How to Build a Niche Website in 60 minutes or less whether you are a local business or internet entrepreneur this basic website training will get you started the right way
When I was learning how to start a niche website my whole focus was to learn SEO the right way, which then would
allow me to get clients with my SEO skills that I developed by building out niche websites. So I’m super excited to show you, so let’s jump right in.
First I need to explain the difference between a niche site and an authority website. Let me start by saying that
every website’s technically a niche website because you’re going to target a niche, but the big difference is how you decide to target a niche. For example, an authority site targets a larger niche while a niche or microsite website targets a niche within a niche.
How do you decide what route to take? Well, I personally think this whole discussion about whether you should create a niche website or a larger niche website is pretty useless. All that matters is that you can find a niche that you can actually compete in and if you are a local business that is your niche.
But for now, don’t worry about whether you’re creating a micro-niche or an authority website. Just remember that the
goal is to find a niche that you can actually compete in from an SEO perspective. If you are a local business your goal would be to gain market share in your area.
How Long Does It Take To See Results After I learn How To Start A Niche Website some expectations about building niche websites.
The first thing you need to understand is what you do today won’t produce results tomorrow, but it will produce
results over the next few months and years. Building websites, in general, is a long term game. Now, you will definitely
not get rich overnight using this monetization model, and local businesses will see results faster as a rule.
Just know there is a compound effect. Once your SEO and website pick up steam, the income will slowly
start to roll in and then it will become more consistent, and for local businesses, you will see new customers or leads. once you know how the whole system works it allows you to take your skills and build niche site after niche site. Or you can just continue to build and reinvest into your local site,
If You Aren’t A Local Business How Do You Choose A Niche?
The first thing I like to do is think about my life in general. Simply ask yourself, what are you passionate about? What are your hobbies? What are your interests? What are your skills and strengths? What are the things that make you happy? What are the things that make you mad? The point here is to get your wheels turning, I’m going to actually do this exercise with you.
So let’s start with your passions. So my passions are trying to become a better entrepreneur, helping as many people as I can achieve their goals, developing myself and trying to get better than I was yesterday, and lastly giving back and philanthropy.
Now, what about your hobbies? My hobbies are very boring, but here they are. Doing fun activities with my wife, going to the movies, going to dinner, spending time with my dogs and taking them on walks, reading nonfiction books,
watching YouTube videos about entrepreneurship and marketing, watching movies or TV shows on Netflix, watching the Lakers or NBA in general, playing pick-up basketball and weight lifting.
Websites That Will Give You Niche Ideas
Most of what you write down won’t qualify as a niche to enter, but it’s important just to get thinking about these different things. Now, I want to show you some places where you can dive into to find niche ideas. The first place to look is good old Amazon, and I recommend starting with non-branded categories.
That means you should ignore Amazon products and focus on the general topics, like home, garden, and tools. Open up the first three primary categories in new tabs. So I’m going to explore home decor, furniture, and kitchen and dining for this example. Them I’m going to hover over the drop-down for home decor and then you’ll see some micro topics.
Add all of these ideas to your list. Remember, we’re not validating these ideas yet, we’re just building a prospect list. Just keep going through all the categories and adding the ideas to your list. The goal here is to build a
list of at least 100 ideas. You can probably find more than enough ideas on Amazon alone but let me show you some other methods you can use as well.
The next method is to use ClickBank. ClickBank isn’t great for finding micro-niches, but it can give you some ideas based on the larger niches you’ll see. On the left-hand side just look at the categories and expand those categories,
then add these to your list because I’m gonna show you how to find sub-niches within these larger niches.
Now what you need to do is take all the ideas you found and find sub-niches. So just copy a topic and open up Quora, and in this example, I’ll use baseball as my search query. So right away you’ll see related topics. Add all of these to your list, as well. Go through this exercise with all your broad niche topics.
Now the next method I love to use is Answer The Public. So once again, I’ll just enter baseball as the primary niche and right away I found all kinds of potential niche ideas such as baseball cards, baseball cleats, baseball caps, baseball playoffs, and even baseball bedding.
