Niche Site Saturday: Week Thirteen
It’s week thirteen of the niche site challenge.
Three months down (almost.)
Hopefully, everyone reading is taking part, building some niche websites and having a great time.
For those who are new, read this article about the niche site challenge.
In these weekly articles, I go through what I’ve done, random thoughts I’ve had and point out useful articles for those who are building niche sites.
Let’s get straight into it.
What I’ve Done This Week
Having done next to nothing on my niche sites last week, I was pretty disgusted at myself.
However, it’s currently the two-week period of the year where the sun actually shines in sunny England, so I’ve been trying to spend more time outside and less time writing.
These two things lead to me sort of getting my act together. I was also helped along by the fact that one of my dud niche sites made a couple of sales and became not-a-dud.
This week, I wrote two sales letters for each of my existing sites (well, four. Niche site 5 is an experiment to see if you need to post regularly to gain traction with a niche site.)
I also planned two more niche sites. I’ve planned 17 articles for one, and 13 for the other. They’re on completely new subjects. I’ll get the domains for those in a couple of weeks when another domain I have comes up for renewal. I hope to have written the articles by then, but we’ll see.
Random Thoughts: What Do You Need to Start Working On Niche Sites?
Leo dropped a comment on last week’s article. He wanted to know about what tools you need for keyword research and whether you needed to sign up for pro plans for keyword research.
This is one of those questions that can be answered more generally: What do you need to buy to start a niche website?
The answer is a domain + hosting. Possibly a nice WordPress theme to make it look professional, but that’s not a necessity.
Other than that, you don’t need to spend a lot of money. In fact, you don’t need to spend any money that I can think of.
For keyword research, there are plenty of free tools out there. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner. You can get a free trial of Market Samurai. (Even when the trial runs out, you can use the keyword functionality.) There are plenty of SEO toolbar extensions that come for free with the various browsers.
There are plenty of decent free WordPress themes.
There are plenty of free plugins that do a ton of stuff that are well beyond anything you need for a niche site.
If you feel inclined, you can get a Mailchimp account for email lists – that’s free too until you hit a certain level.
But really, niche sites are simple. You just need to start one as basically as possible and write high quality articles for it. You don’t need a ton of other stuff, and you probably shouldn’t get this stuff even if you can, because it’s overcomplicating the process.
Wait until you’re making money, then reinvest that money where you know you need it.
Other Articles Written About Niche Sites this Week
I wrote two other articles about niche sites this week:
In addition to that, you’ll want to check out some of these articles from Niche Site Challenger James:
Don’t Spend Too Much Time Planning The First Time (relevant to the random thoughts from above!)
Is Building Niche Sites A Long Term Strategy?
James has decided to write a post every single day for thirty days. He also likes creating niche sites (and making money online) so you should check out his site if you don’t already.
As always, if any of you other guys are writing about niche sites, the challenge or other related topics, then let me know. I’m interested to read other thoughts and I’ll include your links whenever I update next.
Closing Thoughts
Another week down, and I’m hoping that you’re all still creating niche sites. As always, let me know what’s going through your minds, what experiences you’re having and if you’ve got any questions, ask them!