I found that niche websites are the perfect way to earn a side income, especially when you're employed and only have limited time and money.
You might know that I'm currently employed and working 20 hours per week as a software consultant.
Right from the first day at work I knew, that I couldn't be employed for the rest of my life. I knew that I needed to figure out a way to earn money for myself while being employed.
The most important benefit of niche websites is their passive character.
You won't have to do any promotion, constant content creation or link building when you're targeting the right keyword.
My idea of the perfect niche website is that I create the site once, create the content and then I wait until it ranks in Googles Top Ten, preferrably at number one of course.
Once the website is attracting a decent amount of organic traffic, you can see the money coming in without having to do any work for that site.
You might think that running a business is a constant hustle. And you're very right with this assumption.
Taking care of customer needs, steady improvement of products and services and most importantly the acquisition of new customers are common factors that hold people back from starting their business.
Niche websites are free of this hustle. There is no customer expecting you to answer there questions immediately. Nobody will force you to reinvent your product because competitors launched a similar product. And Google will take care of client acquisition.
Creating niche website requires proactive work. You're doing keyword research to find a keyword that can be used for a profitable niche website. This part is pretty easy, since most of the work is done by a keyword research tool. The tool I'm using is Long Tail Pro, which is created by the godfather of niche websites, Spencer Haws.
Since Long Tail Pro is very easy to use, fast and reliable, you'll find the first good keyword pretty quickly. All you need to do is to enter seed keywords, which then are used by Long Tail Pro to find other related keywords. Out of one single keyword you can get hundreds of suggestions.
Once you found the keyword, you can start searching for a domain. I prefer exact match domains, even though there is a huge discussion about their importance. When you can get an exact match domain for your keyword, buy it. Otherwise you can just add a prefix or suffix to the keyword.
After you've found the keyword, you need to set up a site. I'm using WordPress for all my niche websites because it's easy to install and very customizable.
Then you can start the content creation. Regardless whether you're outsourcing it to a freelance writer on oDesk or elance or do it yourself, it's a one-time effort when it's done the right way.
Keep the standard aspects of search engine optimization in mind, because your niche website needs optimized content to rank for your keyword.
After you've created the content, you can start to implement the monetizing strategy. Get accepted by Google Adsense, create an account for Amazon Associates or signup to the respective affiliate program and get the ads or affiliate products on your page.
Everything discussed in this paragraph is a one-time effort. And you have no pressure to finish the efforts, just the deadline you've set for yourself.
Nobody has expectations you need to fulfill, you can plan the work just how you like it.
Another great aspect what makes niche websites perfect for beginners is that they don't require any special knowledge.
Keyword research tools (like my personal favorite Long Tail Pro) do all the work for you and provide you with keywords, which you just need to filter. If you go with the Platinum version of Long Tail Pro, all you need to do is to press one button to calculate the keyword competetiveness. When that value is below 30 and there are not much ecommerce sites in Googles Top Ten, you're good to go!
Installing WordPress is very easy and straight forward. No magic knowledge required here.
The same is true for the installation of a theme that integrates Google Adsense or a plugin that insert Adsense code into your blog. If you're experiencing problems, please drop me a line! I'd be happy to help you!
Anything else is just inserting content, which is as easy as using MS Word, Apple Pages or Google Docs.
No need to be afraid of creating niche sites, everybody can do it!
After all, it's about the money. We all need money to survive in our economy and when the job isn't providing enough income, niche websites are a great way to earn extra money.
You have almost no expenses when you're building niche websites.
Most domains cost not more than $10 per year, you can get webhosting for as little as $5 per month. That's a total of $70 per year for one niche site.
Because you can host multiple niche site with one webhosting account, the second niche site only costs it's domain price. Isn't that a cheap opportunity?
You don't need a premium theme, free themes in combination with a free plugin for Google Adsense are perfect for the beginning!
Niche websites give you full control over your income. The more niche websites you create, the more money you can earn.
I won't tell you that every single niche site will earn you good money. Some of them won't earn anything whereas others will earn way more than expected.
It's the mix of 5 or more niche sites (for a total yearly cost of $120) than can earn you a pretty solid side income!
Creating niche websites is probably the most scalable way of earning some extra cash while being employed.
If you disagree, have questions or want me to create your niche website, please drop me a line or leave a comment!
Best regards from Germany,
Jan
