How To Write Niche Site Articles That Your Audience Wants
Yesterday I wrote about splitting a funnel into four quadrants and then using that information to determine what you’re supposed to do with the visitors who enter your funnel.
Now, there are a ton of applications, but it’s Niche Site Saturday here at the blog, so I’ll use Niche Sites as an example. You’ll probably want to read yesterday’s article first.
To summarise though, when you’re attracting new readers, they’ll be one of four types:
- People who are not knowledgeable about your product or market, and have no interest in it.
- Those who have an interest in the topic but no knowledge.
- Those who have knowledge of the topic but no interest in it
- People who have both an interest and knowledge of the topic
How do you take this information and use it to build great niche websites?
This article will explain.
How Do We Usually Build Niche Sites?
Usually, niche sites are built using the following criteria:
- Find niche
- Do keyword research
- Write articles based on “buy” keywords
- Get them to rank over time with SEO
- Hope there’s enough traffic
Most niche sites have one of two problems:
- Low traffic (because they’re hyper-targeted)
- No money making potential (because the traffic can’t be monetised)
Now, if your site isn’t working, then it’s probably one of those two things. Obviously there’s the potential for something else being wrong (poor keyword selection, poor SEO or poor design) but those things are obvious and easily fixed.
Let’s concentrate on the two problems then in relation to the graph from yesterday.
Low Traffic Due To Hyper Targeting
I’ve definitely done this before. You find a good niche – we’ll say blacksmithing – and you know there are tons of good products to write about. You know that there’s also a thriving community of blacksmiths and not much competition.
So you write “Bob’s Anvil is the best anvil?” and “Super-Hammer Review 2017” but you only get ten visitors a month because those terms are hyper-specific.
On the quadrant, you’ve targeted solely people who have interest and knowledge. You might not think it, but to get to you people have to be looking for that specific term.
Most people aren’t in the knowledgeable/interested category. Hence the low traffic.
Non-Profitable Niche
This is another big major issue and one that’s not so easily resolved. Plenty of people make niche sites about stuff that’s never going to convert… like politics. Or movie reviews.
In terms of the graph from yesterday, you have to remember that you’re pushing people towards something. If people have no knowledge of your niche or no interest in it, then you’re going to spend a lot of time writing material that gets them interested and increases their knowledge.
If there’s no route for that to become profitable, you’re wasting your time.
Absolutely nobody is getting rich and fulfilled from hashtag protests and political blogs.
The main point for this section; make sure you’re sending people towards some profitable end goal. I’ll assume that’s a given from now on.
How To Target Visitors Who Have No Knowledge Or Interest
This is what SEO gurus call “broad search terms” and it’s not usually the avenue you’ll go down when you’re building a niche site. That’s for various reasons, but ultimately it boils down to the fact it’s a lot harder to rank for “bodybuilding” than it is “P90X For Dummies Review.”
However, there’s a flip side; not many people are searching for the latter term but millions are searching for the former term.
The way to target this category of “not even remotely interested” is the clickbait method:
- Write a histrionic headline like “Can overcooking your bacon SAVE YOUR LIFE”
- Write some ridiculously generic article and link it to the real pages on your site
- Push that article to social media accounts and wait to see if it hooks
Most people use the internet for Facebook, Buzzfeed and other low energy, low intellect sites. Converting them is tough and you should spend hardly any time on it. (There’s a reason that most news sites and viral sites all have article lengths of less than 400 words. It’s just not worth the time.)
Done correctly, these can provide occasional boosts if you grab a trending topic.
How To Target Visitors With Interest But No Knowledge
These sorts of articles come from targeting keywords like “How do I get good at weightlifting?” or “How do I get big arm muscles?”
When you see those terms – or read those questions on forums – you know you’ve found an audience that wants some goal but knows nothing about the subject. This is obviously a gold mine, especially if nobody is writing about it.
The key here though is not to jump the gun. You can’t just write a headline “How to get massive arms that’ll get you banned from airports” and then start your article with “Buy this bicep machine and these protein powders.”
Your audience from here want to learn about the subject. You can push them towards a product, but it’s a soft sell. “If you want to gain mass on your arms, you’ll need enough protein in your diet. I recommend supplementing with X, which I’ve reviewed here.”
How To Target Visitors With Knowledge But No Interest
These readers are generally why you’d write comparison articles and reviews. If somebody is typing “What are the best computers for a musician?” then you know they don’t really know what they’re talking about. They’re in the above category.
On the other hand, someone who is searching for “Ableton Live 9 or Reason 6 which is the best?” has knowledge of the product but hasn’t decided on a specific course of action.
It’s similar to somebody who asks the question, “Why should I do 10×10 Volume training method?” for exercise; they know about the topic, so don’t patronise them. On the other hand, you’re not simply going to sell them something.
Course of action:
Write advertorial articles that go heavy on the benefits and make favourable comparisons to the alternatives.
How To Target Visitors With Knowledge And Interest
This is the direct sales letter. If somebody is searching for “BenQ W1080 Best Projector Review” then all you have to do is target those keywords and not mess up.
That’s a big problem for a lot of people who read internet guru nonsense and oversell the hell out of everything.
If somebody is interested enough in the product you’re selling that they’re using hyper-specific keywords, then you don’t need to give them the long form, hard sell WARNING: THIS PRODUCT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE spiel.
Just write, “This is the product. Here are the benefits. Get it if you’re X or Y. Buy it here for the best deal.”
Don’t lose customers at the last stage.
Final Thoughts
That’s it for another article. Hopefully the above framework will help you with plotting and planning your niche sites, as well as writing them.
There’s always the chance though that this new revelation is useful only to me and/or I’m doing a terrible job of explaining it. If so, let me know in the comments and I’ll see if I can clear any confusion up.
Otherwise, see you next time.