Now the final method is to install keywords everywhere plugin and then just open up Google. Then enter one of your ideas and then click the spacebar and Google suggested search feature will show you all kinds of new topics and potential niches to enter. Then you can look at all the ideas that the keywords everywhere plugin gives you,
Now, these methods I’ve shown you will help you find hundreds of potential niche ideas. You can take these ideas or you can use them as inspiration.
For Every Website, You Need To Do Keyword Research
The first thing I need to establish is that this is not a full-scale keyword research operation for your niche or Local website. I’m going to show you how to do basic keyword research so that you can confirm what niche is best to enter or for local businesses what keywords you should use for search intent.
Also, if you are building a niche site you should only go through this process with a small number of prospective niches, five to 10 perspective niches are probably ideal. So here’s what you need to do. Let’s say one of my perspective niches is baseball cleats. I’m simply going to take this idea and put it into a free tool called Ubersuggest.
Now there are a few elements you want to examine here. First, is there search volume for this primary idea? This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gonna target this exact keyword phrase, but you need to know that searchers are actually interested in the topic.
The good news is that you don’t need to guess, just follow the search volume. The next section to look at
is the keyword ideas section. It’s a good sign if there are different variations and sub-topics in your primary niche. Ultimately this part of the process is to confirm that this niche has search activity, that’s it.
The next part of the process is to make sure that it’s actually possible to rank. Then click on a few other long-tail keywords and see what the KD for those are, as well. In this case, I clicked on the Adidas baseball cleats and the KD is zero. I would be extremely interested in this niche based on this information alone.
Now keep in mind, you’re going to be doing extensive keyword research and keyword qualification, later on, to determine what keywords to actually go after, but for now, we’re just trying to get a general idea. All you need to do now is repeat this process with all your prospective niches. Then give each of your prospective niches a pass or a fail grade based on the SEO competition.
Then once you’ve narrowed your list down to the passes, rate those niches based on your level of interest in that topic. Just score the niches in three different categories, either interested could be interesting, or not interested. My recommendation is to take your time on this step, do deep research, and don’t settle on a niche before you’re absolutely certain you can compete in it.
Follow The Money Trail
So the most important question you have to ask on every niche idea you found is are people spending and making money in this market? So let’s start with spending. The first method is to use Google Ads data to give us the answers we’re looking for.
You can either log into the Google Keyword Planner or search your idea in Google and use the Keywords Everywhere plugin to see the cost per click. So for the example baseball cleats, the CPC is $1.19 and when the CPC is higher, it’s an indication that it’s a high-value niche.
So that the lifetime value of a customer is on the high end because companies are willing to spend large amounts of money on ads. That’s because they know their customer value and they know they can still be profitable despite the CPC.
For example, look up the term Los Angeles personal injury lawyer and you’ll see that the CPC is $76. That’s because personal injury lawyers know that a single case can net them hundreds of thousands of dollars. So with that said the
goal of this exercise is to simply see if companies are paying for ads in this market. If they are, it’s a good sign.
The second method is to see if companies are advertising on Facebook, as well. Just go to any Facebook page for a popular brand in your target niche and click on the info and ads tab, and then you’ll be able to see what ads a company is currently running.
If some of the big brands in the space are running Facebook ads, it’s a good sign. The third method is to go to ClickBank and see if there are any products being sold in your niche. Click on the affiliate marketplace and then find your niche. It doesn’t have to be the exact niche, but at least look in the larger niche you’re in. Then just look at the gravity score for the list of products.
This will indicate that products are being sold in this niche. So you get the point, the goal is to confirm that businesses are spending money on ads and making money in your niche. You can also go to Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Commission Junction, LinkShare, and even Offer Vault to get more validation, as well.
Follow The Trends
Once you’ve narrowed your list based on the potential profitability, then you need to see if the niche has a strong trend pattern. One of the worst things that can happen is entering a non-evergreen niche with declining search volume and interest. That’s why I generally only focus on evergreen niches, or at least those that have a long term horizon.
For example, I wouldn’t consider SEO a true evergreen niche because Google, YouTube or any other company with a search engine could go out of business. Now, this is extremely unlikely so therefore SEO has a long time horizon. With that said, I recommend using Google Trends to see the trend pattern for your niche idea.
