Niche Site Saturday Week Forty-Four
It is week forty-four of the Niche Site Challenge. For those of you who don’t already know, the niche site challenge is a one-year product project that I decided to do almost a year ago now. (Time flies!)
In that challenge, I took an idea that you could make a more-than-reasonable amount of money just by creating niche websites. The amount of websites I decided to create was twenty-eight over the course of the year, and the stipulations involved in the challenge were that I could only use the power of my words to sell products and basic search engine optimisation strategies.
That means no advertising, no product creation or any other complicated hijinks.
Every week, I write an update of my progress in the challenge so far.
What I’ve Done This Week In The Niche Site Challenge
What have I done in the niche site challenge this week?
I’ve written ten posts for an entirely new niche site. At this point in the game, I wonder whether I should put the site up and leave it (knowing that I won’t go back to it) and spend the time on a new site, or whether I should stick with it until I’ve gotten thirty posts or so.
Why thirty? I’ve found that thirty is a magic number as far as sustainable traffic goes. 50 pages is better and a hundred pages is awesome, but time is of the essence.
So that’s the dilemma.
Another dilemma is that I’ve come up with a new project idea and the grass is always greener on the other side, so to speak. It’s hard to concentrate on niche sites when there are more opportunities out there.
Still, I said I’d build 28 sites this year with the aim of getting passive income, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
It’s just a question of how I go about it – and I’m thinking that I made a mistake right at the beginning by not following the original instructions to the letter.
(For those who don’t feel like wading through, Rob’s original instructions were:
- One website a day
- 7 days a week for three months
- Then start seven new ones and do the whole thing again
- By the end, you’ll have 28 sites
I should have done that. Not because it’s the best way necessarily, but because it would have taken the choice out of my hands. I’ve wasted far too much time trying to optimise the whole thing, I feel.
Oh well, we’ll see what happens in the end.
Random Thoughts: It’s a Small World After All
This week I was researching for a new niche, and in doing so, I obviously checked out the various keywords.
What I found funny was that for this niche, when I searched the top ten results for a specific keyword, I found that one of my friends operates a site that was in positions two and three for the keyword.
Then I carried on looking. Another friend operates positions 4, 5, and 7 for that keyword.
I know this because you can kind of tell who owns a site. Sites will have a certain look about them and the written word, products targeted and how it all fits together is pretty unique. Added to that, most niche site builders use the same theme in the same colours across all their sites.
Oh, and there are some people who use the same boilerplate texts across their site. That’s a bit of a mistake, because you can easily search that text on Google and it’ll bring up your sites. (Neither of my friends did this though, but you might want to check your disclaimer pages and “contact me” pages if this sounds like you.)
Anyway, my little discovery is something good for two reasons:
- These guys were ranking for keywords. This means that they know what they’re doing, and considering they do basically the same as I do, I must know what I’m doing. Finally – if you read my stuff and follow the same steps I do, then you know what you’re doing.
- The fact that of the top ten results I know five of them shows that whilst forum experts will say, “Affiliate marketing and niche sites are overcrowded!” it’s really a small world. Think about all the millions of people who follow the Tim Ferris dream and think they’re going to bank millions on niche sites or whatever. The fact is they don’t matter. If you have a million competitors but only two of them can get a site to rank for a keyword, then you’ve only really got two competitors. Take heart and get working!
Final Thoughts
Another week down, and there’s really not much to write home about this week.
Niche sites are going well and I figure out problems as they arise. Mostly though, it’s just a case of find niche>do research>write posts>upload.
It’s fun and all, but not sure that it’s interesting every week!
As always, comments, questions and whatnot are appreciated.
See you next week!