Building a Niche Website – Why and How

In the last blog post I talked about starting a new project.

Since then I’ve decided to start another project. Am I crazy? Maybe.

Before we get into that into more detail, let’s talk about niche websites.

The first new project had come about as I had started following a lot of people on Twitter talking about niche websites and how to make money from them. I thought I would make a niche site.

Some people are making a lot of money per month. While I assume most people aren’t making huge amounts of money. There is money to be made out there.

What is a Niche Website?

Basically it’s a website that has a very specific niche or topic.

Instead of a website talking about all types of dogs, a niche website will talk about one breed.

For sports it might be just one sport, or it might be one part of one sport.

You can get really specific if you want and some people recommend it.

How do you find out what Niche Website to Build?

People will go out and look at various tools, or look at Google or other places to find out what people are searching for, and what people are asking. They will build a niche website around these common queries.

You know when you type something into Google and it starts guessing what you want to type. It’s showing you suggestions of things other people have looked for.

Then people look for long tail keywords or keywords in general. Ideally, you want words or phrases people search for that don’t have much content out there.

Of course you can make a website about anything. But to get a successful niche website working that makes you money, you need to work out what is useful to people.

How do People Make Money from a Niche Website?

All the usual ways people make money from websites. Of course, if you have the right niche it’s a lot easier to 

Having some sort of advertising up on the website.

Having affiliate products listed, where they get a small percentage from each sale. Wonder why so many websites have Amazon products listed, they are part of that affiliate program.

Selling their own products, digital or physical. 

Selling courses or something similar.

You get the idea. But for any of this to work you need to get people to visit your website. Otherwise it won’t work.

What you need to do when you first start a Niche Website?

This is where I went wrong with the first new project, and have done so in the past as well. I’ve tried to make a website about something that I wasn’t passionate about.

That’s the key to your first website. No matter what it is about. Be passionate about it.

Can you talk about it non-stop? Do you like thinking about it?

If you can, then you can easily work on it. It also makes learning how to do things easier as well in my experience.

The first idea while I think is good, I’m just not as passionate about as the 2nd idea I came up with. Both ideas have websites already setup. I’m in the process of adding a lot of content to the 2nd site.

How Easy is it to setup a Niche Website?

If you are new to this. I will say it is easier than you probably think. But there will be a learning curve.

For most people and most situations, you will need some sort of domain name. This will usually be less than $30 a year. This is your website’s address.

And you will need some website hosting. This can vary greatly in price.

There are a lot of options out there.

To be frank, there is some really expensive crappy hosting here in New Zealand. It pays to look around. But know this doesn’t have to cost the earth when you start, you can always change host or upgrade plans if need be.

For the website part itself, you are best to look at WordPress. It gives you so many options.

Just to add some confusion wordpress.com lets you set up a site easily, but without many options or the ability to customize it as much as you can with wordpress.org which is the self hosted version.

Most website hosts let you set up a WordPress install with a couple of clicks.

For both the 1st idea and the 2nd idea I think it cost me about $21 for each website name. I already had website hosting, and I had the basic website up and running inidea, 20 mins.

What’s Next for a Niche Website

Create content. And keep creating content.

This is why it is so much easier to do when you are passionate about it.

I’ve seen people give up pretty easily when it comes to websites. I’m not sure what exactly they wanted out of it. But if it’s money, interaction with people or something else, it can take a while to get there.

If your content is crap in the beginning, don’t worry. You can always go back and edit it, or delete it if you want.

In Conclusion

It’s never easier to set up a website. If you like the idea of creating content first for yourself and would like a website. I recommend getting into it and seeing where it can go. 

Later on, if you like this process, you start thinking about what would be a good niche idea.

There is a lot of information out there on how to build a profitable niche website. In fact maybe a bit too much. 

I’m going to see where this niche site idea I have will go.

Any questions about any of this, flick me a message via the contact page.