Just go to Google Trends, enter your niche, and see if it has a trend that’s going upward. Also look at the suggested
ideas below because sometimes those are attracting more attention and you may need to pivot. Now, the trend pattern doesn’t have to have hockey stick upwards growth, but it should at least be stable and not dramatically declining.
For example, this trend pattern for baseball cleats is a mediocre one. The next niche validation method that you need to use is to make sure that people are actually searching for topics within your niche. The fastest way to find out is to use the Keywords Everywhere plugin. Just enter some keywords around your primary niche and see if there’s any search volume.
These aren’t necessarily the keywords we’re gonna go after, we just want to make sure that there’s search activity since SEO is going to be the primary method used to drive traffic to your niche website. You can also use the
Google keyword planner, Ubersuggest, or Ahrefs keyword explorer tool to validate that there’s search activity in your niche.
The final validation method is to see if there are communities in your niche. Just go to Google and enter
the simple search phrase niche + forum. And if there are forums, categories, or threads related to your topic then
that’s a very good sign. You can also go to Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or pretty much any platform and search for your topic.
Then just ask, are users talking about or engaging around this topic or niche? So just to review,
These five-step vetting criteria should help you narrow down your list to at least your top five. So the next part of this process is to conduct keyword research in your top five niches to see which one has the best chance of you winning in from an SEO perspective.
You Don’t Need To Be An Expert
So first, what does it mean to be an expert? In my opinion, you’re an expert on a topic once you know more than
most of the population. Now, this may sound like a daunting task, but it’s surprisingly easy as you’re gonna find out. Your goal is to simply acquire enough knowledge about your niche to be able to produce expert level SEO content.
You do not need to be the best in the world in your niche. You just need to be better than average and you’ll be able to teach people if you achieve that goal. So how do you actually go about doing it? Well, here’s how. Think of these 30 days as total immersion learning. You’re simply trying to get a broad understanding of your niche.
And you may uncover some micro intricacies within your niche but the goal is to get a broad understanding. And believe it or not, your knowledge of a niche will accelerate once you start doing research for and writing an SEO content asset like I’ll be showing you soon. So here’s a four-step approach you can use.
And believe it or not, this is really all it takes to be better than most of the world in a given niche. Most people aren’t
willing to put in the time or effort to learn a topic. So if you do you’ll be light years ahead of the competition. Immerse yourself in the niche and become your ideal reader and customer.
Now Let Me Show You How to Start a Niche Website Or Build It Step By Step
My goal is to help you and teach you how to start a niche website. An incredible niche website that you’ll be able to make real money from and maybe be able to sell one day for a nice lump sum. And that’s only possible if you treat your niche website as a real company. So the first question is, should your niche website be a general brand or a personal brand? This is one of the most challenging decisions you’ll encounter.
What Is A Generic Brand Website? Why You Should Build This Type Of Website
A generic brand is like Best Buy and a personal brand is like Gary Vaynerchuck. I recommend creating a generic brand for your niche website and here’s why:
Now it’s important to mention that this doesn’t mean you should hide your identity. You, as the author and expert of your content, should be visible. You can make your website relatable and personable without having the entire
business centered around you as an individual.
Selecting A Brand Name Before Building Your Website
So now the next step is to actually brainstorm and select the brand name. I’m going to tell you a few different ways you can do this, but first, do not overthink this process. Most brand names mean nothing when they’re unknown…
For example, would Google mean anything to you if it wasn’t the most popular search engine? What about Canon or
how about Donald Trump? These traditional and personal branded names mean nothing on their own. They only mean something because of what they are or who they become or how we associate them.
That’s why you don’t need to stress too hard about picking a name. With that said, here are a few ways to come up with a solid brand name for your niche website…
Picking A Domain Name For Registration
I recommend coming up with at least 20 to 50 quality brand names and then narrowing that list down to your top 10 because some of your top ideas won’t be available for domain registration. Use Instant Domain Search to see if your ideas are available.
Although there are many TLDs, ( TLDs are .com, .net, .org and so on ) which are Top Level Domains, you can choose from these days, I still recommend trying to land a .com TLD. That’s only because it’s still the most well-known TLD and Google seems to show preferential treatment to them.
