Niche Site Challenge Week 48
It’s week 48 of the niche site challenge.
Every week I post an update on the year-long challenge I’m doing that involves building niche sites for fun and profit.
I write these updates to state what I’ve done (or not) and with random thoughts about niche site building.
What Did I Do This Week In The Niche Site Challenge?
Last week was a catastrophic failure. This week wasn’t, but only by virtue of the fact I did very little.
I’m out again tomorrow and I didn’t fancy trying to build another niche website today. Instead, I decided to look at affiliate offers and do a bit more planning. I spent a couple of hours using Market Samurai and finding some good products to target for a few of my sites.
More thoughts on that to follow.
Firstly though, an admission: I’m suffering from Niche Site burnout. I’ll probably get back into it in a couple of weeks, but right now I’m not finding it all that fun.
(More on that in a future article, I guess.)
Off The Beaten Track: Unlikely Products
A couple of guys have emailed me throughout the course of the challenge.
I’m truncating their ideas a bit and paraphrasing, because it seems like a common thing:
“I’ve found a good niche in terms of searches and competition, but I’m struggling to find a lot of products to write about. There are 5-10 products but then I get stuck and my site isn’t big enough to get traffic.”
This is quite a common problem, and there are a couple of solutions I can think of.
Idea One
Firstly, mix up product reviews and how-tos. You might run out of products to promote, but you can keep writing new content and linking back to your reviews and to the product.
For instance, let’s say you have a site about learning how to sew. Let’s also assume for the sake of the example that you can only find one sewing machine that provides a good affiliate pay out.
So all you can write about is the sewing machine, right? Wrong.
Write your review, sure. But then think of all the different contexts in which your product could be useful. Here are a handful:
- “How to sew a button on a shirt”
- “How to become a tailor”
- “What to do if your trousers split”
- “Here’s a long lost skill that all women should learn”
In all of those articles, you can point to the sewing machine as an affiliate link and also write, “I wrote a review of it here” and link back to your review.
Idea Two
Secondly, try thinking about your target market and their desires. Let’s say again that you’ve got a site about learning how to sew, and you can only find one affiliate offer that’s good and purely about sewing.
Are people who want to learn how to sew only interested in sewing? Probably not.
Here are a few more unlikely products that you could promote without looking like a sellout:
- “How to make money with crafts” ebooks
- “How to make a dress” courses
- Shabby-Chic fabrics.
- Probably big prints of cute kittens and stuff
All of these things are tangentially related at best but you could easily write about them on a sewing site without it looking too out of place.
Final Thoughts
It’s a short update this week because I’m heading off in a few minutes.
As always, I hope you’re all doing well with your niche sites and with business and life in general. Comments, thoughts and questions are welcome.
Until next time!