Should You Start A Politics Niche Site?

Should You Start A Politics Niche Site?

I had someone ask me about starting a niche site the other day.

They were new to the subject and so asked the beginner questions; what’s the best niche, how many posts do you need and what posts should you be writing?

That sort of thing.

Now, it’s a vague and irritating answer, but in general the best niches are ones which you have the stomach for.

If I told you that you must take the next week off from work and write for fifty hours on a topic and spend the rest of your free time researching ideas and opportunities for that niche, could you stomach it?

Essentially, that’s what you have to do for a niche site. You’re going to need 30+ articles that’ll take you maybe an hour to write and you’re going to need to find affiliate programs (or other money opportunities) so that you can make some money.

It’s probably going to take you between 50-100 hours to have a decent niche site.

Most people don’t do this in a week, and you don’t need to. But if you can’t put fifty hours into a project, it doesn’t matter if it’s spread out or not.

Anyway, I asked this reader about their hobbies and passions.

Politics and current affairs.

Uh-oh.

I’m not a fan of that sort of thing. However… some people are.

Is politics a good idea for a niche site?

Let’s find out.

(I’m pretty sure I’ve covered this before somewhere with another reader question as far as politics goes, but it might not have been niche site specific so we’ll run around again with any new knowledge I can share.)

Is A Politics Niche Site A Good Idea?

No. Politics is not a good idea for a niche site.

Now I’ve put it as plainly as possible, let’s look at the two reasons why politics niche sites are a bad idea:

1. A niche site is an asset whereby you create articles that generate money. It’s very difficult to do this with politics because people aren’t looking to buy anything.

Mostly, they’re looking to get enraged, froth at the mouth a little and then go about their day slightly less effectively than they would normally.

This is not a good buying audience.

If I might go a step further, and this is totally anecdotal evidence, the more people spend time getting upset about politics, the less money they tend to have to spend.

2. What are you competing for, and who are you competing with?

You’re competing for eyeballs from everywhere and competing with big sites. These sites get many views per day and hire dozens of writers, because their business strategy is to get views per thousand impressions.

High competition and low value per reader. This is the exact opposite of what you want.

But can you turn your love of politics into something useful for a niche site?

How To Use Political Knowledge For A Better Niche Site

When people say they’re interested in politics, they normally fall in a couple of camps:

1. They have nothing else to do and so spend far too much time on news sites
2. They care about certain issues and want to see them improve

If you’re in the first group, I suggest getting an actual hobby.

If you’re in the second group, here’s what I’d do.

Write a list of things you care about politically.

Unless you’re a real weirdo (in which case you’re in the first group, follow that advice,) chances are you aren’t invested into the success of a political individual or group. You might think you are, but you’re not.

What you have is a desire for change.

That’s what we want, because that’s where the productive stuff is found.

Let’s say you care deeply about some issue – I don’t know – wealth inequality.

What on Earth is more practical than writing a niche site about how Trump hates poor people or the Tories are stealing money kids leave for the tooth fairy or whatever?

Pretty much anything that addresses wealth inequality in the form of helping people without money get more money.

(If your reaction to the above sentence was, “actually that’s not true economically speaking,” then you’re in group one. Get a hobby.)

If you care about the environment, start a guerrilla gardening niche site. Should you care about people getting fat and lazy, you can start a health site.

Whatever you decide, focus on the practical steps you can take to improve whatever you care about. Then think about what you can fix and how. Then think about what products you can use to achieve the tasks you set out to fix.

Practical Solutions To Abstract Problems

“But this problem can’t be solved with selling pills!”

That’s what naysayers cry, and those with limited imagination.

Think the immigration problem can’t be solved with niche sites?

Think again.

Let’s say you want less migrants in your pristine village by the ocean.

What might you do?

1. Whine on Twitter
2. Teach people how to own their own homes and by extension communities
3. Teach businesses to use automation instead of importing labour
4. Encourage people to have lots of babies
5. Help would-be immigrants make money in their home countries
6. Promote anything that involves small communities and less big society stuff

That’s a contentious issue, but whatever. You can do the opposite if you want. Plenty of niche websites exist that promote expatriating to other countries.

Essentially though, take what you want to see and work backwards.

Scared of inflation and job security? It’s time to start a finance site.

Worried about some other impending doom? Start a survivalist niche site.

Seeing a potential impending collapse of the health system? Fitness is the biggest niche going.

Final Thoughts

The crazy thing with all of these ideas is that you can write a lot of politics stuff into them.

All you’ve done is changed the focus from abstract legalese nonsense to practical information that helps people.

I’d bet that in most cases, that’s what you wanted to do in the first place.