Do not Purchase Your Domain Name For Your Niche Website Until You Make Sure It Has Not Been Used For Spam In The Past
Just look at the search engine results and you’ll see this in action. So with that said, keep coming up with new brand names until you find an available .com TLD. But before you purchase a domain you need to use two more qualification methods. Open up Archive.org and enter the perspective domain then look at the history of this domain.
Ideally, you want it to be 100% unused, Meaning there won’t be any search results. But if it’s been registered in the past, you want to make sure that it hasn’t been used for spam. This will be quite obvious as you dig around. The second qualification method is to take the domain and run it through any backlink analysis tool such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Majestic. ahrefs has a FREE trial Backlink Checker you Can Use
Ideally, the website will have no backlinks, but if it does the backlinks need to be high quality and natural. Deeply examine the links and if you see any blog networks or link spam, them make sure you move onto another idea. And then once your domain idea has passed these two tests it’s time to invest in your domain.
Purchasing Your Domain For Your New Website
First of all, once you find a suitable domain before you register it with a registrar, consider website hosting first. Most of the time if you are purchasing website hosting for the first time they will give you your first domain name for free. If you are using this new domain name on a hosting platform you already have an account with then use a registrar.
I recommend using Namecheap to purchase your domains. In my opinion, this is the cheapest domain registrar and you have full control of your domains. Now during the domain registration process, you’re going to encounter
a few different offers. The first is whether or not you want private WHOIS information.
Namecheap gives this to you for free as part of your purchase, but you’ll need to pay extra for it if you’re using another registrar like GoDaddy. But the question is should your WHOIS information be private? Well, that’s totally up to you. But if you don’t want to pay for private WHOIS you can use a PO Box or an address generator.
From an SEO perspective, it looks much more trustworthy to have public WHOIS so that’s something to consider. Now the next checkpoint you’ll encounter is whether or not you’ll want an SSL certificate. I highly recommend adding this to your purchase because Google states that having or not having an SSL certificate could impact your SEO performance.
Plus Google Chrome now labels websites as not secure if they don’t have an SSL certificate installed. And if you don’t want to pay extra, I know for a fact that Hostgator or Bluehost will give you a free SSL by using them for hosting. You can also use Let’s Encrypt which helps you install a free SSL certificate. It’s slightly more complicated to go this route, but it’s a solid option if you’re on a tight budget. So Use Hostgator or Bluehost,
The last checkpoint you’ll encounter during this process is if you want to get hosting from the registrar you’ve selected. Namecheap offers solid and affordable web hosting. But for the reasons I have mentioned above I highly recommend you check out HostGator or Bluehost.
Now let me recap to make sure you have all of your bases covered.
The best situation is to have your domain, SSL, and web hosting all housed under a single provider. That way you don’t need to manage multiple logins and deal with unnecessary operational headaches.
Brand Identity
Now there’s one last piece I want to cover in this Tutorial and that’s your brand identity. At the most basic level, your brand identity is going to be your logo, your primary brand colors, your graphics, and your images. So let’s start with your logo. If your budget is limited then I highly recommend using Canva to create your logo. It is free to use and you can create a great logo.
It certainly won’t be original, but it can pass for the time being until you’re able to invest in a higher quality logo. And if you have the budget, I recommend using 99 Designs or Fiverr to get a logo designed. The next decision you’ll need to make are the colors you want to use for your brand.
For example, you’ll notice that ReyAlbert.com uses the same red on my website, on social media, and pretty much everywhere online. That’s intentional because that’s our primary color. Different colors represent different feelings. For example, red represents intense feelings including aggression, happiness, love, and passion while blue can often
represent calmness and peace and can even cause the body to produce calming chemicals.
It’s also a symbol that has positive meanings in the professional world. But one big factor that should dictate your decision is the colors that your competitors are using. Ideally, you should choose a primary color that’s different than your competition. For example, when I settled upon the red variation for ReyAlbert.com that was because most people in my niche were using green, blue, or orange as their colors.
It is also important to use the same font throughout your website. Everything must be congruent so you do not confuse your visitors into thinking that they came to the wrong site.
