Niche Site Challenge Week I – Small Beginnings
It’s the first ever niche site Saturday, where I give you an update on how the niche site challenge is going for me. Luckily, I have a new Bluetooth keyboard working now, so I can type in unparalleled comfort.
Niche Site Challenge Update #1: What have I been doing?
On the first day, I wrote out a list of potential niches to enter.
On the second day, I loaded those niches up into my keyword research tool (I use Market Samurai, though they’re all much the same – you can even use the Google Keyword Planner.) I made sure there were plenty of keywords to target that weren’t so hyper-competitive I’d never get anywhere (to be honest, if you are creating niche sites based on hobby subjects, this probably won’t be a problem.)
I decided that all of my niche site ideas were worth trying at least.
After that it gets a bit hazy, stupidly I haven’t wrote down what I’ve been doing on a day-by-day basis, so bear with me.
Since then, I wrote a list of products that I could write reviews and sales letters for on my niche sites. One of the niche sites was really good for this – I had a list of about 90 products that I could access and review. One of the niche sites I still haven’t found a decent product for (on account of the fact it’s a real niche subject, so the product producers don’t tend to have affiliate programs.
After that, I decided that for every site so far, I’d have one cornerstone product that I’d direct most of my traffic to. I base this on what people interested in the niche will need and will be searching for.
For instance, if you were starting a site about learning the oboe, chances are you’d have an oboe as your cornerstone product. Name the sales page “Best Oboe for Beginners” or whatever and point the majority of your articles towards that one (unless they’re selling something else.)
For most websites, this should be quite easy – like I said, think about what your beginner/reader probably wants to buy, or think about the thing they need. Like, you can’t be a rock climber without paracord and a decent pair of boots. (I’m guessing. I’m not a rock climber.)
After that, I’ve planned about thirty sales letters, and written a couple.
When I say planned, I mean I’ve written down the features, benefits and other details that I need for my sales letters, then picked which of my writing templates suits each niche site/product. This is why every writer should have a swipe file – it’s like using a website template. I see a product that’s in the health niche, I go and look at my health related sales letters and the templates I’ve made from them.
This saves mistakes like taking the structure of a car sales advert and using it in an article that’s supposed to be a health infomercial affair with a subtle link to a recommended product at the end.
Critiquing My Progress
The first week of anything is a challenge. I didn’t spend two hours a day on the niche site challenge – probably half of that at seven hours. That said, I was constantly thinking about it when I wasn’t supposed to because it’s all about generating ideas and building a process in the early stages. I’m sure that’ll calm down.
I wanted to do more writing. Again, planning has to come first.
Final thought is that I must confess at one point I was feeling massively overwhelmed. If I write one hundred articles for each niche site, then that’s 2800 articles to write on a part time project in one year. I found this figure insane and thought about giving up.
It was momentary. When you have a long project, then sometimes the worst thing you can do is think of it in terms of one big thing. Like all writing, the niche site project is cumulative – once the planning is out of the way, writing a couple of how to articles or sales letters a day won’t be too hard. One hundred articles is an arbitrary figure and not part of the rules whatsoever.
The above is how I talked myself around this. I’m committing to a coulpe of hours a day. Nothing else is what matters in this challenge.
Moving Forward
As you may have noticed, this article is a bit less structured than others on the site. I think of these entries as like a diary and critique of how things are going, so we’ll see how that goes. If you’ve got any thoughts about my challenge for this week, drop them in the comments – this is all a bit free-flowing and open to change if people want it at this stage.
If you’re looking for more structured thoughts regarding the niche site challenge, then this week I wrote the following entries which are directly related to the niche site challenge and are probably more helpful:
Simple Research For Unlimited Niche Site Content
And, to cap it all off for those who don’t already know, here’s what I’m doing for the niche site challenge.