Honestly, how profitable are niche sites?

[andrew wee]

Thankfully, there're guys like you who take yourself out of the running before the competition has even begun.

If you don't even know how to find a rabid market, you can't even get to the starting line.

SEO doesn't work anymore. Ranking for even the shittiest terms is becoming difficult if there is even slight competiton from older more established sites.
Leave SEO to the BH masters in ukraine and romania. Or companies with big budgets.

Also dont fall for the multiply X sites Y times=X*Y profit gaffe. For one, each site is unique and therefore it iimpossible to gague how it will do. These predictions & forecasts are meaningless. Second, with all these people chuning out tons of niche sites using this method it is only going to get harder.

So in conclusion niche sites dont work very well most of the time.

There IS a way to make money with niche sites though. But Im keeping those methods to myself.

 

[EFUT EFUTURE]

If you read the last part of my post I mention there IS a way to effectivly make money with niche sites whihc I am using. The methods mentioned here in this thread are kinda stale and not nearly as effective.

 

[andrew wee]

Go back and read your own post.

You are implyng that niche sites don't work.

If you're going to imply that you have a way to make money in your own secret way, then there's no point to post in a forum.

I know of an australian couple that made $250,000 off niche sites alone last year, off "skin cancer cures" "weight loss" and other niches and they're aiming to hit $1m this year, using "stale" methods.

"Stale" methods will continue to work because success comes through consistency and adapting your methods.

Most people fail because they do something once or twice, don't see the immediate results that they expect, and then give up.

You fail when you give up, because:
1) You didn't have a solid gameplan starting out.
2) You didn't have the consistency to execute the gameplan.

If all your methods are so secretive, then there's no point to participate in a forum. You'd not have much to share at the end of the day.

If you read the last part of my post I mention there IS a way to effectivly make money with niche sites. The methods mentioned here in this thread are kinda stale and not nearly as effective.

 

[EFUT EFUTURE]

Go back and read your own post.

You are implyng that niche sites don't work.

If you're going to imply that you have a way to make money in your own secret way, then there's no point to post in a forum.

I know of an australian couple that made $250,000 off niche sites alone last year, off "skin cancer cures" "weight loss" and other niches and they're aiming to hit $1m this year, using "stale" methods.

"Stale" methods will continue to work because success comes through consistency and adapting your methods.

Most people fail because they do something once or twice, don't see the immediate results that they expect, and then give up.

You fail when you give up, because:
1) You didn't have a solid gameplan starting out.
2) You didn't have the consistency to execute the gameplan.

If all your methods are so secretive, then there's no point to participate in a forum. You'd not have much to share at the end of the day.

A little slow on the uptake huh?

Once again, I never said niche sites don't work. Reread my post. I said MOST don't work.

 

[geekcognito]

Go back and read your own post.

You are implyng that niche sites don't work.

If you're going to imply that you have a way to make money in your own secret way, then there's no point to post in a forum.

I know of an australian couple that made $250,000 off niche sites alone last year, off "skin cancer cures" "weight loss" and other niches and they're aiming to hit $1m this year, using "stale" methods.

"Stale" methods will continue to work because success comes through consistency and adapting your methods.

Most people fail because they do something once or twice, don't see the immediate results that they expect, and then give up.

You fail when you give up, because:
1) You didn't have a solid gameplan starting out.
2) You didn't have the consistency to execute the gameplan.

If all your methods are so secretive, then there's no point to participate in a forum. You'd not have much to share at the end of the day.

Smackdowns are fun to read.

 

[The SEO Hippy]

I haven't read through this whole thread (short on time), but my quick two cents: very. I have on single page pulling $xx/day from AdSense, multiply that by 8-10 pages per niche site and it adds up quickly.

It takes a little more effort for niche research and content creation verses the churn and burn ways of traditional BH, but I think it's well worth it.

Andrew Wee summed it up nicely. I don't think saying "most don't work" is too true. Whether they work or not is completely dependent on the research you do. If you try to build a niche site around a niche that's got crap for bids, little to no affiliate programs, low popularity and high competition of course it will not work. It's all about research

 

[jened]

hippo and others - are you using ppc or organic traffic?

 

[Crynos]

I'm in the process of creating a bunch of niche sites. I just started, so I don't really have much to show for it though.

I'm aiming for about 10-15 unique, well written articles per site. I'm still exploring different ways of offpage SEO, basically, I'm trying to find a solid method that I can replicate over the entire network.

If anyone has any suggestions for free (or cheap) link building for these type of sites I would love to hear them.