Setting Up Your Website Or Contact Management System (CMS)
Now you need to set up your content management system, or better known as a CMS. I highly highly recommend
using WordPress because it’s the most beginner-friendly and it’s optimized for SEO out of the gate. It’s also the most popular. Now we are going to focus on how to set up your website using WordPress as your CMS.
Choosing A Hosting Platform
Previously in this tutorial, I suggested using either Hostgator or Blue host. These two platforms are in my opinion the most beginner-friendly and you can get your first domain name and SSL for free, which is a bonus. If you don’t know how to set up a hosting account I have a video here that walks you through the process and ends to where we will discuss optimization. It is a dated course I used in the past but is evergreen so all the data is relevant. The platforms just might look a little different.
Website Optimization
Once you have a basic WordPress site installed it will look absolutely ugly. Just don’t worry about that at the moment and let’s concentrate on optimization. The first step is to optimize your WordPress settings. Go to settings and click on general. So in this section, you want to make sure that your preferred WordPress address and site address are correct.
In most cases, the URL will be the same in both fields. Then click on the reading tab and make sure that the search engine visibility is unchecked. Next click on the permalinks and select post name and this is the most
efficient and best URL structure for SEO.
Ecom websites may need more complex URLs, but in most cases, you can just use the post name option and that’s what I personally always use. So that’s it for the general settings, now let’s go over to the plugins you’ll need. First I’ll show you what plugins you need to install and then I’ll show you how to actually set them up.
The first plugin you’ll need to install is an SEO plugin. The two most popular SEO plugins are All in One SEO Pack or Yoast and you can’t go wrong with either. With that said, let me show you how to install the Yoast SEO Plug-in. please Watch The 2-minute video below.
So Now That you know how to install a plug-in install these as well…
Choosing A Theme For Your Local Or Niche WebSite
Now let’s quickly talk about the design of your website. I recommend using some kind of page builder. The reason is whether you are a local business or an eCommerce business you are still going to need to create landing pages, squeeze pages or capture pages. Listed below are some of the more popular ones.
There are many themes out there…
For free themes just go into the WordPress dashboard and click on themes under appearance and select add a new theme, then just dig around and use the search function to find an appropriate theme for your website. If you want to use paid theme then I highly recommend StudioPress, Elegant Themes, or ThemeForest.
I myself use Elegant themes and have a developer’s license which means I can install this theme on any website I want to. Most of the themes listed above offer a monthly or annual fee to use. I can install the Elegant theme on your website for a one time $50 fee. You will have access to new builders and updates forever on your site.
Please Click This Link For My Service To Install The Theme [Yes Install The Theme]
Now, the one thing you need to keep in mind about the design of your site is to avoid tinkering with it too much. Slightly changing your design will have little or no impact on your SEO or business performance. Spend more time on the high impact actions I’ll be showing you soon. Now I’m saying this because it’s super easy to become obsessed with your site’s design and most of the time spent on it will be a form of procrastination because it’s an easy activity.
Just make your design presentable and make some changes over time, but just don’t go overboard I will be using the Elegant theme to show you how to build pages and content. I know this theme well and there is nothing you can’t do with this theme that you can with others.
Installing Google Search Console
Now the next most important step is to install Google Search Console on your site. First, if you haven’t already you’ll need to create a free Google account, then Google will provide you with an analytics tracking code.
I have created a quick video on how to do this below…
Now the next type of tracking I recommend you set up is Google Search Console. Go to Google Search Console,
click add a property, enter your domain, and click add. Then click alternate methods, select Google Analytics, and click verify.
Now the next step is to connect the Google Search Console to Google Analytics.
Just open up Google Analytics,
click on the acquisition, and click on Google Search Console, and click on landing pages. Then click on setup Google
Search Console data sharing, scroll down and select adjust search console. Click add, select your site from Google Search Console, and click add a site to Search Console.
Now there is one more action you need to take and that’s creating foundational pages. These pages include you’re about, contact, terms of service, privacy policy, and affiliate disclaimer pages. I’ll have templates below the video for your terms of service, privacy policy, and affiliate disclaimer pages. And your contact page will
just need to use a shortcode from Contact Form Seven, or use your Elegant theme contact page.
your about page should be, of course, all about your website and its purpose and mission. So those are all the foundational elements of your website.
