Niche Site Monkey-Branching
Do you find it hard to think of niche site ideas?
(Even after you’ve read What’s A Good Niche Site Idea? And Picking Winning Niches ?)
Have you thought of one great niche site idea but flounder when it comes to your second or third niche site?
If so, then I’ve got some good news: Chances are you’re trying too hard.
Spider Web, Money Branch… What’s The Difference?
I couldn’t think of what to title this post. One option was monkey-branching, and the other was spider-webbing.
Both of them are pretty good ways to visualise how to get multiple niche site ideas from one seed idea.
A monkey will hang on one branch until it finds a better one to hang on. That way, it can stick with its old branch or even go back to the old branch if the new branch doesn’t work out.
A spider will start with a small web and gradually expand out from its central nexus, making the spider web bigger and seemingly more complex as it goes on.
You could build an army of niche sites using these principles, without ever having to have an original, unrelated idea again.
Let’s Talk About Niche Sites
I said that I was going to create twenty-eight niche sites this year.
Some of you will think that’s impossible.
Some of you will think that that’s easy.
Some of you will probably think, “That’s a lot of different ideas to try.”
Not necessarily.
One idea doesn’t need to mean one niche site. One idea can span ten niche sites. Slight variations on a particular idea can mean multiple niche sites. Related product brainstorming can lead you to create whole new niche sites.
Let me give you an example that I’ve just thought about this minute.
Niche Site Monkey Branching Example
Let’s take a bad idea for a niche site and try to create one in the fitness industry. Now, the fitness industry is pretty competitive, so I’d recommend you take this example and use it somewhere else.
Take a look at this quick map though:
We’ve quickly drilled from general ideas down into more specific ones. That’s fair and reasonable, but I’ve already talked about picking small niches versus big niches before.
Let’s say you pick a niche… ProteinPowderReviews.com
It’s fair enough and you’ll probably get some takers, so you write ten reviews and you post them to a website.
Now it’s on to your next niche site.
You could look at something in a completely different field, or you could try writing a few “related product reviews” for your site. If they get some traction, then you might want to consider creating a second site and reviewing the same products again for that site.
Sure, you’re competing against yourself in a way. But why have one result for “Big Bob’s Multi-Vitamins” when you can have two on two different sites?
Plus, you can then use all the knowledge you gained from writing about protein powder and fitness in general and use it for MultiVitaminReviews.com.
Once you’ve finished those two, maybe you realise that your audience is surprisingly made up of fifty-year old women who are looking for supplementation for menopause.
Time for another niche site, regurgitating all the information you already know and have already written. Obviously don’t use the same exact material again (although you could) but instead rewrite for your new audience.
Then rinse and repeat.
Your mind-map of different niches can over time become a to-do list as you work out what’s worked before and you get better at writing for your niches.
Why Would You Do This When You Can Build An Authority Site And Put All The Subjects Under One Roof?
Good question!
The reason is that a niche website is still a niche website, and an authority site is still an authority website.
The amount of material and the nature of that material doesn’t change.
An authority site is an involved process; you’ll need to sell products. You need to start a mailing list. You need to do this and that. Most importantly, you need to stick to a brand and a target market anyway.
You can’t start ExtremeBeastModeBodybuilding.com and then write articles for menopausal women or nerdy kids who just want to stop getting beaten up by their little sisters.
You can write a niche site for each of those markets though. The great thing about niche sites is that they are low maintenance. You don’t need a posting schedule. You don’t need a social media presence. You don’t need to deal with customers or anything like that.
Having 5 niche sites will take less of your time than a single authority website.
Recap: Why Doesn’t Everyone Do This?
I don’t know, but they should.
Not every niche will be set up for this sort of process to succeed, but most subjects will have related subjects because knowledge doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
The reasons you’d do this though are that it’s hard to come up with ideas, so when you get a workable idea, it’s best to stick with it.
Also, you’re going to have to learn a lot of audience-specific knowledge and jargon, and it’s a lot of learning for one niche site. You might as well put the knowledge to use for more than that one site.
Finally, should you really enjoy the topic and want to take it further, your niche sites will provide more data (and more avenues to customers) for when you decide to create an authority site, book or other business project.
Let me know if this works for you.
P.S. I’m working on something related to idea generation, niche sites and a whole lot more. I can’t say much more than that at the moment but you’ll definitely want to check back over the next few days.