scratch.
And you’ll be teaching all of us readers along the way!
Earl´s last blog ..How I Learned Spanish By Doing Nothing
Earl,
I started with eHow with the wrong approach and it seems I face a burnout every two weeks. I’m on a mission to eliminate that. With the niche site, I’ll learn a few things that I can apply to my own product and it seems like a laid back project, so I’m looking forward to it.
Moon… Good luck to you, it sounds like you’ve got a great plan… I’m excited to hear how everything goes.
Be sure to keep us updated…
BrianJ | Online Business Blogger´s last blog ..Everything in Life is a Sell
Welcome Brian. Believe me, someone will be hearing about these experiments
Are you going to start with a new URL and purchase an existing one that may have a page rank?
Jim´s last blog ..Get More Comments with CommentLuv WordPress Plugin
(I meant to say -OR- purchase one. Sorry about that.)
Jim´s last blog ..Get More Comments with CommentLuv WordPress Plugin
Jim,
Very interesting idea, but no. I hadn’t even thought about that. Something to consider though, but if it’s ranking, I’m sure I can’t spend that kind of money.
Niche Adsense sites can be really fun, and really addicting. I went through a spell a couple of months ago where I was building one or two new ones every week. I’ve slowed that down quite a bit these days, but I am still building them.
It’s funny because some of the sites that I think have the best chance of making decent bucks flop, while others randomly churn out consistent income. You never really know until you try
Love the domain name, will have to check out your site. How many niche sites do you have up? How much of a success have they been? Do you earn less than $100 collectively or much more?
I wonder what topics do well….. don’t we all
I’ve got a handful of little 3-5 page niche sites up, probably about 10-15 or so. Nothing fancy like the pros have (some of them have thousands). I’ve also got a couple of bigger micro sites that have more than 10 pages of content.
Collectively they earn me something every day, most days I make at least a couple of bucks – sometimes as high as $10, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I still get skunked a couple of times per month, too.
Lee | Search Engine Viking´s last blog ..Why Blog Commenting Rocks
Lee, whoa, 10-15 eh? That’s a nice number. Sounds like you make a tidy little sum this way. Are you ranking in search engines for these niche sites? How’re you driving traffic to them?
Also, do you promote affiliate products on them or strictly serve ads?
Definitely interesting!
I would agree to have your title keyword rich too, this is going to be really interesting to watch. Make sure you keep us all updated with how you get on
TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Make This Weekend Count + Video
Yes sir, I’ll be following good SEO practices nevertheless, hopefully article promotion will bring in a bit of audience.
I’m interested to see how this works out for you. The only thing I would do differently is write my own articles, however I guess that all boils down to a matter of preference. I’m extremely picky about what content I publish on my website, however I can understand why and how you’d be willing to hire another writer if they were trustworthy with their work. Keep going strong and things will work out!
-Travis
Travis´s last blog ..Branching Out