Creating SEO Content
So the first question is what is SEO content? Well, there are two types of SEO content. The first is content that targets a specific keyword phrase. For example, if my target keyword was dog training, then I would create a page targeting that exact keyword phrase. The second type of SEO content is linkbait. Now, this is a more advanced type of content and shouldn’t be the focus in the beginning.
In fact, I recommend spending 100% of your time creating keyword-targeted pages for at least the first year of your niche website before even thinking about creating link bait. Now, link bait is typically some type of asset that’s designed to attract backlinks. And these assets aren’t usually keyword targeted, but they can be.
For example, Moz’s open site explorer is an example of linkbait. It attracts branded searches and backlinks, but it isn’t necessarily keyword targeted. But for now, let’s just focus on keyword-targeted pages because these are the foundation of your organic search traffic growth.
It doesn’t matter how many backlinks you acquire if your SEO content isn’t developed well. Now let me cover some facts about SEO content that will help you a ton. First, a keyword-targeted page isn’t always a blog post. While blog posts are the most common way to attack keywords, it’s not always the best, and why is that? Well, the reason is
because of search intent.
In layman’s terms, search intent is a fancy way of saying what the searcher is thinking when they are searching
a keyword on Google. You must model your keyword-targeted pages to match the search intent of your keyword. There are four types of search intent…
Some examples might be buying blank or blank discount codes. So your goal should be to cover keywords at all the different stages of search intent. But more importantly, you should always structure your keyword-targeted pages
to satisfy the search intent for the keyword phrase. For example, if someone is searching using transactional keywords like best buy coupon codes, then your page must give them exactly what they’re looking for.
Now, I know this may seem like common sense, but you wouldn’t believe how often people get this part wrong. Just keep search intent in mind whenever you’re planning on targeting a keyword and analyze the search results to see what types of pages Google is serving for that particular keyword. Then just model whatever you see and use all the methods I showed you in the SEO portion of this course.
Quality Over Quantity Based Content Wins In The End
The second fact about SEO content is that quantity-based publishing is dead. Instead, you should focus on
creating the absolute best and most helpful keyword targeted pages. Don’t worry about how often you publish. Just focus on adding the most value for your targeted keyword and don’t worry about how long that takes you because it will pay off in the long run.
And more importantly, quantity-based publishing is a drain on resources and will ultimately lead to thin content which may actually hurt you over time. I’ll repeat this again, do not worry about how often you publish. Worry about how incredible and valuable each page on your website is. Live by this principle and you won’t regret it.
For example, I spend weeks developing a single blog post for Rey Albert.com. On this sing post so far I have spent over a week and I am still not done because I want this post to be absolutely amazing and formidable. And keep in mind you’re not working any less by doing this, you’re just producing more behind the scenes, but when you do publish it’s going to have a lasting impact.
Publish Unique Content
Focus on adding as much value as you possibly can for every keyword you decide to target. The third fact about SEO content is that it needs to be unique. Examine the top 10 competitors for your target keyword and try to find a unique angle that hasn’t been covered. Look for weaknesses on their pages like lack of video or even lack of depth.
These are all your advantages. And I cover this concept in great detail in the SEO portion of the course, so make sure you review that. Now let me quickly cover an effective SEO content strategy you should use for your niche website. This may vary based on your monetization model, but for the most part, it’s a good strategy for most business models.
Providing value Upfront Goes A Long Way
I recommend an 80/20 split between informational and transactional SEO content. That means that 80% of your keywords should be informational and the other 20% should be transactional. This is particularly important if you’re planning on doing affiliate marketing. It may seem strange to focus so much on informational content when you’re doing affiliate marketing, but that’s actually the best way to presale affiliate offers.
You add massive value upfront and then link to your affiliate product review pages as more comprehensive solutions to whatever the problem is. And another important reason to focus more effort on informational keywords
is that it’s easier to attract backlinks to informational content than it is for transactional content.
Think about it, would you rather link to a page about how to plunge your toilet or a page about toilet reviews? I think the answer is obvious. And this slight variation in strategy is what most affiliate websites get wrong. They focus purely on review-based content and rarely focused on adding value through informational content. And this is a huge
mistake on so many fronts.