 

[The SEO Hippy]

hippo and others - are you using ppc or organic traffic?

100% organic

 

[lerchmo]

I'm in the process of creating a bunch of niche sites. I just started, so I don't really have much to show for it though.

I'm aiming for about 10-15 unique, well written articles per site. I'm still exploring different ways of offpage SEO, basically, I'm trying to find a solid method that I can replicate over the entire network.

If anyone has any suggestions for free (or cheap) link building for these type of sites I would love to hear them.

spam digg, delicios, reddit, whatever you can

 

[Atomm]

I started a Niche Site last month for the launch of the WoW expansion. I am using PPC. It's already made a couple of hundred net profit. While that is going, I am working it up to be more organic, but as long as the PPC pays, I'll keep doing it.

So, PPC for short term and SEO for long term. I plan on duplicating this idea at least 5 more times. My biggest problem is figuring out the best way to automate some of the site building. As it stands, I'm using Dreamweaver.

 

[Crynos]

Did

I started a Niche Site last month for the launch of the WoW expansion. I am using PPC. It's already made a couple of hundred net profit. While that is going, I am working it up to be more organic, but as long as the PPC pays, I'll keep doing it.

So, PPC for short term and SEO for long term. I plan on duplicating this idea at least 5 more times. My biggest problem is figuring out the best way to automate some of the site building. As it stands, I'm using Dreamweaver.

How are you making money on that site? Affiliate or ppc?

Also, did you set it up in the ilk of Feros' red steel site? (Red Steel)

Thanks for helpin a noob out,
Colin

 

[MyOwnDemon]

When you refer to niche sites, are you refering to scraped niche sites like the Redsteel niche site that Matt was developing in his "How to Develop a Niche Site" thread?

I'd see that a well thought out niche site like the type he develops could generate anywhere from $10 (mainly low cost CTR traffic) to $500 (if you get affiliate sales for products) per month.

---
Then again, how do you define a niche site?

If it's themed to one topic, and you have a high ticket item, there's no reason why you can't make a couple of thousand dollars of sales every month.
In good times, you could be look at a couple of tens of thousand of dollars of sales.

During the World Cup soccer tournament, I know of guys who had soccer sites and racked up about $10,000 of profit during that period (affiliate marketing for CDs and football memorabilia).

If you had a Superbowl site with good content, and either a solid PPC or BH traffic strategy going, there shouldn't be any reason why you wouldn't be able to generate a couple of thousand in sales.

---
If you're looking for long tail niche sites, I'd see themes like ipod, weight loss, hair loss/growth, low back pain, diabetes as niche sites which can continue to generate steady monthly income.

In cases where you have your own product (such as an ebook), I know of online marketers who can generate $5,000 - $10,000 from a single site.

And once you have a system in place, it's merely a matter of replicating the system.

Once you have 2-3 solid niche websites in place, it gives most marketers financial freedom to do projects they enjoy.

---
IMO more important than doing keyword and niche research, would be to talk to people IRL and get their feedback on the problems you plan to address.

Is the need severe?
Would they be willing to pay crazy prices to get their problems solved?

If you have a large, rabid, hungry, price insentive market, I'd go for it.

----
A case in point: In many cities outside the US where there are casinos, you frequently see fleets of taxis waiting outside the casinos. They'd typically charge up to 10 times the regular metered fare. Which is ok for the big winners because they have lotsa cash to throw around.

This also means that if you're a taxi driver you might earn $10k or more a month.

But obviously the taxi syndicates might be rolling in a million bucks or more of net profit a month...

Bottomline: Research is the area you need to spend the most time on, and real world data+online data will always trump just looking at keywords alone.

Thanks for that informative reply, Andrew (Plus rep for that one!). And no, I wasn't refering to the "Red Steel" thread/idea, but it seems like a good place to start. I had a few niche ideas in mind already, and your post has got me motivated and inspired to get into the niche game. Thanks again!

BTW- I see you're from Singapore. When I was in my teens, my dad's company transfered my family out there for a couple years. I lived in Singapore as an expat from 96-98. Beautiful country. I have some friends who loved it so much they decided to stay even after we graduated from SAS... and they still live there to this day. Long live Tiger beer! Is that bar Kiwi's still open? I believe it was above Far East Plaza. That was my hangout.

 

[Atomm]

Crynos,

I did PPC to CPA offers. I put ads on Google, Adcenter and 7Search. I was inspired by the Red Steel site, but I designed it quite a bit different. Since doing that, I have continued reading and learning and I see a lot of mistakes I made and lost opportunities. Things I wouldn't have realized if I hadn't actually tried it first.