Six Niche Site Mistakes I’ve Made That You Shouldn’t
Quick article today.
Here are six mistakes I’ve made with niche sites that you don’t have to. I’ve given you the problems and the solutions for each thing, and getting these things right will probably be the difference between a successful project and a fail of a niche site.
Let’s go.
Not Thinking About Audience
It’s much easier and far more profitable to think in terms of a defined niche or subculture than it is to base your niche site around some other thing.
By other thing, I mean things like a product type or a single product. A lot of niche site gurus will recommend things like “dog training collars dot com” and there’s a real ceiling for what you can achieve with a site like that.
It’s much better to create a site around something like, say, heavy metal fans, because you’ve then got the audience built in and you can sell a range of products from musical instruments through to Goth lingerie and more.
Not Concentrating On SEO
I hate SEO. It bores me to tears to do keyword research and it’s been one of the top things “to do” for this site for about two years because it’s something I never get around to.
When you’re running niche sites, most of your traffic will come from SEO… so you can’t make this mistake.
Do your keyword research. Make sure everything is nice and optimised. Otherwise, you’ll get no traffic and your project will flop.
Concentrating On A List Of Products
When I first started niche sites, I created sites like, “BestCameraGear” and “DJEquipmentReviews.”
This is a bad idea for two reasons:
- I mentioned above; you’re going to run into issues with content eventually because there’s only so much you can write about a product
- The site looks less like a legitimate resource, both in the SERPS/Meta and as a site
People are much more likely to click through to “WeLoveCameras.com” versus. “PhotographyGearReviews.com” because the latter gives off the impression of a review/sales site whereas the former sounds like a fan site with real people.
Also, people won’t read multiple articles on your site so readily if they’re all the same.
Picking The Wrong Affiliate Programs
A lot of my early sites were based on Amazon’s affiliate program. This is a bit of a pain, because the margins are so low. Some months, I’ve sent hundreds of dollars or more in sales and received only a few dollars compensation.
Amazon’s affiliate program does have its benefits, but making a lot of money isn’t one of them.
On the flip side, I’ve also lost money because I’ve gambled on picking less established affiliate programs which then haven’t paid.
Not Sticking To The Script
Sometimes you have to experiment with things. Sometimes, that works out great. I added a quick email pop-up to my niche sites and then just set the articles as an auto-responder. This added some money to my bottom line.
Other times though; stupid decisions and time-wasting.
When you’re writing affiliate sites, you’re going for profit. Don’t write hundreds of how-to articles. Make it clear what you want your visitors to do and concentrate on the sale. Don’t try and fix something that’s not broken.
Not Putting Big, Clear Calls To Action
Speaking of making things clear…
I’m not really a hard sell kind of person. I think a lot of copywriting is overwrought with people who slip from a clear call to action into basically begging people to buy – not a good look.
That said, where I used to include text links I now include buy buttons that make it obvious.
I do this for purely objective reasons: they get more clicks and more sales.
Now, this isn’t obnoxious… I just have a buy button throughout the article instead of simply linking with text. Nothing else is different and it works better. You must make it clear to people what they have to do and tell them to buy.
Final Thoughts
Niche sites aren’t complicated. If something is going wrong, then it’s probably your audience, offers or execution (writing.)
The above things all fall under “simple things you might miss” and it’s those things that’ll trip you up if the above three things are met.
Hopefully, this article will save you from making the same mistakes I did.