But it helps to visualize this strategy by looking at a content marketing funnel. A content marketing funnel is broken down into three sections. These three sections are the TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU abbreviations
which stand for top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. All of your informational content will be at the top of the funnel.
Prospects at this stage are just looking for information and most searchers are at this stage at any given time and that’s why the cone is larger at the top. And also the reason why you want to hammer informational keywords more than anything else.
Creating A Lead Magnet For Your Website
The next stage in the middle of the funnel is often the most confusing stage, but think of it this way, you’re trying to persuade someone to take baby steps with you and the best way to do that is through offering a lead magnet, which is a free offer they can receive in exchange for their email address.
In order, to create the ultimate lead magnet you have to remember that the reader who came to your website or opt-in page most likely don’t know who you are. The way to get them to know you and trust you from the very start is to give them an experience.
Experience through your teaching and your awesome content that will actually teach them something. I highly recommend you create a site-wide lead magnet so you can capture email addresses because email is the best way to promote new content you’ll be publishing.
I have a Free Report you can get [HERE] called ” How To Create Information Products ” You Can Sell Or Give Away. You Can Download It For Free Here
Auto-Responders To Build Your List
The whole reason we are building a website is to create a following so you can create a customer base for your business. When giving away free information like my eBook, you want to get something in return. This free giveaway is something that will educate your audience and provide value.
It is an ethical bribe so you may capture your reader’s email address and educate them even more and to create a real relationship. This is how all business is done in today’s society. Even when you go out shopping when checking out they will ask you for your email address.
This is like I said, to educate you more on their products and services. So take notice of what they do. They are successful, they have a business and this is how business works.
So what auto-responder do you use
Honestly, it is up to you. I myself use Getresponse. I have been using them for years. They offer a 30-day free trial that you can get without even providing a credit card. I have tried many other platforms in the past like Mail Chimp, Aweber, and other free platforms, but I always came back to Getresponse. It is up to you
Last but not least is the bottom of the funnel, also known as BOFU, is where all the transactional content occurs. If you’re an affiliate website these will be your review or product comparison pages. If you’re selling a product, these may be sales pages or testimonial pages.
Now Let’s See What The Process Looks Like From a 30,000-foot View
My Favorite Monetizing Methods
Affiliate Marketing
The first monetization method is affiliate marketing and this is one of the most common ways to monetize a niche website, and that’s for a good reason. The first reason why I love affiliate marketing as a monetization model
is that it is a truly passive income source. Visitors come to your website and you drive them to your partner’s website as an affiliate.
That means whatever product or company you’re promoting is the one that’s responsible for product development, selling, customer service, and all other elements of a business. That means your only job as an affiliate is to drive traffic to your website in pre-sell offers and that’s it. Now, of course, this model does require you to create content and maybe run ads, but your entire focus is on traffic growth.
This is why affiliate business models are truly low maintenance because you won’t be dealing with customers. While I do love the affiliate marketing model, it does come with some downsides. First, you’re not in control. A company can lower your commissions or say your commissions aren’t valid whenever they want. They are in control of your income source.
The Draw Backs Of Affiliate Marketing
This is why so many affiliates have moved on from the Amazon affiliate program because they’ve cut commissions so much. And believe it or not, this happens a lot. Not only that, companies will often delay your payments or sometimes conveniently forget to pay their affiliates. And the other big concern I have about websites that are purely affiliate
driven is when an economic recession hits.
Economic Draw Backs Of Affiliate Marketing
When companies tighten their budgets, affiliates will feel the pain because many of the programs will be cut and commissions will be reduced. That’s why I always recommend diversifying your income sources and never solely relying on affiliate marketing on its own. The last issue that you may encounter with pure affiliate marketing is that
there’s an income ceiling.
Traffic Draw Backs Of Affiliate Marketing
There’s only so much traffic you can drive until you’re tapped out in a niche. You will eventually hit a wall and you’ll either need to modify your monetization model or create another website to push your income up to another level. Now, of course, everything I’m outlining here is doomsday scenarios.
Diversify Your Monetization For Better Control Of Your Income
Economic recessions don’t happen often and many companies treat their affiliates really well. I just want to make sure you’re not blindsided by these potential challenges that you may encounter. The biggest issue I have with affiliate marketing is the lack of control. That’s why I recommend stacking affiliate marketing with more controllable income streams such as products or services.
With all that said, affiliate marketing is truly the best income source for beginners since you won’t have to
deal with all the other facets of a business. Instead, you can just focus on driving traffic, pre-selling, and marketing in general. Now there are many ways to find affiliate programs, but here are some of the best ones.
How To Find Affiliate Opportunities
Number one, Amazon Affiliates. Now, it isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still an easy way to get started with affiliate marketing. Number two is ClickBank and you can earn some pretty huge commissions on ClickBank if you promote the right offers. But it definitely won’t work in every niche, but it’s definitely worth researching. You should also check out Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Offer Vault.
You should be able to find plenty of great programs on these platforms and if you’re entering the fashion niche you should look at ShopSense or rewardStyle. And last but not least, one of my favorite ways to find great affiliate programs is to work directly with the brand. Just use the following search string in Google, brand + affiliate or
brand + affiliate program. Many will direct you to other affiliate platforms, but it’s worth researching.
Monetize Using Adsense
Now the next monetization method I want to cover is using AdSense or ad placements in general. You can either use AdSense or make money from clicks passively or sell ads on your website. The latter is only possible once you have traffic so we’ll probably start with AdSense. Now, like other monetization models, AdSense comes with both pros and cons. Let’s start with the cons.
Like affiliate marketing, making money with AdSense has a ceiling and you’re going to need lots of traffic to make a respectable income. The other issue is that having adds all over your website can hurt user experience which may indirectly impact your SEO performance. Now, this can be avoided if you’re not super aggressive with your adds.
Instead, you prioritize the digestion of your content over aggressive ad placements. The other issue with AdSense
is that you’re sending people off of your website. Sure, you’re making money from those clicks, but you could be missing out on the long term lifetime value of that visitor.
That’s why it’s really important to try to convert your traffic into email subscribers and make sure you have a Facebook pixel installed on your site so you can remarket to these individuals in the future and get them back to your website. On the other hand,
AdSense is truly the easiest way to make passive income with a website. You just slap on an ad on your website and get paid whenever someone clicks it and it’s honestly that simple. I recommend that most beginners either start with affiliate marketing or AdSense as the initial form of monetization.
In The Long Term, It Is Best To Own Your Own Product Or Service
In the long term, though, you should consider creating your own product or service because then your niche website becomes a real business and your income can swell to new levels. For example, there are different types of product businesses. You can create an information product like eBusiness Marketing Academy,
You can create your own physical product, you can drop ship products, or you can use Amazon FBA to fulfill products. The possibilities are truly endless. Now, of course, the downsides of creating and selling your own products is that
you’ll now be running a real business. That means you’ll need to handle all facets of the successful business such as marketing, sales, operations, and even customer service.
It’s not easy in the beginning and requires constant learning to handle all these areas, but it’s worth it if you’re looking to take your income to another level. But at the end of the day, you need to figure out what path is most desirable for you. I use a combination of products, services, and affiliate marketing within my own business, but I only used AdSense and affiliate marketing when I first started.
My big takeaway here for you is to take baby steps and don’t try to do everything at once. Choose one monetization
model, get really good at it, and then stack another and another as you master each one. And most importantly don’t feel like you’re tied down by your decision. Test affiliate marketing, test AdSense, even test your own products and then decide which one is best for your specific niche.
You’re not always going to get it right on the first try, but testing is the key to eventually getting it right. And I cannot stress this point enough, test, test, and test more because at the end of the day this is just advice based on my experience in testing. Your experience is different and how you’ll operate is totally different than I would.
That’s why you need to conduct your own test to figure out what works best for you. I could create an entire course on these different monetization models, but for now, start with the easiest methods if you’re new and if you’re more advanced then start moving into the more advanced models to take your income to another level.
I want to thank you for reading how to start a niche website in 2020. Please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. IF YOU COMMENT BELOW I WILL GIVE YOU FREE ACCESS TO MY eBUSINESS LEARNING CENTER
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